My first Squib load

[Pdheald]

I have a lee classic kit in 9mm. I have made about 500 rounds with it. Until today they all have worked great in my 92sf. But today, when my son was shooting, it just went pop so I checked it. The shell was covered in black and the bullet was just into the riffling. I brought it home and cleared the barrel but I want to know if I should worry about the other 100 rounds I still have? And how often does this happen? It has really got me wondering if loading my own is the right way to go.

Any input, experience or advice would be welcome.

Thank you

Edited November 24, 2011 by Pdheald

[Guest pfries]

How are you measuring the powder?

[Guest edc]

You could always weigh the rounds and see if one looks to be about 5gr low.

Depending on how you load the powder, maybe you just forgot. On my Lee Pro 1000, the chain broke on my Auto-Disk and a squib load sneaked in. I weighed about a hundred rounds and luckily didn't find any more.

[mikegideon]

How are you measuring the powder?

1-2-3--5-6-7-8

Edited November 24, 2011 by mikegideon

[Mike.357]

I sometimes make .357 loads using a classic loader.

When I put powder in the casing I use a scoop measure. I do fifty at a time using two fifty round shell holders (the things that store bought rounds come in). I put a casing in every other slot. After I believe I have filled all fifty I visually check them again carefully to make sure they all got powder.

There are no guarentees in life or reloading. But taking an extra minute to double check that cases have been filled is a good time investment. And by doing fifty at a time it is easier to be repeat my motions than by making one round at a time.

My guess is you made a round that had no powder at all in it. Take the others and shake them, if you hear some powder sloshing around you oughta be good to go. Or get a scale and weigh them.

[Pdheald]

I was using the 5gran dipper that came with the kit. So far it has worked great. I will try shaking them and see if I hear the powder. And I have not gotten a scale yet so that is now the top of my list. Thank you for the info. That makes me feel a lot better.

[mikegideon]

You may not be able to tell with a scale. The weight of your loaded ammo may vary more than 5 grains anyway.

[Mike.357]

I really think the important thing with a classic loader is to complete each step on however many rounds you are making before moving on to the next step.

I deprime all fifty, then resize all fifty, then reprime all fifty then charge the cases on all fifty then seat the projectile on each one. Making a complete round one at a time seemed to invite trouble.

And I quit using the hammer for setting primers. I would pop one every once and it always near gave me a heart attack.

I bought a Lee priming tool, made it faster and no popped primers anymore.

I have never used a scale, but maybe it is important on a smaller casing like a 9mm. Dunno.

Just be meticulous on charging the casing and you will be alright.

[mikegideon]

+1 on the hand primer. I've done it on the press, and like the hand primer much better. Been decades since I used a classic loader. Forgot about the hammer/primer deal.

[1gewehr]

The only time this happened to me I noticed a small piece of tumbler media in the soot. I figured that it blocked the flash hole so when the primer fired, it didn't get flame to the powder properly. A primer by itself normally has enough power to push the bullet into the bore.

[dlm37015]

come see me i will give you a scale i have some used ones i dont need

[R_Bert]

The only time this happened to me I noticed a small piece of tumbler media in the soot. I figured that it blocked the flash hole so when the primer fired, it didn't get flame to the powder properly. A primer by itself normally has enough power to push the bullet into the bore.

If practical, I tumble before deprime to help keep the media out of the flash hole.

[SpacemanSpiff]

I have had 3 squibs in the approx 10,000 rounds that I have reloaded.

The first squib was a .40 S&W. The bullet was pushed far enough out of the brass to engage the rifling. Not sure what the cause was, but I believe it was under charged based on the other 2 squibs.

The second was a .38 spl. I didn't notice that it was a squib until the next round was fired, the second round impacted the first pushing the bullet to the muzzle and the second bullet stopped bridging the gap between the cylinder and the barrel. I took the gun to a gunsmith, after removing the 2 bullets from the barrel and removing the other 4 live rounds, we used a bullet puller and weighed the powder that was in each round. My charge was supposed to be 3.5 grains of AA #2 but the remaining four weighed between 2.9 and 3.2 grains. I use a Lyman #55 powder dispenser and what we determined was possibly static was causing the inconsistent charges. Since I've been storing it with used dryer sheets, I have not notice a problem.

My third was a 9mm. I knew it could've happened because I was trying to use the least amount of powder to cycle the action properly.

I use a single stage press, charge the case, then visually inspect that each case is charged. I know that all of my cases had powder in them, so the only thing that we could determine was inconsistent charges. I guess it could've been the primer, but I was fairly new to reloading for the first 2 squibs so we kind of ruled out the primer.

[Pdheald]

dlm37015 next time I am in Nashville I will look you up, but it may be a wile. as to doing each step one at a time, I will try that on my next batch. that is if my wife does not get me the Lee Hand press for Christmas.

I had never thought about median being in the primer pocket. I will have to check for that on the rest of my loads.

and I agree with all of you I hate the Hammer Primer part of my tool. it scares the crap out of me, but it is what I have right now.

Thank you

[Guest Skeeter]

Had a Squib Load in a Sig 220.

But Sent one down the tube resulting in a bulged barrel, ( Shooting a lesser pistol and I could have been wearing the slide. )

I used the " Check Each One For Powder" method .

My Press was set up in a detached garage, Hot Summer Time in Alabama, think the Powder was contaminated by a drop of sweat.

Been Buying Factor Loads last 25 years.

[Mike.357]

I don't tumble or worry about cleaning cases. they don't look all shiny and purty but they work. Doesn't much matter for a revolver I suppose.

[R_Bert]

Since I use a lot of outdoor range brass, I have to clean mine to get the mud & gravel out.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Only squib I've had was from a factory round, probably Federal 9mm since thats what I usually use for factory practice ammo. Haven't had any reload squibs "yet".

I can't recall if that factory squib pushed the bullet out of the pistol, or it stayed on the cartridge. It didn't get stuck in the barrel. Went Pfft and there was lots of smoke coming up out of the closed slide, and I quickly dropped the mag and there was lots of smoke pouring out the bottom of the pistol from the magwell too. Almost like the gun was on fire. Kept smoking for what seemed like a long time but maybe it was only a few seconds. Kept smoking a lot longer than one would expect something like that to do. Odd occurence.

[Caster]

This is why no amount of talk and praise can get me to go progressive. I do thousands and thousands every year on my humble little Lee Classic cast press. I prep all the brass I have, then prime them all with a hand primer. Then I use old ammo trays from factory ammo. Fifty at a time. You can charge all fifty in the tray with minimal dexterity. Set it on the bench and you can visually verify every powder charge as you set bullets in place by hand.

You all can keep your automated stuff. Never had a squib here. Wanna keep it that way.

[mikegideon]

This is why no amount of talk and praise can get me to go progressive. I do thousands and thousands every year on my humble little Lee Classic cast press. I prep all the brass I have, then prime them all with a hand primer. Then I use old ammo trays from factory ammo. Fifty at a time. You can charge all fifty in the tray with minimal dexterity. Set it on the bench and you can visually verify every powder charge as you set bullets in place by hand.

You all can keep your automated stuff. Never had a squib here. Wanna keep it that way.

The Classic cast is a great press. I have the breechlock version. I would consider a progressive if I was loading a buttload of pistol ammo. For what I'm doing, single stage is the way to go.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

You all can keep your automated stuff. Never had a squib here. Wanna keep it that way.

I've not had any squibs with the dillon progressive. Am painstakingly careful. I look straight down into each case to sanity-check the powder level before seating each bullet. That and other checks makes my reloading a lot slower than most people report.

I'm so glacially slow that without a progressive it might take forever to reload.

It is worth being careful regardless how one reloads.

[Caster]

The Classic cast is a great press. I have the breechlock version. I would consider a progressive if I was loading a buttload of pistol ammo. For what I'm doing, single stage is the way to go.

For what I do it's perfect for me as well. I load a lot of cast boolits and I like to see everything that goes on. In fact I just came back in from loading 50 308's with a 100g cast boolit. I was planning on fireforming this lot without a projectile, but I though "WHY?" When i could shoot at dirt clods and imaginary zombies while doing it. Occasionally you might shave a bit of lead if your boolit isn't perfectly straight, and I like to mark the tip with a sharpie to see if accuracy or leading occurs.

On the other hand, I recently loaded a few thousand 9mm's with boolits I cast and did them all on the same press. Didn't take as long as some would groan about. I have a Lee C press sitting next to the classic I use maily for my crimping dies.

...but as long as it's safe...to each his own.

[Caster]

I'm so glacially slow that without a progressive it might take forever to reload.

Oh now

It only takes a bit of planning and some entry level understanding of volume production to make sure each move you make isn't wasted. Time is made on silly trivial things when numbers are involved. Things as simple as how far you have to extend to reach something or the angle of the press arm. Teaching your fingers the manual dexterity it takes to remove one round from the press with the next one already in hand; Exchanging them in one fluid motion. Seems silly until you start keeping record of the time spent for one specific operation or the other. Once I get my rhythm I can run rounds through a crimping die without stopping the reciprocating motion of my press; exchanging a crimped round for an uncrimped round on the downward stroke and tossing the crimped round in one tub while picking up an uncrimped round from another on the upward stroke.

Edited November 25, 2011 by Caster

[Raoul]

Oh now

It only takes a bit of planning and some entry level understanding of volume production to make sure each move you make isn't wasted. Time is made on silly trivial things when numbers are involved. Things as simple as how far you have to extend to reach something or the angle of the press arm. Teaching your fingers the manual dexterity it takes to remove one round from the press with the next one already in hand; Exchanging them in one fluid motion. Seems silly until you start keeping record of the time spent for one specific operation or the other. Once I get my rhythm I can run rounds through a crimping die without stopping the reciprocating motion of my press; exchanging a crimped round for an uncrimped round on the downward stroke and tossing the crimped round in one tub while picking up an uncrimped round from another on the upward stroke.

+1 on the single stage. I load with a buddy. Since there's 2 of us we divide the work and everything gets 2 sets of eyes. We can crank out about 200 rounds in an hour on average. That includes checking the charge on a random basis and doing a check on OAL. It's not always about speed.

[Caster]

It's not always about speed.

That's right. Tula can make ammo a lot faster than Lapua, but......