Funny or embarrassing reloading story

Status
Not open for further replies.
Win1892

Win1892

Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2008
Messages
321
Location
NW Florida
We've all got one or two. Not the dangerous kind where someone could have been injured, but where Murphys law turned against you. Broken hardware, spilled containers, etc. The kind of thing that makes you look around to see who was watching.

I'll start:

I slid the powder bar out of the powder dispenser on my Dillon 650, with a full hopper. Trying to catch the Trail Boss spilling in 6 directions was a challenge.

Spent 2 weeks tumbling enough .223 brass to overflow a 5 gallon bucket and then left the bucket in the driveway in a torrential rain. Tumbled it all again.

Tripped the GFI outlet in my garage that my Dillon 650 case feeder plugs into. Pulled the down tube to clear a jam, realized the outlet was tripped, walked over to reset. Went into the house, got distracted, went back into the garage an hour later to find an empty case feeder and about 300 45ACP cases in every nook and cranny within 10 feet.
 
Had my old boss load me some weak LSWC for my .40 just for plinking. Took it out to go shoot, and they wouldn't load in my mag. Every single round was just a touch too long. I told him about it, he fixed em all, and gave me an extra 50 rounds for my trouble, even though I assured him it was no big deal.
 
How about this. It happened a couple of days ago. I was getting ready to use my new Hornady Auto Charge for the second time. Without realizing it, I had left the drain on it open. Went to start using it and dumped a whole pound of Reloader 15 into the hopper as my wife was calling me. I dumped the pound of powder and ran inside. I came out to find a pound of powder all over my bench because I had a fan blowing.
 
I loaded about 250 rounds of my standard 223 load with regular Winchester Small Rifle primers without testing until two days before a state High Power match. When I shot them, a bunch of the primers pierced. I spent the last two evenings before the match pulling bullets, depriming and re-doing everything with CCI primers.

Lesson: Test each component before you load in large batches.
 
Friend of mine suggested I come by for a demo of his brand new Dillon 650. He said he had already loaded 1000 rounds. So...when the demo began, he suddenly had primers going under the shell plate. Said hang on, need a slight adjustment. Slight adjustment emptied his tube all over the floor. He said maybe some other time. (the next time it worked a lot better:))

Some time later I got my RCBS Pro 2000. I invited him over the next day for a "Demo." I was really proud after loading 50 "perfect .308's. My friend picked one up and noticed powder sprinkling out the bottom...no primer. Seems I totally forgot to insert the last APS primer strip. Sigh. He was tickled to be able to say, "we're even!" Having to pull bullets from 25 rounds was not the demo I intended.

Moral of the story? No matter how proud you are of your brand new progressive....don't even think about demoing it to your friends, unless you want to get humbled. Get to know it for a few weeks first.
 
This is more frustration.

I only use my thrower to get close with powder and hand weigh/trickle every charge on a beam scale. When the bugs are thick sometimes flying insects will land on the pan and screw up my readings. Shooing them by hand causes a puff of air that further disrupts the scale.
 
Note to self, avoid any advice Win1892 offers on reloading.
Click to expand...
:eek::eek:
Bush Pilot, no one's perfect - we all make mistakes. Some of us are just honest enough to admit it. :D

I keep some "Ooops" rounds I crushed/messed up from earlier days of reloading on my bench wall to keep me grounded and stick to my established reloading processes and safety steps.
 
I was de-priming/resizing the other night while watching a movie on TV. As I slid the ram up in to the die I hold the casing with my thumb to make sure it lines up with the die. As the movie hit a good scene I forgot to remove my thumb before I moved the ram in to the full up positions. Least to say my thumb still hurt the next day.
 
When I used to shoot pistol competitions I would do some last minute high volume reloading on my 550b. This resulted (more than once unfortunately) in me taking a 1/2 moon shaped bite out of my left pointer finger on the 3rd stage (seating).

During completion most folks will swear when they fumble a reload, not me, I'd cuss a blue streak for a successful magazine change and my gimpy finger led the way into the mag well.

That poor finger has been through the mill, it barely survived a near fatal depriming on the single stage press once (once was all that took)...speed kills.

And that dang drain port on the Lyman powder dispenser...no telling how many times I have made that mistake!

~z
 
Last edited:
lol MarcoPolo I've done the same thing, except it was with a bullet seating die. I expand the cases just enough to set the bullet in there. I can let it get straightened out by the die without holding the bullet on the case, but it always looks a little crooked to me. I think it's more of a mental thing, because they work fine. But anyway, I was holding the bullet on top of the case as I pulled the lever down, and it was the most painful pinch I've ever had.

Watch out folks, your press has lots of leverage!
 
I load up a dummy rounds on occasion, no primer or powder, just for comparisons down the road. Grabbed a group of loads I was working up off the table and headed to the range. Emptied my carry ammo, loaded a magazine, all was going well until the 4th round. Thought I had a high primer maybe, so I tried it again. Nothing. Tried again. Nothing. Ejected the round, looked at it. D'oh! Dummy round.
 
Had a bag of brand new 45 LC brass so I hand primed them all, bevaled them, then put powder in 50 of them and started to seat the bullets when I reliezed that they need to be reshaped. They bullet would just slide down. Couldnt crimp because the bullet wouldnt stay in the right spot. So had to dump the powder out of them and removed the the decaper out of the die and reshape them all. I have never had brand new brass that needed to be reshaped. Needless to say it was alot of back tracking and very time cosuming.
 
Had a bag of brand new 45 LC brass so I hand primed them all, bevaled them, then put powder in 50 of them and started to seat the bullets when I reliezed that they need to be reshaped. They bullet would just slide down. Couldnt crimp because the bullet wouldnt stay in the right spot. So had to dump the powder out of them and removed the the decaper out of the die and reshape them all. I have never had brand new brass that needed to be reshaped. Needless to say it was alot of back tracking and very time cosuming.
Click to expand...

My starline 357 and 45 colt didnt need it. Every other brand of brass I have bought new needed to be resized, with winchester being the absolute worst.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top