Just a note to say thanks to the old guys .

[Harter66]

Some time back I was talking to some guys I had met through the old board and a sentiment much like one reflected to Ben this very morning .



Through the several forums I post to there has been an expansion of knowledge base . I had read the casting part of the Lyman 47th 3-4 times and it was just still jibberish requiring a substantial investment to get going and painful attention to minutia details . Eventually someone said something to the effect of " you can use a steel pot , big spoon , and look at Lee for a mould " ...........



I feel like I had the opportunity to see all of the books , and all of the testing come together and be accessible all in one place . That place I think sort of became the proverbial "tower of Babble" but a few escaped with enough of the retained compounded knowledge to continue to building on the foundation . Here in this we have several skilled machinists . They are willing to share and teach and sometimes they share some seemingly insignificant little brass brad and all of sudden it's stupid obvious why some little important detail was so perfect one time and not the next .

There's at least one PhD in molecular stuff that can walk you through why 2 carbon and a hydrogen make one wax a perfect base and 2 otherwise identical waxes a train wreck waiting to happen while a 4th just doesn't work .

Then there's the metalergy and why , how , that barely measurable addition of not alloyable metal makes the alloy do incredible things it can't do alone .

The guys that can make the complexity of melt , ladle , mould , sprue plate relationships make sense to a guy about ready to throw a particular mould off a cliff .

We manage to scoop it all together stir it up and pour it back out in layman's terms and we have the ability ...... resource is a better word to explain it 3 different ways to the same result so that almost anyone can grasp the concept explained .

I simply can't imagine having to read a single or 2-3 books and trying to make get where I am in terms of making bullets . The books I have read would have me stuck on 1200 fps loads and paper patched would be ..... some sort of black art .

Instead of that or with that these knowledge bases have taken me from a turkey burner and a soup spoon for WW 452-255 RNFP and 358-158 at 900 fps with a lead mine in the barrel to 2625 with a naked greased 225-55 . It also is reasonable as to why the same everything in the above 1-14 won't do that in a 1-8 .



So to those that found the bed rock and the quarry and teach others to cut stone and make bricks and lend the shoulders to stand on I say thank you .





(This may pop up other places ......)

[Land Owner]

As an Old Guy, with Old School thinking and Old School ways, I read the same publications, started the same way (as a newbie), burned my fingers a time or two, asked a few questions (read more than asked I think), and talked smack (thank you for that term), or at least the talk that experience (having been there and done that) wins you the right to talk, and never once thought to keep the information to myself. I live on the shoulders of Giants who in turn lived on the shoulders of the Giants that preceded them. In this way we Old Guys Pay it Forward, passing on what is true to the next generation, because if it is false or BS, that Flag will hit the field of common knowledge in 2 seconds, so don't even try it. Be good. Be true. Live long and prosper. Keep the American experiment in democracy moving forward. Our 2A assures our 1A and the survival of the America we know and love. Thank you for not counting us Old Guys out. We know a thing or two because we've seen and done a thing or two.

Semper paratus...
'74-'78

[JoeJames]

As an Old Guy, with Old School thinking and Old School ways, I read the same publications, started the same way (as a newbie), burned my fingers a time or two, asked a few questions (read more than asked I think), and talked smack (thank you for that term), or at least the talk that experience (having been there and done that) wins you the right to talk, and never once thought to keep the information to myself. I live on the shoulders of Giants who in turn lived on the shoulders of the Giants that preceded them. In this way we Old Guys Pay it Forward, passing on what is true to the next generation, because if it is false or BS, that Flag will hit the field of common knowledge in 2 seconds, so don't even try it. Be good. Be true. Live long and prosper. Keep the American experiment in democracy moving forward. Our 2A assures our 1A and the survival of the America we know and love. Thank you for not counting us Old Guys out. We know a thing or two because we've seen and done a thing or two.

Semper paratus...
'74-'78And I would add, somehow managed to avoid getting killed, but lived to tell about it. And that can be priceless.

[GhostHawk]

Amen, Thanks to ALL of you who contribute to my ongoing education.

It is appreciated, greatly.

[Tom W.]

There are lots of times when I see where someone asks a question and they get a courteous answer. I'll be quiet, instead of redundant. There are a few who can't be bothered by questions from others, or in a snappy manner tell them to go look in the archives or some such. It makes me wonder how much they really know as opposed to how much they " think" they know.
Some here know a whole lot more than I do.
I'll help those that I can. Since I have pretty much been relegated to punching paper and shooting steel plates my cast boolits really just need to fit properly and my lube do it's job. But if I, as an olde farte, can help I'll be glad to!

[jonp]

If the military taught me one thing it's that reading books will give you valuable knowledge but listening to people that have "been there, done that" is priceless.
A simple question on this sight has saved me much time and money.