thanks fatelk. I feel a little better about it after finding someone else who did the same thing.
Before I started reloading a few months ago, I was scared to try it. After I got my press and equipment, it turned out it was actually very loose tolerances and common sense that help me out.
I may be jinxing myself here, but I don't worry too much when I reload. I've heard all kinds of interesting discussion of how I'm going to kill myself by not buying a more than one reloading manual...blah blah blah. Also, the book that came highly recommended, "Abc's of reloading" was a waste. All history and very little concept. It was like a high school textbook, dull and full of worthless fact. I really don't care for any of that book, at all, whatsoever. That said, I'll ship it on to the next guy who wants it for free (you pay shipping) so you can avoid the $20 it cost me off of amazon. That's 1000 primers I just wasted on a worthless history book.
Concepts are what matters.... A case contains an amount of powder which propels a bullet down a tube. the amount of powder seems to be variable as the cooking time of a briskett. Put 2.0 grains of red dot in a 45acp and the bullet still works, squib it and the worst thing that can happen is it you bulge your barrel (no, you don't die from a squib load....see the thread I started on "worst experience wiht a squib load" on this forum) , double charge it and you're looking at a pretty big whollop that's not good for you or the gun, but it's not going to take your head or hand off. Ok, if it's possible to triple or quadruple charge, I'd imagine that may take out a finger or blow up the casing or something, but a fella would have to be pretty darned inattentive to do that.
Use a bad casing? Guess that ain't so bad either. I haven't heard of anyone dying.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is...it ain't science for folks like me. It's just part of saving money and taking calculated risks. If nobody took risks, then we probably wouldn't be having this discussion right now because there would be nothing called a Firearm and we'd all be eating a diet of entirely apples, because that's the only thing we could be sure would be safe to eat. Thanks Eve, you just had to do it, didn't ya? Geesh...never listen to a snake.