The dumbest mistake you made when reloading?

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Forgot to turn powder back on the auto drum when I stopped to clear a stuck case. When I started back up somewhere in my pile of 50 .223 there was about 3 or 4 rounds without enough powder. Found them by weighing each one.
 
You all suck. Let me tell you how to take dumb to stupid with one grandkid.
To start off let you all know that I had 5 daughters And when I got grandkids I got 4 grandsons out of 14. Now the last grandson thinks that the sun rises and sets on my ass. He is my constant shadow and if I do it he has to do it. When he was four he informed me that he wanted to reload by his self. Well, I lied my ass off and told him that there was a law that stated that no kid could load until he was six. He was pissed but...we don't break the law. I thought he forgot all about my lie but on his sixth birthday, he let me know that he could reload now.
1. I had to buy him his own press.
Now he is always in the reloading room with me and I have a bad habit of saying words that a little one shouldn't. So in my attempt to fix that I installed a CURSE jar. Each bad word cost me $5.00 that he collects at the end of the day. Well, I used to call him the Brass Monkey / Safety officer. As most of you know I buy and resale Hornady L-N-L presses and I bought a press that the guy had not been able to prime on for 2 years. I had it set up on my maintenance bench and my grandson was dressed in his Bob The Builder safety hat and safety vest and safety glasses with a fire extinguisher on standby. Just as I was installing the first primer on that press in the last 2 years that damn kid shot that fire extinguisher up my ass. I let out a line of curse words that I haven't used since I was in the military. When I looked back at my grandson all I saw was his finger jetting out counting each and every curse word.
2. We settled on $100.00 being it was his fault.
About three years ago my grandson and I were doing spring clean up. While I finished running the F.A.R.T. I took the pins out and placed the clean pins on a cooky sheet and was blot drying them while my grandson was sweeping up. Well after I got as much water out of the cooky sheet and was bringing them over to put under the heater and fan when I tripped over the dustpan that damn kid left on the ground. Instead of letting that pan hit the ground and spilling the pins out om my 8'X4' carpet. I used my cat-like reflexes to hit the bottom of that pan and send it into a cartwheel. Three years later we still find a pin or two every week.
3. Line of curse words $100.00.
 
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DRAINSMITH said:
You all suck. Let me tell you how to take dumb to stupid with one grandkid.
To start off let you all know that I had 5 daughters And when I got grandkids I got 4 grandsons out of 14. Now the last grandson thinks that the sun rises and sets on my ass. He is my constant shadow and if I do it he has to do it. When he was four he informed me that he wanted to reload by his self. Well, I lied my ass off and told him that there was a law that stated that no kid could load until he was six. He was pissed but...we don't break the law. I thought he forgot all about my lie but on his sixth birthday, he let me know that he could reload now.
1. I had to buy him his own press.
Now he is always in the reloading room with me and I have a bad habit of saying words that a little one shouldn't. So in my attempt to fix that I installed a CURSE jar. Each bad word cost me $5.00 that he collects at the end of the day. Well, I used to call him the Brass Monkey / Safety officer. As most of you know I buy and resale Hornady L-N-L presses and I bought a press that the guy had not been able to prime on for 2 years. I had it set up on my maintenance bench and my grandson was dressed in his Bob The Builder safety hat and safety vest and safety glasses with a fire extinguisher on standby. Just as I was installing the first primer on that press in the last 2 years that damn kid shot that fire extinguisher up my ass. I let out a line of curse words that I haven't used since I was in the military. When I looked back at my grandson all I say was his finger jetting out counting each and every curse word.
2. We settled on $100.00 being it was his fault.
About three years ago my grandson and I were doing spring clean up. While I finished running the F.A.R.T. I took the pins out and placed the clean pins on a cooky sheet and was blot drying them while my grandson was sweeping up. Well after I got as much water out of the cooky sheet and was bringing them over to put under the heater and fan when I tripped over the dustpan that damn kid left on the ground. Instead of letting that pan hit the ground and spilling the pins out om my 8'X4' carpet. I used my cat-like reflexes to hit the bottom of that pan and send it into a cartwheel. Three years later we still find a pin or two every week.
3. Line of curse words $100.00.
Click to expand...
Now that ^^^^^^ was entertaining. Thanks for sharing!
 
DRAINSMITH said:
You all suck. Let me tell you how to take dumb to stupid with one grandkid.
To start off let you all know that I had 5 daughters And when I got grandkids I got 4 grandsons out of 14. Now the last grandson thinks that the sun rises and sets on my ass. He is my constant shadow and if I do it he has to do it. When he was four he informed me that he wanted to reload by his self. Well, I lied my ass off and told him that there was a law that stated that no kid could load until he was six. He was pissed but...we don't break the law. I thought he forgot all about my lie but on his sixth birthday, he let me know that he could reload now.
1. I had to buy him his own press.
Now he is always in the reloading room with me and I have a bad habit of saying words that a little one shouldn't. So in my attempt to fix that I installed a CURSE jar. Each bad word cost me $5.00 that he collects at the end of the day. Well, I used to call him the Brass Monkey / Safety officer. As most of you know I buy and resale Hornady L-N-L presses and I bought a press that the guy had not been able to prime on for 2 years. I had it set up on my maintenance bench and my grandson was dressed in his Bob The Builder safety hat and safety vest and safety glasses with a fire extinguisher on standby. Just as I was installing the first primer on that press in the last 2 years that damn kid shot that fire extinguisher up my ass. I let out a line of curse words that I haven't used since I was in the military. When I looked back at my grandson all I say was his finger jetting out counting each and every curse word.
2. We settled on $100.00 being it was his fault.
About three years ago my grandson and I were doing spring clean up. While I finished running the F.A.R.T. I took the pins out and placed the clean pins on a cooky sheet and was blot drying them while my grandson was sweeping up. Well after I got as much water out of the cooky sheet and was bringing them over to put under the heater and fan when I tripped over the dustpan that damn kid left on the ground. Instead of letting that pan hit the ground and spilling the pins out om my 8'X4' carpet. I used my cat-like reflexes to hit the bottom of that pan and send it into a cartwheel. Three years later we still find a pin or two every week.
3. Line of curse words $100.00.
Click to expand...

Frigging hilarious!
 
I had a massive powder spill from a Pro Auto Disk mounted on my Dillon (see above!). Just to make it worse, when I was cleaning up with the shop vac I sucked up the brass locator pins off the Dillon tool head. Never did find them in the shop vac.
 
Ah yes jmorris!......I learned that Dry tumbling .45ACP and .40S&W together doesn't work that well either.:)

My worst mistake I've told before, but some of you haven't heard it.

Just after I bought my RCBS Pro 2000, I was at a friend's who wanted to show me how a "real" progressive performed (Dillon 650). Within 5 minutes of this demonstration he had powder and primers all over the floor.......we spent an hour looking for primers.

So a few days later he was at MY house and I repeated his :neener:challenge (about showing how a "real" progressive performs). Note to myself.....NEVER demonstrate a new press.....get to know it REAL well first.

Anyway I proceeded to impressively load 50 "perfect" .45ACP cartridges in just a few minutes. He picked up the last one and said, "What's this?" (powder was trickling out a primer-less flash hole.) The APS system is fast enough, but you do have to snap on a primer strip every 25 rounds.........so I had 25 perfect rounds and 25 perfectly primer-less rounds that had to be pulled! At least we were evenly stupid. With his 650 it was a similar brain fart.
 
jmorris said:
I once tumbled 50 BMG brass with some 45 ACP brass. Don’t do that unless you really enjoy puzzles.
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Lol, that sounds interesting. 444 marlin and 357 magnum really jam themselves together but I can only imagine trying to get those 45's out of there.
 
berettaprofessor said:
You know, I don't understand how one could punch their thumb while reloading...never even come close, so far as I know.
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Honestly, I can't explain it either; just know it happened. Decapper didn't go all the way through my thumbnail, but it left a good blood blister that took months to go away. I use a Lee Classic Turret, but not as a progressive. I batch decap and size revolver brass, and often pick up two or three pieces, palming some while setting one in the shell holder. When I'm in a groove, the ram is already rising while I'm inserting the next piece. Likely just got my thumb over the case as it approached the die. Shouldn't happen ... that's why it's a dumb mistake! o_O
 
O.K.
jmorris said:
I once tumbled 50 BMG brass with some 45 ACP brass. Don’t do that unless you really enjoy puzzles.
Click to expand...
Well, I will admit that one time did something similar......got home from scrounging gravel pits with an assortment of mainly handgun brass. Not enough of one caliber to do a batch so in a haste, threw all in the tumbler with SS pins and soap..... Paul Harvey doesn't have to jump in for the rest of the story! (DUH!),20/20 hindsight IDIOT I was!!!
 
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I was filling primer tubes one time and forgot to put the keeper pin in. When to set it in machine and dumped a bunch of primers on the floor. Only did that once. What a mess to find them all in my shop.
 
Oh, and getting your finger in the way of the die is quite easy.
Place case, forget to move hand out of way as your other hand/arm manipulates lever. Bingo!
Yeah, I had the blood blister going for a while too.

Or, while moving press around, not having a grip on the handle, ram moves around with your hand somewhere in between.
 
The 9mms fit in the .40s which fit in the .45s. If I didn't know better I would swear it was an evil plan.
 
Does driving 30 minutes to the range, getting all setup to shoot, then realizing all those beautiful hand loaded cartridges are sitting on the reloading bench at home count? :(
 
Who, among us, hasn't forgotten to lubricate a bottleneck rifle casing before forcing it into a resizing die? If you've never done it, you probably don't use colorful language either. ( I've done it twice in about 40 years of reloading.)
 
I've made the typical dumb moves like backwards primers, sideways primers, misreading a charge weight (caught soon enough), spilling powder/primers, crimping too much, belling too much, sticking a case, etc.,etc. I have not had a serious overcharge or squib. Lucky I will say.
I think my biggest misconception (maybe not a reloading mess up) was to think that buying all my own dies, equipment, supplies and the like was going to save me MONEY. I've spent my share of money on reloading over the last 30 years. And, fun, yes I have had fun. Now, I checked my shooting tally and I am over 14,000 rounds fired. That would equate to a good saving if I had shoot only store bought ammo, but, I probably would not have shot but maybe 2,000 rounds. Now that I think about it all was worth it.
 
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