Got a real lesson today

[kcstott]

I do 100+ for new loads. If you use known components and published loads youll be alright. Has anyone really started at min loads and had catastrophic failures? I havent even had a failure to cycle.

Had this issue when I first started out reloading a very long time ago.

Didn't know anything and started with minimum loads using powder dippers on 9mm nato stuff was so slow the first shot i fired i thought i had a problem then went looking for the brass. it was still in the chamber.

so i started to get a little ballsy and cranked up the loads then found out i can't get enough unique in the cases to get the bullet moving as fast as I like.

I tend to load my stuff on the hot side and the only time i take the time to work up to a load is on a new weapon or a new powder. especially on rifleloads

on my 45 loads 7.5gr of unique for 230gr slugs gets me right at 950 FPS good and hot and no failures.

[ARKLITE881South]

Don't feel bad, you are NOT alone. Yesterday a guy i know said he's been having problems with some hand loads. 9 mm. He'd shoot one, and then 3-4 failure to fire, shoot maybe 2, 4-5 failure to fire. Then he said, he'd wet tumbled a bunch of pistol brass with the fired primers in the cases. Then, put them on a pan in the oven to dry them for like 20-30 min. Now, he's got 600 plus loaded rounds to unload. It was so bad, he'd hold his pistol sideways ejection port facing down so he could stack the empties and non fired rounds in a pile. He's a leftie. I've never dried cases without knocking the primers out, betting he won't either, from now on. Forgot to add, this all happened while he was taking a pistol training course.

[Eljay]

When I dry them with the primers in I give them a couple of hours in a dehumidifier. This is based on letting them dry for a while and then depriming a half dozen and checking for moisture. It takes an amazing amount of time to get them 100% dry. I also keep ahead of brass processing so they sit at least a couple of days before I need to use them.