[giggitygiggity]

Here is a question: We always hear about the dangers of reloading and how people have had guns explode causing sever bodily injury. Has anyone actually experienced these disasters (guns blowing up, dangerous accidents, etc.)? I am not disputing or refuting that these things happen. I am simply trying to get a grasp of how common these things are. Thanks.

[rcmodel]

They are simply unheard of if you use a lick of common sense and follow the load books.

All blown-up guns not related to a defective gun are caused by stupid mistakes like using the wrong powder, or improper loading procedures causing a double charge or stuck bullet.

rc

[Victor1Echo]

Good question. I was wondering that myself as I read through the ABC's of reloading, and the author mentions having a primer blow out your eye--so where safty googles.

[ljnowell]

Nope. The closest I have ever came to such an occurance was a friend of a relative who mistook bullseye for 2400. Didnt read the label, grabbed a can and filled the measure. Who'da thunk that about 20gr of bullseye would destroy a Super Blackhawk?

[BWB]

When guns "blow up", it is almost always from bore obstructions - mud, snow, etc., when all the other stories about how it happened to someone who was never at fault are finally stripped away.
Occasionally it's either carelessness or downright creative stupidity on the part of handloaders who don't take time to know what they're doing, ignore all the rules, and watch television while they are double charging cases with Bullseye.
There is nothing remotely unsafe, let alone dangerous, about the process itself if you can read and follow directions.

[interlock]

ok, admision time here.

when i first started i got a load of mixed headstamp, mixed bullet .30-06 rounds from a not hugely reliable source.

so i decided to pull them all. which was fine.
then after emptying the powder i placed the cases in a bucket and filled it with water.

a couple of days later i decuded to deprime them using the depriming rod and base thing from a lee loader. i thought the water will have killed the primers......... i was wrong.

after about 6 or 7 i got complacent and took my gloves off. welding gloves are dificult to work with. On the very next case i went to tap the primer out and it went off causing a small explosion.... but big enough to propel the de priming rod into the garage roof where it remains stuck a good inch into the timber. I left it there so when i get the "i'm too tired" or "i'll just do this..." or "yeah yeah... i know it all" feelings i look at it and it reminds me that if it had hit me in the head, my life could have been very very different now.

[243winxb]

Saw 3. Shotgun barrel burst. Frame cracked 357 mag, barrel came lose/dislogded. Win. M70 30-06 stock broke, bolt froze. Caused by wad in bbl, Hot Load, Brass not trimmed.

[rfwobbly]

Saw one about 10 years ago at a local indoor range. The guy in the booth next to my son and I blew up his bolt action rifle. The first several shots were so loud we were packing to leave anyway. Then on about the 4th or 5th shot the bolt lost a lug.

[James2]

I voted NO.

I started loading in 1957. I was still in high school. (Ya, that makes me older than dirt)Many, many rounds later, I have never had a mishap. I think this is something we can do safely, but we do need to pay attention to detail, read and study the instructons in the books and understand the reason behind the steps, and observe the safety rules.

Be safe!

[EddieNFL]

Saw a S&W 27 blow out the top three cylinders. Turns out Bullseye and H110 are not interchangeable. Fortunately, I was several yards away from the shooter.

[EddieNFL]

ok, admision time here.

when i first started i got a load of mixed headstamp, mixed bullet .30-06 rounds from a not hugely reliable source.

so i decided to pull them all. which was fine.
then after emptying the powder i placed the cases in a bucket and filled it with water.

a couple of days later i decuded to deprime them using the depriming rod and base thing from a lee loader. i thought the water will have killed the primers......... i was wrong.

after about 6 or 7 i got complacent and took my gloves off. welding gloves are dificult to work with. On the very next case i went to tap the primer out and it went off causing a small explosion.... but big enough to propel the de priming rod into the garage roof where it remains stuck a good inch into the timber. I left it there so when i get the "i'm too tired" or "i'll just do this..." or "yeah yeah... i know it all" feelings i look at it and it reminds me that if it had hit me in the head, my life could have been very very different now.
Had exactly the same experience except the water must have affected the primer. It popped, but didn't blow the rod out of the case. Got my attention.

[HankB]

Never had a disaster myself, but several incidents involving others come to mind:

#1
After firing my score rounds at the company trap league, was having a beer with some buddies (Note I said after firing!) when interspersed with the pop-pop-pop of the other shooters we heard a loud BLAM!.

Guy blew up a Browning Citori. Side of the receiver was bulged out, the barrels above the chamber were gone, and the rest of the barrels were bent well past 90 degrees around the hinge pin. Only very minor injuries (a few scratches) resulted.

Not sure what happened, but even a double charge shouldn't have destroyed a shotgun THAT thoroughly.

#2
Friend just started loading his .270, a Remington M700. Fired a round, and it took both of us to open the bolt. Then fired another round - same thing. Turned out he'd tried a max load of "4831" powder from the manual; but DuPont had just introduced IMR 4831, which is NOT repeat NOT interchangeable with H4831, which is the only powder with that number available when the manual was printed.

Aside from making the mistake of not working up from below, he was AT LEAST a couple of grains over max by using the wrong powder. (DuPont should NOT have introduced a powder with the same number as H4831 and a noticeably faster burn rate.)

#3
Guy was at the range with a shotgun. He was inserting the action into a piece of PVC pipe for "safety" before each shot; he mentioned he was "blending several different powders based on his calculations" in an effort to improve performance.

He'd had a few squib loads, but I made myself scarce before he completed his series of experiments.

[RandyP]

Hey giggity,

you on a disaster theme today? lol

1st it was how much can you overload a .40 beyond spec without blowing it up and now explosions?

Suffice it to say that Darwin AND Mrs. Gump were right and it applies to reloading too.
Barring the truly rare metal failure most all firearm incidents (IMHO they are NOT accidents) are self-inflicted and self-generated.

[Walkalong]

They are simply unheard of if you use a lick of common sense and follow the load books.
Correct.

Hey giggity,

you on a disaster theme today? lol

1st it was how much can you overload a .40 beyond spec without blowing it up and now explosions?Noticed that myself.

[tooltech]

Don't forget the Bore sight!

http://www.thegunzone.com/kablooey.html

[evan price]

I personally have seen a couple, and made a couple.

First- I got a great deal on a Sig P6 at the range where a guy was complaining it was jamming, and his reloads don't jam his Glock. Upon inspection, I found the barrel was bulged just past the chamber where a squib had got stuck and been shot out by the next round. I bought a new barrel and still have that gun.

Second- I personally was shooting some .38 specials in a Colt Army Special revolver I had just bought- luckily it was a real beater bought for cheap- and I had started loading .38's in bulk earlier... Somewhere along the line I had noticed that the powder measure had run low. I pulled the last three cases and saw there was powder in them. So I went ahead and topped off the powder hopper and finished the box. Yep, there was a squib in there. I broke down the rest of the box, no problems, but still...

Third- The very FIRST pistol round I loaded was a 9mm in WIN brass with a WIN primer and 4.0 of Titegroup with a Rainier 124-grain HP plated bullet... I had not figured out how to set the crimp die, and as a result it was roll-crimped to heck and gone. About as much as is possible to roll-crimp a 9mm. It would not come apart with my impact puller. So I left it in the desk drawer to figure out later.

After loading up a handful of 9mm I took them out to the woodpile to try them out. Somehow that one round that I knew NOT to fire got mixed up in the handful, when it went off, holy smokes, I thought I blew up my Sig. Gun turned out to be fine. Got to see brass flow like water. It was a shaved hair away from a blowup. Bullet stuck in the barrel. The crimp groove was easily 1/8" deep in the slug when I pounded it out.


At my local gunshop, there's a couple of pistol frames with obvious explosion damage hanging on the wall behind the counter as a warning.

[qajaq59]

Considering how few steps there are to reloading, and the procedure that has been worked out for us by past reloaders, why would anyone blow up a gun? It's not as if it's very hard or complicated. Simply follow the rules and pay attention to what you're doing. When something does goes wrong, I suspect it's that last part that got ignored!

[tango2echo]

In over 100,000 rds (rifle and pistol over 25 years) I have had ONE accident that resulted in damaged revolver. Entirely my fault, stupid mistake, not following safe practices, learned from and will never do again.

t2e

[wankerjake]

There sure are a lot of YES responses, but only two YES votes...?

[Cosmoline]

I've had a few reloads where the powder failed to ignite, most likely because of water damage in storage. The primer just rammed the powder and ball into the bore a little bit. Weird stuff, and certainly would have caused problems if I'd tried to fire another round behind it. But I noticed something was wrong because there was no recoil and only a little "paaff"

[jcwit]

Had a squib one time and ringed/ruined a barrel.

This is one time I'll disagree with rc tho. I was a mistake, a stupid one? No, not really, sh#@ happens, its part of life, mistakes happen.

Even A.J. Foyt finally ran into the wall, lived thru it too. Stupid, doubt it.

To those that it hasn't happened to, its still in the cards, just over the horizon. If you walk in the pasture long enough, you WILL step in it.

With that said, take every precaution against having it happen tho.

[Stophel]

Years ago (many years ago), I had some primers sitting on the bench where my grinder is. As I was grinding something, the bench was vibrating, and one of the primers bounced out and fell off and hit the floor. BANG! Scared the crap out of me. Needless to say, I don't leave primers sitting on the bench anymore!

[qajaq59]

I never realized that a primer had enough mass that dropping on the floor would set it off?

[jcwit]

Grinding spark?

[Asherdan]

I did hunter's ed again with my oldest boy just to do it with him. Second day was the range portion, .22 rifles, .357 revolver, 9mm Glock, a muzzle loader, fun stuff. I was going through the line having a good time with it all and got to the Glock 9mm. About the third round in I got a partial head separation and my hand sprayed with hot crap. Nothing permanent and I'm glad it happened to me and not one of the kids. Guess that case was reloaded once too often by the instructor.

I haven't had a mishap in my own reloading and that kind of experience is one of my reminders about doing it right every time.

[rcmodel]

I never realized that a primer had enough mass that dropping on the floor would set it off? They don't. It would be almost unheard of for a single dropped primer to detonate.

If it went off, a grinder spark landed in it, or it got stuck to a boot heel and scuffed on concrete.

rc

[Walkalong]

Yep. It would have to be one mighty sensitive primer to go off from dropping 3 feet or less.

[jcwit]

Can anyone say Slamfire?

[Walkalong]

With a Slamfire you have exactly what the primer needs. Resistance (a seated primer) to a perfectly aimed strike from a firing pin.

Not the same as a light primer falling to the floor from 3 feet. ;)

[Jim Watson]

Strict answer to the poll, no, I have not experienced a reloading disaster.
I have seen some, though. Usually involving stuck bullets or overloads.

[Paints]

They are simply unheard of if you use a lick of common sense and follow the load books.

I disagree unless you consider reloading 40SW to be a lack of common sense.

I've only had one mishap, loading 40SW with Universal Clays, 0.3 grains less than Hodgdon's maximum. Ruptured case, jammed the gun (new Sig P226).

This was ten years ago, during the time of the Compuserve Firearms forum. 7 of the 8 Kabooms experienced by forum members were with Universal Clays!

I haven't reloaded 40SW since then, I don't really trust the round. I rarely even shoot 40SW, I still have half of the ten boxes of factory ammo that I bought with the gun.

Yeah, maybe you are right...a "lick of common sense" means sticking with calibers that are safer to reload. (i reload .380, 9, .38/.357, .44 and .45.)

Ken

[Win1892]

Had a case head seperate in a AMT copy of a Ruger MKI and shattered the left grip panel into a dozen pieces.

[ljnowell]

I disagree unless you consider reloading 40SW to be a lack of common sense.

I've only had one mishap, loading 40SW with Universal Clays, 0.3 grains less than Hodgdon's maximum. Ruptured case, jammed the gun (new Sig P226).

This was ten years ago, during the time of the Compuserve Firearms forum. 7 of the 8 Kabooms experienced by forum members were with Universal Clays!

I haven't reloaded 40SW since then, I don't really trust the round. I rarely even shoot 40SW, I still have half of the ten boxes of factory ammo that I bought with the gun.

Yeah, maybe you are right...a "lick of common sense" means sticking with calibers that are safer to reload. (i reload .380, 9, .38/.357, .44 and .45.)

Ken

I dont know that I would say beyong doubt that what happened to you wasnt caused by something else, but I do agree with you to an extent. I refuse to own a .40 S&W. I dont like the cartridge. I think its a horrible set of compromises and isnt any better than the rival cartridges.

[MetalHead]

Had three of those swedged Horneday SWCs stacked in my Ruger SSM's barrel before it dawned on me things wern't right, shudder to think what would have happened if I had then fired a 32HRmag round next. They tapped out easy and the gun is fine, not so much my confidence in reloading target 32S&W longs! Fact is those rounds are still around 15 years later, while im resting, I should pull them down.

[armoredman]

Buddy gave me some of his hot 357 reloads to use in my Tuarus 66 357 revolver...case head separation, sparyed my hand with hot grains, no damage. Same guy loaded a 30-06 so hot he blew apart the bolt on a Savage.
I have only had overlong rounds that got stuck and pulled the bullet out when I tried to see what was wrong. As for the roll crimped 9mm, GUILTY! My very first 50 were roll crimped, and most failed to chamber, though I was dumb enough to keep trying. Didn't have a bulelt puller, gave the rounds to the range to use in thier 9mm revolver.

[qajaq59]

Buddy gave me some of his hot 357 reloads to use in my Tuarus 66 357 revolver...case head separation, sparyed my hand with hot grains, no damage. Same guy loaded a 30-06 so hot he blew apart the bolt on a Savage. With a friend like that you certainly don't need any enemies!! And now you know why most of us don't shoot other people's reloads.

[qajaq59]

Yes- There was bodily injury involved. 2 1.85%
Yes- The gun was damaged, but no bodily injury. 3 2.78%
No 103 95.37%
Those numbers look good until you realize that almost 5% have had a problem, and there are a few million of us that are loading. That is much higher than it should be.

[herohog]

I have been reloading for 20 years now and I have had 1 squib (9mm WinMag 9x29mm) and one hot round (9mm Luger 9x19mm) that caused no damage. The hot round was just noticeably louder and had more recoil than the others in that lot. I use Bullseye and Blue Dot for most of my reloads.

[billybob44]

Back in the late 60's-early 70's, I had a case of the DA, when I was Young+Dumb to handloading. Started with the Lee Loader-you know with the plastic hammer and all. It was in .38Spl. I thought I could make a "Magnum" .38 load by using TWO scoops of Bullseye, instead of one scoop. Well the second round I touched off blew the cyl. out of a Spanish made revolver of some kind, and it flew out of my hand. A long time ago==was YOUNG+DUMB Bill:banghead::what:

[wilkersk]

The closest I've come was from de priming a case that had a primer in it that wouldn't seat properly. I wanted to find out "WHY".

I knew it might blow. But, when it did, it was still a shock. Eye and ear protection, +gloves worn.

----added-----

I use the de-priming punch and socket from a Lee Classic Loader for de priming live loads. Saves wear and tear on the press and dies.

[ADKWOODSMAN]

Take your time, concentrate on what you do and if using a progressive peer into each case with a light to make sure there is only one load in that case.

However I did have a NEW Winchester case fail on the side because of thin brass.

Only a little gas hit me in the face.

I was shooting a Remington Model 721 bolt gun so no problem.

The hole was about 2 mm in length. Mind you, a new case.

[FROGO207]

Follow the directions to a "T", double check, and so far after 30 years of reloading all safe still.:scrutiny:

[627PCFan]

The closest Ive come is 35 grain 22 hornet bullets loaded in 223 cases for subsonic loads. Had one squib, followed but another subsonic.....followed by a cleaning rod....which was further assisted by a brass rod and in the end a wooden dowel. That stainless bull barrel is now my fireplace poker. :fire:

[Peter M. Eick]

In over a quarter million rounds loaded, the worst I have ever done is perf a primer. Fortunately a bit of paranoia has kept me from doing real damage. But I have to admit, I worry about it. Check, Double Check and Triple Check everything I do in the reloading bench.

[moooose102]

i have actually had two. one was a reloading problem, one was a shooting problem. in my reloading mishap, i mis-read the load book, and used the wrong powder. i knew the instant i touched it off that something was wrong. the hard to turn bolt was a confirmation that somehow, i screwed up. it took some investigation to figure out what had happened. no damage to me, or the gun (had it checked by a gunsmith).

the second, was just plain stupid. i had been using a in the end of the barrel bore sighter to align the rifle over the chronograph, because earlier in the year, i shot the chrono. nayway, after doing this something like 20 times, someone waked by, talked with me for a bit, and i forgot the boresighter was in the barrel. until i touched it off. the barrel did not slit, thaere was no visual or difference in the way it shot at all from the other previous shots. except there was no hole in the paper target. then, it dawned on me. i found one remnant of the laser bore sighter abour 80 yards from where i shot. i packed stuff up and went home. there was no visable damage to the gun at all, but a quick trip through the inside of the barrel with a cleaning rod and brush told the story. it was bulged pretty bad. ruined a perfectly good barrel. it is now at the gunsmiths being repaied (rebarreled). looks like it is going to be about a $200.00 repiar. but it is still better than getting hurt. my share of the hospital bill would have been more than that!

[RDA 226sig]

Moose, you are very fortunate that your inattention didn't really cost you. Really, that is the bottom line; when you are dealing with firearms you can not afford to become "too comfortable". Same goes for reloading. Check, double check, and then make sure your attention is on what you are doing.