Sometimes you just gotta laugh

H

hounddawg

New member
A funny thing happened on the way to the loading press today. I decided to top off a load box of ammo this morning in preparation for a upcoming match.

I set everything up, double checked the charge and the seating depth, calibrated the scale, grabbed a bin of sized cases and proceeded to start throwing charges and trickling to weight. As I transferred case #23 to the loading block I noticed a kernel of powder, H4350, drop into the loading block. At first I thought it came from the funnel or neck of the case and but closer examination revealed I had forgot to prime the cases. The sound of me saying several words that cannot be posted on a family friendly forum and thumping sounds from me kicking my own keister immediately followed

The only saving grace is I throw charges then seat bullets when all cases are charged so no bullet pulling was needed. I just dumped all the powder back into the jug, cleaned off the bench then went and told the wife I was leaving to run those errands she had been pestering me to do.

Major case of not enough caffeine and a cranial anal insertion. Kind of funny in retrospect and thankfully discovered before seating bullets. Thought this might give some a good laugh
 
It was a good thing you were charging with stick. BL-C2 will run out of the bottom of a 308 case like sand through an hourglass. Don't ask me how I know that :rolleyes:
 
Yep, done that.

Not fool proof, but I put the cases in the loading block upside down with the case head up.

Then as I prime them they go into the block the right way.

So far that has worked, prior I had gotten as far as putting bullets in cases before the power started working its way out through that hole.
 
You are, alas, not alone in the history of this particular adventure. Won't say how I know, either. Somehow, it is possible to get too excited about completing the work.

hounddawg said:
…then went and told the wife I was leaving to run those errands she had been pestering me to do.
Click to expand...

Yep. Might as well salve the embarrassed ego with a few positive "Finally!" affirmations from the spousal unit.
 
I almost did that, myself. But keeping this in mind my procedure became:

Decap (universal die) after coming back from the range, tumble, put in a container.

Ready to load and start with case, re-size, prime, put in loading block upside down to verify.

Expand primed cases and put in block upright.

Fill primed, flared cases and then check with flashlight for visual uniformity check.

Put bullet in and start seating. Plunk at times and into labeled plastic box.

Now, I'm doing this on an RCBS single-stage press so I'm not sure how it would work on a turret or other hi-volume machine. But I don't spill powder ....
 
Been there, done that. If you haven't done it yet, you will, just like the sun coming up. I do the primer hole up, down when primered as well, but I'll probably do a repeat sometime in the future. LOL. Hope it's Varget or Benchmark.
 
I did it too , I keep a one pound powder jug no label to dump fired primers in at the bench . Removed the cup that fits around the RockChucker press that catches the spent primers and bumped them in a new one pound IMR 4064 Powder jug and stared as the primers sunk to the bottom , speechless .
 
Don’t think I’ve done that before BUT...similar feelings of frustration and stupidity were mine when I had just first gotten into reloading and absent mindedly left the cap off on a container of rl-22. Knocked it over, didn’t feel it was wise to use it after it spilled all over the floor, lost about 1/2 a pound of it, felt like an idiot. That same rookie week I forgot to lubricate a case before resizing and “stuck” isn’t even close to describing the state of things.
 
Roadkill
It's only the beginning believe me . Silly stuff always happens . The major F UPS is what you have to be careful with , hope there's none . Be Safe .

PS When you feel resistance when seating always better to lower ram and add alittle more lube . Stuck case only happens once .

Chris
 
I spent a couple minutes looking for the "leak" in my press until I picked up a fully created round and went, "Oh..#$#%". I feel for ya.
 
Don’t think I’ve done that before BUT...similar feelings of frustration and stupidity were mine when I had just first gotten into reloading and absent mindedly left the cap off on a container of rl-22. Knocked it over,
Click to expand...

True tragedy is going out of town on a Survey job, opening the door at the job site headquarters (one room Franklyn stove cabin) and having the 1.5l Canda Mist fall out and hit the only rock in the driveway.

Tears rolling out of my eyes as the Whiskey (our even solace after a hard days surveying) instantly disappeared into the ground, it went so fast you could not even get a lick of it. RIP.

Not to mention the 750 at the local store that cost 4x as much as the 1.5.

sigh.
 
and thus the reason I started hand-priming cases away from my press as yes - I've done that myself on a round or three :-)
 
Yep, I like hand premiering tool anyway and it works well to lay a tray with em neck in, prime em and then move to powder and shell.
 
Been there done that but guess I was lucky . Why ? Cus I was using H-335 and knew there was a problem by case #3 , it was pouring out like an hourglass haha . I remember thinking where the hell is all this powder coming from . If using a long stick powder , who knows may have finished .
 
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