Author Topic: Help! I can't stop myself (Read 657 times)

jmet2 · « **on:** February 11, 2006, 08:43:23 AM »

A few weeks ago I accidentally double charged a round while reloading. Gun and guy are ok, but what a show. Ever since then I can't stop flinching and closing my eyes when I pull the trigger. Is there some exercise or something I can do to stop this. Seem to do ok on my 22's, rifle and shotguns.

Savage · « **Reply #1 on:** February 11, 2006, 10:30:45 AM »

It's gonna be tough to work thru this, but it can be done. The first thing is to get your reloading routine in order where you can get your confidence back in the safety of your reloads. Only you know what that involves, an equipment change, method, sequence, whatever. The objective is to eliminate the potential cause of the double charge, untill you feel confident in the safety of your reloads.
Second, have a shooting buddy load your magazines, with an unknow number of snap caps/dummy rounds per mag. Concentrate on sight alignment and trigger press as you break each shot. The snap caps/dummy rounds will give you instant feedback on your progress.
Third, shoot a LOT! It will take a little time, but you'll work thru it.
Good luck, let us know how it works out.
Savage

Castaway · « **Reply #2 on:** February 11, 2006, 11:21:12 AM »

Ditto what Savage said. One more thing, after making sure your bullet launcher is empty (of course), dry fire, dry fire, dry fire. Shoot the bad guys on TV, the light swithces, corners of the room and anything else that comes in your mind. It's a matter of muscle memory, muscle control.

jimster · « **Reply #3 on:** February 12, 2006, 03:24:05 AM »

What Savage says about having a buddy load for you, and leaving some chambers with dummy rounds in them, works great.
I cured flinching with a buddy doing this, since he didn't know if the gun would go bang or not, you could see him flinch on the dummy rounds, more important, he could see himslef flinch very badly.
Every time he flinched, he was so embarrassed he forced himslef to stop it. He made his brain override the natural tendency to "get ready" for the shot.
After a couple of sessions having me load for him, that hammer would drop and barrel would not move, no more flinching.
Might take awhile if you had a realy bad experience.

Not sure if you could do this by yourself, maybe if you put in some dummy rounds and spun the cylinder before shooting so you didn't know when it was going off...but you can't cheat and look at the cyclinder.
That might work.

shermbob · « **Reply #4 on:** February 12, 2006, 04:52:12 AM »

Every thing said is good. But have you weighed all of your remaining reloads or are they gone. Make sure what is left is safe. Then you can worry about your flinch.

rockbilly · « **Reply #5 on:** February 12, 2006, 10:20:19 AM »

Years ago we called 'em TV loads. I have produced a double charged load and some with no powder, didn't take but once to cause me not to bring the portable reloading bench into the den and load while watching TV......... :roll:

Questor · « **Reply #6 on:** February 13, 2006, 03:20:35 AM »

Step 1: Throw the entire batch of ammo that had the double charge away. If there's a double charge in one there's probably no charge in another, and that can be just as dangerous if it causes a barrel blockage. This exercise will cost you some money, but will ease your mind about any possibility of another bad round in the same batch.

Step 2: Really understand what happened to cause the double charge. Was it your procedure or your equipment. Fix the problem. Check every round.

Step 3: Forget about it while you're shooting. Do all of your worrying at the reloading bench.

slave · « **Reply #7 on:** February 13, 2006, 04:22:14 AM »

jmet2,

You are right you can not stop yourself. You will not fix this by yourself because we can not lie to ourself. You need someone to help you. You need someone to load your gun for you. Sometimes with a blank some times with a load. Close your eyes and focus on form not results. A few practice rounds and you will be as good as new.

jmet2 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 15, 2006, 12:43:58 PM »

Thanks guys, its's nice to know I'm not the first to do this. Castaway I'm shooting at (visually everthing that moves). Shermbob & Questor I pulled the bullets on the remaining lot and the charge is correct, not sure what happened. Is it possibile I got a magnum primer mixed in with standard primers from the factory, I don't use anything other than standard primers.
Do magnum primers pack that much more punch?

Thanks again!!!!!!!

Questor · « **Reply #9 on:** February 15, 2006, 03:26:18 PM »

Depending on the powder, a magnum primer may actually give you lower pressures. In any case, magnum primers don't make that much difference. Not enough to make you think it's a double charge. In some rifle chamberings the primer does make a significant difference, but again, not huge. It would be helpful to know what kind of load you had.

454PB · « **Reply #10 on:** February 15, 2006, 06:49:18 PM »

I had a bad experience some years ago when a case failed in a 9mm. Other than the damaged gun and some shrapnel in my face, I was lucky. I found all the pieces of the gun, the failed casing, and the loaded rounds below the failed one that actually had the bullets melted by escaping gas. It shook me up good, and I spent a lot of time considering the cause, cure, and risk involved in continuing my favorite hobby. I changed a lot of my previous thinking on brass life, inspection, and personal protection while shooting. I also placed all the remains of the incident in the center of my reloading bench as a constant reminder.

Our Vice president is going through a MAJOR case of the reflection we go through when something awful happens, and he knows it was his fault. Each person handles bad experiences in their own way, hopefully you can rationalize through this one and continue enjoying your hobby.

jmet2 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 16, 2006, 12:20:26 PM »

Questor, my load was a 38 +p round with 4.5 gr of Win 231 and a 125gr Magtech jacketed hollow point using standard Win. small pistol primers. I have loaded this round many times. My loading process is methodical, clean, size, inspect, prime, and charge one at a time. If I get interupted in
my process I stop and start again with the round in hand, no matter which step I am in the process of doing. Maybe this is one of those events that just can't be explained. But be sure I am even more diligent than ever in my process, don't need this to happen again. Us gunner's don't need anymore bad publicity this week.

corbanzo · « **Reply #12 on:** March 05, 2006, 06:54:58 AM »

I had a similiar experience with a lever action rifle, when the bullets werent chambering correctly, and a puff of warm air would hit me in the eye, making my close my eyes. Gun on its way to get looked at my the mfg. After that, I started closing my eyes almost every time I pulled the trigger. What I did, was a to take an empty rifle, pull it up to the target, look at the target, and try and forget about the rifle, forget it was there, then pull the trigger. After getting used to it empty, then I put rounds in doing the same thing. Forgetting about the gun, and focus on the target. Actually improved my aim! :-D

454PB · « **Reply #13 on:** March 05, 2006, 11:52:22 AM »

Here is a picture from another forum of a nearly new Model 29 S&W .44 magnum. The shooter wasn't hurt, but he said anyone standing along side could have been, since pieces of the cylinder flew over 50 feet.