I "think" I just had my first double charge experience.

Bummer, man. I've had it happen. Is it even physically possible to double charge it and still seat the bullet? In my case you could not get twice the desired powder in the case and still seat the bullet normally. We now suspect bullet setback, increasing chamber pressure to excessive levels. In my case it was an XD45 and it completely destroyed the gun, as well as injuring a friend slightly.

Be careful.

Could there have possibly been something in the case before the powder went in? A normal charge with less space than normal could cause enough pressure to blow out on an unsupported chamber. Just a thought.

I haven't done that, but I have seated a bullet on a primed case and it pushed the bullet out just far enough to plug the barrel.
Thankfully I knew what happened and didn't rack the slide and pull the trigger again.

It's these small things that keep us on our toes and remind us to be diligent.
Glad you weren't hurt.

Test the batch of reloads remaining by pressing the cartridge into the side of the loading bench with your hands.
Will the bullet slide further into the case with firm hand pressure?

Wow! Glad you were not hurt!

Glad you’re here to post about it.

I’ve never loaded .45 ACP. But I have loaded WST. I describe it as “fluffy.” To me that means it takes up a lot of space for the weight. I know a double charge would overflow in 9mm, what about .45 ACP?

I have some BE but haven’t used it yet so I know absolutely nothing about it.

I like the WST in Federal cases in 12 gauge because it fills up that larger case.

I have Bullseye, Tightgroup, Zip and a couple fast light powders I’m afraid to use. I’m into full proof powders that will overflow if I dump a double charge.

This is what happened to my S&W 929 when I had a double charge. You were very lucky your gun didn't blow up but since the only damage was the magazine I'd inspect it and then continue shooting it.

What press did you load the ammo on? Mine was a Dillon 550 and I wasn't paying attention. Totally my fault. I let someone into my reloading room and got distracted.

I just got done loading .45s for a match, 230gr Blue Bullet, 1.230”, 4.2gr WST, WLP. It makes roughly 174PF. I really like the feel of WST for these loads, but you can dump a double charge in the case without it flowing over. It’s pretty obvious when the case is that full, a powder checker or lock out die will catch it. That’s one reason for what you experienced, but setback could also be an issue. You’ll want to check your rounds and see that the bullets don’t move when you chamber them.
I really question your comment about “been using the same batch of reloads for years”…. Must be quite a stash.

I don't think you had a double charge...both those loads you mentioned doubled would have likely launched your slide and done a lot more damage. The damage you did describe is classic for a slightly out of battery detonation, the damage to the top of the magazine is a real tip off, as well as the protruding primer, in the absence of corresponding damage to the slide. My guess would be a slightly swollen case that was not completely resized in your last load session, or was glock bulged, went just far enough into battery to allow it to fire, but left a portion of the case unsupported. Take the remaining and plunk them in your barrel, or better yet, a case gauge, and verify them.

Edited to add: I would also dedicate some time and good lighting to a thorough inspection of the frame itself, in addition to the slide and barrel. I would think the magazine took the brunt of it, as that is the norm in a OOB detonation with a 1911 (45 ACP), or that I've seen in the past. But after an event like this, a thorough break down and inspection is certainly not a waste of time.

kalielkslayer said:

Glad you’re here to post about it.

I’ve never loaded .45 ACP. But I have loaded WST. I describe it as “fluffy.” To me that means it takes up a lot of space for the weight. I know a double charge would overflow in 9mm, what about .45 ACP?

I have some BE but haven’t used it yet so I know absolutely nothing about it.

I like the WST in Federal cases in 12 gauge because it fills up that larger case.

I have Bullseye, Tightgroup, Zip and a couple fast light powders I’m afraid to use. I’m into full proof powders that will overflow if I dump a double charge.

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That's why one has to be alert and pay attention to what he's doing.

EricBu said:

I don't think you had a double charge...both those loads you mentioned doubled would have likely launched your slide and done a lot more damage. The damage you did describe is classic for a slightly out of battery detonation, the damage to the top of the magazine is a real tip off, as well as the protruding primer, in the absence of corresponding damage to the slide. My guess would be a slightly swollen case that was not completely resized in your last load session, or was glock bulged, went just far enough into battery to allow it to fire, but left a portion of the case unsupported. Take the remaining and plunk them in your barrel, or better yet, a case gauge, and verify them.

Edited to add: I would also dedicate some time and good lighting to a thorough inspection of the frame itself, in addition to the slide and barrel. I would think the magazine took the brunt of it, as that is the norm in a OOB detonation with a 1911, or that I've seen in the past. But after an invent like this, a thorough break down and inspection is certainly not a waste of time.

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I also think it sounds like it went off out of battery. I've seen this happen at the indoor range I shoot at a couple times now. Same brand of gun too.

Good God I’d never expect to get run over by a drunk driver while mowing my lawn. Glad you have recovered from it and what happened with your pistol.

When I first got into reloading I was all gung-ho and loaded up a bunch of 9mm 115 gr FMJ rounds with what was supposed to be 5.1 grains of CFE pistol. I do all my loading on a single stage press and failed to check zero on my scale so I didn't notice that I was gradually loading more powder than I thought. I should have known there was a problem when I kept having to adjust my powder drops, but I was new and just didn't think it through. One day at the range I did notice that the recoil seemed sharper than it should have been and finally the magazine blew out the bottom of the gun. It finally dawned on me that something wasn't right and I found the scale was way off. I was at that point actually loading almost 7 grains of CFE pistol.

And so I got to experience breaking down 818 rounds of 9mm since I didn't know which ones were ok and which were overloaded. It was a good lesson though. I do a lot more double checking these days. I only load four calibers so I have a dedicated powder measure for each and use a different powder for each. If I need to do anything more than very minor adjustments to a powder measure to get it to drop the proper weight I investigate to find out why. I also make sure and look into the cases under a good light once they are in the loading block to see if there are any obvious differences in amount of powder before seating the bullets.

Anytime I do that,just weigh your ammo. It's easy to find a mistake that way.

I'd think the OOPS! was from a round out of battery. The blown out bottom of the case and the magazine blown apart leads me to that opinion.

I have weighed some handloads to determine if a charge or if a double charge was present. Not to determine how much powder was in the round but I would be able to tell of no powder was present or twice as much was charged. Of course this probably wouldn't work with my lighter loads, like my 32 ACP or some Titegroup loads that were less than 4-5 gr, as the other components weight may vary too much...

Some years ago I had a friend that ran his propellant dry on his progressive but only noticed it after doing 200 rounds or so. He refilled the measure and checked weights and resumed to load more into a different container. He put the questionable ones aside and asked me about weighing them to see if he could save time pulling them. I told him to sort them into piles and we would pull some of them and see when I came over next week. These were 158 grain 38 SPL with red dot. First we pulled all the light ones. Several had a full charge in them. Then we pulled the ones he thought were OK. Out of 100 plus rounds 7 were visibly light and 15 had no propellant. Asked him if he thought pulling them all were a waste of time now. He agreed that weighing them was not the answer. YMMV

My 45 kaboom was bullet set back in a Kimber with a not fully supported chamber. Probably a good thing in that case. Magazine guts all over. Bullet didn't leave the case

savagelover said:

Anytime I do that,just weigh your ammo. It's easy to find a mistake that way.

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Not me, if there's any doubt in my mind I'll pull the whole batch and start over. My eyes and hands are too important to me. As far as I know God only passed out one set of each to all of us. Only had to do it once, fortunately it was only 20 rounds of 45 Auto.

Depending on the brass you are using, take 10 empty cases and weigh them. There can be as much as 5 grains difference. Even if it's only 2 10th, add the difference between bullet weight and you will find that weighing the cases won't help you find a double charge.

The best thing to do is to pull all the ammo you loaded in that batch. I learned to load 100 rounds and separate it, load the next 100 do the same thing. If I keep doing that I only have to pull 100 rounds to find a DC.

I learned the hard way.

I'm another who thinks it wasn't a double charge (little to no damage). Something similar happened to me, and it was due (I think) to the round not going fully into battery. My learned lesson: gauge check every round.

...the one on the left:

sparkyv said:

I'm another who thinks it wasn't a double charge (little to no damage). Something similar happened to me, and it was due (I think) to the round not going fully into battery. My learned lesson: gauge check every round.

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^^^Same here. Being the first round shot "in a month or two" there could have been dried lube, lint or something else too that may have interfered with the gun going in battery.

I had a kaboom in my 45 too. Never figured out why. Same thing with the mag innards being blown out.