O.K., earlier today I was plugging away on my Hornady LnL-AP on a bunch of 9mm reloads. I routinely eyeball the powder level just before starting a bullet in at the seating station, and noticed a cartridge that looked suspiciously full of powder. So I pulled it and dumped the powder charge on the electronic scale, but the weight was perfectly nominal.
That's when I flipped the cartridge case over and read the headstamp - it was a .380 case that somehow hadn't gotten separated out from all the 9mm ones earlier. I started wondering what might happen if I hadn't caught the discrepancy, and that completed cartridge had made it in with the rest of my 9mm reloads, and I'd shot it? That particular load consisted of a 147 grain cast LRN bullet, 4.0 grains of Rex #2 (similar to Green Dot), a Winchester small pistol primer, and 1.140 cartridge OAL. NOTE: I worked up to this load, and DO NOT recommend anyone start with it!
I can envision all sorts of different outcomes should such a situation actually occur. If the extractor didn't keep the case somewhere near normal headspace, there could be up to 2mm gap between the breech and firing pin. What do you all think might happen?
That's when I flipped the cartridge case over and read the headstamp - it was a .380 case that somehow hadn't gotten separated out from all the 9mm ones earlier. I started wondering what might happen if I hadn't caught the discrepancy, and that completed cartridge had made it in with the rest of my 9mm reloads, and I'd shot it? That particular load consisted of a 147 grain cast LRN bullet, 4.0 grains of Rex #2 (similar to Green Dot), a Winchester small pistol primer, and 1.140 cartridge OAL. NOTE: I worked up to this load, and DO NOT recommend anyone start with it!
I can envision all sorts of different outcomes should such a situation actually occur. If the extractor didn't keep the case somewhere near normal headspace, there could be up to 2mm gap between the breech and firing pin. What do you all think might happen?