Done Did Another Dumb Thing

R

Rangerrich99

New member
So last night I was loading some .38 Special while listening to the WS, and accidentally tried to load a bullet using the expander die (long story, I'm an idiot). This drove the bullet all the way down into the case. After the appropriate amount of self-flagellation, I eventually got the bullet out of the case with the bullet puller, allowing me to at least save the powder and the bullet. The primer came out slightly bulged out so I tossed it.

My question is, can I save the brass or should I just toss it? It was bulged pretty good, but it went through the re-sizer/decapping die without much trouble, and the calipers say it's good to go. I'm just wondering if all the bulging/re-sizing may have weakened the brass enough to make it unusable.

Thanks for your replies in advance.

Peace.

P.S. Royals win!!!
 
Agreed that your best bet is to learn good habits including:

--brass is cheap and plentiful and it is better to scrap it then to suffer an annoying malfunction (or worse) later on

--handloading is simply too important, too much at stake to be making silly mistakes due to distraction. Personally, I don't think a game on a radio is too much distraction but if you are willing to blame the radio as part of your error than maybe it is for you.

With that said, your goof was tiny and low risk. When you are working with powder or measure or scale or the load data, your risk for trouble climbs rapidly.

Also with that said, and to the subject:
If you can take the messed up brass AND put a proper load in it AND fit it in to the chamber and the gun will operate, then:

fire forming will return it to "good to go" and pretty much back to normal with little or no evidence that ya meased it up in the first place. ;)
 
Thanks. I might give it a try then with a low power recipe.

As for the game, most of the time it doesn't distract me at all, but this was the ninth inning of the WS, when the Royals tied the game. I should've stopped loading until that inning was over, as I was already yelling at the TV and just generally over-excited.

Anyway, thanks again Sevens and everyone that responded.
 
38 spl? Brass will be fine. Very worst case is the case mouth splits, and most people load revolver brass until that happens anyways. More likely case is you can't tell the difference.
 
Brass is used for cartridges because of it's malleability; it stretches and can be resized without much trouble and it takes several stretch/compress cycles to "work harden" the metal. Resize it and shoot it...
 
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