What's Your Worst Reloading Mistake????

[Blowtorch53]

Hello Fellow Reloaders,

I can recall two reloading mistakes I have made that were major, one which could have been a disaster:

1.  My first reloading was done with a Lee Loader that someone gave me.  I used the powder scoop supplied with the kit and it worked fine.  These are good tools but I was at a point in my life that I was not all that good in following directions and I failed to read the basics of reloading in a manual before starting.  I only read what was supplied with the tool, which is ok, but I failed to establish the system necessary to be a safe reloader that it spells out in the manuals.  I loaded up some .30-06 ammo. for my Remington 742 auto. and failed to charge one of the cases.  I could not hear the primer pop because of my earmuffs and thought it was a misfire.  I had already sent a few of my rounds downrange before the dud so I was convinced that I was not going to blow myself up and I had done everthing correctly.  I started to jack another shell in the chamber but the Spirit of the Universe made me somehow see that the casing that came out did not contain a bullet.  I truly believe it was devine intervention because I came very close to not spotting it.  The bullet was somewhere down the bore from the pressure of the primer.  I had to use a lot of effort to poke it out with a cleaning rod.  This would have been a disaster had I chambered another round and let it go.  A barrel burst at least and probably an injury too myself would have occured.  I pulled all the bullets and dumped the rest of the rounds.  I don't even remember if any the rest of them had primer only loads since that was about 30 years or so ago.  The lesson I learned, almost the hard way, was to look in each case side by side in loading block under a bright light to visually make sure that each round is charged and the powder levels are at a consistent height for all.  It says this in all the reloading manuals and could have prevented this near disaster.

2.  A few years later I was given a nice Ruger #1 .25-06 and bought dies and stuff to load some ammo. for it.  I had a bunch of .30-06 brass on hand and I was an experienced reloader by then so I necked it all down an loaded up about a hundred rounds on a single stage press, carefully measuring each powder charge with a trickler and scale to the nearest 1/10 of a grain.  They were great looking rounds, all polished in my tumbler, loaded to all specs., etc.  The problem I discovered after driving 25 miles to the rifle range that not a single one of them would chamber!  This is where I learned my lesson about neck thickness.  I also learned that no matter now long you have been reloading, you must be able to follow instructions.  My manuals all say that the necks get thicker when you neck something down and they might not work without neck turning.  What part of that is unclear?  Maybe I should have checked the first few to make sure they would chamber like I do now instead of spending all that time loading them.  Maybe I should have spent $20 and bought new .25-06 brass for my $700 rifle so they would have the proper headstamp and couldn't later been used in the wrong rifle!  I sure know this now.  Boy, my hindsight is better than anyone I know!

I would be interested in hearing any "war stories" from any of you guys about reloading.  This stuff is fun and I have enjoyed reloading and shooting a lot throughout my life.  I love reading about it also.  I have learned most of the important lessons in all parts of my life the hard way and it got me to where I am today and I'm grateful to be here.

Thanks,

Blowtorch

[torpedoman]

trusted memory once and used the wrong imr powder 4031 instead of 3031. NEVER trust your memory.

[Halwg]

Seating primers in backwards.  I never heard of 4031, do you mean 4831?

[mannyrock]

Dear Guys,

  My first rifle was a 7 Mag, and then I got a reloading set for Christmas.

  I wanted to shoot a light load, for practice and varmints, so I got a Speer reloading manual, selected the lightest load listed in the manual for a 145 grain bullet, and carefully reloaded about 40 rounds.

  At the range, when I fired each shell, it was really hard to open the bolt, chards of brass kept getting scraped off when I ejected the rounds, and the primers were dimpled outward.  Since I had never reloaded before, I thought that I had just re-sized the brass shells incorrectly.   I had no idea that these were all signs of dangerously high pressure.

   So, I just continued to fire each shell, until at about round number 20, my extractor broke off.  It was a miserably hot and humid day, sweat was pouring down my face into my eyes, my shoulder was bruised, and my rifle was broken.  I was so PO-ed by the experience that I gave away my reloading equipment and never reloaded again.

   It wasn't until years later that I learned that light loads can create dangerously high pressure (from too much oxygen), and that reloading manuals are just general guides that can be WRONG.   At the first sign of high pressure, I should have destroyed the remaining rounds, and then  gone upward in the chart to add a little more powder to my reloads.

  To this day, I am a factory load only guy.

Best Regards,

Mannyrock

[GameHauler]

Getting into reloading$$$$$$$$$

[Blowtorch53]

Manny,

Reloading gives me many hours of enjoyment.  It is relaxing and fun.  That's the important part to me.  It's almost as much fun as going and shooting up what you reloaded.  One has to really pay attention and not become distracted.  You have to sort of develop a system for checking yourself, which I have done over the years.  Some of the stuff I reload, like the .303 Savage is pretty hard to get and very difficult to get with much variety in the loads.  I have some pretty odd stuff and the ammo. is expensive if you can find it.  I guess I am just hooked on reloading as much as shooting, hunting, and guns.

BT

[Hairtrigger]

I started at a load listed in an old Hornady manual as max for 357 magnum. It listed max as 16.5 gr of H110... the next newer manual from Hornady listed 15.6 gr of H110 as max.
Anyway
Locked up my Ruger Blackhawk and after having to use a mallet to take the cylinder out I sent it to Ruger thinking the gun had a problem. Good news is when Ruger shipped it back they had done a wonderful trigger job on it for me.

[skb2706]

trusted memory once and used the wrong imr powder

yep I confess that is my worse..............

One other time I started pouring powder in cased that had not been primed...ball powder. In 37 years of handloading I guess I have not made many mistakes.

[Jacko]

Only been reloading a few months , loaded about 650 rounds .

1st mistake - 'taking the advice of a saleman' who wanted to sell me what he wanted and not was on my list which I had made up after choosing the powder/ primers that suited my purpose from a respected reloading manual - Remington 1 1/2 primers have a disclaimer on them "do not use in .357mag and other high intensity handgun cartridges" , loaded up 20 cases but had not charged them when I noticed disclaimer . He also said W296 powder was dirty? and sold me 2400 - dirty compared to what ??

2nd mistake - I sheepishly admit to loading a case with powder before priming it - thankfully I noticed it when powder dribbled out all over the kitchen table .

3rd mistake- doing too much research and confusing myself with the conflicting advice from "experts" be that in printed media , the internet or from differant print date reloading manuals .

regards Jacko

[Castaway]

Loaded a 45 ACP case with bullet and no powder.  Bullet didn't exit until fully charged second round forced it out of the barrel.  Trashed a barrel,  Now, each and every time I charge cases, I give a final look-see, under good light, to make sure all have powder

[bubba]

I was oading for 280 for a remington 7600 pump.  The load was 4831 45.3 grains. A very safe load.  However when you invert the numbers on the lyman dps and load 54.3 grains it was a bit too hot.  The locking lugs were torn right off the bolt and the barrel was ruined. I had it reapired, but it was expensive to do so. I now check, double check and recheck again.  No one wa sinjured which I am very thankful for. 

[Mikey]

Trusting a progressive reloader to drop a powder charge every time rather than charging each case individually and checking each charge.

[Glanceblamm]

Poor housekeeping....I have been very fortunate with minor errors but have had a few scares. I learned to put everything away before starting and then get out only what I need to do the job at hand.

[Tom W.]

Getting into reloading$$$$$$$$$

Indeed... I love it, altho I get these magazines that have stuff that I KNOW will be just what I need.....


And if you ever get into  casting..... welcome to the dark side!

[Westbound]

Luckily my only real mistake that wasn't caught immediately was a 45LC that didn't get a powder charge.
I noticed the lack of recoil and no bullet impact before firing the next round.  After beating the bullet out of the barrel with a cleaning rod, I went home and pulled bullets on the remaining batch.  It was the only one without powder, but I felt better after I knew it was the only one!

[huntswithdogs]

I Reckon I've been lucky. I think my only mistake was reading the scale on my teeter totter scale bcakwards. When the powder quit going down the spout and was backing up in the funnel, I knew something was wrong! Thank God for low capacity shells!

I've been reloading since in the late 80's. Shotgun, handgun and rifle. Probly just put a big ole JINX on myself!



HWD

[ncsurveyor]

Thankfully, I have caught my failure to charge cartridge, before I fired it, but it does scare one enough to make a redundant check procedure and stick to it.

My only other reloading mistake was with a front stuffer SxS.  Blew the nipple out of that one. 

[v-man]

First Shotgun shell I ever reloaded. Lee Handloader in 1976. I Ttpped the plastic plunger into the empty hull to seat the primer using the wrong piece. Primer went off, shattered the plunger tip, drove top of plunger through sheetrock ceiling, left me with a "Cajun Blackened" thumb and index finger, numb for a couple of days.

[Halwg]

Years ago I started doing my reloading in stages.  I deprime and clean all the brass.  Then I trim it, and prime all that I am going to load.  Then I work on a maximum of 40 cases at a time, sometimes only 20.  Doing this, I keep everything in order, and am able to charge the cases without missing one.  I always use powder that won't let me double charge a case.  When I seat the bullets, I do them 10 at a time.  This takes longer, and is not for high capacity reloaders, but it works well for what I load for my brother and me.

[zoner]

years ago i was interrupted while loading some 45acp and loaded a round with primer but no powder...the gun went off,cycled funny(1911),i checked it out and the primer had enough poop to send the bullet down the bore,but it stuck in the bore....darn good thing i didn't fire another round....don't let anyone bother you when reloading.....

[Blowtorch53]

Guys,

The failure to charge a case after priming seems to be the rule here.  I guess the ones who double charged a case with Bullseye and touched it off probably can't see to read this forum. 

You've reminded me of another screw up.  Once, long ago, I made two serious mistakes.  1. I loaded some .38 Special ammo. for a friend.  2.  I loaded some old 1/2 jacket hollow points with a very small amount of powder.  It was below anything recommended, I believe, but I don't remember the powder.  He shot the .38s in a 3" stainless Rossi. The first round shed the jacket (just like it said it would do in the manuals) and the jacket stuck in the barrel.  He kept shooting, wondering why he wasn't seeing any results on the target, and stacked up the bullets of two or three more rounds before it locked the cylinder.  The last bullet was half in and half out of the cylinder so it was locked TIGHT!!!  He didn't blow up the gun because of the cylinder gap I suppose.  This also made me believe that Rossi makes a pretty tough gun.  I felt terrible so I took the gun in a trade and I drilled the lead out of the barrel and cleaned the rest out with a lead remover.  It was not damaged in any way and neither was he, thank God!  The gun shot fine afterwards but I learned some valuable lessons there.  I hate to tell on myself but the things I did when I first started loading were pretty dumb at times.  Thanks for all your replys.  This is very interesting.  Maybe we can help some newcomers follow instructions and be safe.  You must read the recipe and follow instructions!

BT

[stimpylu32]

Been known to do a few dumb things before ,

like transposed the numbers for a load on the scale , should have been 45g and weighed out 54g ,

seated primers upside down ,

started to load Bullseye instead of Unique ,

tried to put a powder charge for a 357 Mag round into a 38 Spl case ,

You get the idea , when your gut tells you Something Just An't Right , theres a good chance its not , so listen !!!!!!!!! 

stimpy

[KAYR1]

Testing two rifles of different calibers and keeping two boxes of ammo on the shooting bench at once. I sent a .243 down the barrel of a Browning A-Bolt in 7-08, while letting the .243 cool. Nothing happened, but scared me enough to be more careful!

[Robert357]

Downloading the Alliant power website receipt for a .357 Mag 158 grain bullet load with Alliant 2400 powder.

Starting about .2 grain above min load and having load work-ups to the powder manufacturers max powder load in .2 gain powder increments.

Going to the range and after shooting a few rounds feeling that the load was pretty hot, but kept on going as I was way below max powder level.

Finally on an expecially hard extraction from my Ruger Blackhawk, deciding I would chicken out and then finding a couple weeks later that the website had a new max powder load, that was below where I stopped!

Never again, will I rely upon a single reloading source for a load work up and I will always look for signs of overpressure after the firing of each round in a load work up.

[Dirt Bag]

Well, quite a while back, I bought a Remington Classic 257 Roberts - very nice rifle, and right away it wanted to shoot good. Put a 10x leupold on it and started to tinker. It liked Hodgdon 380 and Ballistic tips, and since it is a long action, I started seating the bullets farther out, and it kept shooting better. Read in a manual somewhere about "soft seating" the bullets and letting them crush into the rifling - Man! - Got to give that a try. Same powder charge, and the bullets hanging way out there. Seems like I loaded five rounds that way and went out the trap club to try them. At the time, we had a shack we kept the clay targets in - there was an old desk in there that we would bench off of, and shoot across at the slag pile. Set her up on the bags and milked off a perfect pull, and it gave me one hell of a wallop - opened my eyes and the shack was full of smoke...... and the bolt wouldn't lift. Now it sinks in... stock aint busted, barrell aint split.. not bleeding and can still see. So we take a screwdriver handle and rap the bottom of the bolt and it opens up, not easy, but it does open, and the case is black and the primer blown out. That was then, and haven't done anything like it since. Guess God really does look out after damn fools.
    Still have the rifle and still my favorite, and still shoots better than I can shoot it. Has a 6 - 42mm leupold on it now, and since then we found it is poisen with 75 grain V max's -- seated back in the case where they belong.
                                                                                  D.B.

[mauser98us]

I've been lucky,maybe cause I'm OCD when it comes to loading. I did once chamber and shoot a 308 Winchester in my 308 Norma Mag. I keep the case in plain view on my bench as a reminder. It looks wicked

[yooper77]

I have been reloading for over 20 years and nothing to date has been a reloading mistake.  I am painstakingly careful with all my steps.  You can call me incredibly anal also, but my process is safe and exact.

I currently hand load the following cartridges:
38 Special
357 Magnum
44 Special
44 Magnum
45 ACP
45 Colt
454 Casull
223 Remington
22-250 Remington
243 Winchester
25-35 Winchester
257 Weatherby Magnum
270 Winchester
7x57 Mauser Ackley Improved
7mm-08 Remington
30-30 Winchester
308 Winchester
30-06 Springfield
30-06 Springfield Ackley Improved

[Couger]

Early in my reloading experience during my high school years, I was much more enthusiastic about trying to kill hard-to-find puddle ducks (mallards and pintails) than being as careful as I should have.

Unbeknownst to me was that Remington-Peters-Victor used to make shotshells with a base wad made from a substance that looked like compressed fiberboard or saw dust, and when depriming a hull, often that basewad would be mis-shapen and swaged to be over the primer hole.

One time I fired one of my 1 1/2oz 2 3/4in magnums (with Herco) in my right-handed Winchester M1200 pumpgun.  The action was right-handed of course and the ejection port opened in my face.  That particular time I had a "hang-fire" and the powder ignited late, catching me in the face.  I was wearing glasses that morning instead of contact lenses - lucky for me.  After shooting the rest of those suspect R-P hulls, I never reloaded them again and threw them away.

Also during one of those times I somehow had reloaded a round without a full charge of the required gun powder, and upon discharge noticed the shot barely made it out the barrel - blloooooop!  Out the muzzle into the water in front of me.

I recognized what had happened and immediately disassembled my shotgun taking off the barrel.  I found a long reed-like stick and managed to push the stuck wad out of the barrel and cleared it.  No way in hades I was going to try to shoot out the wad obstruction!  Besides the unknown injuries I might have sustained,  my dad's wrath  for hurting myself and destroying my gun wasn't something I wanted to experience too!

[Halwg]

The Alliant load for 2400 powder with a 158 gr bullet is super HOT!  I load 14.0 gr and it shoots great in my Marlin 1984C.  In my Taurus revolver, I only load 12.5 gr.  of 2400.  I have tried as much as 15.0 gr with the 158 gr. in the 1894C, but that caused me some cratered primers, so my normal load is 14.0 gr 158 gr, 15.0 gr 140 gr and 16.0 gr 125 gr.  That is much UNDER what Alliant lists.

[41 mag]

Sadly, I didn't purchase a large enough quantity of the now discontinued wonderful Remington 170gr SJHP for the 41mag.

Other than that I had a brain fart one weekend and found out that H-4350 and IMR-4350 are not interchangeable. DUH

Luckily however the load was only in the mid range of H-4350 and not too much of an issue other than a sticky bolt and some pulled rounds.