Bone head mistakes?

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Hugger-4641

Hugger-4641

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So, I recently made a couple bonehead bumbles and it occurred to me that I'm probably not in the minority. I usually try not to load when I'm sick or have a lot of distractions, but being human, sometimes my mind is on ten other things besides focused on the task at hand, or I'm trying to squeeze in some loading time when maybe I shouldn't.

I'm sure there's others I've forgotten, but here's a few of my recent bonehead events:

Accidentally grabbed some 200eldx and loaded them into 30-06 cases. Would be ok if that was the load I was working, but my load was supposed to be 178eldx.
For some reason I didn't notice until about the 5th round when I realized the 55gr of RL-23 was compressing slightly and shouldn't be. I have a checklist and normally weigh and record my first round. I would have noticed before the first round if I had looked at my checklist, but for whatever reason I didn't do that this time.

Somehow I got about 30rds of .380 and 9mm mixed in the wet tumbler with about 200rds of 10mm. If you've never done this, DON"T. !! They like to telescope inside the 10mm cases and it's a real PITA to get them out.

Broke a decapping pin once because I tried decapping a 40sw that had a .380 case stuck inside it.

Cleaned the unused 4064 from my Intellidropper and proceeded to dump in some Hs-6, but I had forgotten to close the valve on the drain tube. Yep, made a mess and had to throw away precious powder. :fire:

Fortunately, some of these mistakes have helped me tweak my before and after loading checklists . I've always kept a detailed journal and that has also helped prevent some mistakes. Consequently, I haven't made any handgrenade level mistakes, but I easily could have without my checklists and journal.

So , what are some of your bonehead bumbles and what did you do to try to idiot proof yourself in the future ?
 
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I too have forgotten to close the powder drain before loading an auto-trickler (chargemaster lite). Lost some Varget that day.

I once loaded 100 223 Rem cartridges and only realized when cleaning up I had used Winchester small pistol primers instead of WSRs. Luckily the mistake never made it into my range bag. I triple check primers now.
 
Hugger-4641 said:
So, I recently made a couple bonehead bumbles and it occurred to me that I'm probably not in the minority. I usually try not to load when I'm sick or have a lot of distractions, but being human, sometimes my mind is on ten other things besides focused on the task at hand, or I'm trying to squeeze in some loading time when maybe I shouldn't.

I'm sure there's others I've forgotten, but here's a few of my recent bonehead events:

Accidentally grabbed some 200eldx and loaded them into 30-06 cases. Would be ok if that was the load I was working, but my load was supposed to be 178eldx.
For some reason I didn't notice until about the 5th round when I realized the 71gr of RL-23 was compressing slightly and shouldn't be. I have a checklist and normally weigh and record my first round. I would have noticed before the first round if I had looked at my checklist, but for whatever reason I didn't do that this time.

Somehow I got about 30rds of .380 and 9mm mixed in the wet tumbler with about 200rds of 10mm. If you've never done this, DON"T. !! They like to telescope inside the 10mm cases and it's a real PITA to get them out.

Broke a decapping pin once because I tried decapping a 40sw that had a .380 case stuck inside it.

Cleaned the unused 4064 from my Intellidropper and proceeded to dump in some Hs-6, but I had forgotten to close the valve on the drain tube. Yep, made a mess and had to throw away precious powder. :fire:

Fortunately, some of these mistakes have helped me tweak my before and after loading checklists . I've always kept a detailed journal and that has also helped prevent some mistakes. Consequently, I haven't made any handgrenade level mistakes, but I easily could have without my checklists and journal.

So , what are some of your bonehead bumbles and what did you do to try to idiot proof yourself in the future ?
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I made a few of those but my process saved me... I have duped powder in the chargemaster with the gate open.... save I always clean counters before I load so most was easily recovered... I've powdered cases with no primers.... no excuse that was just dumb... I recently went to clean up and dropped my wilson full length seater and bent the stem. :( that now requires a new stem...
 
Seem like when I was shooting/loading a lot of skeet/trap I didn't have to walk across my loading room. I just stood still and shoved off the bench and rolled across the floor on all the BB's there. The guys with progressives know what I am talking about.
 
Not recently. A couple years back I was using the press in the splendor of nature. Had 50 .38Spl in the tray, charged with a bullet sitting in the mouth waiting to be seated. A wasp landed on one of the bullets. What’d I do?
Yup. Swatted it. Tray flew. I got stung a half dozen times. Tipped over the barstool.
Went inside and rubbed baking soda on my hand and wrist. Picked up everything but the powder and started over. Moral of the story: don’t let bugs bug you.
 
My Dad is the most detail oriented person I know. Retired machinist that is sharp as a whip. Still is. If I had 1/2 his focus, I’d be so much better at being an engineer. Seriously, he’s always been that good.

Recently he sent me a pic. 308 fired in a 30-06 gun, accidentally. He made sure I knew he hit the boulder in the gravel pit with the mistake. Even our heroes make mistakes.

index.php
 
Ru4real said:
My Dad is the most detail oriented person I know. Retired machinist that is sharp as a whip. Still is. If I had 1/2 his focus, I’d be so much better at being an engineer. Seriously, he’s always been that good.

Recently he sent me a pic. 308 fired in a 30-06 gun, accidentally. He made sure I knew he hit the boulder in the gravel pit with the mistake. Even our heroes make mistakes.

index.php
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My dad did exactly the same thing.... he did it with a friend who also loads and was a camp perry competor... I gave him a bunch of grief
 
Slamfire said:
Let he who has not poured powder back into the wrong can, throw the first powder measure.

Been there, done that

View attachment 1084095
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I've been pretty careful about that one in my short loading tenure, but I have no illusions that I'll make it through the rest of my career without doing it at least once.

Charged a case that I hadn't primed the other day. I am proud to say I didn't charge a second one, though.
 
Lets see. Forgetting to adjust the seating stem after loading FP and going to RN. Seating stem again after loading 38 special. And going to 357. Now i do 357 1st. Not enough powder in .223 and 7.62x39. I load them on my turret with a auto drum powder drop. Powder cop die has saved me a few times since getting them. My other rifle i batch load. So i check powder levels when thier on my loading block. And have also forgot to turn the powder hopper off before removing and lost some powder.
 
one thing I’m paranoid about is my powder. I only keep one powder drop full of powder at a time. And only keep that bottle of powder in my reloading room. The rest are in 5 gallon HD seal bucket in the garage.

why???… because I know myself will screw it up!
 
Nothing crazy here. I approach reloading as would a neurosurgeon about to go into an operating room. Check and double check my data, my powder and components. Only the bottle in use out. Look at the label, look at the powder and smell. Then look at the label again. Check, check.

Where I have come close to getting myself in trouble is using older data sets. This has sometimes resulted in loads hotter than I wanted. I use my older manuals for reference now but rely solely on current data. Where extrapolation is necessary I will research for hours if not days sometimes, before committing to the charge. Small batches to confirm before proceeding. Too much at stake to risk quick decisions in this hobby.
 
Ru4real said:
My Dad is the most detail oriented person I know. Retired machinist that is sharp as a whip. Still is. If I had 1/2 his focus, I’d be so much better at being an engineer. Seriously, he’s always been that good.

Recently he sent me a pic. 308 fired in a 30-06 gun, accidentally. He made sure I knew he hit the boulder in the gravel pit with the mistake. Even our heroes make mistakes.

index.php
Click to expand...
I haven't done that yet, but I did somehow put a 30-06 round in my 300wm once. Fortunately it didn't fire, but didn't extract either.
 
ParallelCode said:
I too have forgotten to close the powder drain before loading an auto-trickler (chargemaster lite). Lost some Varget that day.
Click to expand...
I had to do that twice before I learned to keep it shut at all times on my Autocharge.

I dumped Power Pistol back into Unique once due to the bottles looking almost identical like pictures above.
It was during one of the shortages to.

Tried to de-prime a steel cased 9mm with my new Redding decapping die and broke the pin off of it. Why I tried to de-prime a Berdan primed case is beyond me. I knew better, just wasn't thinking :fire:.
 
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