32 H&R Loading Accident

Rodfac

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Please forgive the length of this post, but I feel it's very unusual, and I've never run across a similar experience. I've been reloading since 1962...so here's the story and a few pics to document the incident.

My son, his daughter & I, were shooting several .22revolvers on New Year's Eve midday, and having a fair bit of fun with a .22 “only” steel swinger. At 20 yds its 3” lower plate is a challenge in DA fire, while the upper, at 1-1/2” is tough for us all, DA or SA.

I had also brought along one of my .32 H&R, Ruger Single-Sixes with some of my handloads. My favorite uses a Hornady 85 gr XTP with 4.0 grains of Win 231 for about 1100+ fps. It's a bit noisy out of the Ruger's 4-5/8” bbl but recoil is still just a bit heavier than Hi Speed .22's and brother, it sure makes that swinger twirl.

I was finishing up the afternoon with one last cylinder of the .32's, when the gun tied up after the first shot. I was unable to rotate the cylinder to remove the empty, nor was I able to roll the cylinder out after removing the base pin.

Here's the Ruger with my 85 gr XTP loads.

1735856910483.png

Looking from the side with a strong flashlight, I was able to see some brass in the cylinder/forcing cone gap (~0.004”) and my initial thought was that a piece of the case mouth/crimp had broken loose and lodged in the gap. I used a brass cleaning rod and ran it down the bbl., and after a couple of pokes, it dislodged the blockage and I was able to roll the cylinder out and unload the gun.

The .32 case exterior initially appeared normal with no damage to the mouth/crimp, but as I held it up to look at the primer, a spent .22 case dropped out and into my hand.

1735857388449.png

We all discussed how this got into the.32 case, in the first place, then noticed the hole in the .22 case head. Our theory at this point, is that a spent .22 case had lodged inside the .32 case prior to reloading, and we noted the hole in the .22 case head matched the decaping pin in my Dillon .32 H&R dies.

1735857649356.png

The powder load, (4.0 gr of Win 231 is close to a max load), had dropped in and around the .22 case unnoticed, and I seated the bullet with no unusual feel through the press handle. In the pic below, for comparison, the two cases on the left were loaded at the same session, while the .22 and the case on the right were the the ones that tied up the gun.

1735857896964.png

The shot, in question, felt & sounded normal and the case exterior, once I removed it, appeared normal with its primer appearance identical to the rest of the loads fired. The spent .22 case, which had dropped case mouth up inside the.32 case, was blown out & cracked at the instant of firing, but the bullet oddly enough, grouped in with the previous shots. Pressure must have been way up there, with the decreased internal volume, but the .32 case looked normal and my Ruger shows no ill effects.

So here's our guess on how the .22 case got into the .32 H&R's during the loading cycle. Usually, when we shoot on our home range, we have a number of different guns & calibers, and most always have a .22 or two. We throw the empty reloadable brass back into a plastic bucket and the the .22's go in a separate pail that ends up in the brass recycle bin.

We figure that one of the .22 autos ejected into the reloadable brass bucket, and by sheer chance, the case never fell out during normal handling. Too, a .22 case is just small/large enough to allow the .32's primer decapping pin to center up and punch through. No doubt a one and a million chance of all these things coinciding to result in the incident, but that's how accidents happen.

Lastly, when looking down into the blackened interior of the .32 case mouth, with the .22 lodged inside, the little case is not readily apparent, even under good lighting, let alone while being cycled through my Dillon 550B.

So.......be careful out there, fellow reloaders....Stuff happens! No harm done this time but it could have resulted in a blown cylinder and injuries. Best regards Rod
 
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Please forgive the length of this post, but I feel it's very unusual, and I've never run across a similar experience. I've been reloading since 1962...so here's the story and a few pics to document the incident.

My son, his daughter & I, were shooting several .22revolvers on New Year's Eve midday, and having a fair bit of fun with a .22 “only” steel swinger. At 20 yds its 3” lower plate is a challenge in DA fire, while the upper, at 1-1/2” is tough for us all, DA or SA.

I had also brought along one of my .32 H&R, Ruger Single-Sixes with some of my handloads. My favorite uses a Hornady 85 gr XTP with 4.0 grains of Win 231 for about 1100+ fps. It's a bit noisy out of the Ruger's 4-5/8” bbl but recoil is still just a bit heavier than Hi Speed .22's and brother, it sure makes that swinger twirl.

I was finishing up the afternoon with one last cylinder of the .32's, when the gun tied up after the first shot. I was unable to rotate the cylinder to remove the empty, nor was I able to roll the cylinder out after removing the base pin.

Here's the Ruger with my 85 gr XTP loads.

View attachment 1244272

Looking from the side with a strong flashlight, I was able to see some brass in the cylinder/forcing cone gap (~0.004”) and my initial thought was that a piece of the case mouth/crimp had broken loose and lodged in the gap. I used a brass cleaning rod and ran it down the bbl., and after a couple of pokes, it dislodged the blockage and I was able to roll the cylinder out and unload the gun.

The .32 case exterior initially appeared normal with no damage to the mouth/crimp, but as I held it up to look at the primer, a spent .22 case dropped out and into my hand.


We all discussed how this got into the.32 case, in the first place, then noticed the hole in the .22 case head. Our theory at this point, is that a spent .22 case had lodged inside the .32 case prior to reloading, and we noted the hole in the .22 case head matched the decaping pin in my Dillon .32 H&R dies.


The powder load, (4.0 gr of Win 231 is close to a max load), had dropped in and around the .22 case unnoticed, and I seated the bullet with no unusual feel through the press handle. In the pic below, for comparison, the two cases on the left were loaded at the same session, while the .22 and the case on the right were the the ones that tied up the gun.


The shot, in question, felt & sounded normal and the case exterior, once I removed it, appeared normal with its primer appearance identical to the rest of the loads fired. The spent .22 case, which had dropped case mouth up inside the.32 case, was blown out & cracked at the instant of firing, but the bullet oddly enough, grouped in with the previous shots. Pressure must have been way up there, with the decreased internal volume, but the .32 case looked normal and my Ruger shows no ill effects.

So here's our guess on how the .22 case got into the .32 H&R's during the loading cycle. Usually, when we shoot on our home range, we have a number of different guns & calibers, and most always have a .22 or two. We throw the empty reloadable brass back into a plastic bucket and the the .22's go in a separate pail that ends up in the brass recycle bin.

We figure that one of the .22 autos ejected into the reloadable brass bucket, and by sheer chance, the case never fell out during normal handling. Too, a .22 case is just small/large enough to allow the .32's primer decapping pin to center up and punch through. No doubt a one and a million chance of all these things coinciding to result in the incident, but that's how accidents happen.

Lastly, when looking down into the blackened interior of the .32 case mouth, with the .22 lodged inside, the little case is not readily apparent, even under good lighting, let alone while being cycled through my Dillon 550B.

So.......be careful out there, fellow reloaders....Stuff happens! No harm done this time but it could have resulted in a blown cylinder and injuries. Best regards Rod
Good story! Good reminder also that it’s never a bad thing to spend extra time with case inspections. I can’t say it would have made a difference in this situation though.

Be careful and if that doesn’t work, be lucky. 🍀
 
Never to old to see something new!

I like Dillon dies. I wish RCBS and Redding had decapping pins that tough.
The Lee Universal decapper would have pushed up long before piercing the .22

Edit: amended to a maybe. I tried it with a .32Long and it didn’t stick in the case - stayed on the pin - and it didn’t go through easily but it didn’t push up either. I guess it depends on how brittle/thin the .22 is?
 
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Thank God you had a strong gun and nobody got hurt! I had a squib in 1986 and have been "safety paranoid" since. But in your situation I believe it was truely a one in a million OOPS!. I have heard/experienced of cases slipping into larger cases, but none that made it through the whole loading process. Glad all is good...
 
That would take a lot of pressure to pierce a 22 case with a blunt pin (the kind I use). I would have thought you would have felt that. I know some primers punch out really hard and I'm guilty of trying to deprime 9mm with 22 lr cases inside and thinking it was a primer that was crimped and sealed.
The difference is I use an old 30-06 resizing die to deprime my 9mm with. The 30-06 depriming pin and nut won't go down inside the 22 case. It will go in part ways and tie up the press. It stops it right in it's tracks.
Maybe you should try using a 30-06 resizing die to deprime your 32's.

I've had to take my old 30-06 die and several times, use channel locks to pull a 22 lr case off the primer punch pin nut because it was jammed on there so tight. But it didn't end up in the case I was resizing. That's the good thing about it.

I've never even seen a Dillon die so I don't know it's proportions. But what I'm using so far, I guess by accident, has kept me from this kind of problem.
 
Those pesky .22lr cases! Even after a wet tumble and careful look at the bright pile of .38 brass, somehow a .22 case made it through all that and ended up on the deprime pin in the press. I believe I had Lee dies in at the time, but it could have been RCBS. The big question I had at the time was how many .38 cases were processed with it stuck on there. I wouldn’t think it’d fall off the pin and remain in a case - you should buy a lottery ticket.
 
Wow - what are the odds on something like that?!

Good on you for being able to figure it all out and come to a reasonable conclusion.


With luck like that - keep playing Powerball/Mega Millions. If you don't hit the jackpot, you're almost certain to at least win a million bucks. Glad nobody was hurt and no firearms were damaged!
 
Those pesky .22lr cases! Even after a wet tumble and careful look at the bright pile of .38 brass, somehow a .22 case made it through all that and ended up on the deprime pin in the press. I believe I had Lee dies in at the time, but it could have been RCBS. The big question I had at the time was how many .38 cases were processed with it stuck on there. I wouldn’t think it’d fall off the pin and remain in a case - you should buy a lottery ticket.
I keep the collets on my Lee sizing dies kinda loose if I don’t just pull them out completely. All my decapping is done with a Lee Universal and the pins are loose enough to push up instead of bending if a Berdan primer slips in the mix. That’s not to say it wouldn’t still punch through a .22 base. It might. I hope to never find out.
 
OP, thanks for your photos, investigation, and results!

I have to say that I've never seen a .22lr case get into a fully-prepped case that is read for decapping. I now have something new to look out for.

One question: what was the powder level in your .32 cases, as compared to the length of the .22lr case above the floor of the .32 case? Might you have detected the .22lr case using a plunger-type powder cop, like this one:

 
OP, thanks for your photos, investigation, and results!

I have to say that I've never seen a .22lr case get into a fully-prepped case that is read for decapping. I now have something new to look out for.

One question: what was the powder level in your .32 cases, as compared to the length of the .22lr case above the floor of the .32 case? Might you have detected the .22lr case using a plunger-type powder cop, like this one:

Luzy.....that powder charge of 231 (4.0 gr) fills about 1/3 of the available interior capacity. When looking down into the fired but empty .32 case, the .22 spent brass is nearly invisible due to the blackened interiors of both cases.

As the case was sized and deprimed, the primer pin forced the .22 case down a bit, I.E. down where the .32 case web is narrower, possibly sticking the .22 brass at that position. Then, at the next station, the powder was dropped filling the .22 case, with a bit between the wall and the larger .32 case. Note that the .22 case was swelled and split by the subsequent firing indicating that most of the charge was inside the .22 case.

Too, the .22 case was just short enough to allow normal seating of the 85 gr Hornady XTP. If it was a bit longer, I suspect I'd have felt the resistance through the press handle.

I use my Dillons only as partial progressives in that I size and decap, then rotate it to the powder drop station without simultaneously placing another spent case on the 1st (sizing/decapping) station. I then rotate the first case, now full of powder, to the seating station while adding another spent case to the 1st sizing station. Basically, I'm using every other station of the press, progressively. I've found that this allows me a better "feel" for what is going on during the process...especially with .32 H&R. It adds to the time reloading but then I'm not a volume shooter, seldom loading more than a box of 50 at a time.

The .32 H&R caliber is a bit loose as it rotates around the Dillon's shell plate stations and at the powder drop, which also flares the case mouth, it sometimes wobbles enough allowing the flaring post to catch on the case mouth, crushing it. It's just one more anomaly with the .32 case. I use the skip a station method for better feel...but even that didn't allow me to catch the .22 case obstruction. One in a million screw up as I said earlier.....

I've since shot the Ruger for accuracy using the identical load/bullet with group sizes that are unchanged from previous testing....~2" at 25 yds or a bit less, and close inspection of the offending chamber shows no damage.

For all of you following this reloading odyssey, I've changed my routine. Now, as I pick up a case and prior to inserting it in the first sizing/decapping station, I look down inside after tapping it a cpl times, mouth down, on my loading bench. This method is one that I use if I've dry tumbler cleaned the batch, as I've often found media stuck down near the primer hole, and would have knocked the .22 case out of the larger .32.

Best Regards, Rod
 
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For all of you following this reloading odyssey, I've changed my routine. Now, as I pick up a case and prior to inserting it in the first sizing/decapping station, I look down inside after tapping it a cpl times, mouth down, on my loading bench.
I’ve always visually checked the powder level in the case prior to setting a bullet on the case mouth. This was a “must” when I started using a progressive. Powder check and lock out dies are employed as well.
What I found helped with this, in tall cases like .357 was wet tumbling and LED lighting to see way down inside the case.
 
The depriming pin on Dillon handgun dies is secured by a knurled cap. 22 cases get caught on the knurling and stay in the die. The smaller cap needed for the 32s is smooth, and unlikely to retain the case. We've see this in the larger calibers periodically, as the thickness of the 22 case causes the decap assembly to bottom out inside the case, so the handle won't go down fully.
 
I have had a .22RF case to stick on the sizing/depriming rod of my .223 sizing die... My thoughts is similar to the OP... pistol probably slung it into the bucket with .223 brass...
I pickup .22/.22 Mag and .17 RF and melt for other projects I do with brass stuff...
 
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