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Inattention at the handloading bench

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HowieG

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Do any of you have any stories of inattention/screwups at the reloading bench you would like to share??

One day, I was out shooting pasture poodles with my 22-250 varmint rifle when I pulled the trigger and got a click instead of a bang. I ejected the round and, lo and behold, there was no bullet in the end of the case. OOPS!! I removed the bolt, and sure enough, there was a bullet lodged in my barrel. My cleaning rod was back in the truck a half a mile away, so I took my rifle and made the trudge back and took care of the problem. Another half mile back to my shooting spot and ten rounds later, I get another click. Same story. This time, I called it a day and packed it in and went home. Obviously, I had not been paying adequate attention to the chore at hand when I loaded that ammo. Since then, I pass on having beers with friends or anything else that can disturb the process. If I am teaching someone at the bench, we load a dummy round or two using spend primers and sand for powder.
 
I've had one squib which I believe was no powder, just the primer. I have had a couple with no primer. I prime on-press so it's possible. I have caught a couple when I load into ammo boxes.

I never load any ammo if I've had alcohol, or if I'm just tired. During long sessions at the bench if I feel myself getting tired or not paying attention I quit and put everything away. If someone comes into the room I stop what I am doing instead of trying to multitask.

-Jeff
 
bullseye308 said:
About 850,000 rounds ago I loaded one with no powder. About 500,000 rounds ago I loaded one with a backwards primer. About 200,00 rounds ago I loaded 50 124 grain bullets and thought they were 115. Just need to pay more attention to what I’m doing.
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This is one area of my life that I strive for perfection. I still fail occasionally, but not catastrophically thank God. Yet.
 
Bartojc said:
I've had one squib which I believe was no powder, just the primer. I have had a couple with no primer. I prime on-press so it's possible. I have caught a couple when I load into ammo boxes.

I never load any ammo if I've had alcohol, or if I'm just tired. During long sessions at the bench if I feel myself getting tired or not paying attention I quit and put everything away. If someone comes into the room I stop what I am doing instead of trying to multitask.

-Jeff
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I have done that no primer thing. Put unprimed cases in the block and dump powder. Pickup the case and go, what the heck is leaking out the back end? Empty the cases, prime, and begin again.
 
I've charged and seated a case or two w/o primers. Go to put the round into an ammo box and wonder "hey, where is this powder coming from??" :eek:

A few years ago, I spilled a flat of 100 primers all over creation. There might still be a couple I never found..

Got a primed case stuck in my sizing die once many years ago. Had the bright idea to try and cut the head off with my dremel...:what: Wasn't too long and the case was no longer primed and my ears were ringing lol
 
HowieG said:
Since then, I pass on having beers with friends or anything else that can disturb the process.
Click to expand...
Yeah, beer(s) would probably "disturb the process" worse, but I learned a long time ago that if there's even a cup of coffee sitting on the loading bench, I'm sure to knock it over.:oops:
That's not to say I'm going to give up having a cup of coffee sitting on the end table beside the couch while I'm priming cases with my hand primer in the living room in front of the TV.;)
BTW, I like beer and friends. Beer just doesn't mix well with handloading, and about 1 friend at a time at the loading bench is plenty for me.:)
 
brasscollector said:
I've charged and seated a case or two w/o primers. Go to put the round into an ammo box and wonder "hey, where is this powder coming from??" :eek:

A few years ago, I spilled a flat of 100 primers all over creation. There might still be a couple I never found..

Got a primed case stuck in my sizing die once many years ago. Had the bright idea to try and cut the head off with my dremel...:what: Wasn't too long and the case was no longer primed and my ears were ringing lol
Click to expand...

That's hilarious! Yeah, those primers are loud! I do keep a stuck case tool on hand, but since I started using Imperial, I haven't had a reason to use it.
 
.308 Norma said:
Yeah, beer(s) would probably "disturb the process" worse, but I learned a long time ago that if there's even a cup of coffee sitting on the loading bench, I'm sure to knock it over.:oops:
That's not to say I'm going to give up having a cup of coffee sitting on the end table beside the couch while I'm priming cases with my hand primer in the living room in front of the TV.;)
BTW, I like beer and friends. Beer just doesn't mix well with handloading, and about 1 friend at a time at the loading bench is plenty for me.:)
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Wives and handloading don't mix either. Mine invariably comes out to ask me a question while I am in the zone.
 
Here's one from the knocking things off of the bench department. I read about this years ago in a gun mag somewhere. A guy, the writer as I recall, was at his bench up in the arctic part of the US. He had a little electric heater under his bench to keep his tootsies warm. He had an 8 POUND canister of powder on his bench that he was working with and the lid was off. He knocked the canister off the bench by accident. It hit the floor and rolled guess where. Yep. Immediate fire. I don't remember how much that fire burned up, but it was a lot. I took heed of that story and always always always put the lid back on immediately after I get through pouring. Then I move the canister out of reach.
 
I suppose I've been pretty lucky on that count. There was a time when I was loading many thousands of handgun rounds a month on a Dillon progressive, and as a young man I often would get tired and bored and almost completely ignore the process. To the best of my recollection I never had a single misfire over the course of several years of that. I did occasionally install a primer upside down but always would feel the difference, even in a mindless lever-pulling haze, and when that round came out of the spout I would just throw it away. And occasionally I would do the usual Dillon trick of spilling an entire tube of primers all over everything, but of course that didn't affect the final product. My wife did manage to detonate one with the vacuum, which earned me an ear full for sure...
 
I use the LEE Safety Prime on my press. I reached over the press and caught the top of it with my shirt sleeve. The plastic bent and then launched itself. It flung primers all over the bench and floor.
That was fun!
 
Strictly for the educational value. If you reload using Reloader #7 and Accurate Arms #7 do not keep the two powders on the same shelf or next to each other, under, over, etc., ever. The infamous #7 error can get real expensive to your body and your gun. The story always starts like this; I went to he range with my favorite load x grains of #7 and..... Say no more, I know the rest.
 
I've had one squib load in 9mm.
I've made other mistakes, but I caught them before shooting.

Once I didn't have the sizer die screwed down enough and didn't bump the shoulder back far enough on a whole box of .30-06 rounds. Got to the woods and not a single round would chamber. Luckily I found a partial box of factory ammo behind my truck seat and killed a nice 6 point that day with them.
But that error was more about being a greenhorn than being careless at the bench.
 
HowieG said:
Wives and handloading don't mix either. Mine invariably comes out to ask me a question while I am in the zone.
Click to expand...

Oh yea, and they want your undivided attention right now. And, don't even think about IGNORING or asking for a second or two - oh no! And not just reloading either ......
 
I had a picture of what one can do to the end of their finger and nail on a MEC if they're daydreaming, but seeing how I'm kinda squeamish and the pain would resurface any time I looked at the photo, I deleted the image from the files couple years back. Just take my word, it was a duezy.
 
IMAhobbyist said:
I had a picture of what one can do to the end of their finger and nail on a MEC if they're daydreaming, but seeing how I'm kinda squeamish and the pain would resurface any time I looked at the photo, I deleted the image from the files couple years back. Just take my word, it was a duezy.
Click to expand...

My first progressive had no case feeder and no provision for one. When I ran the idea of a new expensive press by my wife, she volunteered to be my case feeder instead. She got bored with that pretty quick and then volunteered me to be the case feeder while she pulled the lever. Didn't take ten rounds before I got my finger decapped, which was annoying. And was, of course, my trigger finger.

At any rate, by the time it was healed I had my new expensive progressive press with a built-in case feeder. :D
 
HowieG said:
Wives and handloading don't mix either.
Click to expand...
Most wives - possibly. But if you've read many of my other posts you'll know my wife is as into guns, shooting and hunting as I am. And she has as many guns, if not more than I do. So naturally she's part of the handloading process. Years ago, we even set up a little RCBS "Jr." press on a portable bench so my wife can size and decap handgun cases while I'm busy doing something else at the main bench. It worked out pretty well when my wife was burning though about a thousand rounds of 44 Mag ammo a month back in our IHMSA days.:)
 
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I didn’t notice a posie on my scale beam had moved one notch, 5 gr. when adjusting my powder measure. I ended up, luckily only loading 20 rounds, 5 grains heavy and fired only 1. 5 extra grains of AA 2200 in an AR .223 is noticeable if nothing else, even memorable! A new bolt, carrier, and 5 round magazine later, it works just fine. Glad the upper is an extra heavy match upper and I assure you Kreiger makes pretty darn tough barrel extensions!
I hate to admit to this, but I want to emphasize attention to detail. I’ve been handloading over 55 years when this happened. Yes, it was late and I have bifocals. Check twice, then twice again. I was glad I was shooting off a bench and bags, single loading with a bench rest follower in the magazine and no hand close to the magazine. Yup, memorable describes it perfectly!
 
About the biggest mistake I've made was while showing my daughter how to reload. I was loading .223 Remington on a new to me Dillon 650. My daughter was eight or nine years old at the time. She has expressed only a passing interest in shooting and I was excited that she wanted to help reload. It was only after we had gone through over 100 rounds and I refilled the primer tube (and she had left the area) that I noticed the empty box was for pistol primers. I figured better safe than sorry and dismantled a bunch - fortunately I had removed loaded ammunition in batches so I didn't have to do it all. Anyway, a small laps in attention made for a lot of extra work.
 
NMexJim said:
Oh yea, and they want your undivided attention right now. And, don't even think about IGNORING or asking for a second or two - oh no! And not just reloading either ......
Click to expand...

Hey Jaimie, what part of the state you in? I'm in LL just south of ABQ.
 
IMAhobbyist said:
I had a picture of what one can do to the end of their finger and nail on a MEC if they're daydreaming, but seeing how I'm kinda squeamish and the pain would resurface any time I looked at the photo, I deleted the image from the files couple years back. Just take my word, it was a duezy.
Click to expand...

OUCH!
 
.308 Norma said:
Most wives - possibly. But if you've read many of my other posts you'll know my wife is as into guns, shooting and hunting as I am. And she has as many guns, if not more, than I do. So naturally she's part of the handloading process. Years ago, we even set up a little RCBS "Jr." press on a portable bench so my wife can size and decap handgun cases while I'm busy doing something else at the main bench. It worked out pretty well when my wife was burning though about a thousand rounds of 44 Mag ammo a month back in our IHMSA days.:)
Click to expand...

My wife shoots some too and likes it, but she doesn't care where the ammo comes from. She just knows hubby provides......
 
I loaded H110 into 45 Colt cases with standard primers. My first shot from from revolver sounded funny, so as I opened the cylinder to inspect, unburnt powder spilled everywhere. Clear barrel.

Being stubborn, I decided to fire the remaining 5 into the sand bank where I could smartly see the sand splash and know the barrel was clear for the next round. The final round stuck in the bore.

My shooting day was over with the stuck bullet. I’m pretty dumb in addition to being stubborn.
 
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