[Gary H]

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I decided to hit the reloading. Little did I know that partially through loading 158gr LSWC into Federal brass, a screw fell out of the cylinder linkage and no powder was being dropped. I must have been totally out of it, because the linkage seemed to be doing fine, but the powder measure was not cylcling and no powder was dropping. Today I took my wife's gun out to the range to chrono the 38 Special just loaded. Shot ten rounds and then decided to stop, because I wasn't able to fully inspect the casings for pressure. To make a long story short, I noted the lack of powder when I returned from the range and found the screw in the trash. Now I have four hundred rounds of trouble and it is heavily crimped and canalured trouble. I'm not sure what I will do with this mess. I tried my impact bullet puller, but not much happened. Anyway, I guess that I should be happy that I'm here to tell the tale. Learned a big lesson...don't reload when feeling under the weather..rent a DVD.

[dickwholliday]

i had a similar thing happen a while back....my measure got a little sticky acting so i cleaned it and forgot to hookup the return spring.....the result was i got 40 or 50 rounds with no powder dumped in with my others....i went to the indoor range and just shot until i found them. it wasn't hard since they lodged in the barrel.... i took my trusty brass rod and drove them out...what a pain in the butt....DICK

[Master Blaster]

I always keep my scale on the bench, and check every 10th to 20th round by weighing the charge. I never let more than 50 round stay in the catch bin on my RL550B.

QC can help avoid this problem.

[dodgestdshift]

Gary:

Had a similar experience with a round with no powder. If you decide to shoot them CHECK THE BARREL AFTER EVERY SHOT to make sure the bullet clears the barrel (if no powder it probably won't). If the bullet is lodged in the barrel you can get it out with a brass or wood rod. In my case the bullet ended up half in the barrel and half in the cylinder and tied up the gun completely. Since the gun was new and so was I, I took it back to the dealer and he used a brass rod to remove the bullet. Bad move, if you use a rod on a bullet stuck in both cylinder and barrel driving it out can really do a job on the crane. My gun was completely out of time, and almost ruined. It took a gunsmith to repair. I never forgot the lesson. If you decide to push the bullet out, SUPPORT THE CYLINDER strongly.

[Gary H]

I learned a big lesson. I posted my stupidity to benefit others, but your experience in shooting the pseudo-dummy rounds was what I was looking for. For now, I'm just going to put these in my small primer safe and call it a day.

[cordex]

Been there (well ... on a lesser scale ... had about 100 faulty).
Live and learn.

[Nero Steptoe]

The RCBS Lockout Die is a required addition to every 2000 that's in the RCBS plant for R&D. I use the Lockout Die on my Dillon 650. It works and would have stopped your press on the first low-powder charge. I highly recommend the Lockout Die.

[Gary H]

Looks like I need a Dillon 1050. I always seat and crimp at separate stations.

[Nero Steptoe]

Gary: You should give the 650 a chance before spending the $$$ for a 1050. (Unless you want to make military crimp removal part of your reloading regimen)

[Phil in Seattle]

Now I have four hundred rounds of trouble and it is heavily crimped and canalured trouble. I'm not sure what I will do with this mess. I tried my impact bullet puller, but not much happened.

I had to pull down a few hundred 357 rounds. (AA9 under 125gr bullet does not like to ignite with a standard small pistol primer). After doing about 30 rounds with my impact puller I coughed up the money for Hornadys Collet Puller and the proper collet for it.

Oh man is that nice to have when there are more than 5 or so rounds to pull down, fast and easy.

[Odessa]

For the very reason you state I have installed the RCBS Powder Lock Out die in my RCBS Pro2000. If you double charge, or neglect to charge, a case the die locks up the press mechanism and you discover the problem immediately. For me it was a good investment of $40.00. Odessa

[Selfdfenz]

Early in my reloading years I neglected to notice the load called for magnum primers on a 38 spl load I concocted.

I got a Forester Collet puller for my single station press. It worked so well I got inserts for every cal I loaded. Salvaged everything but more than that I got the job done safely.

Have never had cause to use a single one of them yet but I like knowing they are there if I goober up something in the future.

S-

[Edward429451]

If you have a single stage press also, you could run the bullets up in a shellholder (no die in place) and get on the cannelure on top of the press with some lineman pliers or dykes (whatever they call them), reverse stroke, voila'.

I've never done this but had it suggested to me from multiple people who said its as good or better than the collet type and faster. If you get just the right pressure with the dykes, you do not appreciably distort the bullets and can easily reuse them.

Good luck.

They talk about this method in this thread..

http://www.perfectunion.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3733