I used to say “Progressive presses cause squibs” because I saw so many people at CAS matches have squibs or varied powder loads - one round wimpy, next round powerful.
Every time there was a super wimpy load or a squib I would ask “What kind of press do you use?”. The answers were always the name and model of quality presses so I stuck to my slow single stage because I didn’t want squib or variable powder level loads.
Then one day I went to a friend’s house when he was reloading for a big cowboy match that we were headed to. Had I known he was hand loading that day I wouldn’t have visited.
I showed up and he was has just started. He was in a Dillon 550. He had the tv on a news channel. He was drinking beer. He was bs’ing with me. His wife was in and out for various reasons. He was stopping and starting while he showed me new guns, old guns, modified guns…and all the while cranking that handle as fast as he could to impress upon me how quickly I could load up 500 rounds for a weekend match.
At the match that weekend my friend didn’t have any squibs but he had lots of low powder loads and loads that had too much power.
That was the day I realized it wasn’t the press. It was the operator that was the problem.
He didn’t like what I had to say when he started b****ing about how his press must be jacked up.
Eventually I did buy my own Dillon 550, but I found I was just a little to OCD to trust the press and I like my single stage process so, I gave my Dillon to a Boy Scout troop. I bought it used for a great price and it felt good to help out a bunch of young men learning about reloading and shooting.
I have encountered numerous problems reloading, but thankfully, no squibs, but I will never say that “I will never have squibs”. We are all human and make mistakes. The key is to learn from them.
My squib occurred after 30+years as a handloader; this happened only about 2-3 years ago.
I had an unexpected chance to get to the range.
I had wanted to do a ladder work-up with a .223/5.56 load but never got around to it.
The range trip caught me unprepared so I quickly, too quickly as it turned out later, threw my test loads together.
I used my single stage and loading block to load 50 rounds (I was working up the load for 2 different rifles) but, somehow, didn't powder one case.
Got a "click", stopped, waited a moment for a hangfire, and ejected the round.
Luckily the primer didn't push the bullet out of the case so I finished my work-up.
When I got home I knocked the offending round apart and that's when I discovered I had never charged that case.
No harm no foul.
BTW, up until that day I had always followed the 4 rules you posted.
1-No distractions, I don't have a radio, TV or even my phone.
2-No alcohol/drugs
3-One bottle of powder at a time.
The only rule I didn't follow was #4: don't rush.
Thankfully I learned my lesson no worse for the wear.
