taught myself. Way before the internet was around to give advice. didnt know a single soul at the time that casted. Just knew that if i wanted to shoot anymore then i did and i did want to, that i would need to make my own. Same reason i took up loading at 16 years old. Casting didnt start till 26. the year i got out of the service.
Self taught/tried didn't turn out great then a few years later tried again, youtube videos and then I found this site which was the most helpful. Glad I learned will be a hobby of mine as long as I can do it and I will teach my son how to do it.
"Yes or no will almost always suffice as the answer"
School of Hard Knocks. I ruined a mold or two learing. Also read the books. Too bad this forum and the internet in general was not available way back when....
prs
My Dad and an uncle helped me get started. ( 50 cal round balls and the tc maxi) Neither had ever cast a bullet that I know of, but Dad was a tool and die maker in a die cast factory and Uncle was a die cast Die maker in the same shop.
George Nonte, Skeeter Skeleton, Elmer Keith all got me started. Elmer and Skeeter were still writing when I finished college. Major Nonte's book provided details that Elmer and Skeeter hadn't.
Lyman manuals, articles, books in the early gun magazines, I was 14 or 15, it was 1964/65. Marlin 336 30-30, Lyman single-cavity 311041, blue Pacific C-Press, Pacific dies. No advisor, uncle brought bearing babbitt flash from Bethlehem Steel for me.
I'm not really sure... my father gave me an old Saeco furnace but I don't think there was any training provided at the time. Pops is an old skirmisher and I spent many years as a young lad at Ft. Shenandoah. I'm sure I saw a fair bit of casting over the years at the skirmishes and at home but not sure now what transpired right before I poured the first one myself. It was maybe 15 years ago when I got the first mold (Lee TL312-160-2R).
Since I can't remember I'll just say I learned here. It's close enough to truth, since I pretty much had to re-learn everything the right way once I got here.
i guess nobody taught me by Elmer Keith sure did inspire me.Originally Posted by dbosman
Self-taught 25 or 30 years ago casting Minies and round balls out of pure lead, some book from the library or a gun show was most likely my source.
Now getting into alloys and revolver bullets, am tired of shooting commercial hard cast and having to get lead out of barrels. Still reading here and there but this board is a major help and time saver.
Who taught me how to cast bullets?
A series of elementary school teachers and my parents who taught me how to read English. After that, I was able to READ and teach myself what I wanted to learn.
Self taught here also.
Old retired guy in Baton Rouge La.
I learned to cast by reading on this forum. Still learning.
Yes... this. I was the only one in my family interested in guns/shooting, so anything I did was learned from reading, and self taught. I started reloading in 1970, and casting probably 3 or 4 years later. I "grew up" reading Skeeter, Nonte, Elmer, Cooper, and Askins.... later, Seyfried and Ayoob... folks like that.
...... the member formerly known as hornetguy.
Me , Myself , The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook , Elmer Keith's book "Sixgun Cartridges & Loads ",
the NRA publications : Cast Bullets ( Col.E.H. Harrision USA ret ) , Cast Bullets supplement no. 1
The above publications and 50 years of pouring lead taught me all I now know .
There was no computers , web sits , information videos ...just you a book and a land line telephone.
Some of the loads published in my first reloading manuals are now considered +P+ but we trusted Speer and Hornady , took the data and used it .
Gary
Certified Cajun
Proud Member of The Basket of Deplorables
" Let's Go Brandon !"
I remember him well.
Old guy, who used to be a game warden here, somewhat famous.
The stories he used to tell.
Showed me the art of boolet casting.
First was black powder 50cal.
Then some rifle and pistol boolets.
Must have been over 20 years ago.
He passed away a few years ago.
He is missed by many.
I started reloading (and having serious shooting fun) 20 years (1990) prior to registering at Castboolits.com (2010). In the beginning I had two hunting rifles (270 Win. and 30-30 Win.), one shotgun (12 Ga. Win.) and one revolver (45 Colt/ACP Convertible Ruger Blackhawk).
It was 2 years AFTER I registered at Castboolits.com (2012 - reading and barely participating) before I become a caster. When I "thought" I might "like" to cast my own (to "save money") I STILL sat on the "serious side" of that fence from year 1 to year 2. My inertia in the purchase "another" avenue for reloading was fundamental to that struggle.
Twenty one (21) of 115 previous replies (approaching 20%) have expressed my learning curve that reading and recommendations on this site certainly taught and encouraged me. My final shove "into the casting pot" was a surprise gift of over 800#'s of pure nuclear isotope shielding lead and eighty three (83) DOT isotope transport boxes, formerly 30 caliber military surplus ammo cans painted gray. One cannot walk away from that magnitude of lead...
Last edited by Land Owner; 02-06-2021 at 07:29 AM.
If it was easy, anybody could do it.
I am self taught.
I went through many trials and tribulations in the process.
I learned to cast good bullets before finding Cast Boolits but have picked up MANY good ideas from people on this site.
They made casting good bullets MUCH easier and faster.
Started off self-taught casting conicals for my brand spanking new TC .54 cal Hawken built from one of their kits.
Then sometime around the late 80's I bumped into Ken Mollohan on the old Fidonet prior to the Web, forums like this, etc. Back when 2400 baud modems plugged into the phone jack in the wall was followed by the creation of Fidonet. 30 feet of phone cable running from the phone in the living room of my apartment to where my Amiga computer was located on the kitchen table. Maybe guns.rec or something like that and we became modem pen pals using what was available at the time. Molly talked me into trying to cast bullets for centerfires like my Lee Enfield and 35 Whelen, suggested moulds, equipment, techniques, does and don'ts, and joining the CBA. He managed to sell me on it, and now here I am about three decades later.
Back three decades ago, as he was here and on other cast bullet sites, Molly was a wealth of knowledge and eager to help anyone turn out better bullets or deal with problems. Ran up some pretty good long distance phone call bills for a while there, because Molly was also just a nice guy to talk with about anything.
Anyways, Molly is sorely missed since he died, not just as a mentor willing to help anyone with anything related to casting or shooting, but as a fine and decent man.
And now of course there is this forum and the CBA's forum. But I'm still a lazy amateur, still more interested in the shooting than advancing my skill in the craft of creating the cast bullets to shoot. I guess I'm a bit of a failure as a student...
My dad, I ended up being cheap labor for him, learned a lot tho. Learned case forming (243 from 308 milsurp cases), casting, jwords and lead boolit loading, reduced loads, loaded a lot of varmint rounds. Shot a bunch of them, too. Learned to really enjoy long range varmint shooting, it's a good challenge! (Rockchucks and some coyotes, friends owned a huge horse farm.) Still more to learn ofc. Casting / reloading is a moving target, hard to lead it
Learned to cast when I was given an old Colt Official Police in payment for several days of yard work and exterior painting for an old widowed neighbor. A day after she gave me the gun, she said I might as well have the mold and about 50 lbs of lead that her husband had used to feed the gun. I was taught to reload by dad, but casting was pretty much trial and error. Neither dad or any of his buddies cast and no computers back then, but a Lyman manual and an article I found in a magazine in the school library got me started. After a lot of trials, I made a lot less errors and dad and I quickly shot up that 50lbs of lead. About that time, I was old enough to get my drivers license and since there were a bunch of corner gas stations all over town back then, lead was pretty easy to get. After that, I was addicted, and slowly got more guns and molds. I've always said I learned far more from this site in the relatively few years I've been a member than I learned in all those previous years of trial and error.
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| 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 |
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