who taught you to cast boolits?

[William Yanda]

Self taught with a lot of help from this site.

[Thin Man]

I taught myself. Lived in a college town and was enrolled for classes. Found a fellow who was selling off his casting gear so he could start swaging. He had an RCBS Junior press, Lyman 61 furnace, Lachmiller sizer, about 12-13 molds, probably 8-9 sizers and a handful of top punches. I bought all this gear for $115. This happened in 1973. I started reading and studying casting, got fairly satisfied with my casts, then found this site. That was when my interest and success with casting came to a peak. My hardest lesson of all was to learn was that group buys can get nasty expensive when you try to join every one.

[bearhawk]

I was about 8 years old and my neighbor, who is the best shot I've ever seen in real life, taught me casting and pistol reloading. He and I went together and bought a Lee Load-All for 20ga. He taught me that and a lot of grackels and blackbirds fell out of the sky when he taught me how to shoot flying blackbirds back in the day. He got me interested by letting me help him cast, size, lube, and reload.

[8mmFan]

I learned pretty much everything I know about casting boolits right here, at Cast Boolits. Many a time, while reading something here before I go to bed, I’ve turned to my wife and said, “man, there are some absolutely amazing individuals on this cast boolit website,” and I mean every word of that.

My little brother, I suppose, got my curiosity about casting boolits started, when I saw him casting some round balls for his black powder revolver. But I never had shot that pistol or owned one. From seeing him do that, I came here, and 5,000 or so boolits later, here I am.

I taught my sons, now 10 and 12, the basics of it. They still don’t do it by themselves, but they’ve cast a lot of boolits with me watching. They love it. I hope they continue it all their lives.

8mmFan

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I used commercial hard cast boolits exclusively in 45 acp but had bad luck with them in .357. Kept me from looking into casting. Back then out of the dozens of shooters I knew only one casted. I used to bring him rolls of lead water pipe dug up on utility jobs.

[Harter66]

This forum taught me to cast , though I haven't been here long I count myself lucky to have been here with folks like Bruce B and many others now gone .

I learned reloading from my Dad , who in hindsight didn't really grow past the measure/ weigh 100 rounds a year stage . He did however start his journey with stacked 12 ga loads looking for 1500 fps with a 1-1/8 oz #2,4,5,&6 lead about 1967-8 .

I read the books for insite to the why's of the how's . I tried to share with my kids , I don't think it's going to take hold with the grands either ....... Life is such as it is .

[Landy88]

Cast Boolits and FortuneCookie45LC on Youtube, with a bit of help from many books and articles. Thanks!

[Smoke4320]

it was 1979 or 80 I purchased a 58 cal 1858 Enfield to shoot in Muzzleloading matches. Self taught sold the gun about 10 years later (huge mistake) and did not cast again till about 8 years ago. Learned much here that has taken my casting and lead shooting to new heights

[gwpercle]

Lets see ... I read a lot of articles on the subject :
Skeeter Skelton and Elmer Keith got me interested in it for handguns . Most information came from Elmer keiths " Sixguns" and "Sixgun Cartridges & Loads" . The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook 2nd edition and from the NRA Publications , "Cast Bullets" and "Cast Bullets Supplement No. 1" . These NRA publications are made up of several writers and the one that I've learned the most from was C. E. Harris . His works would also appear in the annual "Handloaders Digest" books , which I bought each year . My favorite cast boolt article is one by Mr. Harris " The Load Or : What You Can Do with 13 grains of Red Dot " ... I had 4 military rifles hanging around the house gathering dust ... I read The Load and a light went on ... a few cheap LEE rifle boolit moulds and a pound of Red Dot opened up a whole new CB Shooting experience . I had a 30-06 Springfield , 7.5 Swiss K-11 Schmidt Rubin , 303 No.4 MKI British Enfield and a 8 X 57 Mauser . Boolits cast of wheel weights , a free public range , proper loading instructions ... what else could a new boolit shooter ask for...
That got me realy hooked on not just casting and loading for handguns but for all the rifles sitting around in a closet doing nothing ... It was the best article I ever read .
Gary

[fredj338]

Self taught, long before the internet. The Lyman Cast bullet was my guide. Then just trial & error. It isnt as difficult as reloading to get decent results, fewer things to go wrong.

[El Greco]

I started 42 years and I thought I knew a lot for a long time. Then i found this forum and I found out that I didn’t know much.
Thank you all my teachers.

[Drew P]

Me, myself, and Irene. With a little help from a certain web forum which all of you seem to be familiar with.

[LaPoint]

About 33 years ago I met Bill Leopold who taught me how to cast boolits and the finer details of reloading. Bill will turn 88 this year. He doesn't shoot much anymore and doesn't cast at all. He is currently helping a young man learn how to reload. I will always be indebted to him.

[high standard 40]

I started many years ago (maybe 1978) without any guidance other than what I had read about the process. I had some success but many failures. I drifted away from casting until a few years ago when I took on the challenge of seeing how far I could advance my casting skills. I bounced questions off of two mentors, both IHMSA shooters, and also dove deep into studying on this forum. I'm now pleased this my results.

[Capt.Red.44]

When i was younger we grew up casting boolits for two .45 TC Hawkens my father bought my brother and I for Christmas, age 10 or so. Hunting and camping were great time spent with him and learning the outdoors. No better teacher could have been had the an Retired Army Vet.

Later in life, he mentioned how it may be worthwhile to start casting for .45acp and big bore revolvers, since thats what we use for stress relief and he bought me a lee pot for a birthday present a few years ago. That was the hook. Three years go buy and I've cast several 1000 boolits and they keep getting better each cast. Mostly thanks to all you fine people and your wealth of info!

[bluejay75]

An older gentleman from the range taught me. Also passed on his connects for reloading supplies and lead and such.

Made me promise in return to teach at least one other person. To date I have taught 3.

[metricmonkeywrench]

Ingot to Target and this site…

I have now been able to pass some of my knowledge to the gent who mentored me in reloading

[wilecoyote]

self-taught, if not for Richard Lee, thanks to his book and his often factory discounted material, when it was offered as a cheaper 2nd choice.

[Jim22]

I was a Junior in High School at Belleville High School in Belleville, IL. I met a guy my age named Kieth Metzler. He and his younger brother were reloading using Lee Loaders - including shotshells. I still remember him seating the over powder wad with a hammer!. I didn't know any better. About that time I bought a new Ruger Blackhawk in .357 Mag. for $87.50. We figured out how to cast boolits and load using a Lee Loader. I well remember shooting that Blackhawk at a groundhog on the RR tracks. I lay down between the tracks and touched her off. Now, sixty or so years later my ears are still ringing.

Then got more Lee Loaders in .30-06 to go with my 1917 Enfield mail ordered from Klien's in Chicago for $29.99. Didn't do much more boolit casting until Alaska in the 60's. Mostly for handguns. Elmer Kieth told me to get a 4" Model 29 so I did. Shot a lot of Kieth SWC's through it. Finally got into IHMSA and shot some other .44's and .357 Mag and MAX in Contenders.

Got away from casting when I left Alaska in 1995 but have been back at it for a year or so. Love it. Skeeter Skelton also affected me.

[jimkim]

Roy Kramer, the Cast Boolit, and CBA members. Most of this was through private messages.

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