Lucky To Be Alive

Then there are the REloader series.....What about those pesky Accurate powders....or Norma?

The point,no amount of sidestepping gets around it.

We,the Handloaders,are responsible for our own safety.We,as Handloaders,are responsible for reading the labels using the correct powder.

If I,as a Handloader,believe that Clays vs International Clays is too hard to keep track of,I,as handloader,may choose not to use the Clays series powders.

If I.as Handloader,decide I want color coded powder canisters,What on earth is preventing me from using color code electrical tape,or colored sticky dots,etc,to have my own color code system for my own inventoried powders?

I might only need 6 colors...
Still,I'd need my own color code chart...I prefer to read the label

I respect that the OP takes ownership.

If I was a powder manufacturer,and the attitude that somehow my enterprise was responsible for incidents like this because (fill in the blank) I did not have scratch and sniff labeling,or whatever the nanny state wants...If I was liable because someone failed to read the label.....

Think about it,Handloaders!!How much powder do I have to sell to make enough profit to go to court,face litigation,and cough up a million dollar settlement?
How does that figure into risk/reward?

I'd shut it down.Get out of the business,or charge $250 a pound,only make Red,White,Blue powder,etc.

The ONLY result we will get for shifting responsibility for our own errors onto powder manufacturers will be higher costs and less availability.
 
Best wishes and prayers for a speedy and complete recovery.

THANK YOU! Thank you for posting and the pictures of what happened. We can talk for thousands of words, but those pictures will have a greater impact than anything we can say. Would you consider giving permission for them to be used by others?

I actually had something similar, but fortunately the consequences of my mistake were less severs.

I was 15, and still new to reloading, although I had read the books and numerous magazine articles and loaded several hundred rounds.

because I would have never guessed THAT I WOULD HAVE MADE THAT ERROR. I was too smart, to safe, to experienced.
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or, as it turned out, I only thought I was.

I was working on a gallery load for a .308 Win. Had some cast bullets and was using Unique powder. I was weighing each charge. BUT, I didn't have a powder trickler, so I just used a fired case, filled it most of the way up, and dribbled powder into the scale pan from it.

My mistake was simply this, the "fired case I used was a primed case, and it got put back in the loading block with the others, bullet seated and off we went.

The rifle was damaged, but repairable. I got a blast of gas on my cheek (glasses probably saved my right eye). Pressure signs on the case, when the gunsmith was finally able to get the bolt open, indicated 90-110,000 psi.

I've kept that case, with its cracked swollen primer pocket and a "belt" of brass swaged on the case ahead of the extractor groove (.308 Win) for over 40 years, as a reminder of what NOT to do.

ONE POWDER on the bench at a time. All powder hoppers emptied at the end of each loading session. And using the right tools for the job, not makeshifts.
 
Not gonna lecture you about your methods, you've gotten enough already, but I'm glad you posted your mishap. A real life reminder for us reloaders to pay attention. Hope you trigger finger wasn't hurt! ;) and wish you a speedy recovery (I think God was lookin' out fer you and you weren't injured more seriously).

Like the Titegroup label says "A little goes a long way"...
 
Like the Titegroup label says "A little goes a long way"...
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The drawback of being one of the most "economical" powders is that it is also, apparently, one of the most energetic for its volume and weight. Considering that 8 grains makes for a decent .44mag plinking load, 40 grains is scary even to think about.
 
Judging by the looks of the rifle, I think you are sincerely blessed to be alive. I hope you have a speedy and complete recovery.

With your permission, I would like to download the photos of the rifle and your fingers, for use in training. Back in the 70's, there were a number of rifles in similar condition that were used in Alaska hunter safety courses. The memory of two of them is burned in my mind.
 
By all means share this, I certainly am. Its so easy to blow stories off and assume it was careless mistakes.
This case is no different, User Error. Pictures do make it more real. It is an easy fix and hope those who need to make the change do it now.

Will update my status tomorrow after follow up with Surgeon.
 
Thanks for sharing, We are in fact playing with things that can go boom.

Saw a nice Mauser come apart like that. Was not a issue with the wrong powder. Best guess is : Cast boolit, fast rifle powder, seated too far into the lands. Or all of the above with a popped off gas check in the case blocking the neck.
No bullet jump allowed pressure to build to dangerous level.

I know guys like to seat into the lands. Not me..
 
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OMG. That is scary. I'm glad you got out fairly ok. I hope you heal quickly.

I'm new to reloading and I use Titegroup. Thank you for posting. It really makes me want to be extra careful.
 
Oh boy, I feel your pain. I'm sure it's going to take a couple of months of healing. I pray there is no permanent damage and you make full recovery.

The funny thing is I can see me doing something like that. With two similar containers side by side, I believe it could happen to anyone, so dkyser don't beat yourself too much, you're just human.

Kindest regards
 
HiBC is exactly right here, we can't expect people to save us from our selves. At some point we have to take responsibility for what we are doing and the mistakes that we make. I have to say it is nice to see some one take responsibility for a mistake they made as the O.P. has done.
 
Thank you for sharing the story sir, a fantastic reminder than any one of us can make mistakes. Makes me re-think my plan for chemo recovery and reloading to help fill the time. Maybe I'll do something else instead. God speed in your recovery and healing process.
 
Jeebus....and that was with a fairly sturdy bolt action rifle. I can only imagine what would have happened if it was something less substantial.

I think this story has motivated me to store pistol and rifle powders in different locations and to make sure I read the label carefully each time I reload.

Best,
 
Dkyser,

Wish you a speedy recovery! Glad it was just your hand, and not your face!

Your telling has reminded me of several other, oopsies we'll call them.

First one was a friend of mine. Had an original 1863 Tower Enfield, 68 cal. Was used for many years with blanks doing civil war re-enactments.
He decided he wanted to go muzzle loading deer. (we can see where this is going).
About the 6th live round attempting to get a good pattern, Kaboom..
Breach split on left side. Luckily he's a lefty, and face was on the other side. Was a bulge about 2-3 inches long, you could see the Damascus barrel inside it.

Other was fellow at a match. Had put on new barrel. Was having issues sighting in. Put bore sighter in barrel... Shot bore sighter out of barrel... Looked like a banana peel.
 
Wow!

Thanks for the post, even though you know it came with a healthy slice of humble pie.

But it is posts like this that serve to remind the rest of us that we simply cannot become complacent, and that sometimes we need to evaluate our procedures to see if there are some actions that can be taken that will help prevent bad things later on down the line.

Glad you are going to be OK - and hope you don't have to learn to shoot left handed. I blew the tip of my trigger finger up many years ago framing houses with a nail gun - the scar took a long, long time before I felt normal squeezing a trigger again.
 
I only ever have one can of powder on my bench at a time so I can not get mixed up. I also only load one caliber at a time.
On my bench I will have the one powder, cases and bullets that I am loading.
 
I'm glad you are ok and hope your hand heals fast. Thank you so much for posting this up. In reloading I think its far to easy to become complacent. I do however like how IMR powder has different colored lables. The pic of those two LB Jars of powder look SO similar I can see how easy it was for you to get mixed up!
 
Some years ago I was using a new loading press, and wasn't paying enough attention.

I ended up dumping almost 10 grains of WW 231 into a .45 ACP, with a 230-gr. lead bullet on top.

I got lucky as all hell.

The case head blew out, the magazine was blown out and trashed, but that's it. I had minor powder burns on my hands and some powder and lead flakes embedded in the outer skin layer of my face and hand.

The gun, a Springfield M1911-A1 Milspec, was completely unharmed.

That was my first reloading screw up in the close to 25 years I had been reloading, but it made me re-examine EVERYTHING I was doing.
 
~ 14 years ago I bought a pound of Longshot and a pound of LILGUN.

The canisters had the same shape.

The gun I blew up cost $65 on line. Now would probably be worth $350.

The money does not matter. It is that disappointed in myself feeling that hurts.
 
I stopped reloading a while back for personal reasons.

I usually marked my powder measure with whatever I had in it. If I found the thing without a tag, and I wasn't absolutely certain, that powder went down the toilet.

One ball powder looks far too much like another.
 
Stuff like this makes me wonder if I, still very much a child, have any business in this reloading stuff. I only load for 7.5 Swiss and I have so far only used H4350.

Anyway, hope you heal up quickly. No fun almost losing a finger, no doubt.

-Mo.
 
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