Whats the dumbest thing you've done while reloading?

[gonoles_1980]

Reading 7.5 as the low end of a load when it was the barrel size. Loaded up some BE-86 starting at 7.6 to 8.2, with the max load at 11.5 for a 44mag. Lucky I didn't get a squib.

 

[kerreckt]

I can't think of any real bad ones that I didn't catch. Now, that's a scary thought because it means, there is a good chance my mistakes are in my ammo boxes. Or, does it? I don't smoke or drink and make every attempt to pay complete attention to the task at hand. Mistakes will happen.

 

[Hondo 60]

"Shoot, tell yu what"

This is kinda (alot) embarrasing:

I blew up, not one, but 2 guns (and a set of grips).

My Ruger SP101 bit the dust after what I'm guessing was a dbl charge of Titegroup.
(probably 14 gr instead of 7)
Then I bought a Taurus 9mm revolver, had it exactly 26 days.
That's what 8 gr of Titegroup will do!

The grips on my 1911 broke.
I'm guessing it was a setback when it chambered.

Obviously I needed to rethink my reloading procedures & put safety checks in there.

 

[FROGO207]

I have left things on the counter/bench and the cat has "helped" me clean it off while I was gone for a bit. It forces me to put everything away when I am done which is not a bad thing you know.

 

[lee1000]

Wow Gamestalker. Tough to beat that one. Scary.


When I was 16 years old, my dad had a Mec 600jr shotshell press. This was around 1982. We had one reloading book. There was no You Tube. I started loading up shotshells. I had a lot of trouble with the shells dishing on me. The only way I could keep the shot from running out was to put melt a little wax and close up the top. I loaded up a couple boxes.

A couple weeks go by and my buddies are going to a trap range. Well I get out my Browning B80 that I saved for all summer. Full choke, small gas ports.

I bragged about loading my own shells all the way to the range.

When it was our turn to shoot, I warned my friends that my shotgun doesn't kick out 7.5 or 8 shot target rounds. Gas ports are small. This is a goose gun and can shoot 3" shells.

I called for the bird and shot. BOOM! And the shell ejected and flew out. Everyone looked at me. So it comes back around to me and I shoot again. BOOOOMMM! It was twice as loud as everyone else. The shell ejected. The guy who runs the place comes flying out of his little shack and asks what am I shooting? I told him target loads. He banned me from any more shooting and made me sit down.

So when I get home, I tell my dad what happened. We went downstairs and looked at the MEC. Oh he says. You have the shot and powder bottles reversed.

I have no idea how much powder I had in those things and how little shot. Maybe having a scale would have been a good idea.

The next time we went to the range, my friends made a special box to hold my shells with the words FLAMEOUT SPECIALS on the side.

I still have the press and the shotgun and I am lucky I didn't get me or someone else hurt.

Swanee

Hilarious, good story

 

[arspeukinen]

Dumbest: reloading drunk. 3 squibs in a box of 400.

 

[HOWARD J]

Letting the wife know that I had purchased something new for reloading----I bring it in when she is not around.
She thinks our money should go to sending grandkids to college & buying cars for them.
Big ouch--(at least used cars)

 

[spitballer]

Starting with a max load of 4198 instead of the starting load. This was the dumbest, but not the most dangerous. The most dangerous was unwittingly loading cases with oversized flash holes designed for unleaded primers. WOW! Won't do that anymore, either.

 

[lee1000]

Starting with a max load of 4198 instead of the starting load. This was the dumbest, but not the most dangerous. The most dangerous was unwittingly loading cases with oversized flash holes designed for unleaded primers. WOW! Won't do that anymore, either.

What happened when you used the cases with the oversized flash holes?

 

[anothernewb]

I'm afraid I can't top any of these. My worst claim to fame so far as been a squib load.

The closest I can come wasn't during reloading, but happened soon after. I had under built my shelving above the bench. I thought it was heavy duty enough, but after a serious loading session I had many many rounds on the shelves. The combined weight was too much for the wall anchors. it tipped forward and dumped everything across the bench and the floor. I also had powder and thousands of primers on the shelves as well. Miraculously none of the primers were impacted hard enough to go off, but a box of small and large got scattered all over the floor.

More mess than loss, but God the noise! I don't have pets, but rumor is both the neighbor's cats bolted off the couch and were absent for days.

The shelf situation has since been rectified. I suspect that, should the house will fall down, the new bench is capable of holding up the entire north wall.

 

[K12]

Dumbest thing I've done... wasn't too bad, but could have ended bad if i didn't catch it. I had just gotten my Dillon 550b and don't a few loads for my 45 a few days before but couldn't really load to many cause i had work the next day and it was getting late. so a few days later i was ecstatic to load up a bunch of 45. rounds and see how many i could get done in an hour. about 30 minutes into it i decided to do a powder drop test, and realized... there was no powder in the tube. So i pulled a good 150-200 45 rounds. after that i added some powder in the funnel checked to make sure it was dropping the right amount and started loading away again... about 25 rounds in i realized that as the brass is going through the sizing die I'm punching out the primers and I'm loading primerless brass with powder. Needless to say i think my "How many can i load in an hour" results were not very impressive.

 

[knfmn]

Best I've had was forgetting to size 100 pieces of brass before I primed them. By comparison that was a very minor nuisance!

I did about 500 9mm like that a few weeks ago. Not the end of the world, but I'd rather not have to pull the depriming pin before I size in the future!

Gamestalker, I absolutely can't beat that one. I smoked when I first got into reloading (still do, actually) and drank a lot, but I never, ever smoked while reloading!

 

[Ex]

Mine doesn't match some of the others but here it is.

Few years back I did a batch of 350 .40 165 gn JHPs. These were for my G22 and
were on the warm side so I wasn't seating them at min COAL.

Took the barrel out to the shed so I knew they would pass plunk.
Got out to the range and could only get 3 in the magazine. They were
too long.

Fix was simple... just "squoze" em down a bit with the seating die. Still,
wasted a 1/4 tank of gas going out to the desert and hadn't taken any
other pistols with me that time.

Live and learn.

 

[herrwalther]

Similar smoking story that is pretty funny but nothing to do with reloading. A gas leak happened in one of the Army barracks I was staying in middle of the night. We are standing outside waiting for the base fire department to show up, and you hear that one guy light a cigarette. Right next to a leaking gas building.

But I digress. The dumbest thing I ever did reloading was nothing as dangerous. When I first started I didn't see a reason or purpose for reloading trays. I'll just stand the rounds up on the table, no big deal. I probably wasted about 200gr of powder before I stopped to order some blocks.

 

[SlowFuse]

Loaded 100 45 acps without doing a plunk test. Now I have all of these rounds that will not chamber in any 45 i have. And I broke 2 hammer style pullers trying to pull that danged oversized lead. Counted it as a loss. That wide meplat jammed up on everything. They were the same length I always use, just a little overweight.

 

[otisrush]

Potentially bad but fortunately I caught it both times it happened: I opened my reloading manual to "9mm Largo" when I intended to go to "9mm Luger". The Largo is the next section after the Luger. I looked at the recommended powder charges and thought "Something isn't right." Each time it took a while to figure out I was in the wrong place.

I now have a yellow stickie on each 9mm Largo page that says in big block letters "NOT 9MM LUGER!!"

 

[spitballer]

What happened when you used the cases with the oversized flash holes?

Difficult extraction and a primer smooshed out like a 3-lobed muffin, narrowly avoiding rupture. May not seem like much, but looking back on it now I was lucky I didn't ruin the bolt face or worse. Sill doesn't top GS's wild and wooly reloading adventures tho

 

[TBJK]

My worst was when I first reloading on my loadmaster, I was setting up all my stations. After I set my powder drop then turned it back off to set my lockout die. After I was done I began loading. First round didn't want to go past the lock out die for some reason. Figured I missed the setup a little bit I manually pushed the lockout die to go to the next station. After I seated the bullet I realized I forgot to turn my powder drop back on. I colored that brass with a black sharpie so I would remember that it had no powder in it. It's still sitting on my dresser.

 

[baseball2013]

My reloading is done on a Lee Breech Lock Challenger. On two occasions I have charged a case that wasn't there.

This morning I seated a bullet with the expander die and nearly pushed it all the way into the case.

 

[kcofohio]

My biggest mistake was thinking I would save money. It seems like whenever I get close, I just shoot more, or buy more fancy reloading gadgets.

I was thinking that too!

Next dumbest, after pulling several 357 bullets, I had about 30-40 gr. of 2400 in an ashtray. Had a bright idea of seeing how slow 2400 burns. Sat the ashtray on a stool in the middle of the garage. It did burn slow, but I soon realized that the flame was getting higher, and about to reach the overhead door, that was in the up position. Another 10-20 gr. more, and I would have put a nice burn mark on the door's insulation. Put me in a bit of a panic!

 

[iagbarrb]

I do just have the story of a friend of mine who left a magnifying glass between window and reloading tourret. When the sun was in the proper position the powder ignited. Lot of smoke and all the upper part of the pro 1000 was melted.
My mistakes are common ones. 3 to 5 bullets without powder in allmost 10 years. Hope I will never have some happenings to tell. Thanks for sharing this stories. Are good examples to learn about and keeping safe.

 

[.338-06]

Buying a chronograph. Seeing how fast my favorite loads actually were led me to start reworking a whole bunch of them!

 

[Candyman87]

I thought I could save money loading .380. Before you know it I'm reloading .32 and .45, .303 and 7.62x54R isn't too far behind.

I'm almost at the point that I'll buy guns for cartridges I want to load for!