Don't be this guy.

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That's crazy he made those assumptions and he's lucky nobody was hurt except his rifle.

Just fyi though Tight Group is a flake not ball powder. No experience using it in .223 but I use 4.5 grains for .40 SW.
 
i don't understand much about reloading, practically the only thing get reused (so money saved) is the brass right? you need to buy new bullet/powder/primer, i mean is it worth so much trouble just to save/reuse brass a couple of more times? how much money saved? 20%?

I can load high quality 9mm for about 1/2 price of factory ammo...many folks who cast their own bullets can load for even less. For 45 ACP the savings is even greater, roughly 65%.

I do a lot of varmint hunting and there is a very substantial savings there too. If you buy top of the line factory ammo it's going to cost you upwards of $1 a round, probably more...I can load ammo with premium bullets for 25 cents a round.

Brass is the major expense but I've been using the same brass for years....well having 1000's of pieces for each caliber I shoot keeps the # of times each one gets loaded to a minimum but most brass can be loaded many, many times. If I do lose a case to a split or losing it in the grass I can usually find 2 or 3 more that someone else left lying around. My only exception is 38 Super, you don't find much of that lying around......

But to keep this on topic....some people just need to shoot factory ammo and nothing else.....it's far cheaper than paying for emergency room visits when you blow your guns up.
 
I do a lot of varmint hunting and there is a very substantial savings there too. If you buy top of the line factory ammo it's going to cost you upwards of $1 a round, probably more...I can load ammo with premium bullets for 25 cents a round.
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roll my own .22-250.

This Core-Bon is selling for $29 for 20
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/55...-grain-sierra-blitzking-polymer-tip-box-of-20

Buy all the same components and use the brass only once...and I can load it for $16 for 20...nearly half the price, use the brass at least 6 times and price goes down to $9 for 20 1/3 the cost.

figure it out using this
http://www.reloaderhub.com/calculator.cfm

Winchester Brass-$42 for 100
Sierra Blitz King Bullets-$22 for 100
H380 powder $22 a pound, using 39 grains per round (7000 grains per pound)
1000 CCI Large rifle primers $30

But I don't hand load for rifles to save money. I do it to tailor loads to my specific rifles.
 
Well, I was SUPPOSED to be there with 72 Coupe, introducing a friend of mine to High Power, but the friend had a scheduling conflict. As such, I missed the excitement.

Some of you guys making remarks such as:

Just think about it, this guy has already passed on his genes. Hello Darwin, I think you missed one!

Frankly if he can screw this sort of thing up with so many assumptions and "I know best" practices then he really shouldn't own firearms.

...need to keep this in perspective. This guy, as blatantly careless and uninformed as he was, is nor more so than those of us who play with our cell phones while we drive, live in houses without smoke alarms, or don't carry life insurance for our spouses (just to name a few).

Sometimes we (especially us handloaders) are quick to jump on our soapboxes and pound our chests while deriding others for the mistakes they make, not realizing the mistakes we all make on a daily basis.


I think 72 Coupe did EXACTLY the right thing by allowing him to shoot one of his rifles. I'm sure the guy was humiliated in front of his family. And I'm sure if he chooses to continue reloading, he'll read a manual.

See you Saturday, Roy!

35W
 
titegroup looks like flakes to me.

it also looks very much like h335, in which 25 grains, while lively, would not have exploded his rifle.
 
THE reason not to shoot someone else's reloads. Or share your own. I might pick up reloads abandoned at the burn box at the local range to pull the bullets, dump the powder and recycle the cases and projectiles.
 
Well, at least you didn't get around to teaching him to keep his elbow under the rifle before he did this! AR's usually blow most of the fragments out through the mag well when they have a kaboom.
 
Don't use 20 gauge loads in your 12 gauge. Get the reloading manual for your powder and only use the components listed.
 
quote post #17
"Wow, I'm new, getting the stuff, and my concern is how light to load, as I was trying to make 3/4 oz reduced recoil buck for my 12ga, I ended up using 20ga data, understanding that the pressure is going to vary from the listed (probably by quite a bit)
it works, but is dirty, however I've read that Red Dot is, unless you get in it's sweet spot."

To add to d2wing's reply #37. He is absolutely correct get some real reputable loading data. It's not safe to guess with shotgun data. Bad things can happen quickly with no warning signs. Metallic cartridges will often give some pressure warnings. Shotguns typically don't until something lets go.
 
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um, like I'd be worried, except I wasn't that far from the min 7/8th load AND
IT IS A POWDER PUFF LOAD
that means under pressure
15.5 and 16 grns of red dot under standard components (wait for it, the right ones listed in the light 12ga load)
 
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It's unfortunate that he figgured out how to make a round that will chamber. There's a good warning in this story. Not EVERYONE should roll their own.
 
Under magnification, Tight Group appears to be a "flattened" ball powder. Many people mistake those for flake powder.

That was a catastrophic mistake that could have cost him his vision, appendages, or his life. He is very fortunate to escape unharmed.

He clearly did not read anything about powder selection before loading his rounds, and how he missed the meaning of the powders listed by the charge weights is beyond me.
 
People like that are just accidents looking for a place to happen. The really bad part is that when one of those sets up next to you at the range he's not wearing a sign that says so.
 
I've been reloading 25+ years, and have had two mishaps.
Both times were a failure to drop powder in a primed case through a progressive press, being new to the game, I seated a bullet without checking the case.
So when I fired my SA 1911 the bullet went in the barrel but the action didn't cycle (lucky me). I realized some thing was amiss and broke down the pistol and found the problem, I popped the bullet out with a cleaning rod. I was too nervous to shoot anymore that day, so I went home and pulled all the bullets in that batch. Next time, several years later, same thing with a .41 mag revolver, except the bullet lodged in the cylinder/barrel gap and locked up the gun.
Even the most diligent individual can make a mistake( and that, can get you hurt real bad). I was lucky, like "that guy", in that no one was hurt !! Pay Attention people !!
 
in my view, modern society is all about specializing thus increase productivity, if reloading is only for saving money, i think one is better off doing his own profession and make money to buy factory bullets, let companies that specialize in ammo making do the reloading with 10x higher efficiency. think about how many hours one spends reloading and how much $ he saved, i bet it's below minimum hourly wage :D
 
+1 for ns66's post.
My father was an old time 'gun crank', as they called themselves in the early to mid 20th century, and his idea of a real rifleman was a person who possessed, among many other attributes, the ability to load his own ammo. Growing up I didn't shoot factory ammo at all, except .22RF. I learned early that there is absolutely no room for error. He always used a single-stage press (as I do now) and took his time. When he first taught me to reload ammo he insisted that I load one round at a time, going through every step - inspect the case, decap and resize, inspect the case again, prime, weigh every charge, charge the case, seat the bullet, wipe off all lube and inspect the loaded round.
Of course I don't load every case one at a time anymore (neither did he), but the different steps of reloading ammo were rammed into my brain.
I like being in control of my own ammo. I don't shoot other people's reloads and I don't allow them to shoot mine in their guns.

There are a lot of activities that have the potential of dangerous outcomes - sky diving, motorcycle riding, skiing and chasing married women, just to name a few. All that's needed is reasonable prudence and making use of the brain power that separates us from the dumb brutes.
Unfortunately there will always be those who are stupidly careless or are just plain idiots. Sometimes natural selection does come into play.
Sorry if that seems blunt, but political correctness has never been my strong point. Be careful out there.

George
 
I am really surprised that the man is still alive after loading that much Titegroup in a 223 case. There are so many people who just don't understand the power and responsibility that reloading has. Even very smart people can act very foolishly around guns and ammo. It makes me think that way tv and movies have portrayed guns (and our own desire for power) have calloused a lot of people with a "familiarity breeds contempt" attitude. This isn't kids stuff, but everyone on this forum knows that anyway. It's the guy who watched one episode of top shot telling everyone at the big box outdoor store all about guns - he's the one I'm concerned about!
 
About underloaded shotshells. Every manual I've every used states to use only load for that combination of hull, powder, shot, wad and primer and crimp type. The reasOn is detonation. A too low powder charge can cause the shell to react like a plugged barrel. Instead of burning a reverse pressure wave or rapid rise in press caused by the load being too slow moving. If a loads real dirty it is not burning correctly. I like my eyes fingers and shotguns. I dunno if that's all correct but I'm not risking it.
 
As I drive passed graveyards filled with careless handloaders, I can't help but think, "What a waste. If only they had followed load books, they could be watching Howard Stern right now."
 
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