Dumbest Reloading Mistakes?

Status
Not open for further replies.
You can search my post if you want to see all the pics. My biggest mistake cost me a rifle and couldhave been worse.
I was reloading 10 test rounds in my 7mm rem mag to try as ahunting load in my newly built rifle(didn't have 100 through it). Loaded them up with 65 gr rl 22 and 154gr hornady interlocks and took 5 rounds of my barnes to shoot also for group. Set up my target 100yds fired off my barnes and went to turn my box for a clean paper. Got back, loaded a round in the rifle. Drew down and BANG. After I got back on target and the smoke cleared the shot was about 12"high and 8"right. My whole gun was smoking, bolt stuck. Got home and pulled a bullet and my whole pound of 22 was full of 2400! I ran 65 gr of 44ma powder in my 7mag. After doing some mesureing I actually swelled the chamber of my new barrel .0034 so a new 7mm mag case would wobble in the tube. Needles to say my savage didn't grenade but it came apart in several pieces. I was luck and I know it. Now nobody else reloads at my table but me.
 
Nothing crazy yet but I did get a squib round in my M&P9c but it didnt go further than the chamber and didnt cycle the slide.
 
I spit in a half pound of varget once. I dip snuff and picked up the wrong jar. I knew it as soon as I did it.
 
Reloading adventures

I was not a Rookie when this happened .I had been Reloading for a couple years when this happened.
BOOM
The Second day with my New Dillon 650. Detonation of 100 Plus Large Pistol Federal Primers In the Primer Tube.
Got my Attention and a Large Piece of Fluorescent Light Tube in my Stomach.

The Section of Light Tubes Above the Primer Tube is Now Protected from Projectiles.
 
Other than the occasional missing primer....

Some of you guys must have horse-shoes up the wazoo

Anyway, my tip is to put a card in the hopper with the powder and lot# listed on it. Saves a lot of head scratching. The one time I discovered 2 types of powder on the bench. I was lucky that the one in the hopper was Red Dot and easy to positively ID. I had read to only have the one can on the bench, but the day of my confusion, I decided there had to be a better way, and a few minutes later there was a card in the hopper. Has been ever since.
 
Guess I need to have a discussion with quality control....

I prepped several hundred 9mm cases - deprimed & sized, tumbled, primed. Got ready to load the cases and the cases seemed slightly too large. Bullets slipped right in the cases, before belling. Could not figure out what was going on. I tried resetting the dies, pulled the depriming pin out and resized the cases, same problem. Then I checked the decapping and sizing die more carefully. I had mixed up two sets of dies. I load both 9mm and 9mm makarov and had switched the dies. Took several days to figure out what was going on.
 
Managed to seat a primer in upside down on a 9mm case. Charged it, loaded it with a bullet, stuck it in the magazine and fired it. Primer went off, powder didn't ignite but made for a big flash and bang. Luckily the shooter and the gun were unharmed. I still don't know how I could have missed that one, but I ALWAYS load my ammo into the case primer side up now on my pistol cartridges and double check primer orientation before priming and before charging now.
 
Loading 9mm with accurate #2. Got done reloading. Powder measure/dispenser still has 1/4 cup or more of powder in it. I dumped the remainder of the Accurate #2 back into the powder can of Clay's Universal by accident.(the wrong can)
(Never have two open powder cans on the bench at once)
I saw what I had done right away! GROAN!-- Luckily the Universal can was almost full and after thoroughly mixing the two, I did some testing and found out that my new mixture of Universal number 2 works just fine! I worked up loads with it and the powder reacts just like either one alone. (Universal and #2 are about the same speed)
 
Forgetting to put powder into the case, seating a primer up side down and the cartridge on the right.
CartMyst.jpg
 
Haven't drawn first blood yet with my reloads, (on my end) but how about buying dies,powder,bullets,brass, bullet moulds etc, and not owning a firearm in that specific caliber !
Click to expand...

Ha! Funny you should mention that. I bought a set of Hornady dies for a .44 mag/.44 special at a yard sale the other day for $8 and I don't own one. I figured for $8 why not?
 
Haven't drawn first blood yet with my reloads, (on my end) but how about buying dies,powder,bullets,brass, bullet moulds etc, and not owning a firearm in that specific caliber !
Click to expand...

I am currently in that situation.

How about forgetting to trim and discovering that all the cases are 0.01 too long - after priming, charging, and seating? (I just started reloading and that, knock on wood, is the worst I have done. The cases still fed into the rifle without resistance though)
 
I'm very new at this...

I've made a point from the start to have a bucket under the press to catch whatever falls, but it didn't occur to me that it might be a good idea to have a clean, empty bucket. I had trouble with the primer feed system and dropped a tube of primers into a bucket of trash. More than once, I'm sorry to say. Sorting that out was no fun, but I guess it was better than chasing primers all over the floor. A clean bucket is a good thing. I also have one of those floor mats with holes in it that help with standing on a hard surface at the press--all those little holes help to contain spills.

I experienced my first squib round today. Bang, bang, bang, bang, click. After a wait, I dropped the magazine and cleared the chamber. The brass of course fell off the front of the bench. After hunting for what I thought was a cartridge with a bad or poorly seated primer with no joy, I examined the barrel. No daylight. I tore the gun apart and sure enough, there was the bullet lodged in the barrel. Pressure with a cleaning rod didn't do the job, so I packed it away and pulled out another firearm to finish the afternoon. Backups are good!

I've taken a few new shooters to the range and the topic of a squib round was never part of the discussion. It will be from now on. I've read about this, and was paying attention this afternoon when it happened to me. My friend and I both learned a good lesson. It's one I'll pay special attention to when teaching a new shooter.

Back at home, I cleared the bullet from the barrel with a wood dowel down the nose of the barrel on the bench vise. Splinters flew and safety glasses were a good thing.

My buddy tells me that he thinks I had a low powder charge. I think I had a *no* powder charge. I'm going to load a couple up and see what happens.
 
My first time loading ever. 124 grain plated 9mm luger in WIN brass with WIN primers and Win-231. I was setting my press up- had never done it before- and was working a dummy round through the stations to get it right. When I got done I loaded My Very First Round. You could hear the heavenly choir sing and the beam of sunlight struck the tip of that bullet and made it gleam, it even had that little "ding!" sound when I held it up to the light... :)

Anyway, then I noticed that I had the crimp set WAAAAAY too tight and it was an extreme roll crimp, not a taper. Extreme as in it was cutting into the bullet and couldn't be taken apart with my bullet puller. It got tossed on the desk and left for another time. I readjusted the dies and then made up another ten rounds- good ones this time. Put them on the desk, went to the bathroom, then took the Sig 239 9mm out to the back yard to experiment, grabbing the loaded rounds from the top of the desk as I went out the door.

First few went very well. The very last round turned out to be that overcrimped sucker. Whew! Squib round, my hand hurt, smoke coming out of the slide, slide locked partially out of battery. Once I got it open that case was just swelled and the case head had flowed into the extractor groove. The bullet was almost at the end of the barrel but had to be pounded out. I'd nearly crimped it in half it turns out. The Sig was fine.
 
I have two... both involve primers. One i was repriming some prepared 7RM cases, and for whateve reason one of my primers decided to "off". had the case not pointed "oh so safely". lesson learned. 2nd one, i was helping a neighbor of mine reload a lot of 9mm. were doing it in stages. two people, running out of a 5 gallon bucket of cases..... we deprimed and resized them all, ran through a tumbler, and we were now priming them... out of one 5 gallon bucket, into another. I primed one, and tossed it into the "done" bucket... it landed ever so gently and popped... scared the snot out of us.:what:
 
Red Face dirty rifle no excuses

While preparing for the next days National rifle Match at Camp Perry,during the early 1980's, I was sitting in front of the TV in my motel room, with a beer or maybe two or three, reloading for the next day. All went well, completed my loading well before lights out.

The next day on the 600 Yard line, I carefully got set up an loaded for my sighters....CLICK, Hmmm, pull bolt back --I loaded my rounds to just engage the rifling. Brass comes out bullet stays in, powder spills all over, and inside the action. Looked at brass----no primers. Time to Panic? Not yet, I'v got a nice box of reloaded rounds---looked --all have no primers. Time is ticking-- what to do? I blew out and cleaned the action on my 40X as best I could, and reached for my trusty box on LC M-118, and completed the round in time. I won't brag about the score.

Lessons relearned --load without distractions, and drink beer after, you've finished. It was a baaad day at Perry, but it shore could have been worse..

Brer Rabbit
 
My dumbest mistake was actually made while casting bullets. I was involved in a motorcycle crash in april, driver of mack truck didnt see me.I spent the summer in a wheel chair. I had a makeshift casting bench on the poarch (plywood on top of a cooler) when I started for the day I decided that socks and crocs and shorts would be enough protection (didnt actually think about it and had no business doing anything that required much thought due to pain meds). Well I was wrong. When I fluxed my lee bottom pour furance with was, I was startled by the flashover when I sturred. I pulled my hand back with a spoon full of hot lead. It landed ontop of my left foot and melted my sock to it.
 
my tip is to put a card in the hopper with the powder and lot# listed on it. Saves a lot of head scratching.
Click to expand...
Wish I knew that tip 15 years ago. I got the wrong powder/load data mixed up and when my first round fired like a cannon, I instantly knew what I did wrong. Fortunately, my Glock pistol withstood the overpressure and I didn't need to change my underwear - but I sure came close! :D

On the way home, I told myself "Boy, I won't do THAT again"

Now, I only keep one powder on the bench and double check my load data.
 
Anyway, my tip is to put a card in the hopper with the powder and lot# listed on it. Saves a lot of head scratching. The one time I discovered 2 types of powder on the bench. I was lucky that the one in the hopper was Red Dot and easy to positively ID. I had read to only have the one can on the bench, but the day of my confusion, I decided there had to be a better way, and a few minutes later there was a card in the hopper. Has been ever since.
Click to expand...

Never ever have 2 open containers of powder out at the same time.

Never ever leave powder in the powder measure hopper, for any reason whats so ever. For one thing it not good for the plastic in many hoppers. For another its not air tight.
 
Loaded 100+ rds of 45 LC with Large RIFLE primers - then got PO'd at the pistol when they didn't go pop the first time!! Also have missed priming a case and wondered where all the spilled powder is coming from; many times over the years. Now have a note taped to reloading area saying " LOOK AND THINK BEFORE DOING". It has helped SOME!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

K
  • Locked
Dumbest reloading mistake
2 3
Replies
67
Views
5K
drband
drband
TheDomFather
  • Locked
The dumbest mistake you made when reloading?
2 3 4 5
Replies
120
Views
6K
sbwaters
S
R
  • Locked
Found an accurate round for my 22-250
Replies
13
Views
860
twofifty
T
M
  • Locked
Reloading mistake
2
Replies
29
Views
1K
mljdeckard
mljdeckard
T
  • Locked
seirra or hornadys?
Replies
8
Views
786
tdoyka
T
Back
Top