powder didn't drop..WHY? help

Now I know the L-N-L. There are two things that could have gone wrong. 1 As mentioned before moister where the power is clumping at the baffle or 2. and this is probably what is happening. Your power hopper is not tight on the press.make sure the bushing is tight on the press. I use a wrench to tighten my hopper down.
 
If you didn't notice a powder measure problem, you are probably going too fast. There are no awards or anyone around to applaud for rounds per hour output rates.

One thing you might try if not doing already is to use the powder through expander, even if not set to flare the case. This injects powder directly without any transition at another opening in the alternate universal insert. I do this to eliminate powder spilling but it may explain why I have not experienced what you describe.
 
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After 22 posts I guess I will say it. Be grateful that you nor anyone nearby was injured by the squib event.

I use a lowly Lee Pro1000 that only has 3 stations on it. I can very easily see into each case before placing the next bullet. I verify that each case has been charged even if that means taking the shell out of the press. I also weigh check way more than is necessary but it makes me feel better. Stay safe!
 
No matter what you use to charge cases or how you do it, getting the correct charge in there is the most critical part of reloading. Before the bullet seating the charge must be verified, check and double checked.
I load on a single stage press. I drop the charge in the case and look at it's level. After placing all 50 in a block, out comes the flashlight for another eyeballing. Just before putting a bullet in the case , I look and see the powder level in there is correct ...3 checks. You can't be too careful about the correct powder charge.

Reloading speed is nice but look what happened at the range and to me shooting ammo that may or may not have a powder charge in it isn't worth it.
Gary
 
No matter what you use to charge cases or how you do it, getting the correct charge in there is the most critical part of reloading
Click to expand...

No, it isn't. Or not always.

With some powders, like 4064 in .308 , +/- .3 gr shows no discernible difference in group size or velocity over carefully weighed charges while seating depth variability of as little as +/- .002 will change poi with many vid bullets. Also, I would rather have some modest variability in powder charge rather than even just .002 of run out in my comp loads.

Folks give powder weight more attention than they should relative to other factors.....Probably because it's easier and cheaper to measure than other factors.

And reloading speed matters a lot if you are shooting tens of thousands of rounds per year...no need to weigh each charge making 3 gun ammo or steels ammo, or semi auto pistol ammo.

I'm not saying I don't weigh charges, I just know that worrying about powder weight to the 1/100th of a grain is pointless. Many many many many Palma, IBR/ service rifle, f-class matches have been won with thrown powder charges.

The only powders I weigh anymore are those that do not meter well like H-1000, Retumbo etc.
 
kmw1954 wrote:

After 22 posts I guess I will say it. Be grateful that you nor anyone nearby was injured by the squib event.


Yes I am very grateful we were paying attention when we were shooting. It prevented someone being hurt. The 2 that we shot that didn't have powder in them did lodge the bullet in the barrel and had to be removed with a cleaning rod. IF we had we shot another round without checking the gun, we would have had a catastrophic failure, and someone would have been going to the hospital.

I took the failures very seriously and stopped shooting the 357, with plans to remove the bullets from the remaining ones which i did.

I have taken y'alls advise and come up with a plan to deal with this issue.

Thanks very much
David
 
David, seriously thankful no one was injured.

We had an incident this past summer after I just started wet tumbling my brass. We had a squib and it stuck in the barrel just far enough that it wouldn't let another round chamber. We finished early and when we got home I bulled those bullets apart. In that lot I found 2 other bullets that had wet powder. Those cases had sat for 3 days in the open before they were loaded. I have since changed my cleaning practice, again. Here too I thanked my Karma that no one was hurt. The failure happened to my wife!
 
I've found that cases dry very slowly if spent primers aren't removed. My current practice is to remove spent primers before washing. Cases are rinsed with hot water and dumped on a towel to dry. All cases are placed on their sides on the towel in front of fireplace or near air vent.
 
Removing primers before wet cleaning is my method too. It also assures that the primer pocket is nice and clean.

A small speck of something in a primer pocket can also lead to a primer not seating completely which can cause a myriad of problems. I say that from experience.
 
Thanks guy, we are not going to hijack this guys thread. The issue has already been dealt with.

The point was to relate the dangers of a squib and that it can happen for many reasons.
 
I use the Hornady powder drop on on a LnL. I was loading 223 when the powder drop made a different sound on the downstroke. The case in station 3, after the powder drop, was empty. I cleaned the rotor and chamber, added some One Shot dry lube, and it hasn't happened since. Now I clean it regularly.
 
Do you have a baffle inside the powder tube?
Did you clean the inside of the powder rotor, cavity and tip of the powder drop adjustment plunger?
Are you double tapping on both the up and down strokes to make certain the cavity is full of powder and that all of the powder drops out?
Did you check all of the loaded cases and were there any with an over-charge?
Usually when you have an undercharge you will get an overcharge on the next case.
 
Using a baffle was brought up in another thread. This will help a LOT. Especially in the RCBS Uni-Flow with lighter charges of, say Clays or Unique. Believe me, I went thru this before. The baffle really helps.
 
Got to be weary of those Pro 1000s. Mine many times due to a powders density produced {powder-less cartridges.} also. _ How I resolved my press's problem. Before a empty brass cycling into the Charging Station. I gave the Pro's powder measuer 'r a little tap on its plastic powder holding container. Over time I developed a 296 habit for doing. Well that habit came to a ending with the removal of Lee's Pro 1000 from my reloading bench. "So I gave up using my Pro 1000 and began to bean scale all cartridges." Over the decades of my beam scaling everything I've never encountered a double charge_a no charge_or a short charge. Absolutely none causing concern.

Frankly:
OP you where on the ball catching that bullet stuck in the bore. Firing another up in-behind would cause a whole lot of Whoops-a-daisy. So sir keeping your fingers intact certainly earned you a "That'a Boy"
 
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