who taught you to cast boolits?

[FredBuddy]

I studied here for months, then started visiting
the goodwill stores and accumulated the necessary
equipment. Then the tire shop.........

Thanks to all of you !

[jonp]

Self taught with the help of the fine folks on here

[Murphy]

MURPHY, I hope that my" part time son" who we helped raised for 3.5 years will be interested.. His dad ran out on him and his mom raised him. hes studying to be a teacher, and I wish him luck... My best friends son is serving in the Air Force in Florida and is very gun savvy. If anything happens to me I want him to have my entire boolit casting/ reloading stuff........ My part time son ; can have my shooting irons- all 4 of them, you see my oldest son is 24 and is autistic, and my other son is a blind, non verbal quadriplegic ; so i gotta figure out who gets what later on..........

Joe,

Hopefully your best friends son will take to it with pride. I just wish my nephew wasn't 1,200 miles away. He grew up in less than ideal circumstances and never had much. He's doing well for himself now and learned long ago about the value of being self sufficient. I think a lot of shooters are learning something we heard about long ago. All the money in the world won't do you any good if there's nothing on the shelves to buy.

Murphy

[Wag]

Lyman and this forum. To this day, I'm grateful that I never dropped a bunch of nasty old wheel weights into my casting pot.

--Wag--

[rockrat]

Nobody did. Learned it on my own. Then got a lyman load manual that had a section on casting and read that. Then 30 years later, found this site and learned a lot more.

[Wooserco]

Lester and Joel, may they both R.I.P. I started reloading at 16 for my 30-30 with the Lee Loader (whack a mole). Marriage and family came along. Years later, met Lester at the VFW Junior shooting program. Met Joel at a Boy Scout meeting, all because of our kids being involved. We got talking and Lester was a long time caster. Joel had access to unlimited amounts of Linotype (his brother owned a scrap yard). We got together and Lester taught us casting. Ole Lester was a bachelor. Rinsed out his casting pot after cooking dinner in it and started melting lead. I suspect his lead levels were sky high.

I really started casting when we would get together Sunday afternoons at Joel's place. Between he and I, our two sons and his grandson it was not uncommon to go through 800-1,000 rounds. Soon figured out it was less costly to cast and load for .38 Special than it was for .22 LR. So, we both got progressives.

All of this enjoyable time ended with my son graduating and heading off to the Marine Corp. and my divorce (the divorce is what really ended it. I had to sell everything. Got to keep two guns: My daughters small bore match rifle and my Uncle built gun. It was bitter).

Now, my daughter shoots pistol. My son has my Match Rifle that my uncle built. Both live hours away. I do have a grandson (stepdaughter's son. Grandson still) that has shown an interest in casting. So with the blessings of my wife and the encouragement of this forum, he and I are embarking on what I hope to be a long and enjoyable journey. I'm slowly getting back what I had. Starting with Lee molds, pot and sizer. Purchased range scrap/scrounged lead. Wheel weights are non existent since my local tire shop owner retired and sold out to a chain.

The folks here have helped shake the cobwebs off. And, I have learned things and relearned things here. Many thanks to all.

[tankgunner59]

Self taught. I read a lot of the posts on these forums, researched casting on the internet and read the Lyman cast bullet manual twice. Then I bought the equipment and molds and got started. And the learning continues...

[Wooserco]

I have to add: I'm opposed the the term "Trial and Error). You NEVER quit on an error. It should be "Trial and Success." That was taught to me by a high school physics teacher.

[TyGuy]

My dad used to talk about saving brass for reloading but never bothered to actually learn to do it. He bought me a 50 cal Hawken repop when I was a kid and got a Lee .490 RB mold to feed it. The mold just sat on the shelf unopened for nearly 15 years. Little did I know at the time that would be the first mold I would cast with.

When I was fresh out of high school my dad bought a Mec JR 12ga setup from an old friend of his. He asked his friend to show me how to use it. That lesson taught me how to operate the machine but I had no concept of what I was actually doing. I just went through the motions he taught me. Once I ran out of the wads he gave me I went to a local shop for more and realized there was way more to the equation than just banging components into shells.

I bought my RCBS single stage press a few years later and started with .223 and 9mm Luger. It’s pretty humorous how slow and inefficient I was in those days but my loads did what I asked of them and I was actually reloading properly.

The next step was a lead pot. I brought home a box of wheel weights from work and decided to try to melt them into ingots. I had no idea about half of what I brought home was zinc. It was a mess. I eventually managed to clean it up enough to pour the ugliest ingots I have ever seen. I had no concept of fluxing and there was junk all through those ratty little bars. The smell of the stick on weight adhesive started drifting and I was living in a neighborhood with houses squeezed right up next to each other. Nosy neighbors on one side complained about everything. The pot went back into the house and didn’t get love until we moved to our new house in 2015.

Eventually I did enough homework feel confident enough to try casting some soft lead round balls with that old Lee mold my pops bought me years prior. Even the best ones were wrinkled and I’m a bit ashamed to say I layed the hot mold on a pair of garden gloves and melted them to it. There is still a stain of burnt plastic on the bottom to remind me that synthetic materials and heat don’t mix.

I found this site a few years back and bought more books on the subject. I’m now successfully casting and loading for multiple calibers and am still trying to absorb as much information as possible. I wish I could have found a mentor to help me avoid some of the bumps in the road but it’s funny to look back and laugh at myself and how little I knew then. Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to look back on my techniques of today and laugh at how little I knew.

[rbuck351]

I started casting about 1970. Dad had traded for a Colt Officers model 38 special so that I would have a center fire gun to shoot NRA 50' indoor at a local indoor range. Factory ammo was way to expensive for me to shoot at any regular rate so I bought a Lyman 2cav 160gr wadcutter mold and a dipper. I think I probably did everything wrong that you can do wrong.

My first attempt to cast some boolits was on my moms kitchen stove in a tin can. I hadn't thought about the can being soldered together. After cleaning up that mess I managed to find a 20 lb cast iron pot and was on my way. I lubed the boolits by rubbing a stick of Lyman lube on them and loaded them without sizing. I found that many would not chamber so I ran them back through the sizer die. this worked ok as the Colt has a bore of .356. The lube process was a pita so I went to a lgs and asked about a lube sizer. They just happened to have a Lyman 450 that someone had ordered and didn't pick up and offered it to me for $29.95 with a .358 die.

I still wonder how I managed to get through that alive. I wish there would have been something better, like this site, to learn from back in the 70s. I first started casting to save money but after looking around my loading room, I my have to load a few hundred thousand rounds before the savings start.

[Walks]

MY DADDY DID !!!!!

I was in the garage from the time I could walk. Dad, Uncle, Brothers, Cousins and their friends were there reloading & casting most nights in the summer and winter. But most casting was done in the cooler months.
I guess you could say I learned by osmosis. Didn't get to cast until I was 8yrs old. RB for Dad's .36 Navy. With a 1cav mold over an old Coleman stove, got about a whole 5 minutes of instruction.
Hanging from a press handle at about 3yrs, priming .38's & 9's with a 310 about a year later.
I was out with the grownup men, doing Man stuff.

Started My own setup when I got out of the Service in '75, A week rarely goes by when I'm doing something to make ammo.

[Peregrine]

I have to add: I'm opposed the the term "Trial and Error). You NEVER quit on an error. It should be "Trial and Success." That was taught to me by a high school physics teacher.

The reason we say "trial and error" is to desensitize people to the reality that when you are learning you will make mistakes. Lots of them. We normalize this reality so when they start making mistakes they're not discouraged and quit because they did not immedietly get success after trial, you implicitly understand it's part of the process when you are told "trial and error".

Besides the fact you and your physics teacher are not going to change the inertia of an age old expression your opposition is in fact exactly counter productive.

It's implied that when you achieve success you've finished what you've set out to do. Trial and error is the formula to get there.

The being ok with making "mistakes" is the most important part that expression is meant to to convey and you've neatly removed it in a misguided effort.


I'm only going through this pedantic effort because I've made a lot of mistakes learning how to cast, and otherwise as well. I solved a few of them just tonight and am reflecting on the others. It's a journey.

I didn't cast or reload much last year because I got caught up on several different things. I've got most of them licked now and am back at it.

[44MAG#1]

Old professor Experience in the School of Hard Knocks.
That type of education sticks with a person because it is a lesson that comes hard.

[Greg S]

You all, about 5 years ago.

[beezapilot]

My dad and his buddies. I never realized how fortunate I was to grow up like I did, until I was MUCH older. Rural Connecticut back in the 1960's, my dad had a shop with an old gravel bank out behind it. All his loading equipment was set up and we shot pretty much any afternoon the weather was nice. His buddies would stop by to work up loads as it was a 30 second walk from the loading bench to the firing line, and practice. In my eyes, his pals were just run of the mill people who worked at Veeder-Root, Pratt & Whitney, Colt, Kaman, Fenn Manufacturing- when you're young you just assume that your environment is "normal", gosh, didn't everyone hang around with machinist and engineers and precision shooters???? One of those guys ended up designing a bullet for Lyman - He gave these to my dad, I think that they are probably cut from the original cherry.
Attachment 276569

[Dunross]

Myself, along with the instruction and advice from a number of books and Internet discussion boards such as this one.

[bedbugbilly]

I taught myself how to cast some 58 or so years ago. I wanted to shoot Civil Wr rifles - I worked a long time mowing yards and doing chores to earn the $65.00 to buy a Remington Zouve Rifle that an old gunsmith had in his shop that he said he would sell me. He also taught me how to shoot an 1851 Colt Navy that his grandfather had carried in the Civil War.

I bought a Lyman bottom pour ladle - think it cost me something like $2.75 and my first mold was a Lyman 575-213 bullet mold with handles. My Dad had a cast iron plumber's lead pot. I had neighbors who gave me soft lead they had laying around as they knew what I wanted it for - same folks ho used to give us old shotgun shells later on to cut down for the shot to use in a couple of muzzleloading shotguns my brother and I shot clay pigeons with. I started using a propane torch - not good - so fixed up an old gas fired plumbers pot - also melted leader wood fire/coals. It didn't take long and I could cast good minie balls to shoot in the Zouave that I finally had enough money to buy. I got into shooting in the N-SSA through a couple of guys that helped mentor me. I still have the Remington Zouave, ladle, pot, mold, etc. and have cast and shot thousands of minie balls since then in the Zouave and original rifled muskets that I have owned.

In those days - it was trial and error and a lot of fun figuring it all out - nothing high tech about it. The second mold I cast in was a bag mold that belonged to my grandfather (he was born in 1867) - we had his plains style rifle that he had bought off an early pioneer that settled in our area - still have the mold and rifle.

A lot of good memories. All of that eventually lead into shooting muzzleloading cannons and mortars and for years, I was with a group of great fellows - we had two full size 10 pound Parrott Rifles (South Bend Replicas - 3" bores) and we also had an original Civil War siege mortar that we competed with.

[Don Purcell]

My dad. First balls for muzzleloader then Lyman 429421 250 grain Keith.

[firewhenready7]

School of hard knocks...Lot's of readind and sites like this....A little trial and error

[David2011]

A great man who became a great friend taught me to alloy metal and cast. I miss you, Mac!