Worst mistake you've made reloading?

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lord1234

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OK, so I admit it. I'm one of those guys that has taken up reloading because of the current ridiculous prices and shortage of ammo. I probably would have done it at some point regardless, but I decided to do it now.

Before anyone jumps down my throat, I have not 1, but 3 reloading books as well as a bunch of scanned PDF's and other such things that I have read thoroughly.

But here's a question. Everyone talks about the dangers of reloading. Exploding guns and the such. I'll admit, I'm scared of it, and as such have been very cautious(hell I've only loaded 100 rounds so far). So care to tell me? What's the biggest mistake you've made in your reloading experience?
 
I've had a squib load. I'm fairly new at it too and this happened out of the 3rd batch I had made.

The terrible thing was, I was letting someone else try my 1911 when it happened. Luckily I noticed it and asked them to hand me the gun.

I now have 3 rules:

Rule 1# Always adhere to the published load data

Rule #2Double check powder is in the case. I installed a small LED light in between the dies.

Rule #2: Don't let other people shoot your reloads. Bring some Factory ammo if you want someone else to shoot your guns.

Don't be intimidated. I had the same feelings you had when I first started. Once I became more comfortable with the operation those feelings went away.

Massmatt (Ricochet from NES)
 
I ONCE forgot powder.. but bullet went 10 feet... just do not double charge. there are some powders that you can get that a double charge wont fit in a pistol case. My first 50 was scary lol.. now i feel better have loaded 500 .45 so far. Take your time and be safe.
 
Years and years ago very happily and merrily reloading really getting into it wiith a powder measure that went empty somewhere along the line.

Had to pull all the rounds and start over. Learned very quickly after that to use a loading block and do a visual check to see what the cases looked like.

Two words of advice to all reloaders

STAY FOCUSED
 
when i first started I was using my grandpa's components including some of his 30 year old powder!

A little rust in the powder won't hurt anything right?
Wrong, it won't fire.

About three years later now and i am a lot more cautious
 
Changing power lots without backing off and working up again.

In 1962-63 I was buying H-4895 from a large drum of WWII surplus powder my gun dealer had. It was sold in brown paper lunch sacks for $1.25 a pound.

Then he ran out, and started selling "new" H-4895 in real Hodgdon cans for $2.00, if memory serves me. (Talk about the high cost of powder! Dang!)

First shot blew a primer and stuck the bolt really shut on my 03A3 Springfield.

No big deal now days when you change lot #'s.

But when you change from Brown Paper Bags to Cans, or something?

Back off 10%! :D

rc
 
44 MAG "full house loads" using imr4227...... in 44 special case's:eek: (got a bag of 50 miss marked pkg brass back in the early 80's)... Never did fire any .....something was not rite...rounds to short...ETC...that was a eye opener...
 
I'm new too and I got a bullet stuck in the barrel of a Model 38. that's right a 2" barrel. I do check for powder. S&W fixed it for free and shipped it back to me free too.
 
I posted this the other day. I picked up some range brass thinking it was 9mm Luger, it turnedout to be 9mm Markov (sp?). Only 1mm difference in case length but, IMHO, enough that might cause a big problem. I mixed it into a 3 lb. coffee can full of Luger brass. Glad it didn't get to the powder stage of the process.

Moral of the story: BE CAREFUL when you pick up range brass
 
Ruined a Spanish "Destroyer" Carbine in 9mm Largo

Okay, I'll fess up.

I was reloading for 9mm Largo some years ago, and somewhere along the line I must have misread the powder charge.

I was loading 135gr RN cast bullets made for 38 Super, and my guess is I loaded a faster powder (like Bullesye or something) than what I thought I had in the powder measure (like Unique).:eek:

The first round stuck a little on extraction.

I fired another round. It stuck a lot on extraction.:what:

On the third round, it stuck hard enough it took a whack with a 2x4 to open the bolt. Only then did I notice the signs of high pressure (very flattened primers).

The soft Spanish steel of the bolt or receiver had peened to where you couldn't easily cycle the bolt :fire:

That was years and years ago. I had to junk the little Destroyer, which really was a fun little carbine. I also junked the rest of the ammo. Damage was already done.

I have since then had maybe a double charge in a .45 which put a bulgein my M1911A1's barrel. I say "maybe" because I can't verify it. The rest of the ammo checked out okay. :(

That one was a long while ago, too. I certainly remember both of those.

I have since changed several loading practices, not the least being using bulkier powders that won't let you double charge, keeping only one powder open at a time, never allowing distractions while reloading, and things like that. I've been lucky so far - but it's downright stupid to rely on luck.
 
Not my errors, but the biggest mistakes are:

1) light load... squib
2) no load.... squib
3) heavy or double load
4) loading the wrong powder
5) magnum primers instead of regular primers
6) seating bullet to deeply... creating to high a pressure

I have endeavored to not make any of these mistakes.
 
I had this little routine that was infallable, I color coded the primers with felt tip markers and then recorded the info in my handy dandy pocket note book. This was to save $ on the labels .

LOST THE NOTE BOOK !!!

I've still got calluses on my right hand from impact hammering about 150 rnds of .223 and another 100 of 38 special.
 
Biggest mistake reloading? Not buying powder back when rcmodel found it for $2 a lb.

I had some H4895 clog up in the Dillon 223 powder funnel, and half-charged a case. I caught it because it overcharged the next case. At that point I pulled all of the bullets I had loaded, and started back over, watching every case for proper powder drop. Gotta watch every one.
 
got set up to reload 38 special and grabbed a 357 mag brass and crammed it in really good
 
Forgot to set the powder measure. ONCE. I was loading 22 grains of 2400 in a 44 case. Then I switched over to load 357 mag. Changed everything out except the powder measure setting.

Want to know how 22 grains of 2400 fits in a 357 magnum case? So do I, because as near as I can tell, it doesn't. At least that's what I think the spilled powder all over the bench was trying to tell me.:banghead::scrutiny:
 
I've only made one mistake in eleven years of reloading - accidentally putting small pistol primers in .223 cases instead of small rifle primers. Technically I guess you could say I made a hundred mistakes - that was how many cases I'd loaded before I twigged my mistake. :)
 
Many many years ago I deprimed, resized, and belled my thumb, twice. You can really get into a zone cranking out ammo on a 650 the night before a shoot. I learned my lesson as the course had several weak hand stages of fire with a reload. Ever mash the mag button on a 1911 with a bloody stump of cauliflower, it does NOT help your time or accuracy
~z
 
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I used to load for my ar-15 for hunting. The load I used was a compressed load, and somewhere along the line my charge was a hair heavy which caused my case to buldge a little. I made the mistake of not inspecting each round close enough to catch the buldge. When that round got fed through my bushmaster it fired fine but did not eject. It was lodged so tight in the chamber I had to COMPLETELY disasemble the firearm to get the spent round out, and even then I had to use a tool to extract!!!
big dummy,,,,won't do that again!
 
When I first started to reload (about 25 years ago) I set up the powder scale wrong and loaded 100 rounds of .357 with 10.5 gr of W231, mag. primer and 158 gr. swc. Two shots unscrewed my 6 inch python barrell one fourth turn but somehow did not blow up the gun. :banghead:
 
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