At least you fired at a sand bank. That was smart thinking for a stubborn guy.
Inattention at the handloading bench
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At least you fired at a sand bank. That was smart thinking for a stubborn guy.
When I first got my Chargemaster Lite, I had some personal training problems. The old dog syndrome I guess. Anyway, the drain spout on the thing is low and on the side. You open her up and let the leftover powder drain out back into the canister. Then you clean it. My training issue with that damned spout is I would invariably leave it open. Unless it's facing you, you can't see that it's open. Next time I needed the thing, I would dump a bunch of powder in and promptly watch it run right out the spout and onto my bench. Stick was bad enough, but ball would roll EVERYWHERE! I only did that about 8 times before I hung some red ribbon on the spout to remind me to check it. Sort of a "Remove Before Flight" ribbon.
EMC45
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I have 2 scars on my right forearm about 2 inches apart. The decapping rod of my 30-30 RCBS dies set had a very sharp burr on it. I learned how sharp it was twice.
Funny thing is there was a ribbon of dried skin on the decapping stem the second time we met up. Then there were 2....
It happened reaching over the press to retrieve something or the other and bam......Twice.
Funny thing is there was a ribbon of dried skin on the decapping stem the second time we met up. Then there were 2....
It happened reaching over the press to retrieve something or the other and bam......Twice.
Still that is a good story and a warning. That is what this exercise is all about.
Speaking of Chargemasters, I read this not too long ago. Story came with pics. Guy built some 308 loads and went to the range. His bolt action rifle went boom. Pieces flew off. Investigation figured out that he had been loading pistol ammo before the 308, and was using something fast. Bullseye or Unique maybe, I don't recall. Anyway, he didn't get his measure cleaned out all the way and got a partial load of fast powder in one of the 308 loads. Good as dynamite apparently. That rifle was destroyed. The guy lived. I took extreme heed of that story and I am scrupulous when it comes to cleaning my Chargemaster before inserting a different powder.
Palladan44
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High primer, FTF .357 mag. It went off on the second try. After the first FTF i kept muzzle pointed down range for at least 15 seconds. Pulled to examine...best i could come up with was a high primer. S&W model 27s dont really have a reputation for light strikes 
the gun was ruled out as the culprit.
Over crimped plated bullets. Had about 10 keyholed rounds of the batch of 100. This was in 10mm with 180 gr. Berrys plated hybrid hollow points. Fixed by purchasing 3000 pieces of HAP 180 from Hornady with a real jacket and called it a day. I much prefer hard cast bullets or jacketed.
Ive also pushed plated bullets too fast in 357 mag. causing extreme horrible accuracy (thought id just use the same recipe and improvise on bullet weight for weight which is a Reloading day #1 NO-NO)
Plated bullets look very pretty, but they are very soft pure lead cores (like 8 on Brinell) with a very very thin copper alloy plating, no thicker than a piece of paper. Sometimes plating is very brittle from the heating/cooling or electronic plating process, and literally crumbles off the core like broken glass when it goes down the barrel. Plated bullets and Cylinder gaps on revolvers are a crapshoot whether you get small stingers to the face, even on a light load and a perfectly tight gun. Plated is the worst bullet to deal with IMHO and the benefits they provide are outweighed by the potential for issues.(Yes, some of the problems ive had with them were my fault)
Loaded a primer in sideways once, lucky it didnt go off. It must have flipped sideways, it was the last one of the cycle of 100 on my Dillon 550B. Ive looked at the primer position ever since, just a habit now, among so many other small habits you pick up and do involuntarily over years and years of small mistakes that you DO NOT want to replicate.
the gun was ruled out as the culprit.Over crimped plated bullets. Had about 10 keyholed rounds of the batch of 100. This was in 10mm with 180 gr. Berrys plated hybrid hollow points. Fixed by purchasing 3000 pieces of HAP 180 from Hornady with a real jacket and called it a day. I much prefer hard cast bullets or jacketed.
Ive also pushed plated bullets too fast in 357 mag. causing extreme horrible accuracy (thought id just use the same recipe and improvise on bullet weight for weight which is a Reloading day #1 NO-NO)
Plated bullets look very pretty, but they are very soft pure lead cores (like 8 on Brinell) with a very very thin copper alloy plating, no thicker than a piece of paper. Sometimes plating is very brittle from the heating/cooling or electronic plating process, and literally crumbles off the core like broken glass when it goes down the barrel. Plated bullets and Cylinder gaps on revolvers are a crapshoot whether you get small stingers to the face, even on a light load and a perfectly tight gun. Plated is the worst bullet to deal with IMHO and the benefits they provide are outweighed by the potential for issues.(Yes, some of the problems ive had with them were my fault)
Loaded a primer in sideways once, lucky it didnt go off. It must have flipped sideways, it was the last one of the cycle of 100 on my Dillon 550B. Ive looked at the primer position ever since, just a habit now, among so many other small habits you pick up and do involuntarily over years and years of small mistakes that you DO NOT want to replicate.
Arkansas Paul
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For sure.
I'm lucky I had some ammo with me or I would have had to drive home and missed out on a good deer.
High primer, FTF .357 mag. It went off on the second try. After the first FTF i kept muzzle pointed down range for at least 15 seconds. Pulled to examine...best i could come up with was a high primer. S&W model 27s dont really have a reputation for light strikes
Over crimped plated bullets. Had about 10 keyholed rounds of the batch of 100. This was in 10mm with 180 gr. Berrys plated hybrid hollow points. Fixed by purchasing 3000 pieces of HAP 180 from Hornady with a real jacket and called it a day. I much prefer hard cast bullets or jacketed.
Ive also pushed plated bullets too fast in 357 mag. causing extreme horrible accuracy (thought id just use the same recipe and improvise on bullet weight for weight which is a Reloading day #1 NO-NO)
Plated bullets look very pretty, but they are very soft pure lead cores (like 8 on Brinell) with a very very thin copper alloy plating, no thicker than a piece of paper. Sometimes plating is very brittle from the heating/cooling or electronic plating process, and literally crumbles off the core like broken glass when it goes down the barrel. Plated bullets and Cylinder gaps on revolvers are a crapshoot whether you get small stingers to the face, even on a light load and a perfectly tight gun. Plated is the worst bullet to deal with IMHO and the benefits they provide are outweighed by the potential for issues.(Yes, some of the problems ive had with them were my fault)
Loaded a primer in sideways once, lucky it didnt go off. It must have flipped sideways, it was the last one of the cycle of 100 on my Dillon 550B. Ive looked at the primer position ever since, just a habit now, among so many other small habits you pick up and do involuntarily over years and years of small mistakes that you DO NOT want to replicate.
I've used Berry's plated. No problems on my end. That sideways primer would be scary. Guess it didn't go off because the anvil didn't really hit it.
Improvise and overcome. Tie your knife to a length of tree limb and chase the deer down.
I did one time have 2 powders on the bench at one time. I correctly charged the cartridges with the proper powder. But I left the powder in the hopper for about a week. By then I had forgotten which powder was in the hopper. I had to use a magnifying glass to determine the right canister to the powder in the hopper.
Bhennessee1
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I stuck a primed case 1 time too. I can't recall how I got it out, but I will not do it 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??"
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...Wasn't too long and the case was no longer primed and my ears were ringing lol
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mokin
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Berry's Hybrid Hollow Points are nice bullets but with optimal performance at a little over 1000 fps I load them in .40 S&W. It's way too easy to exceed that with a 10mm Auto.
I've also found that the plated bullets start to keyhole at closer to 1100 fps rather than the 1200 as advertised. I'm not sure if that's because I shoot them out of a G29 or not though.
I've got to admit that with coated bullets becoming widely available, I've started to replace my plated loads with them. They do seem easier to deal with.
Palladan44
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I love how powders each have their own distinct smell
W-231 - Old books. W-296 - mosquito repellant power pistolExactly, i mean keyholing at 1,100 is pretty unacceptable, especially if there are no problems with your crimp. Ive also noticed to be extra careful with making sure the seater stem is a proper fit to the bullet, ESPECIALLY with plated bullets. Its a good idea to make sure its a good fit regardless of material.
Ive deformed the noses of the Berrys Hybrid hollow points with BOTH sides of the factory Dillon seater stems. Part of it is how undersized my Dillon resizing die is. That creates extra case tension (which isnt necessarily bad) but it requires more pressure to seat the bullet. Being very soft lead with a thin layer of copper alloy over it, it can be easy to deform or "mash" the bullets. No problems with hard cast or Jacketed. The mashing can go undetected, because all the finished cartridges may be deformed the exact same. Compare seated bullets with ones from the box not seated yet to ensure homogeneity. Just a thing ive experienced
mmb617
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I was still new to reloading and didn't realize the importance of checking the zero on my balance beam scale more often. Over time the scale was slowly going out of whack. By the time I realized what had happened I didn't know for sure when it had started so I had to pull 900+ rounds of 9mm. I started the job using an inertial puller and figured it was going to take forever and a day so I bought a collet puller which worked well. I won't forget that lesson though.
I love these threads. I can point to numerous safety-oriented items I've added to my standard reloading practices as a result of reading stories like these.
I once sat down to load pistol. I periodically "scan" the environment when loading......confirming that posted load data for what is being loaded, powder on bench, bullets, and scale setting all align. Target charge weight of 3.8gr. Loading block was 75% full of charged cases - which means I'd scanned/confirmed all the data numerous times during that process. Then I noticed the scale was set to 2.8gr. Fortunately it was low - but could have easily been high. My "confirmation" of the scale setting wasn't objective - I was looking for what I wanted to see.
Now I will count out loud while I use a pointer to point to the markings.
I once sat down to load pistol. I periodically "scan" the environment when loading......confirming that posted load data for what is being loaded, powder on bench, bullets, and scale setting all align. Target charge weight of 3.8gr. Loading block was 75% full of charged cases - which means I'd scanned/confirmed all the data numerous times during that process. Then I noticed the scale was set to 2.8gr.
Fortunately it was low - but could have easily been high. My "confirmation" of the scale setting wasn't objective - I was looking for what I wanted to see.Now I will count out loud while I use a pointer to point to the markings.
What I always do if I leave a powder in the hopper is mark the powder type on the hopper with a yellow grease pencil (china marker).
Wow! 900 rounds! OMG! Takes awhile even with a collet.
I love how powders each have their own distinct smell
Exactly, i mean keyholing at 1,100 is pretty unacceptable, especially if there are no problems with your crimp. Ive also noticed to be extra careful with making sure the seater stem is a proper fit to the bullet, ESPECIALLY with plated bullets. Its a good idea to make sure its a good fit regardless of material.
Ive deformed the noses of the Berrys Hybrid hollow points with BOTH sides of the factory Dillon seater stems. Part of it is how undersized my Dillon resizing die is. That creates extra case tension (which isnt necessarily bad) but it requires more pressure to seat the bullet. Being very soft lead with a thin layer of copper alloy over it, it can be easy to deform or "mash" the bullets. No problems with hard cast or Jacketed. The mashing can go undetected, because all the finished cartridges may be deformed the exact same. Compare seated bullets with ones from the box not seated yet to ensure homogeneity. Just a thing ive experienced
Cartridges are all different. I used 100 grain Berry's in my 32-20 carbine at around 1600 fps no problem at all.
Palladan44
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Also, ive loaded up ammunition with different powders. However, in this case i used the same bullet, brass, OAL and primer so there was no visible difference. Separating the loads using only separate boxes isnt enough for me. Over time ammo gets pulled out and put back, etc. So ive got maybe 20- 30 rounds that im not sure whether its loaded with 2400 or AA#9. If i ever have the same combo, but just different powders, ill make a ring around the primer with different colored sharpie markers (it winds up looking just like primer pocket sealant)
During testing, I've even used a sharpie to make notes on the brass case. Powder type, or runout notes, or seating depth, just about anything you want to remember until the test is done. If I am doing a ten round test ladder, I will write the charge weight on each case before I charge them just so there is no mix up in the order.
Palladan44
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Yes, good idea.
With W-W brass, W-W LPPs, hardcast 240gr LSWCs and the same OAL of 1.600 I have 3 different loads in 44 mag with same components other than powder.
My "Red Load" is 20.0 gr of 2400
My "Green Load" is 11.0 gr. of Longshot
My " Blue Load" is 7.5 gr of Win 231
I wonder what we did before they invented sharpies?
Howland937
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Still learning the process with the Hornady LnL AP. Few weeks ago, I loaded up 100 124gr 9mm. Still check charge after every 15-20, eyeball check each case after charge and set the bullet in top before lowering the plate so it doesn't bounce powder out. Thought I did pretty good until I started picking them up to put in boxes. Had powder all over the place. Then found about 7 that had no primer.
First time I loaded any .380 on the new press, had a bunch of cases already sized and primed. So I was only charging/seating/crimping. Had OAL's all varying .030. Realized in all my efforts to get the dies set, I forgot to change shell plates.
First time I loaded any .380 on the new press, had a bunch of cases already sized and primed. So I was only charging/seating/crimping. Had OAL's all varying .030. Realized in all my efforts to get the dies set, I forgot to change shell plates.
That stuff shouldn't make me laugh, but it did. Not so amusing when it's happening to me though.
Howland937
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I suppose the silver lining is that I caught them at the bench. Easy enough to fix and now I have a check-list written out instead of just in my head.
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