Experience isn't everything!

[Japle]

I started reloading in 1971 with a classic Lee handloader kit in .45ACP.
I’ve kept records of every round I’ve loaded since then and just hit 230,000 rounds.
I went through several C and O presses and a couple of Star progressive machines. Now, most of my loading is done on a Dillon.
Still, I can screw up. I loaded 20 rounds for testing in my .357AMP and discovered that I’d used the wrong bullet weight! Had to pull the bullets and reload with the right bullets.

Even with 50+ years experience, it’s possible to mess up.

 

[DukeConnor]

I started reloading in 1971 with a classic Lee handloader kit in .45ACP.
I’ve kept records of every round I’ve loaded since then and just hit 230,000 rounds.
I went through several C and O presses and a couple of Star progressive machines. Now, most of my loading is done on a Dillon.
Still, I can screw up. I loaded 20 rounds for testing in my .357AMP and discovered that I’d used the wrong bullet weight! Had to pull the bullets and reload with the right bullets.

Even with 50+ years experience, it’s possible to mess up.

Experience is why you caught your mistake.

 

[CQB45ACP]

Good catch

 

[CQB45ACP]

It’d be interesting to know whether industrial accidents were caused more frequently by complacent old timers or inexperienced newbies. Or surgical accidents by the twenty year veteran using old muscle memory or the just board certified inexperienced surgeon trying to use most up-to-date techniques?

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

It’d be interesting to know whether industrial accidents were caused more frequently by complacent old timers or inexperienced newbies. Or surgical accidents by the twenty year veteran using old muscle memory or the just board certified inexperienced surgeon trying to use most up-to-date techniques?

Accidents are caused by life. The dead make no mistakes. Think about it.

 

[.308 Norma]

Or surgical accidents by the twenty year veteran using old muscle memory or the just board certified inexperienced surgeon trying to use most up-to-date techniques?

Or by arrogant in-betweeners that think they know more than the 20-year veterans, the recently board-certified but inexperienced physicians, and the patients themselves.
Sorry - off topic, I guess. It’s just something my wife and I have been dealing with lately. Thank God for common-sense Physician’s Assistants that listen.

 

[longdayjake]

As the guy who does most of the troubleshooting for our bullet company I can tell you that the phrase I most hate to hear goes something like this, "I've been reloading for 50 years and I've never had this issue before."
Usually it's from a guy who is having a very minor problem with seating a bullet and just needs to adjust a flare die or something similar. Sometimes they listen and fix the problem and other times they think they know more than I and assume we make bad bullets. It can be frustrating. I'm currently writing a small book with stories about all the times someone has tried to blame a bullet for their own reloading mistakes or for other bad components or tools. I've got so many funny stories about guys blowing up guns thinking that they can use a max 115 grain titegroup load for 147s because "A heavier bullet should need more powder."

 

[CQB45ACP]

Or by arrogant in-betweeners that think they know more than the 20-year veterans, the recently board-certified but inexperienced physicians, and the patients themselves.
Sorry - off topic, I guess. It’s just something my wife and I have been dealing with lately. Thank God for common-sense Physician’s Assistants that listen.

We have too!!! Two ophthalmologists don’t have the time of day

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

A nice reminder.

It's a given that if you do anything long enough, you're bound to have problems and make mistakes.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Oh, by the way...I initially stopped after reading the first two lines of your OP and did some number crunching, assuming it was all 230 grain .45 ACP (which I know from reading the rest of your OP afterwards isn't the case).

230,000 rounds of 230 grain .45 ACP would have been 7,557 pounds of lead.

Even given that a lot of your ammo was NOT 230 grain in mass, the sheer number of rounds you've loaded indicate the amount of lead is still in the thousands of pounds since you started reloading!

Congratulations!

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

sudo rm -fr /*.temp

A space. Just one lousy space. Instead of cleaning one directory of temp files… That’s all I’m gonna say. Still makes me shake.
Thank goodness for backups… and memory-resident processes.

 

[Alaskamike]

sudo rm -fr /*.temp

A space. Just one lousy space. Instead of cleaning one directory of temp files… That’s all I’m gonna say. Still makes me shake.
Thank goodness for backups… and memory-resident processes.

As a fellow unix admin, I can definitely relate to that one, and the nightmares from it!

 

[CQB45ACP]

sudo rm -fr /*.temp

A space. Just one lousy space. Instead of cleaning one directory of temp files… That’s all I’m gonna say. Still makes me shake.
Thank goodness for backups… and memory-resident processes.

Haven’t a clue what this is but could guess it has something to do with bad coding

 

[Cheesemaker]

In my line of work there is a marked difference between "how long I have done something" and "how well I do it". Sometimes, how long a person has done something has no bearing on how well they do it.

OP is excluded here - 230k rounds, he obviously does it well.

 

[Alaskamike]

Haven’t a clue what this is but could guess it has something to do with bad coding

It runs the "rm" command with elevated privileges, with the intent to delete all *.temp files in the top level directory on a unix system (like the C: drive on a windows computer).

However, the addition of a single space between /* and .temp turns it into, "delete EVERYTHING on the system starting at the top level directory, and also a file named .temp".

It wipes out everything on a unix system.

I dont think there are many unix admins who haven't had a similar heart-stopping learning moment.

 

[CQB45ACP]

In my line of work there is a marked difference between "how long I have done something" and "how well I do it". Sometimes, how long a person has done something has no bearing on how well they do it.

OP is excluded here - 230k rounds, he obviously does it well.

Has OP shot any yet?

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

It runs the "rm" command with elevated privileges, with the intent to delete all *.temp files in the top level directory on a unix system (like the C: drive on a windows computer).

However, the addition of a single space between /* and .temp turns it into, "delete EVERYTHING on the system starting at the top level directory, and also a file named .temp".

It wipes out everything on a unix system.

I dont think there are many unix admins who haven't had a similar heart-stopping learning moment.

My office mate claims I went through the entire dictionary of curse words and invented a few new ones.

I’m actually a pretty careful person. I saw carelessness leave pools of blood on shop floors and never wanted to be the source so I was very attentive.

As a handloader I’m probably not quite as attentive. I have a lot of experience with a lot of calibers but it’s all on single stage equipment. I tried a turret once and said, “Phooey!” I know loaders whose only experience is on progressives loading only two or three calibers and only one or variety of each - but they have decades and thousands of rounds experience loading those few recipes over and over, pulling the handle and refilling the hoppers, over and over… so they are very experienced with a limited repertoire.

Both have value here. I read the posts about progressives and scratch my head. I’m lost after the first sentence.

 

[sparkyv]

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. First aided more than one and cleaned up the mess to boot.

I saw carelessness leave pools of blood on shop floors and never wanted to be the source so I was very attentive.

 

[.308 Norma]

Both have value here. I read the posts about progressives and scratch my head. I’m lost after the first sentence.

Yeah, me too. Single stage since the '70s here.
Mostly that's just because I love handloading though. It's relaxing, I enjoy the process and can't see any reason to hurry it along.
I've written before about how back in the '80s, handloading became a chore for my wife and me when we were both into IHMSA shooting, and the two of us were going through seven or eight hundred rounds a month in competitions and practice. So, we quit IHMSA and handloading became fun again.

 

[Otto]

With age comes a higher incidence of mistakes. Thats why airline pilots are forced to retire at 67 even if they can pass the physical.

 

[FROGO207]

Yep, I am a single stage/turret type of reloader. Had several friends that let me try progressive presses of many colors but things were moving too fast for my liking. I agree that the journey reloading a box of ammo by the batch method is quite therapeutic in its own rite.
Getting a full box of super accurate ammo with no runs, drips, or errors is always a fulfilling endevor.

 

[jmorris]

Complacency often follows experience in dealing with dangerous things. That gets a lot of people sooner or later.

You are still doing Ok because you caught it before you shot it. Many others have a “spontaneous rapid disassembly“ of the firearm when they mess up.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Oh...because I like crunching numbers and the sheer volume of rounds just BEGS to be conceptualized...

I posted 7,557 pounds of lead above, with my basic assumptions.

Lead weighs 0.409 pounds per cubic inch. This represents a cube approximately 26.5" on a side.

For a simple desktop of 24" by 48", the lead would be 16" thick.

A 4' X 8' pickup truck bed would be layered in a 4 inch thick slab.

 

[IWAC]

I started reloading in 1971 with a classic Lee handloader kit in .45ACP.
I’ve kept records of every round I’ve loaded since then and just hit 230,000 rounds.
I went through several C and O presses and a couple of Star progressive machines. Now, most of my loading is done on a Dillon.
Still, I can screw up. I loaded 20 rounds for testing in my .357AMP and discovered that I’d used the wrong bullet weight! Had to pull the bullets and reload with the right bullets.

Even with 50+ years experience, it’s possible to mess up.

Indeed!

 

[nettlle]

It’d be interesting to know whether industrial accidents were caused more frequently by complacent old timers or inexperienced newbies. Or surgical accidents by the twenty year veteran using old muscle memory or the just board certified inexperienced surgeon trying to use most up-to-date techniques?

I worked in the precision machine shops for decades. Even before CNC. Give the old machinist a tolerance of .0005 and they would hit it every time. When the old timers made a mistake it was by a whole inch or two. They had the experience and skill but just weren't paying attention at that particular time. I plead guilty to this sometimes also. And as has been mentioned earlier it is because of our experience we catch these things.