Casting and swaging bullets has always been interesting to me. I had Sophomore Syndrome (like almost every other topic that I picked up as a teenager and did/experienced a few times) until fairly recently.
Reloading in general- I had done it (some several thousand rounds over 15 years) so somehow I just filed that into the category of things that I considered myself competent in. The real experts @ WaGuns helped me refile that skill level as "woefully ignorant and inadequate" and I am grateful for all the shared knowledge, experience and wisdom here.
Back to casting and swaging. I have cast probably 10k boolits... Powder coated maybe 1-2k? Thought that I was competent in both, and instead I am a
PIKER compared to real experts.
Swaging- never bullets, but swaged some other items in my shop, so , you know, competent and all that.
Several years ago I started reading online forums about swaging and this one fellow stood out as a true expert. Back then I didn't ask questions, I just read his posts. I learned more from his posts than I had in my hands on experience, and that says something. I had printed up several of his posts and stuck them in some of my casting and reloading books.
I am finally getting around to designing and building a bullet swager and started asking a few questions on one of the national forums that this true expert posts on. After half a dozen or so questions I receive a PM...
"What is your address? I have a few samples to send to you."
Well. sugar. I'm kinda shy about receiving the product of other people's time, effort and expense, but enjoy the shared wisdom in forums like this. It makes me blush and my ears get hot to receive material for some reason, so I avoid it assiduously most of the time. I am much more comfortable giving than receiving (except knowledge and wisdom of which my cup is still not half full yet so I try to soak that stuff up.)
I hemmed and hawed by PM, saying that I felt odd about it... His reply was something like this:
So I told him, and I expected to receive a bullet or 3 of a few different of his designs. He has designed some of the molds that you can buy from some of the manufacturers.
Y'all remember my trouble finding a special size grinding wheel the other day- I found some very old NOS and bought 3 at double the price they should have been, and they were scheduled to arrive yesterday so I made sure I was out there when the delivery arrived. The driver said "You must have been expecting the heavy boxes today."
Boxes? Sure 'nuff, there were two parcels. One contained my grinding wheels. Man was I happy about that.
The 2nd box was 24 pounds... You're kidding me.