gamestalker
member
For me, this was better than 30 years ago, I had only been reloading for a few months. At the time, I was a smoker. I;m pretty sure most of you know where this is going.
Anyway, my reloading room was a very narrow dead end hallway / storage room, probably 15' feet from door to wall, and barely wide enough to turn around in, low ceiling of about 6'.
So here I am charging some .357 cases with 296 if I recall. I had a ceramic coffee cup full of powder, a loading tray full of charged cases, and was working on the second tray, and had just topped off the cup of powder. Here's to really stupid careless part, I had a lit cigarette hanging from my mouth. I reached for another piece of brass, my arm hit the cigarette, knocked the cherry off, which landed in the cup of powder.
Do to the very narrow hallway, I couldn't get out of the chair to turn around and run quick enough, so I just rolled backwards, scrambling for the door, which was closed. It gets worse, a foot or so above the cup of jetting flames was a shelf full of powders and primers, which miraculously didn't ignite, despite the bottom and edges being lightly charred. It probably only took 3-5 seconds for the powder to burn, but it seemed like an eternity.
I've since quit smoking, and never ignored proper reloading safety protocol ever again. This was a much needed lesson about adhering to printed warnings on the side of powders, primers, as well, as all other flammables with similar warnings stamped in bold print. I keep that same cup displayed on my bench as a reminder.
GS
Anyway, my reloading room was a very narrow dead end hallway / storage room, probably 15' feet from door to wall, and barely wide enough to turn around in, low ceiling of about 6'.
So here I am charging some .357 cases with 296 if I recall. I had a ceramic coffee cup full of powder, a loading tray full of charged cases, and was working on the second tray, and had just topped off the cup of powder. Here's to really stupid careless part, I had a lit cigarette hanging from my mouth. I reached for another piece of brass, my arm hit the cigarette, knocked the cherry off, which landed in the cup of powder.
Do to the very narrow hallway, I couldn't get out of the chair to turn around and run quick enough, so I just rolled backwards, scrambling for the door, which was closed. It gets worse, a foot or so above the cup of jetting flames was a shelf full of powders and primers, which miraculously didn't ignite, despite the bottom and edges being lightly charred. It probably only took 3-5 seconds for the powder to burn, but it seemed like an eternity.
I've since quit smoking, and never ignored proper reloading safety protocol ever again. This was a much needed lesson about adhering to printed warnings on the side of powders, primers, as well, as all other flammables with similar warnings stamped in bold print. I keep that same cup displayed on my bench as a reminder.
GS