Dave, this is obviously something you can contribute to with good effect for all. Another Dave (the one I teach the CCW course with) will also be involved. I also have a pro ammo manufacturer on tap (Dianne Bishop of Bishop ammo) I hope to get in here. If you see her on G+, be sure to drop in and say hi - you'll learn some things, as I did, I bet. Her attention to quality control and the special tools she's had made to help are simply awesome - and this is someone who has worn out quite a few Dillons in the game - heck, mine is barely broken in with a mere few tens of thousands of rounds through it!
Here's the plan - I want this thread to
just cover basics for newbs, not scare them off with the fancy details for we advanced practitioners -
that's what the magic of hypertext is for - so we can link out of a basic thread for newbs to the much more advanced stuff we know and practice - which we'll put in other threads in this forum. Else we are in danger of obfuscating things too much and being as disorganized as the rest of the shooting how-to out there. Unlike most of them, we are also doing this free - so it might get a fair amount of readership. I don't want to scare off the noobs or fry their brains...
Yes, I cast bullets for every kind of gun. They are absolutely the best for handguns IMO, and I accept a bit of reduced performance (energy and accuracy) in (most) rifles...that's going to be its own thread(s), along with a couple special tools I made for that - for example, a quick release collet for my lathe to turn the bases perfectly flat and uniform in length easily after casting...and on and on - that kinda stuff should get its own threads or this one will become too cluttered to be useful for people just starting out.
I guess I'm lucky myself - I do have an RCBS carbide die for .30 carbine (and a neigbor who owns two of those guns! They are a ton of fun!), that I inherited. As the gun guy in the neighborhood, when someone dies who had a bunch of loading stuff, the survivors often just give it to me. Another advanced topic - how to handle decades-old reloading supplies...which aren't going to work just like new stuff you just bought.
I also start with virgin brass for competition, and most often, it's Winchester. And I brutally select only the best 100 or so out of a batch of 500 to begin with...it gets pretty complex, which is why it's gonna get its own batch of threads on this sub-forum. However, most beginners won't go to that level, so...We'll get there, but not on this thread. Maybe one called something like "advanced brass prep and selection"? We then link to it out of the noob thread, so people can follow their nose to where they want to be easily, but ignore it otherwise.
Part of what prompted this is that the crew from Motherboard magazine is coming to look at the fusor and the gun stuff (and do articles on both), and we are going to teach them the CCW course, using our guns and ammo, since they are from NYC and otherwise have no access to this kind of thing - they are gung-ho to do it, so we have a chance to make some conversions in the media here. We feel that educating the MSM a little more, and taking away the "fear of the unknown" might be a good thing to be involved with doing - while dispelling the fakery of hollywood (having a gun doesn't make you bullet proof, or Gehnghis Khan, nor can you take a snap shot at a perp 3" from a hostage from 10 or 20 paces, for example, and expect success) and other misunderstandings the media tends to have and promote. I figured, since I have to make a big batch of ammo for that, why not do it up right and document it? Now that the ball is rolling, I have a vision for what I want here, explained above - I'd appreciate your contributions to it too, and plan to make that easy - with the right structure, that is.
Go ahead and start some threads on your techniques - and we'll link to them from this one.
Looking at those vids myself - gosh, I had no idea I was becoming so bald all the way back there. No wonder it's so easy to get my hair in a ponytail now...not much of it! I'm going to get a camerman so they look less unflattering and we have better detail and shot framing than I can get walking around a tripod, as well. And add some stills for the stuff that needs real detail to understand - the movie camera has its limits there.
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.