me too...
6-7 years ago now, my nephew and his wife came up to hunt antelope in my old goat area here in WY (I'm the old goat these days...but don't hunt 'em anymore). My nephew's wife didn't hunt yet, but wanted to, and we discussed what a good goat gun might be for her (deer, too). My nephew was leaning towards a .243 for her, and I thought that was a very good choice for goats and deer. Since his wife had never shot much, let alone had never shot a .243, the recoil issue came up. I then said I had a 6mm Rem. bolt gun she could try to experience the recoil. I also said it would be quite similar to a .243, so, cool! Let's go shoot! They both knew I had been reloading ammo for quite a number of years, too...
So, we go out to a piece of state land where I shoot quite a bit, and got set up with my Ruger 77, 6mm, for my niece-in-law to try out. Now, a couple of weeks earlier to our state land outing, I had just loaded a MTM box of 50, 87 grn. Hornady S.P.s under my preferred charge of IMR 4350; fresh ammo for the ol' Ruger! Just right! BACK AT THE RANGE: I got a target set up a near 100 yards, made a makeshift "benchrest" over the hood of my vehicle with coats and such, and between my nephew and me, got her coached for a shot using a scope (she hadn't used a scope much, either; had a good Leupold on the rifle, great eye-relief). So then I tell her to get a round out of the box, lid open right by the rifle there. Bolt open, rifle at her shoulder situated on the "benchrest" there pointed downrange, she takes a round out of the box, looks at it, looks at me at the same time pointing the headstamp of the round she took from the box at me, too, and nobody had to say anything, because of the totally dumbstruck look I had on my face was rather loud...
I swear, in all my years of reloading ammo, this was (still is) the ONE AND ONLY time to date, on the only round to date, that I missed priming a case (I'm talking about a "field ready" box of hunting ammo here). I swear that that's a true statement. What really blew me away on that experience, was the presence of mind my niece had in knowing something wasn't right with the round by her actions, and with rifle still at her shoulder. I, very red-faced, gave her a big kudos for her catching the glitch of mine and not chambering the round. She handed me the round, and I had a few kernels of IMR 4350 dribbling in my hand. We had a good laugh, and they had a good laugh listening to me trying to explain what happened there... And, after I checked every other round in that box of 50 (49, really) she shot the rifle after the "situation," and liked it very well. She does have a .243 now.
I have always taken great care when doing my reloading, have always taken a bit of pride in my handloads, too, i.e., load development, testing and all (for me, bottom line, it's good hunting ammo). I've been very fortunate to have had great mentors during this reloading odyssey I've been on, and have never taken that for granted (TFL stuff, too, thanks!) I've also acquired through the years quite a few reloading/firearms manuals, too, and studied those fairly "religiously." But one thing I never will forget, and every time I take my ol' Ruger out to the range or in the field, is my totally novice niece (at that time) and her looking at me with that unprimed round by her face, with the ol' Ruger still at her shoulder...priceless. And once again, at this point in my reloading experience, that truly was the only time, I missed the prime...
And BTW, my reloads for that rifle always get stowed "points up" right when they "come off the press." So, that's my excuse for not noticing...stickin' to it...
