Share your moronic moments in reloading

[JackEllis]

Originally Posted by Swagman00

When loading shotshells with #7 steel shot, MAKE SURE to keep the primer cup CLEAR of loose shot before ramming in the primer.

BANG!

(Note: This never happened with lead.)

...and by the way, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS put the cap BACK on your MEC reservoir before TIPPING it OVER! Cleaning up #8 shot SUCKS.

The same applies to your shell plate! Put the screw in after changing it! I've seen it go "Zoop!" and fly out sideways as the waterfall of shot spills out...



As for this, I have lost oh...six depriming rods thanks to Berdan primed brass.

God d**n bull**** lousy *** ****ing design...WHO still uses BERDAN FFS!?

I know when I have a piece of Berdan primed brass by feel these days.

But I got a stuck case for the first time on Sunday and learned all about removing them. Especially when the decapping pin/expander ball won't come out first.

[glassparman]

Using an inertia hammer to pull down some old 303 British Milsurp ammo . . . one round was a "Marker" round for machine guns. That means it has a small explosive in the projectile to show the user where it hits.

Yeah, about three taps with the inertia hammer and KABLOOM!!! The inertia hammer survived but my underwear did not!

[the86d]

Originally Posted by AlienHobo

When decapping, if the primer wont pop out, pull harder!

I had this happen to me with berdan 9mm. I was able to straighten her out, but then it broke, so I tried a 3rd party rod, and it was too thick to deprime 25 ACP, or was it 9mm?

[destrudo]

Lee depriming dies save me from berdan primed recycling destroying everything, but even then, lee has lately been shipping these soft steel pins with their dies that just bend after awhile if you over torque the collet.

Luckily there's squirrel daddy. Now when I overtorque the collet it penetrates the recyclable material, adding a nice new third flash hole. (I try really hard to not overtorque it now.)

You start getting used to the feel, but when you're processing thousands of pieces of brass, mistakes happen. Third holes happen. Recycling happens.

[wpage]

Do not drink and reload...

Seen a few problems at the gun club.

[RR.44]

Let's see, I once didn't seat the 180gr Sierra Match Kings deep enough in my 30.06 loads, didn't find out until I drove 50+ miles to the range ��, then I was reloading .40 S&W with some 155gr pills, well when the 155s ran out I grabbed the box of 180s I'd planned to load next, you guessed it, never changed the charge for the additional weight, was shooting said rounds out of my Baby Desert Eagle, they were STOUT to say the least, dropped a magazine full into my Glock 22C, 3 rounds in blew the extractor right out of the gun, I just escaped getting hit by it as it flew by. NEVER AGAIN

[C.G.]

One squib long ago, I've paid a lot more attention since then.

[USMCM16A2]

$1250 spent on Remington 700 in 7mm-08 stainless steel with gorgeous walnut stock. Was at Angeles Shooting Range pulled the trigger on one of my reloads, pop, fizz, smoke. It took a borrowed mallet, several wacks, to get the bolt open, the 3 rings of steel proved their value. The ring that surrounds the case head was blown to twice its normal diameter the rifle was toasted. I still have receiver and barrel in my gun safe as a reminder. A2

[Bopper]

Originally Posted by JagerDog

After a squib you would have to rack a new shell in manually. The takillya may not just be for reloading.

Not so, well at least not with magnum primers. I had a one and only squib experience with a .44 Automag. Thankfully it just went click on the round following the squib.

[Jibjib]

Never had any big or dangerous mistakes, I’m pretty anal about the process. That being said every time I load a batch of shotgun shells in my Mec progressive press I will without a doubt forget to flip my charge bar after the last round and it’ll dump a load of shot on an empty slot. Getting shot out of the mechanism is a pain and I’ll be cleaning shot out of my load bench for the rest of my friggin life. Shot is like glitter, you think you got it all picked up but it always comes back.

[croue]

I mounted my press above one of those plastic pet carrier liners. Looks like a big lunchroom tray. It catches all the inevitable shot and powder dumps from shotshell reloading. Still a mess but at least it’s not running all over the bench and floor.


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[Jibjib]

Originally Posted by croue

I mounted my press above one of those plastic pet carrier liners. Looks like a big lunchroom tray. It catches all the inevitable shot and powder dumps from shotshell reloading. Still a mess but at least it’s not running all over the bench and floor.


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That’s a great idea! Shot spills are such a pain in the ***

[Cheep]

I have a baking pan screwed to the bottom of a PW shot loader.

[ireload]

1. Over crimped .223 case.
2. Crushed primers.
3. Crushed cases.
4. Didn’t put any powder one particular 12 gauge buckshot load. Pulled the trigger and “pop” sound. Plastic wad stuck in the barrel and all 9 buckshot rolled out. My Elmer Fudd moment.

I make it a habit when I reload, I reload in batches of 50 rounds. I find I have better QA. I’m not a competitive shooter so I don’t burn through a lot of rounds.

[Jason_2111]

Originally Posted by destrudo

Lee depriming dies save me from berdan primed recycling destroying everything, but even then, lee has lately been shipping these soft steel pins with their dies that just bend after awhile if you over torque the collet.

Luckily there's squirrel daddy. Now when I overtorque the collet it penetrates the recyclable material, adding a nice new third flash hole. (I try really hard to not overtorque it now.)

You start getting used to the feel, but when you're processing thousands of pieces of brass, mistakes happen. Third holes happen. Recycling happens.

+1 for Squirrel Daddy... his pins are great.

I had 5 buckets of nice clean 308 brass I was processing.... got it all in an estate auction. Didn't notice that the 3rd bucket was different from the others, all berdan garbage. SNAP. Put in spare pin, SNAP. Put in last resort pin, SNAP... DAFUQ?? Oh yeah, whole thing was berdan. (That's when I switched to squirrel daddy)

Also, when processing a few K of 5.56mm blanks into 300-BLK, decided to cut them first, then do my initial wash. Found over 2 dozen live rounds the hard way. CHOP, powder goes everywhere. DAFUQ? Primers were hit, but didn't ignite. I used to see this all the time in the armory, them blanks dirty up a rifle like nobody's business, and the firing pin stops moving smoothly.

Now I tumble them wet with no pins for a good hour+ before chopping them down. (Yes, 5.56 LC blanks make 300-BLK just fine, and can be gotten cheap from Everglades Ammo)

[checkenbach]

Loaded a few rounds, and wondered why primers were falling out, and powder was spilling.
I had put the decapping die back in station #1 on my press. Pulled bullets, resized cases, moved on...
Doh...

[MarikinaMan]

Originally Posted by AlienHobo

When decapping, if the primer wont pop out, pull harder!

I just experienced this. After reloading thousands of 223, I was actually puzzled experiencing it for the first time. Like, WTF? What did I do know.

Had another moronic moment. Setting up my new Dillon Trimmer, I decided to take out the bit, reset it and put blue loctite.

Taking it off, I sheared the bolt head off. Its headed back to Dillon

[Flouncer]

Loading 9mm for first time. Reloading I should say. Have had the Ruger 9mm since 2010 and about 1,000 rounds factory down the pipe. First reloads AA#7. Poof, spluink, fiz. Hole in target but not enough pressure to operate the slide. Next day back at it with full power max 6.7g of powder. Spweeeet !! Fizzz Pop. No boingo - go. Go back home, carefully re-check the scale, zero it, check weight/mass of a weighed charge with volume in the Lee Manual. All a OK. Switch powders to HS6 BANG at the range just now. Nice snappy retort, outstanding accuracy. Sitting here looking at my "AA#7" before I take it back to the store for a refund. It's Reloader #7, a rifle powder.

Where is my prize ??

Edit: I have a lb of RL-7 for sale, minus exactly 48x6g of powder. Cheap.

[Bigedski]

When I first started reloading forty some odd years ago, I was getting ready and rushing to get my .45 acp ammo done for a weekend trip to the desert for some shooting with some friends. we had been shooting for about an hour when I pulled the trigger on my 1911 and the bullet went about 30 feet and you could see it come out of the barrel and hit the ground, and I was like WTF and of course the slide never ejected the brass, so I racked in another round and it did it again.
Thus ended my 1911 shooting for the weekend, found 48 more after pulling the last 300 plus rounds apart, forgot the powder in one block of reloads.
Needless to say I slowed down and double checked everything after that.

[cg&p]

my 1st time reloading 9mm i read somewhere that you didn't need to crimp. i started reloading 9mm because i was building an AR9. i had read that LRBHO in an AR9 was somewhat finicky. i fired the last round in the mag and case ejected, but didn't lock back. the last round in the mag was a squib. unknowing this i loaded a new mag, charged it and BOOM not BANG.

the slug from the squib was right there in the chamber. the round exploded with the bullet still in the case and the base blown out the side.

somehow the gun was fine, and no damage except to my pride. as soon as i got home i ordered a Lee FCD for 9mm. Ran the rest of the rounds through it and all functioned perfectly after crimp being fired very slowly and lots of double checking after each shot LOL. Lesson learned.

[AGGRO]

Originally Posted by glassparman

Using an inertia hammer to pull down some old 303 British Milsurp ammo . . . one round was a "Marker" round for machine guns. That means it has a small explosive in the projectile to show the user where it hits.

Yeah, about three taps with the inertia hammer and KABLOOM!!! The inertia hammer survived but my underwear did not!

winning so far ....damn

[anonymouscuban]

Hey! I got a new one to share.

Loaded up 100 primers in a pickup tube. Inverted the tube while setting it down on the shelf and out come all 100 primers all over the floor. Forgot to put the retaining pin in the darn tube.

Good news is I found all but 1 of the primers.

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[captn-tin]

Remember thinking "I'll just stick to a couple of calibers"...yea, right!

[divingin]

Originally Posted by cg&p

the last round in the mag was a squib. unknowing this i loaded a new mag, charged it and BOOM not BANG.

the slug from the squib was right there in the chamber. the round exploded with the bullet still in the case and the base blown out the side.

somehow the gun was fine, and no damage except to my pride. as soon as i got home i ordered a Lee FCD for 9mm.

Not sure a factory crimp die is going to prevent a squib followed by a live round.

If it doesn't go off, check that things are clear before proceeding. The people around you will appreciate it. Easy way is to lock the slide back, and place your cell phone flashlight at the muzzle. If you don't see light on the breech face, investigate further.

[SamsDX]

I'm glad to see not too many reports of physical injuries, either during reloading itself or from cartridges that were improperly loaded.

I was going too quick on two occasions this past weekend, and I jammed my thumb between the ram and the press frame - I was pulling the lever/raising the ram at the same time as placing the case into the holder.

You would figure once would be enough to drive the lesson home.

Nope, it took a second (and much more painful) time.

[divingin]

Originally Posted by SamsDX

I'm glad to see not too many reports of physical injuries, either during reloading itself or from cartridges that were improperly loaded.

I was going too quick on two occasions this past weekend, and I jammed my thumb between the ram and the press frame - I was pulling the lever/raising the ram at the same time as placing the case into the holder.

You would figure once would be enough to drive the lesson home.

Nope, it took a second (and much more painful) time.

Been there, done that.

Decapping a batch of 300BO on a single stage with a Lee decapping die. Got the rhythm going, left hand slides a case in, right hand hits the handle while the left orients a new case, Right hand pulls decapped case and tosses it in a bucket while the left loads the next case. Had a case that didn't quite seat in the shell holder, so left hand goes in to insert more - index finger over case mouth, thumb pushing on the base. Nobody told the right hand there was a problem, and it hit the handle. Thi pinching told me something was wrong so I raised the handle and tried to pull the left hand out, only to find it being held there impaled on the decapping pin. Had to whack my left hand with the right to get it free of the pin. Surprisingly little pain and just a touch of blood. Took a while for the hole in the fingernail to migrate out though.

[mjmagee67]

Loading on Dillon 1050 with a Mr. Bulletfeeder.

I hear the familiar click, click, click of an empty bullet feeder. Sooooo I grab a big hand full of bullets and promptly throw in the case feeder.....Yea that didn't go well.....

[fish45]

I forgot to switch my sizing/depriming die to my seating die and bent the expanding/ depriming rod on the first round I tried to seat. Called RCBS and they sent me another one. Being the geniuses I am, I immediately did the same thing again as soon as I set it up. I felt too stupid to call again and just bought a new die.

[Psychbiker]

I was getting really mad why some 9mm bullets weren't staying in the case for sizing and crimping. Swearing, adjusting, sorting etc and finally realized left out the size die.

These were deprimed and clean brass.

[anonymouscuban]

I think this thread may have an unintended use... someone new to reloading can easily read through and learn all the common mistakes that are made and hopefully avoid them.

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[sl0re10]

Originally Posted by anonymouscuban

I think this thread may have an unintended use... someone new to reloading can easily read through and learn all the common mistakes that are made and hopefully avoid them.

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it's the only reason we are admitting to being idiots (re: save others from the same idiocy).

Anyway; I had some quickload data for a new powder and without thinking started at the max load (I did not go over it though)... Sometimes that works ok and this time it did not.

[robert101]

Sure, I've made mistakes like creating too short an OAL, crushing cases, sideways primers, ill adjusted dies, needing to pull some loads. But, I've not had a squib load to date (over 30 years reloading), or created an overcharge that caused a gun or person problem. Maybe I've been lucky but I do try to be vigilant when reloading and most importantly keep my equipment in great operating condition AND not exceeding book load values. There.

[jimmykan]

I was annealing rifle brass in Giraud-style machine, and decided to anneal some primed brass. The flame didn't reach into the bottom of the case, so after a few cases annealed and dropped, I thought I was good to go.

Then I stepped away for a second and BANG! ... BANG! The heat finally reached the primers and cooked them off. The primers spontaneously deprimed themselves and left two dents in the loaf pan that I use to catch the annealed brass.

[magmaster]

I had some VV N-135 working on some test loads. I emptied my hopper and proceeded to dump the powder into my 8 pound jug of Win 748 that had about 7 pounds in it. It was on the bench for the next loads. Yep dumped the whole jug. A costly stupid mistake. And I never have two containers of powder on the bench when loading anymore.

[tomrkba]

“I load 45 ACP cases to 460 Rowland pressures”