'Cast Boolits' book?

[Bloodman14]

How feasible would it be to publish 'Cast Boolits' in a book form, along the lines of the 'Gunsmith Kinks' series? Start at the beginning, and go in 5 or 10 year increments. I just feel that there is a LOT of information here that is way too valuable to lose.

[smithnframe]

Then every member would be an author!

[GregLaROCHE]

There is probably too much to publish.

[No_1]

There are currently 254,000 threads with almost 4,000,000 post. If we can fit 20 post per page and print on both sides it would only be 100,000 pages. The index at 40 lines double spaced per page would add 3168 pages.

[metricmonkeywrench]

Page one...It was a dark and stormy night....

[brass410]

when will the print start? The forest/paper industry could sure use the paper output, maybe you could get a govt subsidy for workforce incentive, staffing, new equipment, studies for feesability, consultants, it all just boogles the mind where this could go.

[ascast]

you could probably edit the size down to half with a cursory inspection of text. I find a lot of threads drift from OP's intent, or just are tidbit comments that don't really add to the discussion. Now, in a digital format, the game changes.

[Bent Ramrod]

Actually, there is one. It’s called “Cast Bullets For Beginner and Expert.” Contains a lot of threads from this site as of about 20 years ago. The CBA sells it. Over 400 pages, but still not the last word on the subject, since I have it, and read it, but still come here every day to see what’s new.

You can also make a book of your own by calling up the printable version of the threads you regard as important and putting the pages into a binder.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

LMAO...
Can you imagine the time/work needed to sift through the forum for all the best info and edit it correctly? I mean most members grammar is atrocious...and attention to detail explaining complicated ideas is truly lacking. Part of my job, decades ago, was compiling technical manuals for custom industrial electrical equipment, so I do have a little bit of an idea of what I speak here.
AND...can you imagine the chapter on Lube ?
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...lube-The-Quest
And for what money? or for free?
It's a pretty narrow audience if there are books to be sold, when it's completed.
what would one book sell for? ...maybe $100?
I mean most of us boolit casters are cheap SOBs, so why pay $100 for a book when all the info is here for free?
================

OK...all snark aside, maybe I've spent too much time on this forum and am jaded, because I believe a castboolit Kinks book will never happen. If a person wants a book with castboolits generated info and/or solutions to this hobby's frequent problems, Buy a good printer and start filling a 3 ring binder. Myself, I am a fan of hand written notebooks, I have several notebooks for the many different hobbies I have...one notebook is just for things I've gleaned here...HINT: Always leave a few pages in the front of a new notebook for a index, because the info gets collected in a chronological order and as time passes, it'd be difficult to find specific info without a index to quickly search through.

[dverna]

Much of the stuff would be useless...at least for me. My interests are narrow compared to many on this forum.

I do not need a lot of help to cast or reload for the handful of calibers I own. The .223 would be the most challenge and I may never cast for it anyway in spite of getting a Group Buy Mi-Hec mold for it. At 70, I am not planning to add any new calibers to my need/want list.

I have saved the stuff that really interests me and almost all of it comes from Larry Gibson or Outpost. I would likely buy a book of posts from those gentlemen. I certainly do not need thousands of posts about "loading 9mm with cast". Same for scores pf pages on "shortages and prices".

If this site was "lost" it would be a real loss, but it would not be the end of the world. I managed to cast and reload for decades before Cast Boolits came along. An intelligent person with the Lyman Handbook will be fine.

Yet, without this site, I would never have discovered BLL, or the custom mold makers...stuff like that.

[bedbugbilly]

Looking at No. 1's figures, it would appear that a "book" would more likely take on the appearance of a simple "Congressional Bill".

Not knocking the idea - as there is a wealth of information on this site. But putting a "book" together is not as simple of a thing as copying posts and printing on pages and binding then marketing and selling. As pointed out, a lot of threads "wander" - a lot of threads "repeat" what has already been said once - a lot threads end up going on and on about something that if the person would take the time and do a search on both the site or on the "net" - the answer is right there.

Just going through three months of posts would be a timely endeavor to sort, organize and basically weed out/edit - and again, not knocking you idea - but who is going to do all of that work, who is going to financially back the endeavor, front the basically "self-publishing" effort and who is going to handle any orders, ship the orders, etc? I like books as much as the next guy button a site such as this and others, it's pretty easy to perform a "search" if you want to learn about a topic. And, as already pointed out, there are already a number of fine publications out there on casting boolits, reloading, shooting - all the topics that get covered on this and other sites. And then there are other issues that may be involved - who owns the information/text on this site? I'm not an attorney, but those are things you have to consider as well. Once it has been posted, is it part of the "public domain"? Would you need permission form each poster if you use their information or whee does the site owner stand? A lot of loading data get's thrown around o here and it's a case of "use at your own risk" - who is going to "check" it and once it is published, what is the liability?

I suppose that a "target subject" could be done but even that would consume many, many hours and again, there may already be some very good books already written on the subject. Example - "reloading the 45/70", "reloading the 45 Colt", etc. but like most any subject, there are already publications addressing them.

Unfortunately, books are becoming obsolete and the computer has made it pretty easy to research anything you have a question about. I agree - this site is "tops" - if someone were to put together and publish a book, I'd certainly want a copy - but for most folks, and I am as guilty as anyone else - we need to really support this site and help keep it going. While I know I need to contribute during the annual fund drive - and I don't always ado it - I also support as many of the sponsors here as I can when I need something.

[SSGOldfart]

Much of the stuff would be useless...at least for me. My interests are narrow compared to many on this forum.

I do not need a lot of help to cast or reload for the handful of calibers I own. The .223 would be the most challenge and I may never cast for it anyway in spite of getting a Group Buy Mi-Hec mold for it. At 70, I am not planning to add any new calibers to my need/want list.

I have saved the stuff that really interests me and almost all of it comes from Larry Gibson or Outpost. I would likely buy a book of posts from those gentlemen. I certainly do not need thousands of posts about "loading 9mm with cast". Same for scores pf pages on "shortages and prices".

If this site was "lost" it would be a real loss, but it would not be the end of the world. I managed to cast and reload for decades before Cast Boolits came along. An intelligent person with the Lyman Handbook will be fine.

Yet, without this site, I would never have discovered BLL, or the custom mold makers...stuff like that.

Remember to add Ben and others, But please Do Not include any Transactions from the selling trading post section. That will cause problems for all of us that are saving money by casting and reloading.
Number1 does the 4,000,000 post include the classified section????
I do agree a $100 would be a low price for such a book, just Larry G,post should bring that much. Some of us have been after Ben to write a book for at least 10years now!!!!!!!!

[maxreloader]

We could start with a printed version of the stickies...

[richhodg66]

Not sure about a book, but I sure hope all of this is archived in some way. The old handloads.com was my first and in many respects favorite web forum for a long time and just suddenly, Poof!, it was gone. I still miss it every day and no way I've been able to determine to dredge up old info from it.

[NyFirefighter357]

It would be a wealth of information, no one would read! Can't get people to read more than 2 lines of anything now a days!

[mroliver77]

Not sure about a book, but I sure hope all of this is archived in some way. The old handloads.com was my first and in many respects favorite web forum for a long time and just suddenly, Poof!, it was gone. I still miss it every day and no way I've been able to determine to dredge up old info from it.

There is some of it archived here.https://web.archive.org/web/20180501...handloads.com/

[Burnt Fingers]

http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Contents.htm

This already covers the basics quite well.

[fatnhappy]

when will the print start? The forest/paper industry could sure use the paper output, maybe you could get a govt subsidy for workforce incentive, staffing, new equipment, studies for feesability, consultants, it all just boogles the mind where this could go.

The forest paper industry is doing just fine. They’re all converting their paper machines to Kraft full time for the packaging industry. The latest announced increase was $70/ton on March 1st and they’re floating another increase right now.
All the white paper producers jacked up pricing between 8-11%. Sappi announced their 2nd increase since January 1st.

[Three44s]

How feasible would it be to publish 'Cast Boolits' in a book form, along the lines of the 'Gunsmith Kinks' series? Start at the beginning, and go in 5 or 10 year increments. I just feel that there is a LOT of information here that is way too valuable to lose.

Sounds like you just nominated yourself! When is the first edition due out?

Kidding aside, you have the ebook version right now! And a powerful search feature better than any paper text could provide.

Top that off that where there is a debate on which “fork in the road” as to process occurs (very often) the writer would likely chose a single path to include.

This “book” is far better because you can interact with any member in the thread or in the PM mode and delve deeper into matters.

Three44s

[chutesnreloads]

Like others, I've simply printed out threads that were particularly interesting to me.
Years ago there was another site with a wealth of information much like this one.
Sadly it disappeared along with all that great info. That is what prompted me to start printing threads and saving them in a notebook. The book has gotten fairly large over the years.
One trick learned was to save a link to a currently active thread and go back a couple months or so later to print the complete thread.
Not long ago we had the "Great Ice Storm" and the internet/power was out a lot of that time.
Guess what I was reading. We shouldn't count on the internet to be available forever.