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Thread: who taught you to cast boolits?

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
    Ed_Shot's Avatar
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    Gun's & Ammo magazine articles in the 1960's.
    COME AND TAKE IT
    Let’s Go Brandon!!!!

  2. #22
    Boolit Master Targa's Avatar
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    Self taught, books, you tube. Thank goodness it isn’t rocket science or I would have been screwed.

  3. #23
    Boolit Master
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    who taught you to cast boolits?

    self taught in about 1965. Casting .36 cal. round balls for a replica Navy Colt. I had a Lyman cast iron pot and dipper, a very old bunson burner and stand from my Dad's lab., plumbed into NG, and wheel weights from my neighbors service station. I am sure I read the basics from a Shooters Bible or other publication, but cannot recall. By 1967 I acquired a used single cavity Lyman 148 g. wadcutter mold, for a newly acquired Blackhawk. That Blackhawk is long gone, I used the mold last week.

    That said, I continue to learn (maybe relearn) bits from this forum.
    NRA Endowment Life Member

  4. #24
    Boolit Buddy
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    You guys did.

  5. #25
    Boolit Buddy
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    At about 16 I cast my first bullets, round balls, with a Colt mold. Shot them from a slingshot.
    Some years later I acquired a 452460 mold and a Lyman Cast Bullet handbook andstarted casting. I have come a long way since and am still learning.

  6. #26
    Boolit Man Fireball 57's Avatar
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    About1975, I met a retired physician, Dr. Howard Kerr, M.D. a 1930's University of Michigan rifle team champion. He logged a million jokes on card stock by a single word in his shirt pocket. Well, he would spend his weekends casting in his garage with an old plumber's pot and a bevy of NEI rifle moulds. He casted all in linotype and NEVER used a filler as he had too many 1903's with "ringed chambers". He'd give ya 50 or so 30 cal. boolits just for conversation on casting. He'd sing the old songs of the Civil War Veterans that came to his father's general store in the upstairs iron stove meeting room in the summer afternoon on the banks of the Ohio river. God rest his soul, he claimed to be an atheist. But, I suspect he got pushed past the pearly gates!
    If you don't have AMMUNITION, your rifle is a CLUB.

  7. #27
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I was self taught sometime in the late 60's. A lot of reading in a Lyman Cast Bullet book and a lot of rejects that were remelted.

    We used that old black Ideal lube that smoked and stank really bad. It also fell out of the lube groove when it aged a little. We had a 10# cast iron Lyman pot, a small natural gas burner and a Lyman Ladle. The first mold was a 2 gang Lee that Grandpa finally threw away and ordered a few Lyman molds. My first bullets were a Lyman 230 grain round nose for a 45 ACP. Next was a 131 grain round nose for a 30 Carbine. Grandpa got tired of the gas burner and ladle and bought a 10# electric Lyman pot. I still have the molds but the Lyman pot eventually died and I replaced it with a ProMelt.

    We used range scrap which was probably a better allow back then than range scrap is today. Bullseye was still a big thing and wheelweights, type metal and Lyman #2 was still common.

    When I got up into high school I worked part time in a corner gas station and collected wheelweights. That was the day! They were still cheap or free and this was before Zinc and Steel took over. I'm pretty sure that I did melt a Zinc one or two because I remember having one or two that floated and I had to keep pushing them under. These were very few and far between.

    Thats my story and I'm keeping to it!!!

  8. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by Targa View Post
    Self taught, books, you tube. Thank goodness it isn’t rocket science or I would have been screwed.
    Yup, basically the same thing. I do a lot of reading and research before trying things so this place was a perfect match.

  9. #29
    Boolit Master


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    My Dad about 1985/86. We got our pistol permits and so began what I call my life.

    Been hand loading since mid 1970's. Started that with Grandpa and a Lyman JR loading 22 Hornets on the kitchen table before Grandma came home.

    CW
    NRA Life member • REMEMBER, FREEDOM IS NOT FREE its being paid for in BLOOD.
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  10. #30
    Boolit Buddy
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    I was self taught...sort of. Read a lot of Skeeter Skelton and was amazed that you could make ammo at home. Read all the gun magazines that I could lay my hands on and learned the basics. But when this forum came along I found a lot of things that solved the problems that I was experiencing from time to time. Still have some ammo that was loaded in 1966 but not the old guns to shoot it in.

  11. #31
    Boolit Master BJK's Avatar
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    Not very much experience and still learning, but between this forum and native intelligence I'm learning casting. So far #4 buckshot (fairly difficult) and slugs (easy). Soon 9mm and .30.

    Reloading? My brother taught me loading .300 Norma Mag' and shotshells. From there I learned the rest on my own from various print sources. When I want to earn something I'm a sponge.

  12. #32
    Boolit Master MOA's Avatar
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    No one. Still learning after 20 years. Would have been fun to have had someone there next to you when you were screwing things up but, well maybe it's good no one was there too. 😆
    Now I'll add my caveat.... I've had lots of online mentors here on this website. And having had this website for my main mentor teacher has made my learning faster, more in-depth insight into understanding of the process of casting an excellent product. Yup, y'all have been my mentors. Thanks.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  13. #33
    Boolit Master Murphy's Avatar
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    Self taught starting around 1985 via Lyman books. I started reloading about 4-5 years prior to that with a Lee Kit. I kept reading articles by Skeeter Skelton and his love of the Thompson #358156. I couldn't find a source to order any, so I decided one way or another I was going to get some. Of course he spoke of the Keith #429421, I figured I may as well get that one too.

    mexicanjoe,

    I hope you find a young one to be a mentor to. I've been hoping for one for over a decade now. Given what all is out here on the internet, seems there isn't much use in their world for guys like us willing to teach them hands on. That, and a generation (or two) used to instant gratification. I wish you well in finding one, and kindly wish me the same. Lord knows we need em'.


    Murphy
    Last edited by Murphy; 01-30-2021 at 04:26 PM.
    If I should depart this life while defending those who cannot defend themselves, then I have died the most honorable of deaths. Marc R. Murphy '2006'.

  14. #34
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Der Gebirgsjager View Post
    Lyman.

    DG
    Same here, Lyman manual, cast iron pot, ladle, one cavity mold 311041, on my mom's kitchen stove, Lyman 450 sizer. I was 16 years old. Wheel weights, lead pipe and 50/50 bar solder. Lyman Spar T press, Lyman dies. Winchester m94 30/30. Paid for with money I earned delivering newspapers.

    Tim
    Words are weapons sharper than knives - INXS

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    The tongue is mightier than the blade - Euripides

  15. #35
    Boolit Master JMax's Avatar
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    Started with my grandfather when I was a wee lad in 1959, used an Ideal C press, 45 lube sizer and single cavity molds. Still cast and no going back.

  16. #36
    Boolit Master
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    Dad taught me to load in '61. I learned from books and trial and error. 'Course, starting with round balls for muzzleloaders there wasn't much error. Graduated to revolver bullets then rifle bullets in the mid-70's. If there was an internet then I sure didn't know about it. Didn't know about it for another 20-25 years and by then I'd been casting 30 years. Still learning.
    "In general, the art of government is to take as much money as possible from one class of citizens and give it to another class of citizens" Voltaire'

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  17. #37
    Boolit Master
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    This would have made a great poll.

    I’m in the self taught group, no mentors around here, with the wisdom provided here, Ingot to Target and the Lyman manuals.

  18. #38
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    Texas by God's Avatar
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    I read every gun magazine and reloading manual that I could find starting around 1972. I bought bullets to load. I started casting for .38 Special, .44 magnum, and .45 auto in 1980- learning as we went with my shooting buddies.

    Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

  19. #39
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    My next door neighbor showed me the ropes when I was a kid and then Lyman and hard knocks gave me my masters..... It has been a great road to travel and very satisfying!
    When guns are outlawed only criminals and the government will have them and at that time I will see very little difference in either!

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  20. #40
    Boolit Bub
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    cast boolits forum

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check