Great mistake at the bench

cowboy77 said:

For many years reloading I put one canister of powder next to dispenser. Electronic or else. Was loading 300 win mag an switched over to 270 and didn’t see the older 1 lb of H1000 behind my Hornady powder charger. Used H4831 Sc for the 270 and got the two powders mixed up. Two new containers ruined as I prefer to keep all body parts. Poured almost 2 full pounds into wife’s flowers. I’ve read it being done but always thought it would never happen to me. Lesson well learned. Moved powder charger and blocks to different section of loading room. One caliber at a time from now on.

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Let he who has not messed up reloading demonstrate his superior virtue by walking on water and raising the dead. For the rest of us, it is only a matter of time.

I have learned to put the powders I am not using, about 20 feet away from the powder measure. And to only have the powder I am using on the bench.

cowboy77 said:

For many years reloading I put one canister of powder next to dispenser. Electronic or else. Was loading 300 win mag an switched over to 270 and didn’t see the older 1 lb of H1000 behind my Hornady powder charger. Used H4831 Sc for the 270 and got the two powders mixed up. Two new containers ruined as I prefer to keep all body parts. Poured almost 2 full pounds into wife’s flowers. I’ve read it being done but always thought it would never happen to me. Lesson well learned. Moved powder charger and blocks to different section of loading room. One caliber at a time from now on.

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Bummer on wasting the powder. But I’m glad you caught it and didn’t harm yourself.

I’m sure many have made mistakes and don’t tell about them. Thank you for sharing yours and reminding us all to be safe and careful. And it’s not the mistake you make, but how to deal with it and not make it again.

May your next mistake be a minor one and less expensive.

I keep my powders on a shelf above my bench. While I cannot think of a scenario where I would be working on multiple loads, I really need to come up with a locker to store powders. Get out one type powder at a time.

I lock them up. The poor guys.



Then I need that space that the doors open into for the die box, and caliper box while they are in use. So the cabinet can not be opened until I finish with what I am doing.

(Barring any unfortunate discoveries that might need me to move stuff.
I won't say that I've forgotten a few primers and leaked powder all over. So much so I needed to open another canister.
Nope.
Won't say it. )

Glad you took the wise path.

I did it but with a lot less powder since I was loading nuclear test loads for 357. Now it doesn’t matter what I’m switching between the bench gets cleaned between calibers. If I know I’m using the same powder I don’t dump the hopper but I still put the can away so that my routine isn’t busted.

I keep mine on an adjacent shelf, off the bench itself for exactly this reason. Thanks to this forum! I never actively considered it until I read threads like these so I appreciate you posting, new leaders need the tip or or at least I did.

Good thing you noticed and it was just a mistake, instead of an accident. Pulling the trigger with a stump is much harder to hold 1 moa!

you found a process gap in your system. I'm new to reloading, but honestly - keeping track of where I am and what is in what state is tricky enough where I got a notebook to keep a log, now I just have to use the thing consistently. one other thing I'm staring to do is have what I consider an active work area for components. I just take 2 or 3 blue shop towels and put them down on the bench. anything on the towels, tool, dies, power, etc - is active and current for what I'm doing right now. If I change what I'm doing, I take all the stuff off the shop towels and put it all away if not going to need it. I throw away the shop towels and put down new ones if starting fresh or changing to another set up. works for me so far. seems a little obsessive, but it is too easy to get mixed up since dies and canisters for the most part look the same.

We are all mortal human beings and as such we are Fallible. Not one of use is perfect and w/o mistakes. Be thankful that you are observant and caught that mistake. All any of us can do is be vigilant and hope our training and processes keep us safe.

Rats! Did you have to pull down finished rounds, too cowboy77?

cowboy77 said:

For many years reloading I put one canister of powder next to dispenser. Electronic or else. Was loading 300 win mag an switched over to 270 and didn’t see the older 1 lb of H1000 behind my Hornady powder charger. Used H4831 Sc for the 270 and got the two powders mixed up. Two new containers ruined as I prefer to keep all body parts. Poured almost 2 full pounds into wife’s flowers. I’ve read it being done but always thought it would never happen to me. Lesson well learned. Moved powder charger and blocks to different section of loading room. One caliber at a time from now on.

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Smokeless powder makes a very poor fertilizer. It's not water soluble.

kmw1954 said:

We are all mortal human beings and as such we are Fallible. Not one of use is perfect and w/o mistakes. Be thankful that you are observant and caught that mistake. All any of us can do is be vigilant and hope our training and processes keep us safe.

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Amen.
The internet is a blessing and a curse. Too many first timers relying on pages like this to learn a hobby that can potentially be dangerous. There’s no substitute for reading loading manuals or books on the subject published by authors on the subject.
.

Glad you caught it. I am pretty anal about keeping only one container of powder on my bench at one time. It also reminds me what powder is in my dispenser (if I don't empty it after a session).

My latest oooppps was I was loading up some test samples and had a tray with the cast lead bullets I was loading in there. I took the powder measure off the die to change to a different measure but knew I would be going back to finish that load so I left the powder in the measure and placed it in the pan. Well while working on a short run I bumped that other measure and dumped a half full hopper in with the bullets. What a mess. Then I thought I could pour the powder back into the container and separate those bullets. Wrong half those cast bullets ended up in the jar! Dang it. Bigger mess. Should have just poured the powder back into the jar to begin with.

Yep, complacency sucks. I wasn’t paying attention and tried resizing a .450 Bushmaster brass with a .454 Casull die.....I’m here to tell you, it does not work..

When loading whatvevernpowder I use I set the container next to the powder measurer.
I take a small.piece if parper & write down what it is and tape it on the hopper. When done it goes back in the canister.

A couple of times i have left the trickler full and had to toss it.

Just for clarification in my oops the powder being used was the same powder just a different amount. The reason for there being 2 measures on the bench.

It cost you a few bucks sure, but you won't make that mistake again.
Ask me how I know.

A couple pounds of powder are inconsequential to a trip to the ER, very glad you caught it.

I store powder on the other side of the room in a cabinet and only get one out at a time, so far I've been lucky. I have mixed bullets when trying new ones but I was able to weigh them to separate.

I've been loading for 40+ years and I've made my share of dumb mistakes. Fortunately all were caught before shooting and it just cost me some time by having to pull bullets and starting over when I was in doubt. Now days I only load for handgun and 95% is for 38/357 with the majority of those being 38 special loaded on my Dillon 650 and 357 and a few 44 mag/specials loaded on my Lee Turret press. One thing that has helped me a lot is I have narrowed down the bulk of my loading to 3 Powders. Bullseye, Universal and H110 and I can look at the powder in the hopper and immediately tell which one I'm using. When I'm doing trial or hunting loads in small quantities I use the Lee press and ALWAYS keep the powder bottle or jug right on the bench by the press. The rest of the jugs stay on the shelf. I'm actually in the process of loading a bunch of ammo using bullets that for one reason or another I don't plan on using any more and loading these with powder I don't plan on using any more either. These will get shot up quickly when friends come over or a bunch of us revolver guys get together at the range and spend the day playing games and shooting each others guns. Less different brands on the shelf will also help with the chance of mixing up components.

My system is I keep my powder on a separate shelf and the only bottle allowed on the bench is what is in the dispenser. I do the same thing for primers.

Our flower beds probably have a good inch on top of my dumped powder...

The other thing I learned was to label everything. If it can't label itself, I'll make sure it gets a label.

You're loading away happily, and suddenly things go completely to hell in a bucket, all at once. Your chest starts to hurt, and your left arm is killing you. It gets harder and harder to breathe, and a nap seems like a really, really good idea. Right now. In fact, I think I'll lay down right here, right now.

When you get back to the reloading bench, months (if not a year) will have passed, what with surgery and rehab and the fact that there's stairs involved. Stairs will never be as funny as they used to be.

No, Jackson, you won't remember anything. You won't remember what you were trying to accomplish, what powder you were using, where the brass is in the cleaning cycles, which bucket of brass has been inspected, what weapon you were loading for or anything else.

So I started keeping a log of what I'm doing at the bench, step by step, and I started labelling everything. Now I can read the log and the labels and piece together what I was doing and what I was using, whether it was last night or six months ago. (I also learned a hard lesson about legible hand writing, and learned that I need to print neatly, but that's another story.)

I'm glad you caught this before it became an accident!

A mistake or two like the OP described has caused me to develop a routine that I follow religiously.

I also find myself using more notes on everything. Notes in and on containers of fired brass describing what has been done to it. Notes rolled up and stuck in the case mouth for brass left in loading blocks. I write an "O" on the lids of powders that I have opened. This separates the opened from the unopened cans. I also write the purchase date on the can when I buy them.