Importance of quality checking

How could you tell there was no powder after seating the bullet?

Good catch. There was a recent thread that had a discussion of weighing finished cartridges as another QC (I'm a proponent, some think it's a total waste of time, others acknowledge potential value but think it's not worth the time and effort). You may want to check it out and consider whether you'd like to incorporate that as another, final QC.

Was this rifle ammo? Harder to see into a bottle neck ctg., I know. When I reload pistol, I line the charged cases up in rows of 5 until I have 20 or so, then I take a bright light and scan the entire batch. If a charge doesn't look right, it is obvious. If all is well, then I seat bullets and repeat the process.

I use a single stage, so I leave all the primed cases in a container until I put powder in it, then I place it in my case tray. Once I get 50, then I seat my bullets after a quick scan.

Triple checked the surrounding bullets to make sure I didn't have a double load.

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Please be careful of terminology.

A bullet is the projectile; the part that hits the target.

You checked the cases.
When it's finished you have a round of ammo.

I always use a loading board when throwing powder. Throw powder in enough cases to fill the board, then take the board under the light and look into each one to see that all have powder and none have doubles. Now I set the board down by the press, then make sure all other brass is out of reach then seat bullets. The reason for getting all other brass out of reach is that it is so easy to just grab a brass that is sitting there and put a bullet on it and seat it ...... no powder.

ATLDave said:

Good catch. There was a recent thread that had a discussion of weighing finished cartridges as another QC (I'm a proponent, some think it's a total waste of time, others acknowledge potential value but think it's not worth the time and effort). You may want to check it out and consider whether you'd like to incorporate that as another, final QC.

Click to expand...

It is a waste of time and does not determine anything especially in handgun calibers, If your powder charge is say 3.5 grains, there is so much variance in the weight of bullets (especially lead with lube) and the brass that it's almost impossible to pick up on than small of a weight.

Visual inspection in a loading tray and a flashlight is much better.

I also check my empty casings with a flashlight. I'll bet I've found five or six that had cleaning media stuck in them (corn). I also have case gauges for most of the pistol rounds I reload. If I move or reset a die for any reason I check the first few rounds with the case gauges.

Self checking is a good thing for me. I've had times when it would have saved me a lot of heartache.

Rule3 said:

It is a waste of time and does not determine anything especially in handgun calibers, If your powder charge is say 3.5 grains, there is so much variance in the weight of bullets (especially lead with lube) and the brass that it's almost impossible to pick up on than small of a weight.

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I second that

I use a slightly different procedure. I start with all my brass neck down in the tray. That way I can see that they are all properly primed and the primers are fully seated. Each case gets the powder charge and visual check and into the press and the bullet is seated. Then the next case and so on. In 50 years I’ve never had a squib or over charge.

I don’t like the idea of charging a batch of brass and then seating the bullets because it’s to easy to bump the tray or ?? and spill powder or whatever and have to dump the cases and start over. Just my opinion.

Twiki357 said:

Each case gets the powder charge and visual check and into the press and the bullet is seated. Then the next case and so on.

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If this works for you, then it is a good process to use.

One advantage to loading a tray full of cartridges and then visually checking them is you get to compare the charge levels from case to case.

I have rejected powder charges that I felt were too high and too low. Without being able to compare to other charges, I would have let them go through.

Now, I will admit, I do not weigh these charges that I reject, it is faster to just dump the case and refill it. I might find one or two out of a few hundred that I reject.

One of the reasons I'm so anal about not mixing headstamps.
When you make a mistake, similar headstamps USUALLY (but not always)
are very similar in weight.

That way if I find a squib, I can weigh finished rounds to see if there's trouble.
If you're dropping say 10 grains of powder or more, you can find squibs, or dbl charges.

Just don't try that with low weight handgun rounds.

Rule3 said:

It is a waste of time and does not determine anything especially in handgun calibers, If your powder charge is say 3.5 grains, there is so much variance in the weight of bullets (especially lead with lube) and the brass that it's almost impossible to pick up on than small of a weight.

Visual inspection in a loading tray and a flashlight is much better.

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Last night I was loading 10mm. I was using a charge weight of 8.6-8.8 grains of powder. With Starline brass and Missouri Bullet Company cast LSWCs, the extreme spread of finished cartridge weights was 241.5-244.8. A double charge or a no-charge would have weighed outside that range. It was a "waste of time" in that I discovered no out-of-spec cartridges, but had one been in that batch, the scale would have tipped me off.

Now, loading .38 wadcutters over Bullseye - you're right, the charge is too small relative to the variation of the other components' weight. But there are plenty of loads where it absolutely works from a math standpoint.

As for a loading block check... those of use who use turrets or progressives aren't using loading blocks for handgun cartridges.

I use a dillon 550 and pay attention! Don't have time for a ss press.