Reloaders! lets see your mistakes!

[ziconceo]

This thread can be for everyone who wants to teach others what NOT to do by doing it themselves!

I have a "shelf of shame" that Ive been building up over my 7 years of reloading and I thought I'd share it with you guys and explain why these mistakes happened. It may take awhile to list everything though.

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So basically, all of the rifle calibers with the massive rings in the necks are ones that I put too much pressure on the crimping die with. You really have to be careful when crimping and know when to stop.

The rifle cartridges that have bent and broken necks are caused by inserting the bullets sideways accidentally, make sure the neck is opened up enough to accept part of the bullet by hand and then make sure it is aligned.

The pistol cartridges that have cracks in them are caused by their case life expiring, so not checking carefully for pressure or wear signs.

The pistol cartridges that have the massive flaring is from accidentally using 357 cases while the press is set for 38 special. Same thing will happen if your doing 380auto/9mm

The pistol cartridges that have bent and broken necks are caused by inserting the bullets sideways accidentally, make sure the neck is opened up enough to accept part of the bullet by hand and then make sure it is aligned.

Hi-lighted in red is the problem while hi-lighted in blue is the cause.

[Tok36]

Nice collection of fallen solders. Thanks for the pics. I only have a little dish full of my mistakes (only been reloading aprox. 1.5 years) but ill try to get a photo.

[bsumoba]

3 years of reloading thus far and only one piece of brass in my collection so far. i guess im getting lucky

this was a 6.5 creedmoor. I wildcatted this piece of brass into a super ackley improved. LOL

[SonofWWIIDI]

Not it!

[2meterB]

So far.. Just a backwards primer... And the other night i tried to prime a live round... Fortunately nothing happened!

[Marinos]

I too have inserted a primer backwards on accident. I have also tried to prime an already primed case. Haven't done anything else fortunately.

[bohoki]

somehow a 204 ruger got into my 223 it was a very funny shape after it left my press i dont save mistakes

i guess i am pretty good ive only mushed a couple 357 cases from not being careful seating the bullet

[JMP]

My trigger finger:

[SonofWWIIDI]

My trigger finger:

Wait, wouldn't that be your booger hook?

[Carcassonne]

This thread can be for everyone who wants to teach others what NOT to do by doing it themselves!

I have a "shelf of shame" that Ive been building up over my 7 years of reloading and I thought I'd share it with you guys and explain why these mistakes happened. It may take awhile to list everything though.




So basically, all of the rifle calibers with the massive rings in the necks are ones that I put too much pressure on the crimping die with. You really have to be careful when crimping and know when to stop.

The pistol cartridges that have cracks in them are caused by their case life expiring, so not checking carefully for pressure or wear signs.

The pistol cartridges that have the massive flaring is from accidentally using 357 cases while the press is set for 38 special. Same thing will happen if your doing 380auto/9mm

The pistol cartridges that have bent and broken necks are caused by inserting the bullets sideways accidentally, make sure the neck is opened up enough to accept part of the bullet by hand and then make sure it is aligned.

Hi-lighted in red is the problem while hi-lighted in blue is the cause.

I don't keep evidence around. If the case is unusable, I toss it in the trash.

I flared a few 357 cases, but I roll the flare out, and resize the case so I can still use them.

I had some brass where the case split. The case splits when the cartridge is fired, not during reloading. I have had brand new brass (nickel plated) split the first time it was fired, so I think it was not caused by an expired case. I think it had to do with poor case annealing.

I have torn some brass because the case mouth wasn't flared enough or the bullet tilted before it went into the die. The Hornady bullet seater helps prevent that. One reason why a case isn't flared right is because the expander die was set up for longer brass, and a real short piece of brass found its way into the mix. It will happen when reloading mixed brass. I can't remember it happening when using brass with all the same headstamp.



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[thenodnarb]

My biggest mistake, which I kept, is a plugged 300 whisper barrel. I believe it has 3 squibs in it. Yup 3.
I was experimenting with sub sonic rounds in that barrel and was using a particular charge of 2400 with a 168 BTHP. I wanted to try some 200 grain bullets but the only ones I could find were nosler partitions, which are shaped more like a cylinder with a flat bottom and round nose. I didn't increase the powder charge, thinking I would get a slower velocity. Well I got a slower velocity. The increased friction only let the bullet get a few inches past the gas port. The gun cycled however, and I tried another shot. The gun cycled again(didn't kaboom), so I fired again, all the while not noticing impacts on the berm. The third shot seomthing funny happened. the bolt locked back and was jammed up. Long story short, the gas pressure sheared the gas key off the bolt carrier(ar 15).Luckily, nothing more than that happened. Only the barrel and gas block, and 2 gas key screws were ruined. With a new barrel and gas block, and a little work drilling out the old sheared off gas key screws, I was able to reuse everything, and I learned a lesson without loosing any body parts:

LOW pressure can be just as dangerous as HIGH pressure!
Be aware of barrel obstructions!

[Jon Road King]

You guys must be way better than me. After a little over a year of reloading, I have half a dang coffee can full 'oops'

[opos]

The guy that was standing next to me when I substituted C-4 for Bullseye..
Powder shortage don't you know

[sl0re10]

My biggest headache was from not testing a new box of primers before going mass production with them. They were too soft (as in defective; same model has been fine in the past) so I ended up with hundreds of rounds that have primers that pop.

Ugh. I worked up a lower pressure subsonic load that works with the bad primers... so I'm just pulling the bullet and reworking them without removing the primers... still... ugh.

Always make 10 or so rounds and test before using most of the 1000 box of primers.

[ziconceo]

My biggest headache was from not testing a new box of primers before going mass production with them. They were too soft (as in defective; same model has been fine in the past) so I ended up with hundreds of rounds that have primers that pop.

Ugh. I worked up a lower pressure subsonic load that works with the bad primers... so I'm just pulling the bullet and reworking them without removing the primers... still... ugh.

Always make 10 or so rounds and test before using most of the 1000 box of primers.

That's...that's horrible I'm so sorry I know how you feel, Ive made a batch of 100 rounds that all turned out to be inaccurate! I thought since it was in the loading manual it would be fine....nope! (this was my first year of reloading).