Reloading blunders.

[Caster]

Might be fun to share the dumb things we've done throughout the never ending learning process.

For instance; I bought some brass recently and tumbled, and started sizing. I though they were all .30 WCF .........whole fistful of .32 Winchester Special. Doh!!!
No big deal, I'll run the heck out of 'em but I'd have rather not done it. .32 special brass ain't exactly common.

Just proves, no matter how much you've learned, PAY ATTENTION!!!!

[Caster]

So, what have you screwed up lately?

[jcj]

I agreed to sell my reloading press. That was probably pretty dumb considering the current price of ammo.

[RED333]

No powder a few times, is about all from me.

[leftyk82]

Put a round in backwards in the bullet puller. I must've hit the thing 30 times and nothing happened.

[173rdABN]

Yeah, I've got some storied from when I first started. No pictures because I'm at work. Maybe when I'm home I'll share if I feel like getting laughed at.

My grandpa had alzheimer's and cancer, and before he got to far out there he told me he wanted me to have his reloading stuff. He was still living at home at the time, and brought me into his reloading room in the basement and couldn't remember for the life of him how to do it. This coming from a man thats been reloading for over 60 years (I still shoot his 1962 reloads from his Smith and Corona 1903a3...little nervous when I do, but I do haha). Was a very sad day, but, at the same time it made me extremely happy he wanted me to have it, and none of the other 25 grandkids. Well, I think I was 17, and didn't know the different between powder grain weight and bullet grain weight. He didn't send books my way. Just a RCBS single stage, case trimmer, and a bunch of those stuff (all the progressive shotgun stuff I sold because I didn't want to reload shotgun, boy do I regret that now).

Well, not knowing the different in grain weight and bullet weight through me for a loop, wondering why I couldn't fit 115gr's of powder in a 6.8 SPC case with a 115gr bullet. needless to say, I got 32 grains in there. Needless to say after that, and holding the gun as far away from me as possible, it went bang, and luckly didn't blow up. But, it was a brand new Rem 700 PSS in 6.8. Andddddd it cracked the bolt in 3 spots, and no joke melted the brass into the bolt like its not welded in there. I had to get a new bolt from Remington, and a gunsmith to take the barrel off to get the bolt out. $80 later for the gunsmith alone, $220 for the new bolt, I have a lame story and a cracked bolt with a round melted inside it. Every time I show someone, which isn't often because its an embarrassing mistake, I hit the brass case against a table or hard surface and it reminds me not to be an idiot and gives the other person a good laugh.

Lets just say I learned realllllly fast how to reload after that. A couple years later I think my powder measure throw a little to much powder in a 5.56 SS109 reload and it bent my extractor at about 45 degrees and took some effort to get the bolt unstuck from the chamber. But, that wasn't me, because I was measuring every 10 rounds, and obviously can't throw more than 1 time into a 5.56 case. So, simple machinery failure by a slight margin. #### happens I guess? Edited April 7, 2013 by 173rdABN

[gun sane]

I've charged cases with powder when I forgot to install a primer.  Just a little cleanup chore was the penalty for that brain hiccup.  I've also made a few too hot by making a mistake extrapolating data, but after firing the first round I knew I had a problem.  Had to pull the tooth on 49 cartridges.  So far, nobody or no gun's been hurt, thank God.

Edited April 7, 2013 by gun sane

[tnhawk]

I eliminate all sources of distraction when I am at my reloading bench.  As a new reloader back in the 70s, I managed to under fill a case.  The bullet lodged in the barrel and was easily removed.  The result could have been much more serious.

[173rdABN]

yeah, another round being shot behind it. that could have ended BAD.

[Dolomite_supafly]

I recently had a dud with my 300 Blackout. Upon inspection of the primer it looked like a light strike because the primer was seated too deep.

I removed the bullet, powder and primer. All those looked fine. When I looked at the case it was obvious. I had previously made some dummy 300 Blackout bullets for key chains. Part of ghat was drilling out the primer pockets for a loop. Well one of the cases I hadn't used made it into my brass pile some how.

When the firing pin hit the primer the primer moved in rather than firing.

When seating some bullets on way undersized necks I had the necks buckle and swell. Not enough to notice but enough to cause issues.

[RED333]

O yea, I did forget to bevel a few .308 cases and when I tried to seat the boolit it bulked the case.

[cj0e]

Primed 50 cases of 6.5x55 before sizing. Whoops. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do so I don't have to waste these primers, they're too hard to come by.

[Poor_Dog]

Primed 50 cases of 6.5x55 before sizing. Whoops. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do so I don't have to waste these primers, they're too hard to come by.

Just raise the pin until it clears

[RED333]

I remove the pin, but I dont make that mistake, yea right.

[coopracing]

Well, I am very new to this reloading thing. I have recently acquired my equipment after a fried has tried to get me into it for years. I had been gathering components even before the recent events with ammo and all. Anyway, as much as I hate to tell this, and some may want to stop reading now. 

 

I worked and loaded some .45 while my friend was visiting and showing me the ropes. I also got some LC 5.56 ready so he could walk me through it. I had gotten me a new Dillon swage and swaged 500 rounds or so. When we started "trying" to seat primers I found out I had the Dillon 600 set with too much preasure. I overstressed the primer pockets and deformed them. Basically I have trashed all this brass, and it is hard to come by right now. I had read to test fit some primers, but I didn't really know what I was doing so I thought I would get set for my friend to show me, and really made a mistake by not waiting or checking my work. 

 

I really hope this is the worst of my mistakes and will come here and ask you guys since he is now gone back to Alaska. We did go "create" some more brass before he left. I will just have to take my time and seek someone local to help me out, and advise me what to look for. At least no one was hurt, well other than the one feeling I have left. 

[cj0e]

Just raise the pin until it clears

... Wow I'm thickheaded. Thanks!

[Poor_Dog]

... Wow I'm thickheaded. Thanks!

Naw, 'sides I got a friend teaching me how to load, he told me how to do that back some time ago.

 

To date, the worst thing I've done was to load half a dozen rounds without sizing them. Only reason I caught it was a bullet fell into the case. I had mistakenly grabbed them, thinking they were a tray that I had sized the week prior. Glad I caught it.

[mikegideon]

Primed 50 cases of 6.5x55 before sizing. Whoops. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do so I don't have to waste these primers, they're too hard to come by.

 

If it's a Lee Die, just pull the expander and break off the decapping pin. Then, order another one. They dirt cheap. I size a lot of primed Lake city brass, and have spare expanders for .223 and 300 Blackout.

[vujade]

haha!  Great topic!

 

This just happened to me a few hours ago.  I just finished eating a big ole BBQ.  I decided to let the food settle by doing some reloading.  i had my cup of cookie dough ice cream with me as i started to make some rounds.  (I hand load each by weighing each charge).

 

Well, I must have been so in the zone that I mistook my ice cream cup with the cup where I have the powder and almost took a spoonful of H335 powder!

Edited April 8, 2013 by vujade

[jb980]

Late one night I loaded 300 or so 45 acp without turning the powder measure on while using a lee disk powder measure on a progressive press. Had to pull every one.

[camp]

i've used the wrong shell holder on my .270 and ended up with a case stuck in the die :(

[ttocswob]

Recalibrated my Franklin digital scale - which then reset to grams instead of grains.

 

Fortunately I caught this one about 20-30 rounds into the process. No puller at the time, so I used pliers. Threw the mangled boolits into the casting pot.

 

Since then I always double check charges, whether by weight or volume.

[MarkInNashville]

Incident 1) When switching from 9mm to .45 in my Hornady LnL press; I forgot to reset my powder measure height - sorta crushed a case.

 

Incident 2) I was reloading some 9mm and could not figure out for the life of me why the powder measure wouldn't drop powder... ok, maybe it was a fluke, so I tried again. Long story short, a #8 Hornady shell plate holds on to a .380 case just fine but is not long enough to activate the powder drop.Worse thing was wasting the couple of primers!

[JeffL]

I've resized and loaded 30-06 in .270 brass. Probably not really an issue but I didn't like it when I picked up that .270 case.

[bart305]

I hate having a Homer Simpson moment. Still, I have learned more about shooting from reloading than I would have thought possible. Does anyone else remember the time they loaded that rifle shell without case trimming first, then after chambering said round and not seeing a deer all day trying to get that bolt open?