Reloading Misadventures - Post your Whoops moments.

[Broom_jm]

When I was just getting started, I loaded some 6mm Rem cases for a friend, using the charge of H380 he provided. On about the 4th round suffered a total head separation but fortunately the M700 rifle was able to handle it. He had blowback gases in his face, but other than that, no harm was done. We never did determine if it was his load that was unsafe or if I screwed it up somehow.

Just recently I loaded 50 pieces of 30 Carbine with small pistol primers, instead of small rifle. I shot a few of them, expecting blown primers but I guess because the load I was using was a medium charge weight, nothing went wrong. All 50 rounds fired w/o incident. It was still a silly mistake and I've now added a step in my process to double-check the primers before they go in.

 

[Josh Ward]

My worst is a squib load that lodged a 230gr bullet in the barrel of my 1911. Sucked getting that thing out of there....

Well, that, and I spilled over 1/2 pound of CFE223 ALL OVER the loading bench last week.....

 

[billybob44]

Well, that, and I spilled over 1/2 pound of CFE223 ALL OVER the loading bench la

My worst is a squib load that lodged a 230gr bullet in the barrel of my 1911. Sucked getting that thing out of there....

Well, that, and I spilled over 1/2 pound of CFE223 ALL OVER the loading bench last week.....

THAT can be cleaned up quickly with just ONE match.....Bill.

 

[parson]

Learned not to have more than one powder at a time on the bench. That's when I purchased my bullet puller!

 

[redwingshooter]

Loaded up 200 rounds of 9mm with Ramshot Zip about 0.5 gr below max charge. The rounds would not cycle consistently in my G17. That was the longest 200 rounds of my life as I had to basically hand cycle to pistol. Lowest recoil 9mm I've ever shot though!

 

[42769vette]

i guess i sort of have a reloading mishap i can add. its not completly my mishap, but it fits.

when i was 8ish i decided to go shooting with my fathers smith model 27 357 mag. needless to say my father knew nothing about this. i grabbbed some ammo his friend had reloaded for the gun and walked out the door. on shot 4 i saw fire come out the side of the barrel.

shot 1 had lodged, shot 2 and 3 pushed the first one out, shot 4 blew out the side of the barrel. after not being able to sit down for a week, and bailing hay for a summer to buy my father a new gun i was nervious to start reloading my own.

i finally rebuilt the 357 (gave it to him on fathersday 20+ years after i blew it up) and the barrel still resides on my reloading bench as a reminder to slow down

 

[rvb]

Once forgot to put the cotter pin back in the dillon primer pick-up tube. Picked up 100 primers, turned it over, and they went all over the floor.

Once had to switch to ball because an indoor match wouldn't allow JHP. Forgot to flip the seater in the dillon seat die. Bullets did not seat straight, causing some pretty hard jams (about 10% of them). Luckily I had loaded a test batch, caught them at the case gauge, and was able to just put them in the practice bin and fix the problem before the match.

pretty uneventful so far... [knocking on wood]

-rvb

 

[BGDave]

Lee loader

Bought a lee loader when I was 15 to reload for my 30 carbine,I wouldn't load with one of those today on a dare.
My 17 yo son was helping me reload a couple of weeks ago and a conversation we had ended with me telling him about the old lee loader,as I tried to describe it I could tell he couldn't picture it in his mind.
So we went to good old youtube and sure enough ,there were a few vids of a lee loader.
As soon as the vid was done playing ,he looked at me and said ,that has POS written all over it.

Brought back memories. I started with a .45 ACP loader. After popping a primer trying to seat it with that metal rod. Recovered the rod from the ceiling. About made me give up the sport. This was in the days before Al Gore invented the internet. Was really an on the job training gig. Only knew one other reloader. Man, was I glad to talk to him.

 

[Aszerigan]

Once forgot to put the cotter pin back in the dillon primer pick-up tube. Picked up 100 primers, turned it over, and they went all over the floor.

Lol... I hate that.

 

[indygunguy]

I've had a squib or two, but caught them before the next shot got off, so no BOOMs.

The worst is a squib during a match, because not only is your score on the stage ruined, but you've got your whole squad waiting around watching you bang a squib out of a barrel... ugh, embarassing.

 

[indyjoe]

At Rose-Hulman, back when the Gun Club was still going, we reloaded most of what we shot. (Other than 12 gauge and .223). We used AA#5 for many of the pistol calibers. This included .44.

I was still a newbie on reloading and being taught by some of the more senior members and officers. Next to me on the firing line, I watched the S&W 629 cylinder go into a few pieces. We never found over 1/3 of it. No barrel bulge and the shooter said the previous round had good omph, so we didn't expect a previous squib. Best we can figure is this was double charge of #5. Luckily no one was hurt at all. It could have been pretty bad.

That was a lesson on case capacity vs powder that I will never forget. Getting the most rounds from a pound of powder is not the most important thing. And there is something to be said for a powder that is instantly visible on a double charge, especially on large cased rounds.

Also, shooting ammo that sat in water for a while is fun, if you are careful for stuck bullets and have a gun that is quick to field strip. Watching a 9mm arch all the way to the target at 1-200 fps is interesting.

 

[ghitch75]

no booms.....just was ruunin' a few 380's in single stage and ran the decap pin in my finger


2 45acp and 1 357mag squib's.....

 

[BGDave]

"That was a lesson on case capacity vs powder that I will never forget. Getting the most rounds from a pound of powder is not the most important thing." INDYJOE

I like to call that false economy. Once was helping a buddy get started reloading. After punching numbers into a calculater decided on Bullseye because of more loads. The cost difference was under a half cent each.

 

[BGDave]

no booms.....just was ruunin' a few 380's in single stage and ran the decap pin in my finger


2 45acp and 1 357mag squib's.....

Ouch, ouch and more ouch. I have pinched my fingers a time or two. Come to think of it, it was .380s too. I don't know how guys (and gals) can reload .25 auto. I would have to use the bathroom tweezers for that.

 

[billybob44]

Most of these have been done by all of us...

Learned not to have more than one powder at a time on the bench. That's when I purchased my bullet puller!

Yes, parson, this is a VERY common mistake, that is Sooo easy to avoid-One of the MOST important/do EVERY time habit--ONE powder on the bench at a time...

Loaded up 200 rounds of 9mm with Ramshot Zip about 0.5 gr below max charge. The rounds would not cycle consistently in my G17. That was the longest 200 rounds of my life as I had to basically hand cycle to pistol. Lowest recoil 9mm I've ever shot though!

Same here RWS. Mine WOULD cycle OK through my CZ-75, though, so no pull-down/manual cycle needed.

i guess i sort of have a reloading mishap i can add. its not completly my mishap, but it fits.

when i was 8ish i decided to go shooting with my fathers smith model 27 357 mag. needless to say my father knew nothing about this. i grabbbed some ammo his friend had reloaded for the gun and walked out the door. on shot 4 i saw fire come out the side of the barrel.

shot 1 had lodged, shot 2 and 3 pushed the first one out, shot 4 blew out the side of the barrel. after not being able to sit down for a week, and bailing hay for a summer to buy my father a new gun i was nervious to start reloading my own.

i finally rebuilt the 357 (gave it to him on fathersday 20+ years after i blew it up) and the barrel still resides on my reloading bench as a reminder to slow down

Alan, I have a 6" Model 27-2 barrel in my safe with a "Small" bulge, about 1" foward of the forcing cone-that's the way I bought it (CHEAP)-Has a New/Used barrel on it now..

Once forgot to put the cotter pin back in the dillon primer pick-up tube. Picked up 100 primers, turned it over, and they went all over the floor.

Heck, I did not even count that one with me?? I thought EVERYONE did that!!HA HA..

Once had to switch to ball because an indoor match wouldn't allow JHP. Forgot to flip the seater in the dillon seat die. Bullets did not seat straight, causing some pretty hard jams (about 10% of them). Luckily I had loaded a test batch, caught them at the case gauge, and was able to just put them in the practice bin and fix the problem before the match.

pretty uneventful so far... [knocking on wood]

-rvb

 

[Aszerigan]

no booms.....just was ruunin' a few 380's in single stage and ran the decap pin in my finger

I've done this several times, most recently with a .308 die, just a couple weeks ago.

 

[DRob]

Story in a question

I think you'll be able to figure out my reloading "oops moment" from this question:

Hey Andrew. Do you have a Dillon low powder senser in stock?

 

[walker]

I started reloading back in '86 with a Dillon 450, had a few rounds that didn't get powder.

 

[redwingshooter]

Same here RWS. Mine WOULD cycle OK through my CZ-75, though, so no pull-down/manual cycle needed.

I had a few that would cycle but they were few and far between. I didn't take them home to pull down because I was so cheesed off that I had reloaded so many I wanted to shoot them off. Learned to only do batches of 10 when trying a new powder! lol

 

[Merrixs]

I just put my first piece of brass through my brand new hornady sizing die and destroyed the decaping pin and bend the shaft because I didn't realize I had a berdan primed 7.62x39 and not a boxer. I didn't even notice the added force due to the neck and shoulder being converted to 6.5 Grendel at that portion of stroke. I knew something had gone wrong when the newly sized case neck had about a 10 degree angle to it from the bent expander coming back through it. Oh well Live and learn.