[winwun]

Years ago when money was a bit tighter than it is now, I balked at the price of a bullet puller, and decided to make my own.

I machined out a .357 sized chamber (all I was shooting at the time were .38's and .357's) in a piece of Sch. 120 tube 2" long, and formed a piece of 1/8" X 1" flat in a U shape to be welded to the tube for handle attachment.

After getting the final cartridge fit in the "chamber" I quit for the night and would do the welding and handle fitting the next morning.

Looking forward to the project's completion, I rushed out to my shop after breakfast and clamped the "chamber" with its cap on and handle bracket properly located and set the buzz-box to 90 amps and put sufficient bead around the U shaped handle bracket to do the job.

I disconnected and hung up the welder leads and was walking back to my bench, holding the still-hot puller with pliers, the cap end facing up, when the round that I had been testing the chamber with the night before and didn't think of when I started the welding decided it had soaked up enough heat from the welding to ignite and it did.

The 148 gr. WC hit the concrete floor between my feet.

Scared the H out of me. Very stupid mistake, leaving the "test round" in the chamber.

I finished the puller. It worked. Still does, for .38's and .357's.

[Longbow]

:eek: :eek: ' glad that you didn't get hurt from that experience.
Mine was a squib round, I fired another round after the squib got lodged into the barell. I bulged the barell but it didn't explode/shatter. It was a steel match, so it was loaded soft, if it was a regular load, I doubt the outcome would be the same. It was an expensive mistake. 'bout $200 for a new barell.:(

[Mr. Chitlin]

Not watching the powder hopper. Several years ago, I was loading 9mm on my then Lee Pro 1000. When I loaded 9's, I usually loaded 1K to 2K at a time. I had a big box that they would drop into, and then I would pour them into a 50 cal ammo can. At some point late in the loading session, I ran out of powder but did not notice it. I still have that ammo can about 2/3's of the way full of 9mm ammo. I keep it separated from any other ammo. Every once in a while I take it with me when I go to the range and blast some of it. I get a squib once in a while. Over the years, I'll get it all shot up. There is probably still over 1k in the can.

[Sisco]

First time I tried Bullseye in .357 mag I loaded 5.3 grains, well below max.
Went to the range to try 'em out in my Ruger GP100. I got a lot more recoil than I thought there would be, but like a dumb a** I went ahead and fired all six rounds. Had to knock the cases out of the cylinder with a dowell.
Went back to the bench and checked my scales, instead of 5.3 grains it was set at 5 AND 3 for a total of 8! Listed max load is somewhere around 6!
Good thing I was shooting a Ruger not a Rossi.

[Edward429451]

Wow Winwun, thats pretty scary! The worst goof I ever did was load some near max 44 mags and they were good, No high pressure signs, acceptable accuracy, etc.. My FIL came to town and wanted some ammo to take home with him and since his Redhawk is identical to mine I gave him some of those that I had loaded. He took them to Florida and had to pound the first rounds out of his gun. He now questions my reloading skills.:rolleyes:

It seems that my loads were tested in the cool 40 degree mountain air, and he took the ammo to the hot 85-90 deg florida air and pressures spiked a little higher. Gotta keep an eye on that temperature / pressure relationship...:uhoh:

[uglymofo]

Years ago, I was reloading 45acp on a Dillon 450 and had the '6er's on TV at the same time. I had a habit of reloading during any sports event on the weekends, and used the television like a radio (it was behind me).

Anyway, the press felt funny, and jammed just past mid-stroke. Exactly at that moment, Dr. J went to the hoop successfully and Dick Enberg got all excited. I turned around to watch the replay and saw it a couple of times. I returned to my work, retracted the handle and saw that the bullet hadn't been inserted properly. I straightened it up and cycled the press.

That Wednesday, in the middle of practicing El Presidente for the upcoming IPSC match, I fired off a round that was 'peculiar'. Instantly, and on a clear day with not a cloud in the sky, my first thought was, how can it be raining?? The smoke cleared, I couldn't get the gun to fire again, and then I realized it'd jammed.

My Colt was jammed half-open; part of the "case" was wedged between the rails of the slide and frame--the case had damn near disintegrated--part of it had 'unrolled', (like peeling an apple in one piece), and a jagged edge was wedged between the rails. The other side of the case had blown out where it was unsupported in the chamber. I got the magazine out with some force. There were several rounds left in it, but the mag was swelled. I remembered back immediately to Dr. J and Dick Enberg, and I'm sure that that jammed stroke double-charged a round. I was loading 5.6 of WW231. I dunno how much powder dropped during the first bad stroke. The gun functioned fine and remained accurate even after that incident.

The rain?? That was blood on both my cheeks, where the brass shrapnel had cut me; I ruined a par of prescription glasses (plastic lenses), too. They were pitted in several places. Damn, I was lucky. Now I reload to music only, no radio, no TV.

[P95Carry]

One observation here .... and that applies also due to first hand experience ...

Shall we say the ''concentration'' factor .... and how that can be broken .... with ensuing potential for problems.

I use a turret for most hangun loads and have made most mistakes by being (or allowing self to be) distracted in ''mid sequence'' ...... maybe a primer does not get seated, the powder drop is incomplete ...... failure to notice a case probem ...... etc.

Worst ''goof'' was adding 20 9mm rounds to a box with 30 already loaded ...... to complete the box. I had tho failed to ''switch on'' the powder measure release gate and so every powder drop at that station was .. zilch ........ which also proved my incompetence at not eyeballing the first case to ensure it was filled before seating bullet.!

In the end, I went thru all 50 rnds and weighed each one ........ looking for rounds that were approx 5.5 grns lighter ...... finished up with more than 20 of course due to occasional variations in brass and bullet weight but ... pulled them all and started them over.

So ... for me, most important thing is only to stop between complete rounds .... never ''part ways thru''.

[Fish Springs]

Loaded some 200 grain, SWC, cast bullets for a 44/40 in a .40 S&W case with AA7. These bullets measured .40 as cast from lino-type, but had a square heal and I had a bunch of them.

The post mortem revealed that the square base bullet was seated too deeply for the inside tapered case--the load data, starting load for a 180 grain was a bit too much under the 200 grain revlover bullet.

As things heated up--the 14th round ruptured the case in the unsuppored area in the Glock chamber forcefully ejecting the magazine to a spot on the gound between my legs, bulged the barrel and everything stopped.

A Glock problem, no. No a cast bullet problem, no. Just an experienced reloaded who got too creative and did not follow fundamental rules of reloading....I mounted the polite letter from Glock along with the post KB pressure data sheet over my loading bench as a reminder...

Happy shooting.

[JollyWhiteGiant]

The only goof I have had so far has been a .45 ACP round that didn't have any powder in it. I fired the round, the case didn't eject, cleared the jam, racked it again and the slide wouldnt' close, cleared adn tried again and it didn't fully close again, rapped on the back of the slide with my hand a couple of times with no sucess. I disassembled the gun thinking that there might be a lead build up around the front of the chamber, (just started using these bullets) turns out the bullet had made it only far enough to lodge itself into the beginnings fo the lands and stopped, partially blocking the chamber. Luckally it stopped there because I didn't notice anything wrong with the shot and would have continued to fire it. I didn't have anything with me to pop it out, thankfully there was another shooter there who once did the same thing and came prepared.

I have no clue how it happened. I load on a Rock Chucker and check my cases before I top em off with a bullet. Luckally the only dammage I suffered was the embarrassment of having done that.

[Phil in Seattle]

There was the 357 loads with aa#9 and standard small pistol primers. They went piff instead of BANG. AA#9 really needs the hotter magnum primer.


Then there were the 45 colt loads that had 22grs of AA#9 under a 250gr JHP. These were for shooting in a S&W 25-5. Unfortunetly these loads were 1.5grs over the MAX for a Ruger or Thompson Center for that bullet weight. I don't know what I was thinking or what happened that allowed me to make such a screw up on those.

They felt awfully stout when I fired them, so I immediately discountinued that. When I got home I broke one down, weighed it out and looked in my reloading log book only to find that there was no entry in it for them.. That was very odd, I always write down what I load. So now I still have no idea what I was thinking about when I made those loads up.

[sm]

Where is CRSam when I need him?;)

Vaccum cleaners and live primers not compatable :D

Gave the wife at the time the weeeby jeebies, dogs bark , yelp, and vaccum cleaners expire. Then it gets reeeaaal quiet followed by " Honey...you ok?"

[ocabj]

I've only had one mishap: a squib round. I pulled trigger and I got a click. I dropped the mag and ejected the round and saw it was just a case. Field stripped my Springfield Milspec and saw the bullet in the barrel, just barely ahead of the chamber. Drove it out with a couple light taps with the dowel and all was well.

[winwun]

Another "near miss":

When I "powder" the cases, I always get under a good light, if the sun is shining, I walk outside the door of my shop with the loading tray in hand and check each case to be sure that none are empty and that none are "doubled".

With my 2X reading glasses on one day, I was outside the door to my shop with the tray tilted, checking the cases, with the sun behind me, and I noticed a wisp of smoke coming from one of the cases.

It was the sun, going through the lens of my glasses and putting a spot in one of the cases.

I managed to move the tray before it lit.

For the heck of it, (I'm always experimenting) I marked the case that almost lit and when it fired it was considerably weaker.

[esheato]

I was loading some .45 ACP and found a brand new box of primers in my drawer and loaded them up. I think when it was done, I had loaded nearly 800 rounds. I come to find out from a family member that, "they feel different than the other .45 ACP you loaded for me." Well, I did a little investigating and found a box (1000) of nearly empty LARGE RIFLE primers gone.

Hmm...where did those come from? But more importantly, where did they go? Ahhh, yes, those 800 rounds. I did a little reading up and decided that I didn't want to pull 800 rounds so I fired them. And actually, it wasn't bad. And I still have all my fingers too :neener:

esheato...

[BigG]

I've always loaded them one at a time with a single stage and checked the powder level by eye before seating a bullet. Still, I have gotten the occasional squib even with all that care, mostly in 45 ACP, my most often used flavor. I've never had a squib in a rifle round I reloaded (fingers crossed).

Those automated reloaders give me the heebie-jeebies when I think of how many things can go awry. My fingers (and eyes) are too valuable!

[Steve Smith]

I use a Stoney Point OAL gauge and comparator for finding the lands in my match rifles. I measured my new chamber at 2.968" from case head to rifling (all measurements are ogive measurements). Fine, drop that by .010" and start loading. Only I made a goof between the measurement of the gauge and my first loaded round after setting up the seating die. First loaded round was at 2.858" a full .110" off! Didn't notice at all because the dial calipers swung around to the right spot on the dial...I figured all was well. Only noticed when I needed to make a few more, and noticed the lengths were different...hmm...time to regauge the rifle....awww, crap! I shot shorties this past weekend and posted the worst 600 yard score I've had in over a year. WAAAAA!

[winwun]

Amen on thumbs down for the automated presses.

As far as the difference in LR and LP primers, I was under the impression the only difference was in the ductility of metal on the primer cup: the rifle taking a bit more oomph on the firing pin spring to indent it sufficient to ignite. I have read and been told that the brisiance is the same.

A significant difference exists, however in standard and magnum.

I have interchanged rifle and pistol primers with no noticeable difference, but not having run them through a chrony, I could have missed the difference.

[Steve Smith]

I think it will keep most reloaders OUT of trouble more than IN trouble. Just my opinion.

[SDC]

Like uglymofo, I let my attention lapse, and DOUBLE-CHARGED a 9mm case with Titegroup. Any questions?

[hps1]

I think it will keep most reloaders OUT of trouble more than IN trouble. Just my opinion.

Mine too, Steve.

The only problem I have ever had w/Dillon 550 is once while loading 45ACP. I generally check the weight of the thrown powder charge once every 50 rounds or so to make sure the measure hasn't drifted (never found that to be the case, but have become attached to my appendages.)

I usually load 500-1000 rounds at a time which lasts a while. One range trip, thought I had a misfire, waited 10 sec. and carefully pulled back the slide. An empty round was extracted and, while extremely rare for my 1911 to malfunction, I reasoned that the slide must not have fully cycled and rechambered the last fired, empty case??? Soooo, chambered another round and was starting to squeeze the trigger when a light came on Something doesn't add up, here...........you'd better check this out!

Upon closer examination, found a slug stuck in the barrel, deeply enough to allow a round to chamber behind it! In trying to figure out how this could be, figured that it must have been one of those cases that I pulled out of the cycle, dumped and weighed the charge and for whatever reason, failed to dump the charge back into the case before proceeding. Whether the phone rang about that time, or what, I'll never know, but this further illustrates the need for giving your full attention to the loading process.

I suppose the fact that I wear good hearing protection, I failed to hear the primer detonate on this round. You can bet that any time I have an unexplained hickup on any semi-auto, I will examine the barrel for obstructions.

Regards,
hps

[Steve Smith]

I have had the EXACT same thing happen, actually. As long as I leave the press alone safe rounds come out. When I humaneer it I can induce error.

[BigG]

You guys are probably right about the current generation automated equipment. My serious reloading knowledge goes back into the 60s and 70s when a powder measure was hi tech and I really havent gotten updated to reloading version 2.xxx

ALWAYS CHECK THE BARREL: Whenever you have a pistol fail to go off or a funny sound, ALWAYS check the bbl. It is dollars to donuts a slug is stuck in there. Touching off another one behind it will ruin your gun, at least, if not your day. :eek:

[ARGarrison]

Well I had barrowed a freinds Lee Load-All shotgun reloader in 20ga. I had owned one in 12 ga, so I thought I was good to go. Was only reloading a box to see what I could get out of the 20ga. Selceted Powder and shot load and got everything ready to go. Loaded up a box and put them aside for the range.

At the range went to load the gun, and I'll be, only a few rounds would chamber into the gun. The ring collot or reizer on the Lee Load-All only worked one way. That's with the '20' up, not down. Had a half box of loaded, but unsized shotshells.
:o

[esheato]

The primers I had mistakenly loaded were WW Large Rifle for Standard Loads. I did have quite a few that I had to pull the trigger a few times on, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Let me just say that I put in my time doing malfunction drills. :eek:

esheato..

[Poodleshooter]

I grabbed an full box of shiny,unprimed Remington 7mm Remington magnum brass, and too briefly thought "hmmm, I don't remember resizing this, but it's shiny, unprimed and I never buy brass". I primed it, and loaded up 50 rounds. I tried to close the bolt on a test round. The brass was unsized tumbled brass that my dad had given me.
Neck sizing unfired brass is another entertaining screw up.
My worst shotgun load was trying to set off 40+ grains of Blue Dot under a 1oz slug using a Win 209 primer instead of a CCI magnum 209 or a Fed209A. A barrel full of powder later,the slug had actually made it to the end of the barrel and poked it's nose out, but was still retained in it's wad "sabot" within the rifling. I think I still have a picture of that.

[cordex]

.357 squibs.
very tightly crimped.
Standard primers.
Bullet never left the case ... just warmed it up a bit.
Took the cartridge apart with a pair of pliers (bullet puller was at home) and heard a little pop when the bullet came out.
Powder measure had locked on my Dillon and I wasn't paying enough attention.

[bdhawk]

i hate to admit this mistake. a screw came loose on my dillon powder thrower. the bell cube came out and the powder thrower quit depensing powder. i loaded 'bout 200 .40 s&w sans powder before i pulled my head out and saw the problem. i had to pull the whole bin full because i did not know which ones had powder and which ones did not. now i load standing up andi look into each and every case for powder.

[uglymofo]

Bdhawk,

Add an RCBS lockout die to the press if you have an extra station available after the powder drop. That die's function is to measure the powder charge; you can ignore it completely until your press "locks up". That's the indicator from the lockout die (and hence the name) that the powder charge is not large enough.

[winwun]

I have never been much for the idea of the fancy "do everything" presses, but lately, I have been thinking about seriously looking into one.

Now after reading the possible goofs with the critters, I have made up my mind.

NEVER.

[Steve Smith]

For those of you with 550's, do a search cross referencing my name with "check" in this forum. You'll see how to add a powder check die to your press.

Winwun, they are good presses. If you know your mechanical skills are low, then you're right about your decision. If you are mechanically inclined then its a great press to own and use.

[mothernatureson]

not really a reloading story, but one to remember. When first married, we kept our toaster in the cabinet beneath our "junk drawer". I got the toaster out one morning and popped in an english muffin. While standing in the kitchen waiting for my breakfast, the toaster went bang, something hit me in the face. Seems a live 22 round that had been in the drawer, found a crack in the drawer bottom and found it's way below, into the toaster. I was okay, but the toaster was "doa". It's been a good laugh for years! peace,
mothernatureson

[caz223]

Not really a gun story, but I tend to 'zone' when I reload.
I was reloading downstairs, and I was thirsty.
I went upstairs to get a drink, and decided that I wanted some garlic toast.
Threw some buttered, seasoned bread in the toaster oven, and decided to come back in a few minutes to check on it.
I went downstairs to bring my drink downstairs, and decided to crank off a few more rounds.
Long story short, my next door neighbor came over when he saw smoke roll out the front door.
Knocked on the front door loud enough to make me jump downstairs!
Then I smelled it.
I ran upstairs to see him bringing the toaster oven tray outdoors, and threw the incinerated ex-toast out the door.
The tablecloth was smoking/singed badly, but he said a few more minutes, and there would have been a real fire.
Adding insult to injury, right then the smoke detector decided to go off.
I had to scrape out the inside of the toaster oven for quite some time.
I bought him a six-pack of heineken, and he never told a soul about it.
Good neighbor!
He's a shooter, too.
Every time I sell a gun, I offer it to him first, and he gets the best price.

[P95Carry]

Caz ... I gotta admit ... came real close to ''burning the toast'' like you ....... but not quite so much smoke!

I have now decided for some while to keep a digital decremental timer by load bench .... if i go turn on stove, or want to catch something on TV .. whatever ..... i set time to countdown to the event ...... has saved my a$$ a time or two!:)

[JohnK]

My biggest goof was also with the 45 ACP, and with a Dillon 550 years ago. My first loading experience was with this combo. At one poing while getting everything adjusted I had the powder die screwed down to far, MASSIVE bell on the case. Backed that out to a proper level. Then used that hugely belled case to check the powder adjustments. Unfortunately it was belled so severely that it wasn't fully actuating the powder bar so when I started loading "for real" I was getting quite a bit more powder than I realized.

Fortunately I was using Unique which is fairly forgiving and bulky so it wasn't anywhere near a double charge but still over max (I don't recall what it ended up being). I don't know what velocity those rounds were but they sure were snappy in the Sig 220!!

[dleong]

Nothing spectacular here: my most embarrassing reloading goof happened when I finished charging 100 45ACP cases sitting in two 50-round trays, and discovered that I had forgotten to prime the cases.

DL

[bogie]

More than a few benchrest competitors have been seen sprinting to their loading benches after forgetting to prime rounds...

I _always_ have backup rounds that I know will at least go bang and punch a hole somewhere on the paper, rather than risk a five shot DNF penalty.

[tex_n_cal]

Mmmmm...:scrutiny:

One squib load in the M629, which left the bullet stuck halfway between the cylinder and barrel. The cylinder wouldn't turn, so that was it for that day at the range:mad:

My rendition of jousting at windmills....

...or, try to get .433 lead round balls to shoot well out of the same M629, with extra light loads. This time I had a squib, which left the ball sticking halfway out the muzzle. My friend was not impressed with my reloading, even after explaining it was an experimental load:o

...we won't count the time I shot a .25-06 in a .270.:D

...or the time I grabbed one of Ken Waters' Pet Loads for the .44-40, and loaded them for my Dad & his Uberti revolver. The load I think was 17 grains or so of 2400, which was well under maximum...for a rifle. In a SAA, they left my Dad saying "what the hell did you put it these???". They didn't blow anything, except some 2400.:D

I still have a 10mm case that was bulged within a hair's breadth of blowing. I dropped the load one grain.

...oh hell, now I remember...

...my first progressive reloader, a Hornady Projector. Very proudly ran off a hundred or so .45 ACP's....with about ten of them having the primers neatly seated upside down. I think I threw them in a lake:D

[winwun]

Tex, next time you get one stuck halfway out of the cylinder, take your little piece of .340 steel round and hammer it back in to the cylinder sufficiently to open the cylinder.

If you choose to open the cylinder and shear the stuck bullet in half, be very careful not to bend the crane.

[wingman]

Been loading over 35 years with one
squib. I will always blame that on a
"bad primer"(smile)
I use a single stage and a turret, load
in steps, power drop is done one tray at a time then visually checked with light.

Slow, yes, but when I pull the trigger I
know it will go bang. Loading too fast
is like much of our products we buy
in this country now, it's a gamble.!!!

Old person with ten fingers, hard head.:D

[griz]

Maybe not the worst but the most interesting was firing a 22 Hornet with (I assume) no powder. After the quiet pop of the primer, I broke open the action. The Contender I was shooting has no ejector, but the case flew past my ear and landed about 10 feet behind me. The bullet had sealed the bore well enough to trap a bit of pressure in the case.

[tex_n_cal]

By the way, since several people mention loads with no powder as their goof, I'll mention that a digital reloading scale makes a fairly quick way to check rounds for missing powder, or double charges.

Next time you've got a couple hundred or so suspect rounds, it's a lot faster to sort them with the scale than any other method:)

[Bronson7]

When I first set up my Dillon 550 for 45 ACP, I ruined a case setting up the belling, It was way over, no way to salvage it, so I decided to save it as a dedicated case to set up my powder drop.
When I'd get the charge where I wanted, I'd start reloading only to end up with with .5 grns more than I originaly started with! That's a big variation when loading 45 ACP with Universals. I chased my tail for a week trying to figure what was wrong. You guessed it. Too much bell in my "dedicated case" wasn't fully kicking over the powder bar. When I would start loading with normal cases, the bar was fully extended, hence the disparity. I felt like a real DA for that one.
Bronson7

[lee n. field]

Nothing serious.

.45 ACP. I hadn't reloaded anything for a couple years (kid had the table filled with comuter junk), so I wasn't quite up to speed with the details. I was using an older RCBS die set, that had the decapper as part of the belling die. Everything else I have has it as part of the sizing die. So I ran a couple hundred cases through the belling and decapping die. (My goodness this is easy.) I had them all primed before I realized that they all still needed to be sized.

[Cortland]

This one involves my father, not me (no, really!). Anyhoo, he was new to reloading at the time and like most cowboy action shooters was convinced that there was no such thing as too light a load. Apparently he loaded up a ton of .45 Colts way too light (mistake #1), and decided they were not suitable for competition. He needed to reclaim these cases in order to load some slightly heavier rounds, and having no bullet puller at the time (mistake #2), he decided to shoot them (mistake #3).

He went to the range with his 1873 lever action (mistake #4) to get rid of this ammo. He fired a few rounds from the rifle, and the loads were so light he could seem them arcing towards the target. Of course eventually he had a bullet lodge in the barrel. Unaware of this, he continued firing (mistake #5). The loads were so light, he was able to continue firing until the lodged bullets were backed up far enough to prevent the action from being completely opened.

I was able to see the rifle before he had a new barrel put on it. It was literally plugged up with lead from muzzle to chamber and weighed a ton. There was a bullet hanging half way out of the muzzle, and how he was able to continue firing so many shots without the rifle blowing up in his face is beyond me.

The best part was the broken-off drill bit embeded in the lodged bullets.

In conclusion: :uhoh: :rolleyes: :banghead: :what: :barf:

[griz]

Hey Cortland, Is he by chance going to shoot at Pungo this weekend? I hope to be there and will say hello. I won't mention you ratted him out.;)

[Cortland]

Hey Cortland, Is he by chance going to shoot at Pungo this weekend? I hope to be there and will say hello. I won't mention you ratted him out.

As far as I know, yes he will be at Pungo, though with his kind of loading practices, I might suggest you try to situate yourself in a separate posse... On the other hand, I suppose a little peer pressure might be a good thing.

But uh ... you didn't hear it from me.

[Archie]

is not keeping the labels on the right experimental loads....

Now which are the 3.0 grains of Bullseye and which are the 6.0 grains of Unique?

And these are .... the AA#5?

Nuts.

[griz]

Hello again. What's his alias? I'm not sure I need to be on a different posse but there are a lot of light loaded 45's out there and I would like to know who I'm talking to. Feel free to email me if you don't want to put his name out there for all to see. I shoot as Griz in case you couldn't tell.

[yzguy]

I handed my girlfriend a box of primers for a second at a gun show.... She then proceeded to shake the box just to hear it rattle!! I had to tell her not to shake the explosives and to give them back to me... :)

[Preacherman]

My most embarrassing reloading mistake didn't involve ammunition, but components. I used to smoke a pipe, and one day sat down at the reloading bench (having carefully removed all powders and powder measures from the area) to sort out various components that had got mixed up, mis-sorted, etc. While doing so, I filled and lit my pipe, and spent a relaxing half-hour re-stocking my shelves.

Unfortunately, as part of the sorting process, I re-packed a number of loose primers from the Lee priming tool into a primer box. In the process, unknown to me, several of the primers fell from my hand, and landed neatly in my open tobacco pouch. Not realizing this, I duly finished my work, closed the pouch, and went on my way rejoicing.

Later that evening, I had some friends over for supper. After supper, we sat on the porch to swap tall stories over a few drinks and a pipe or two. A friend filled his pipe from my pouch, and lit it. A few seconds later...

ka-BOOM!

Yes, it really did sound that loud... don't know why - perhaps the pipe had an amplifying effect??? Anyway, after we had picked ourselves up and dusted ourselves off, I figured out what must have happened. He probably had two or three primers in that pipeful, and I found a couple more in the pouch. His pipe was shattered into tiny pieces, although fortunately he wasn't injured (physically, anyway...) I ended up having to buy him a fairly expensive pipe as a replacement - but he never used my tobacco again!!! :D

[FAL_Freak]

Since I'm fairly new to loading the only thing I can think of is not removing the A-MERC brass (or at least what they claim is brass) from the box of brass to load. 3 cases made it through the screening process somehow. The now sit by the other 45 ACP reloads mocking me. Maybe I'll shoot em with the 10/22 from 50 yards or so. :D


And yeah I learned that A-MERC was pure cr4p too late to not de-prime and bell the case. Soooo, extra work for nothing. :(
(I did notice they weren't the most pretty cases in the world, but figured they'd prolly function. )

[Ryder]

Hard to match some of these stories. I'm still using a single stage press. Worst I do is to annoy myself.

Little things like adding powder to a case which hasn't been primed yet (kind of messy). Occasionally I'll press a primer crammed in sideways and have to throw the case out.

Tiny cartridges are so frustrating that I've given up on them altogether. I've probably knocked over and dumped the powder onto my bench from as many 380 auto cases as I have ever successfully seated bullets into. Fingers are just tooooo big.

Like I tell my women, "It might be boring but boring is safe". :D

[DWS1117]

Nothing really bad but I did have my first goof just tonight. Loading some .45acp. Got through about 5 rounds. Bullets seated and all is going great. I noticed that there was little bits of powder all over the bench, press, loading block, and my hands. Now there is normally some spill but not like this. OOPS! no primer! Now I know why bullet pullers are made. And I thought it was just another useless tool.