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Thread: who taught you to cast boolits?

  1. #61
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Aug 2020
    Location
    New Galilee, Pa
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    425
    You folks here taught me the fine art of boolit casting! I've only been at it for 5 months but I have learned so very much in such a short time. I've went from making ugly, wrinkled, tumble lube boolits to beautiful PCed and traditional lube beauties.
    Thank you!
    Ken

  2. #62
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
    Location
    Farmerville,Louisiana
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    1,357
    I started reloading with the Lee kit in 30-30, had 2 boxes of rounds and would shoot on Saturday so i could reload during the week for next Saturday. This was 1971.
    Picked up RCBS single stage press and a .308 rifle with dies J word bullets and powder was in business.
    Use that press for a while then when I turned 65 wife asked what I wanted and of course Dillon 650 came up. Well it showed up so had to get .223 gun for that amount of capacity.

    Then 9mm CZ 75 was next, picked up several K of each to feed the Dillon.

    Old friend in town had some molds gave me one, think it was .311 said it was for an old British rifle he bought for $15. Tried to melt some lead with a propane torch, made a few wrinkled boolits.

    Watched Fortune Cookie and Elvis Ammo make boolits and ordered Lee 4-20 pot and went to work.

    Skipped the lube stuff and went right into PC.

    Haven’t bought a box of bullets since started casting. Have a metric ton of ww ingots, that I pull from to mix the alloy with. Now trade for stuff with lead.

    Got 45-70 mold then had to get a Henry to shoot them with. When will it end.

    Mostly self taught, trial and error, lots of remelting bad boolits.

    Been reading here at cast boolits since 2017 and have learned the finer points of casting. Thanks to all those who have way more experience than I do.
    Last edited by Hossfly; 01-30-2021 at 09:59 PM. Reason: Error

  3. #63
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    Aug 2005
    Location
    South Jersey
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    6,314
    From the best sources: Harry Pope self write up (including making a bullet drop box) and procedures in a old Ideal Bullet manual
    Regards
    John

  4. #64
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Feb 2020
    Posts
    222
    A member here from way back. Carpetman taught me to cast and I've been hooked ever since. Dang shame he is no longer on the site. True Gentleman and scholar.

  5. #65
    Boolit Master
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    Apr 2009
    Location
    North Dakota
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    528
    Lyman me myself and I.

  6. #66
    Boolit Master

    alamogunr's Avatar
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    Mar 2005
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    Tennessee
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    I didn't start casting until I was in my 50's. I'm 78 now and still living in a cast bullet desert. When I tell people that I cast bullets they look interested at first but soon their eyes glaze over and I can tell they hope I'll shut up soon.

    I learned by reading books, magazines and on line when I finally got a computer. My collection of gun, reloading and casting books is extensive as well as all the printouts of articles I found on line. The best source of information when I started was the old CB_L email list. One problem I had starting out was everyone seemed to cast nothing but perfect boolits. I finally learned to accept something less than perfect and then shoot to see what effect a small defect would have. Funny how the boolits got so much better as the years passed.

    This board is probably the best source of casting information to be found. Yes, it has a few warts here and there but these are easily ignored. There is another casting forum consisting of those who left here to form, what seems to be a collection of experts. I go over there and hang out occasionally, but hesitate to expose my ignorance by asking questions, of which, I still have a lot.
    John
    W.TN

  7. #67
    Boolit Grand Master
    rintinglen's Avatar
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    Jul 2007
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    Orange, VA NOW
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    In 1966 my friend Jim had me over to his house one Saturday where his dad was casting up some round nosed 30-30 boolits and some 38 boolits. I started asking questions and he not only gave me answers, He had me casting. In an hour or so, I had made a fair few, and he showed me how to size and seat gas checks on an old Lyman 45 (It wasn't as old then.) I had a couple more sessions before they moved away, and I didn't get back to casting until 7 or 8 years later. But I had been casting for years when I discovered this web site and I have to say I learned more in five years here than in the previous 25 on my own.
    _________________________________________________It's not that I can't spell: it is that I can't type.

  8. #68
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
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    2,659
    I have a mentor who showed me the basics (who also taught me a bit about lead scrounging). The Lyman manual helped, as did the LASC site and some YouTube videos. But the finer points that come from the longtime casting of many varied boolits for different applications, which this short timer hasn't experienced yet, I'm still picking up from this site.

  9. #69
    Boolit Master
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    Sep 2016
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    2,377
    Computers didn't exist when I started and very few cast. Books and magazines. Frank

  10. #70
    Banned
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    Feb 2016
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    2,725
    In 2015 I decided to go to the range and do some plinking. I lived in cities between 1986 and 2012 and hadn't fired a gun since 1984 deer season. I went to buy a cheap 22 rifle and everyone told me not to waste my time because you couldn't get 22 rim fire ammo. I didn't believe them. So I bought a little Mossberg 702 from Walmart for $98. Then I couldn't get any ammo. hahahah. My brother gave me a couple boxes of 22lr but that was it. So I scoured the internet to see if it was possible to reload 22lr. I found that a very few people were doing it but the performance was like that of a pellet gun.
    I had never reloaded a cartridge of any kind. Wouldn't have known a reloading press if I saw one. But I knew that lead melted easily.
    Then taught myself (via research on the internet and experimentation) how to improvise priming compound, resize cases, mold bullets and yada yada. Since there were no tools for reloading 22lr I made my own. Started with a crimper and sizer then mold. It was off to the races. I soon found castboolits and learned a lot here.
    One word about forums though. I had quit a couple of other forums because ALL I GOT was "you can't reload 22lr" even after I was successful. After coming here, I found a lot of encouragement. Still a lot of nay-sayers though.
    Last edited by Traffer; 01-31-2021 at 10:53 AM.

  11. #71
    Boolit Grand Master



    M-Tecs's Avatar
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    Started casting in 1968 at the age of 8. My dad was a member of a 7th Calvary re-enactment club. One of the members had rudimentary casting knowledge and he showed me what he knew about casting for 45 Colt and 45/70 for Trapdoor Springfield's. . By 9 I took over all the casting and reloading. If I remember correctly I got 2 cents a round for each loaded round. For the most part I was mostly self taught via the gun magazines of the time. Never actually got paid in money. The club purchased all the component and the members just signed for what they took. I never made enough to cover the amount I shot. By the time I was 15 I had cast and loaded over 50K.
    2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. - "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

    "Before you argue with someone, ask yourself, is that person even mentally mature enough to grasp the concept of different perspectives? Because if not, there’s absolutely no point."
    – Amber Veal

    "The Highest form of ignorance is when your reject something you don't know anything about".
    - Wayne Dyer

  12. #72
    Banned
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    My brother RIP.

  13. #73
    Boolit Master
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    Oct 2012
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    Las Cruces, NM
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    Richard Lee

    Bought a cap and ball revolver back in the 70's. Lee pot and round ball mold. Read the instructions and started casting. That was also how I got into reloading. Figured it couldn't be any harder than C&B. Again, Lee hand reloader and a hammer. Pan lube.

  14. #74
    Boolit Master
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    Jun 2011
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    Pleasant Hope MO
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    Self taught, bought books and magazines back in the 1970's .

  15. #75
    Boolit Master


    gbrown's Avatar
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    I got into it by a friend making a deal with a friend to cast 5000 30 M-1 carbine boolits. Started helping him, then he wanders off and I was left to cast the final 4000. What a buddy. Used a Star to lube-size them. Got out of casting for 20 years, then got back in, after helping a friend, master reloader, cast thousands of boolits. I say master, as he can tell you the burn rate of every powder imaginable, what bullet weight would probably work best in each caliber, just amazing to talk reloading with. Anyway, between him and this forum and all the knowledge here, I learned casting. Reloading? Been doing off and on since the '60s. Friend and I got into it to make our teenage dollars go farther for hunting with dove and duck loads.
    One of my father's favorite statements: "If I say a chicken dips snuff, look under his wing for the snuffbox" How I was raised, who I am.

  16. #76
    Boolit Master
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    May 2013
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    my cousin got this mail order cap and ball 44 with the little brass mold.
    we learned together, found an old broken battery out back on the farm and melted it down in a pan he stole from grandmother and used a big spoon for dipper.
    that what got me hooked.

  17. #77
    Boolit Buddy

    bishopgrandpa's Avatar
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    Saratoga Co. N.Y.
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    Those of us who learned mostly on our own, learn, understand and value that knowledge much more than those who get on the internet and expect a 3 line message on all there is to know. They expect a gun, load and boolit that will give them a 1" circle at 300 yds and if it don't then you are to blame. The fun is in the learning and the satisfaction is in the result when you do it yourself. Don't think I don't appreciate the help I get from forums such as this, I do. But I feel the way to do it is to put in the time and study necessary to do it right.

  18. #78
    Boolit Master BNE's Avatar
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    Mar 2013
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    SC
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    You folks taught me.

    I did a lot of searches prior to starting and kept getting good answers from this sight. Still do.

    Thank you all!

    BNE.
    I'm a Happy Clinger.

  19. #79
    Boolit Grand Master FergusonTO35's Avatar
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    May 2012
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    Boonesborough, KY
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    6,925
    Richard Lee's book Modern Reloading and this site!
    Currently casting and loading: .32 Auto, .380 Auto, .38 Special, 9X19, .357 Magnum, .257 Roberts, 6.5 Creedmoor, .30 WCF, .308 WCF, .45-70.

  20. #80
    Boolit Master
    John Guedry's Avatar
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    Dec 2005
    Location
    Baton Rouge La.
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    556
    Mostly self taught. No internet when I started. Had a lot of lead melting experience thanks to studying plumbing at a vo-tec school.
    Old retired guy in Baton Rouge La.

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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