Whats the dumbest thing you've done while reloading?

Afraid I can't beat that one.

Dumbest thing I have done is load 100 rounds with the primers seated upside down.

I think Gamestalker wins. Smoking is nuts; smoking while reloading is insane.

My dumbest (that I can remember) was only neck-sizing 50 rounds of pick up brass. Just 3 chambered in my gun.

My dumbest was actually not that bad. I bought a huge bench from a coworker who was moving. Rifle, pistol, shotgun...dies, powder, tools, bought the contents of his reloading room. I didn't care for loading shotgun shells so I figured I would load those until I ran out of stuff then sell the tools. Well, I gummed up the powder before I ran out of shot. I loaded about 500 good shells and about 100 junkers with no powder. Made for a really crappy day in the dove field. My other big booboo was the time I laid out enough loading trays to run batches of 500 .357s I charged about 200 before I remembered I stopped priming before lunch and never finished that stage. That one changed my loading practice, case heads are up now until charged

Wow Gamestalker. Tough to beat that one. Scary.


When I was 16 years old, my dad had a Mec 600jr shotshell press. This was around 1982. We had one reloading book. There was no You Tube. I started loading up shotshells. I had a lot of trouble with the shells dishing on me. The only way I could keep the shot from running out was to put melt a little wax and close up the top. I loaded up a couple boxes.

A couple weeks go by and my buddies are going to a trap range. Well I get out my Browning B80 that I saved for all summer. Full choke, small gas ports.

I bragged about loading my own shells all the way to the range.

When it was our turn to shoot, I warned my friends that my shotgun doesn't kick out 7.5 or 8 shot target rounds. Gas ports are small. This is a goose gun and can shoot 3" shells.

I called for the bird and shot. BOOM! And the shell ejected and flew out. Everyone looked at me. So it comes back around to me and I shoot again. BOOOOMMM! It was twice as loud as everyone else. The shell ejected. The guy who runs the place comes flying out of his little shack and asks what am I shooting? I told him target loads. He banned me from any more shooting and made me sit down.

So when I get home, I tell my dad what happened. We went downstairs and looked at the MEC. Oh he says. You have the shot and powder bottles reversed.

I have no idea how much powder I had in those things and how little shot. Maybe having a scale would have been a good idea.

The next time we went to the range, my friends made a special box to hold my shells with the words FLAMEOUT SPECIALS on the side.

I still have the press and the shotgun and I am lucky I didn't get me or someone else hurt.

Swanee

i've never done anything dumb while reloading,, it just happens by itself.

Yup, GS, you ended the contest before it started with your story. Pretty hard to beat. My stupidity, thus far, only goes as far as failing to remove my finger from the top of the case while depriming, driving the depriming rod into my index finger right beside the nail... wait for it ... THREE times in the space of ten minutes. Man, that hurts, especially the second and third time. So much that the third time I yanked my finger back, ripping a strip of skin from my finger that was, not coincidentally, the precise width of the depriming rod. I can still remember the sensation very clearly, since it only happened .. ummm ... last week... Keep the fleshy bits out from between the metal bits as they come together, that's my new rule.

My dumbest mistake:
I first started reloading I was using WMR powder in a .270 win and forgot to change the scale from the previous reloading session, so I went to the range to try my new loads and fired the first round it kicked like a magnum and locked the bolt up solid ending my range time.
I got home and had to beat the bolt open with a 2x4 what a mess an overloaded brass case can become... I learned to always pre check the scale before loading.

Dumbest thing I ever did was buy a computer and get on reloading forums, so someone who has been reloading for less than a year can tell me I've been doing it wrong for the past 51 years..........:<)

Fred

My dumbest move: Starting!

GS - You forgot to mention that when you tried to run you knocked over your beer, which put out the last of the fire. For your story all I can say is: HERE'S YUR SIGN!

Dumped half a cup of Triple Seven into a brand new pound of Bullseye.

Made some very expensive fertilizer.

My biggest mistake was thinking I would save money. It seems like whenever I get close, I just shoot more, or buy more fancy reloading gadgets.

Reloading in the realm of 20,000+ rounds without eye pro

Really...Gamestalker started this with the slam dunk! WOWEee!

And I thought mashing my thumb with the ram coming up....nope, not even a worthy mention!

Mark

Gamestalker,

I think we're going to be hard pressed to beat that reloading story!

Best I've had was forgetting to size 100 pieces of brass before I primed them. By comparison that was a very minor nuisance!

Mine was a sticky for awhile

I was loading up 2k rounds of 9mm. Somewhere around 1200 or so it was getting to be time to refill the primer tube on my LNL. I put a tray of primers onto the flipping tray, put tray lid on, set it on my bench to.change the song on the radio, went back, took the lid off, and started "stabbing" primers with a pickup tube. Stupid me, I stabbed about 20 before I realized "hey idiot, you never shook the tray up, the priming compund is facing up." I unloaded the tube and walked away from the bench for the night. I still dont know how I managed to pick up 20 primers like that, it isn't easy to do when they aren't flipped properly. I've tried it on purpose, just to see how I could make that mistake.

KansasSasquatch said:

I was loading up 2k rounds of 9mm. Somewhere around 1200 or so it was getting to be time to refill the primer tube on my LNL. I put a tray of primers onto the flipping tray, put tray lid on, set it on my bench to.change the song on the radio, went back, took the lid off, and started "stabbing" primers with a pickup tube. Stupid me, I stabbed about 20 before I realized "hey idiot, you never shook the tray up, the priming compund is facing up." I unloaded the tube and walked away from the bench for the night. I still dont know how I managed to pick up 20 primers like that, it isn't easy to do when they aren't flipped properly. I've tried it on purpose, just to see how I could make that mistake.

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Be glad you only got 20. I got over a hundred that way. And didn't catch it until I was boxing the finished rounds and I still have no idea how I did it.

De-capping Pins

I once broke 3 decapping pins in 20 minutes before i bother to check that my turret was shifted a little and the pin was hitting the plate instead of going into he brass. Pull lever, ping!! Pin breaks off. Unscrew the die out, replace the pin, screw back in die, pull the lever. Ping!! Pin breaks off. Do all that one more time before i stopped and looked to find out why.:banghead:

Speaking of primer tubes. I once had the primer tube in my hand after picking up the 100 primers. I don't know why, but I turned it over, and removed the cotter pin -- they went every where. I managed to find all but 3 of them. Someday when I clear out my garage I'll find the missing 2.
Another time I was adjusting my Hornady powder measure to throw a higher charge of Blue Dot, using the pistol rotor, I guess I got to the end of the adjustment range and the piston/insert came out of the rotor dumping powder all over. And of course it was a pain to get the piston back in as the powder was in the way.

That's crazy! But as a former smoker, I do get it.

I once spent a frustrating hour trying to set up my new 357 sig seating die and crimp die. The bullet kept dropping into the brass. I could not figure out the problem...until I remembered that I never resized the brass.

I was trying to show off my Frankford Arenal Vibra Prime to a friend. I accidentally used the large tube for small primers and they ended up all over the floor

When I was trying to adjust my MEC 9000 automate. I had something not hooked up correctly and when I lowered the press I broke the priming system, and bent and twisted a bunch of parts on the press.

Every time I've ever dumped a full charge of shot or powder out of my MEC 9000

Every time my powder check or lockout die has saved my butt

That's all I can think of for now. I'm kind of a scatter brain in most things in life. I use reloading as therapy for that. I'm am aware that I could blow myself up or my guns up so it forces me to be slow, methodical, and deliberate.