Loading Bench Records Saved My kiester!

W

Wyoredman

New member
A month ago I was reloading .44 mag with 396. I loaded 100 rounds and quit for the night. I left the powder measure full of 396 thinking I would be back the next day to load some more. That didn't happen. A week went by, then two. I cleaned my bench, putting the can of powder back on the shelf, yet didn't empty the measure.

Another few weeks went by.

This weekend I noticed that my measure was full of powder! What did I load last? Was it .44? OR was it .223? Was the powder 396? or H335?

Crap, I couldn't remember!

I dug out my records, the last entry was for .44 mag! Saved me from tossing $25 worth of powder!
 
Two ways i have used to over come that problem.
1st was to leave the powder jug out next to the measure.

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Now that I have multiple measures lined up. I have found that the 3m blue painters tape and a sharpie are a great tool to note whats in a measure, Box, Jug, or what ever I need to remember what it is.
The tape comes off easy when no longer needed.

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If it came to that between these two powders. I would chuck it out.
There is a serious difference in burn rate between the two.
Under no circumstances would you want to fill a case of 296 as if it were H335.
Bad things would surely happen.
 
I never leave powder sitting out. When the last case gets filled the powder gets dumped back into the container. Not for safty reasons, but to keep it sealed in a dry air tight container.
 
Never leaving the powder out is a great policy---but I have failed to put it back in the original container a couple of times when I left the loading bench without thinking. But the jug was still on the bench when I caught my slip up later, so no problemo. Stuff happens, and it was good that you had records that kept things sanitary.
 
Although I don't leave powder in, and when I am loading, I only pull out the one powder and have it on the bench til I am done. But I do leave primers in the ez prime tray, I put a little piece of tape and write the primer type/size on the tape. I have four primer trays and now just swap trays when switching calibers to keep from confusion. I assume the same piece of tape or a dry erase when you add powder could also clear up future missteps
 
I think I'm going to start taking better records of my reloading activities. Before now, I've never used more than two powders for my reloading: Bullseye or Red Dot. So it was pretty obvious which powder was what. This is quickly expanding and I can forsee something like this happening if I'm not careful
 
I have a piece of bright green duct take on my powder thrower. A sharpie marker lying next to it, 5 seconds to label it. Even a sharpie wipes right off with a little brake cleaner.
 
I have; Red Dot Bullseye Herter's 164 SR7625 Unique AA#5 Power Pistol HS-6 Blue Dot 2400 3N37 800-X AA#7 N105 Long Shot STEEL Enforcer A#9 N110 H110 W296 LIL'GUN XMP5744 RL-7 V-133 IMR3031 RL-10 AA2200 W748 CFE223 H335 RL-12 H4895 IMR4895 Norma 203 RL-15 Varget H414 Re17 H4350 IMR4350 H4831SC Re22 Retumbo

The only two that I have wanted to tell the difference and could not by inspection and sniffing, were power pistol and Bullseye. For those two I need to measure density.
 
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