The word "boolit" is a made-up word and is not part of the English language. It is a deliberate misspelling of the word "bullet". The origin of this term seems to have come from a forum called castboolits.gunloads.com and spread from there on to many other shooting forums (mostly those with a lot of American members). As per the forum, a boolit is a projectile that is hand cast by a person for use by an individual, whereas a bullet is a machine-made projectile made by a commercial company for mass consumption. Another common difference per the forum members is that a "boolit" is cast from a mold, whereas a "bullet" is a jacketed projectile.
In the good old days, many fire arms came with their own bullet molds.
Some enthusiasts like to make their own bullets, just the same way that their forefathers used to. And quite a few of them refer to their own custom made products as "boolits".
I suspect the boolit spelling came from someone who couldn't spell and our lazy society just went along with it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting theory there Mark.
DeleteRegards,
The Editor.
So a boolit is a cast projectile and a bullet is machine made. So if a cast projectile is made by a machine are we going to make up another name? Hmmm
ReplyDeleteI suspect the boolit spelling came from someone who couldn't spell and our lazy society just went along with it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the term I thought it was someone making light of the issue or perhaps attempting to distinguish between projectiles for modern arms vs older (e.g. muzzleloading) arms. But in recent years a consensus has developed that "boolits" are naked lead or lead alloy. "Bullets" are jacketed or plated (usually with copper). When I started reloading in 1975, I never heard of the term. I first ran across it in the '90s, as I recall.
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