Took a primer in a .45 shell and shot it inside my workshop sounded like a fire cracker. I've tumbled finished rounds, had to remove bullets and primers to resize, they have fell, I've vacuumed them up. Just store your powder in a metal storage unit, away from heat or sparks. Gun powder will just burn rapidly, I had a friend toast himself with Coleman lantern gas, one in a million. NO distractions when loading, an experienced person can give valuable advise, Always look at the load in the shell, before pressing. I use a little magnetic led light to see into the shell, use a good scale. Welcome to the world of your own accuracy.
Reloading accidents
- Thread starter Soundtrackzz
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308sc
Member
I have only had one, everyone calm down, I have not had another one 699 rounds later, hopefully it will be my first and last. I have never had any other problems though,
floydster
Member
Years ago there was a guy that lived down the road from me, he was a big time reloader( rifle mostly).
Anyway he had a 25 lb. keg of 4831 in the metal container with the single pouring hole in the center of the can, the guess was he was trying to get the last lb. from the container by drilling a hole on the edge of the can, when it went off it blow him thru the first floor and he was in the basement, he lived about a day after it happened.
Floydster
Anyway he had a 25 lb. keg of 4831 in the metal container with the single pouring hole in the center of the can, the guess was he was trying to get the last lb. from the container by drilling a hole on the edge of the can, when it went off it blow him thru the first floor and he was in the basement, he lived about a day after it happened.
Floydster
308sc
Member
wow! 25 lb is alot of powder, but if there was only one pound in there I highly doubt it.
bogie
Member
If you drop a rockchucker, and you're not wearing steel toed shoes, you'd best move the piddies out of the way, or you're going to have a problem...
I suspect that most reloading accidents are either dropped stuff or muscle strains...
Closest I ever came to a real accident: I accidentally deprimed a live primer in case full of powder... Damn lucky. Wondered why it was so hard to do at the time, until I raised the handle, and all the powder went everywhere...
I suspect that most reloading accidents are either dropped stuff or muscle strains...
Closest I ever came to a real accident: I accidentally deprimed a live primer in case full of powder... Damn lucky. Wondered why it was so hard to do at the time, until I raised the handle, and all the powder went everywhere...
CHEVELLE427
Member
this is why i started reloading my own ammo, this K-BOOM was from some fact reloads in my 1911-A1. SOME 33 YEARS AGO
Snapping Twig
Member
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- Jul 7, 2007
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- 655
Ran my finger through a Lyman 450 sizer once.
Pay attention, stick to the receipes and keep safety as job one and all will be well.
I can't tell you how many relaxing hours I've spent reloading with a talk station playing softly in the background.
Dr. Laura would get a kick out of it if I told her how many times I listened to her show while reloading.
Pay attention, stick to the receipes and keep safety as job one and all will be well.
I can't tell you how many relaxing hours I've spent reloading with a talk station playing softly in the background.
Dr. Laura would get a kick out of it if I told her how many times I listened to her show while reloading.
CHEVELLE427
Member
SAME HERE
THe Dove
BOOMER SOONER!!!
I've been reloading and casting boolits for over 15 years now. The worst incident was I smashed my thumb in the press! It's all good amigo! Just stay tuned in to what you're doing, don't over charge or get distracted, relax and have fun/ENJOY!
The Dove
The Dove
CHEVELLE427
Member
Strange how the right hand just does not care at all about the left.
smashed my left finger and the rt hand just kept pulling down on the
leaver.
THe Dove
BOOMER SOONER!!!
You are correct Chevelle, I wanted to stop the ram but my right hand kept pulling!! HAHAHA
The Dove
The Dove
rcmodel
Member in memoriam
Smashed my thumb in a Lubrisizer on Feb. 18th. changing top-punches & the handle fell down.
Probably about another month and my thumbnail will be all better & new again!
rcmodel
Probably about another month and my thumbnail will be all better & new again!
rcmodel
ripped off a 15 or so inch strip of skin from my right forearm on up to my triceps when i reached over the top of my rockchucker - and exposed depriming stem on an rcbs sizer die - and did not allow enough room for clearance between my skin and the stem.
after i got the bleeding stopped, i went back out and had to pull the long strip of skin off the die. that was the part that made me a bit queasy.
to prevent future reoccurences, i have found a bottleneck rifle case of almost any variety makes an outstanding buffer between skin and sharp threads.
after i got the bleeding stopped, i went back out and had to pull the long strip of skin off the die. that was the part that made me a bit queasy.
to prevent future reoccurences, i have found a bottleneck rifle case of almost any variety makes an outstanding buffer between skin and sharp threads.
Halo
Member
Hello Zach,
Chances are your parents, like most home owners, have a can or two of gasoline in their garage, shed, or utility closet -- as well as cars, a lawnmower, and whatever else with gasoline in their tanks. Tell them gasoline is far more volatile and potentially dangerous than modern smokeless powder. If they have been comfortable having gasoline (which is a true explosive, unlike smokeless powder) in their house for years, then a few canisters of powder is nothing! As others have noted, all you need to do is read a good reloading manual and adhere to the fundamental safety rules, and there is no danger whatsoever.
You might even add this little tidbit, when smokeless powder is exposed to moisture it breaks down into its constituent nitrogen compounds which are actually the same compounds your parents might be using to fertilize their lawn! In fact lots of people dispose of unwanted powder by spreading it on their lawn and wetting it down. You certainly wouldn't be able to do that if it was a volatile explosive.
FieroCDSP
Member
Welcome to reloading.
As you can see, far more injuries result from the actual mechanical press operation than the components in the ammo being made.
I've done the finger in press thing, though came up short of running it through with the decapping pin.
Perhaps my only remotely serious mishap occured with my Lee Pro Auto-Disk mounted on my LoadMaster. I had too small a charge and pulled the disk to switch cavities without turning off the feed and clearing the dispenser.
Suffice to say, my LM got a bath in AA#2, an incredibly small spherical powder that sticks to everything. I ended up stripping the whole press to clean it, took me three days. Had I not cleaned it thoroughly, and were a primer to go off, the flash could have ignited residual powder, and that would be bad.
Reloading is safe and fun if you take the safety rules for what they are: Rules to obey to avoid genuine danger.
As you can see, far more injuries result from the actual mechanical press operation than the components in the ammo being made.
I've done the finger in press thing, though came up short of running it through with the decapping pin.
Perhaps my only remotely serious mishap occured with my Lee Pro Auto-Disk mounted on my LoadMaster. I had too small a charge and pulled the disk to switch cavities without turning off the feed and clearing the dispenser.
Suffice to say, my LM got a bath in AA#2, an incredibly small spherical powder that sticks to everything. I ended up stripping the whole press to clean it, took me three days. Had I not cleaned it thoroughly, and were a primer to go off, the flash could have ignited residual powder, and that would be bad.
Reloading is safe and fun if you take the safety rules for what they are: Rules to obey to avoid genuine danger.
One other way to effectively make a 'squib' load:
Some powders (E.G. Hodgdon H110 and (IIRC) Winchester 231) do not like to be loaded less than 3% under maximum load (other powders recommend starting @ 10% under max and working up until you like - Without exceeding the max load, of course).
If you do load those powders too light it will not always be ignited by the primer and the power of the primer is enuff to put the bullet into the barrel and that is where it stops!
I learned this the hard way when attempting to load light loads for my S&W 500. My son heard the light 'pop' and shouted to me not to attempt the next shot (might have saved my life!) Boy that bullet was really hard to remove from the barrel and the H110 made a big mess to clean up before that gun could be fired again.
After the clean up, I tried shooting some more rounds (much more carefully this time) and damn if it didn't occur again!! That ended that range day!
At home, I pulled all the rounds I had made too light and brought up the load to within 3% of max and had no further problems.
Moral: Always check your Mfr's load warnings before using any powder!
Ron
Some powders (E.G. Hodgdon H110 and (IIRC) Winchester 231) do not like to be loaded less than 3% under maximum load (other powders recommend starting @ 10% under max and working up until you like - Without exceeding the max load, of course).
If you do load those powders too light it will not always be ignited by the primer and the power of the primer is enuff to put the bullet into the barrel and that is where it stops!
I learned this the hard way when attempting to load light loads for my S&W 500. My son heard the light 'pop' and shouted to me not to attempt the next shot (might have saved my life!) Boy that bullet was really hard to remove from the barrel and the H110 made a big mess to clean up before that gun could be fired again.
After the clean up, I tried shooting some more rounds (much more carefully this time) and damn if it didn't occur again!! That ended that range day!
At home, I pulled all the rounds I had made too light and brought up the load to within 3% of max and had no further problems.
Moral: Always check your Mfr's load warnings before using any powder!
Ron
.38 Special
Member
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- Sep 15, 2006
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- 7,398
Sounds like an awful lot of people have decapped their fingers. Me too.
The worst accident I've had was similar to RCmodel's note about the bench grinder and the open keg of powder, but slightly less foolish -- although slightly more concerning, I think, simply because I would not have thought this exact incident was possible, are at least at all likely.
I was using an angle grinder which threw sparks onto the shelf where I keep some reloading components, which was definitely foolish. But I did not expect a spark to find its way through a pile of junk into a half buried, closed sleeve of primers. The resultant explosion (about 300 large rifle magnum primers) broke the 3/4" particle board shelf upon which the primer box rested, and of course scared the absolute living daylights out of me. I got peppered by fragments, but was wearing glasses and long pants/long sleeves so only suffered some red marks on my face.
And now of course I mind where my sparks are going...
The worst accident I've had was similar to RCmodel's note about the bench grinder and the open keg of powder, but slightly less foolish -- although slightly more concerning, I think, simply because I would not have thought this exact incident was possible, are at least at all likely.
I was using an angle grinder which threw sparks onto the shelf where I keep some reloading components, which was definitely foolish. But I did not expect a spark to find its way through a pile of junk into a half buried, closed sleeve of primers. The resultant explosion (about 300 large rifle magnum primers) broke the 3/4" particle board shelf upon which the primer box rested, and of course scared the absolute living daylights out of me. I got peppered by fragments, but was wearing glasses and long pants/long sleeves so only suffered some red marks on my face.
And now of course I mind where my sparks are going...
CHEVELLE427
Member
Storing powder and primers?
On other forms someone will post let's see you reloading setup and I see a lot of powder setting on the shelf's along with primers etc.
I for 1 keep all mine in sealed cans, up side nothing can harm them, the down side if I have a fire they will most likely explode in the sealed cans.
Anybody have a better idea on storing powder and primers.
guess you could store them in some plastic containers, that would keep things away from them and in case of fire the container would just melt like the powder container would.
On other forms someone will post let's see you reloading setup and I see a lot of powder setting on the shelf's along with primers etc.
I for 1 keep all mine in sealed cans, up side nothing can harm them, the down side if I have a fire they will most likely explode in the sealed cans.
Anybody have a better idea on storing powder and primers.
guess you could store them in some plastic containers, that would keep things away from them and in case of fire the container would just melt like the powder container would.
FieroCDSP
Member
Plastic dry-boxes for hunting/fishing, etc... Larger than a 308 ammo can and can hold 4-5 cans of powder (depending on which ones). Plus they'll blow out at a lower pressure rather than a catastrophic explosion. K-mart, Walmart, most places carry them in one form or another. And they stack nice, too.
Otherwise, build or buy a wooden magazine box.
Halo
Member
When my old college dorm fridge stopped cooling, I unplugged it and promoted it to powder storage duty. It keeps out humid air and buffers against temperature swings due to the insulated walls.
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