The dumbest reloading thing I'd ever done survey.

It was either ordering the Dillon Primer Flipper or the RCBS trickler. Both just gather dust now. The Dillon flipper is about as useful as a cast iron frisbee since I always grab a plastic flipper instead. And I can tap powder out of a Lee scoop so much easier and quicker than setting up the trickler, filling it, finding something to put it on so it sits above the scale tray, etc,,,

The biggest mistake while actually reloading is using .45acp brass until the primers fall out before I get to shoot them. I always know that's what happened when I find loose powder in my ammo bucket. Sure enough, if I dig through it I'll find a primerless cartridge and a loose primer.
 
Trusted data for 38spl loads from a LGS clerk, without checking the books, DUMB, DUMB, DUMB. 35 years ago and I learned never to do that again.
 
I once drove a decapping pin into my finger while resizing some 30-06. I was young and to my credit I've not done it since (knock on wood!).
 
When I first started chamfering and deburring rifle cases with the Lee system chucked in to a drill, I got a little harsh about it, actually sharpening the case mouth .... wrapped a thin scrap of t-shirt around the case to clean/polish it ..... and put my finger firmly on the spinning case mouth ...... and cut a perfect .277"- ish circle out of the pad of my index finger ...... bled quit a bit.
 
I knew my engineer cousin from Sweden had worked at Norma and could calculate internal ballistics. I wanted to take an amateur stab at it.

I sat down with my only load book, Speer 12, a book filled with numbers, to divine the principals of handloading. I was used to data books, books filled with numbers that we use to design things. These days we look at data sheets on line:
http://www.vishay.com/docs/81009/tsal6100.pdf

I tried coming up with some formulas or families of curves to predict what loads should be. Nothing was working. Then I realized that the book was not a data book, but a random recipe book with powder charges from many different pressures on the same page, presented as if they came from an experiment with the same controls.
 
Not me but a friend reloading at my place because he'd just moved & hadn't unpacked his own stuff.

No, really!;)

We called him "Captain Chaos" he was like the ball in a pinball machine stuck between 2 bumpers, always insanely hyper.:eek:

He "HAS TO" reload 1,000 7.62 cases IMMEDIATELY, NOW, it's an emergency!! This includes new once fired MilSurp brass prep.

He's speeding up primer crimp removal by chucking my chamfer/deburr tool in my drill press & feeding the cases in vertically by hand. Its working so he switches the cut speed up to its maximum to make things mo'betterer.


"YEAHAHHHHOUCH"

I hit the kill switch so we could get the web of his thumb off of the spinning tool that had grabbed & ripped it. That was the day I discovered a little, but enthusiastic artery in that body part. Repainting was required.:eek:
 
Running the decapping pin into my finger while doing 9 mm.

Breaking my el-cheapo Lee single stage at the base while trying to remove a stuck case while decapping.

Dropped the powder charge before having the case up in the expander die.

Geez, and I wonder why I still am using a single stage........
 
bought 400 30-06 once-fired brass. cleaned, prepped, sized, etc.Loaded to my standard plinking/range load. Failed to check the first few with a case gauge. Discovered to my dismay that 90% of them had the shoulder pushed back too far to fire in my bolt gun. Wound up pulling 400 bullets (thank you RCBS collet puller) saved the bullets and powder, dumped the brass.

Lesson learned.

If you extended the context to woodworking, I'd have an injury or two to relate...:D
 
Dumb, Stupid, or just UNLUCKY

Have you ever punched out live primers?

Have you ever tried to kill a primer?

Have you ever heard a 50BMG primer go off?

I had purchased a rifle a few years back and it came with 177 TZZ-95 cases that were live-primed, so these primers were exposed to whatever for 20 years since it was not loaded ammo. Others who had purchased cases like these tried to shoot them after adding powder and projectile, only to have squib loads or total mis-fires of the primers. So I decided to remove the primers prior to cleaning the cases in SS Pins.

I manufacture a depriming punch for the 50BMG cartridge and got ready to deprime the cases, but since some had had squib loads I stopped. Since I had all cases in loading blocks open end up, I decided to use a syringe to inject about 100 cc's of water into each case. After waiting a week to ten days, I started depriming. Dump the water out into a bucket, put case into a 50BMG shell holder on top of a Rock Chucker press, insert depriming punch, strike lightly multiple times with a heavy brass hammer. Easy even though crimped primers.

Has anyone figured this out yet? ----- It gets worse.

Anyway, after depriming 100 cases, I took a break and emptied the container catching the ejected primers and replaced it into the press.

Then I proceeded with the final 77 pieces with the first 70 ejecting just like the first 100 primers.

Guess what, number 71 decided to be a bastard and went off, BANG, cloud of dust in the air but punch was still in the case neck so I later determined I had a "hang-fire". Being a hang-fire allowed the primer to enter the container with 70 other primers in it before going BANG and setting off the other primers also, near as I can tell from all the pieces of primers I'm still finding in all areas of my shop.

Anyway, as I was standing at my reloading bench, I received several cuts on my belly from the shrapnel of the container, but survived to try again, only this time after firing the primers in my rifle first. The remaining 6 primers came out with no concerns then, but I did need to clean the rifle again.

What did I learn? Sometimes I think nothing, sometimes I think a lot, but I did learn that 20 year old primers can NOT be KILLED using water even after soaking up to ten days. So hopefully all of you can learn from my mistake.

Oh, and I scared the hell out of my Basset Hound MurphyT who was sleeping behind me in the old recliner.
 
Me again, after reading the post from oldmanFCSA, it reminded me of the
time I was cutting a gasket for my water pump, and what better way to
punch the bolt holes ?......well, with an empty .30-30 case right ?, well it
still had a live primer in it so I thought that I would fire the primer off first
before hitting the case head with my hammer, so I put the case on top of
my vise and hit the primer with a small diameter punch and when that
damned primer went off...it shot right up that punch and hit the end of my
finger HARD !............lesson learned there.
 
See thread "Powderless Cartridges"

I'm probably the guy who left the powder out of the .223s, thinking I was saving some money on powder. ;)
 
The dumbest reloading thing I'd ever done survey.
Like the title says,
What was the dumbest thing you'd ever done with your reloading project ?
Examples;
Wrong primers
Wrong bullets
Wrong powder
Blah, Blah, Blah.
Click to expand...

Loaded up a whole box of .38 Special, without ever having turned the Lee Pro Autodisk powder measure to the ON position. Not one round in the whole box had any powder in it. The first one fired was a squib, of course.
 
That happened to me too when I first started casting my own. I thought a live round went in the mixture. Good thing I was wearing safety glasses and a long sleeve sweater.
 
Found 8 cans of Norma N205 at the gun show for $8.00 a can, (400 grams each). Norma stopped making that stuff decades ago, but the cans looked new. So I bought a couple of cans thinking to try it out in the 270 Winchester. Big mistake, so dumb, should have bought it all.
 
I was re-sizing/de-priming some spent .44 mag brass and accidentally de-primed 3 live primers at full speed. Grabbed from the wrong bin. They didn't go off, but scared me pretty good when I realized what I did.

Lesson learned? 1 bin at a time on the bench.
 
I've been looking at this post for a couple days now - trying to think of my worst mistake. Not to be smug, but I've never done anything serious.

Once, I accidentally mixed about 20 SP magnum primers with about 30 standard ones. No big deal. I was loading target level rounds - I just proceeded. The difference was transparent when shooting.

I've pinched the tip of my thumb in the press when going too fast during the case flairing process - nothing serious - just enough to make me slow down.

And I once used my press to do something automotive related (can't even remember what) and damaged the ram - that was stupid. I wrote RCBS (pre interweb days) and told them I was a dummy for using the press "in a manner for which it was not designed" - or something close to that. Please send me a new ram along with the bill and I will return a check. I got a new ram a few days later - no charge.

Nothing else that I can remember. My loading process is very deliberate and regimented. Basically, I've taught myself good safety habits. I don't cut corners. I've managed to stay out of trouble. I wonder how I'll do as senility sets in :D
 
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