The dumbest reloading thing I'd ever done survey.

I keep, under my bench a large number of bullets, in bulk boxes in quantities of 1000+.
Each is sorted by caliber, brand, bullet weight, bullet style, etc.
For instance I have a box of 10k+ of 125 grain bullets in .357 diameter. JHP, zero branded. Always the same brand, lot number, etc.
Anyway, one time when I was checking my scale, I grabbed a bullet from a .40 caliber box and weighed it. The scale checked out fine.
Then I set the bullet on the bench.
Then I nonchalantly tossed it back into the container, and to my horror, it bounced off the cardboard rim of the container, and dropped into an adjacent box.

OK, try if you will ----figure out an easy way to find a 180 grain flat nose .40 caliber bullet in a box of 5000+ 165 grain flat nose .40 caliber bullets.
Now you see the problem.
 
I have a few.

1) loading a dozen or so cases with powder, realizing I had not primed it.

2) reloading several whole rounds without popping out the spent primer :eek:

3) shooting 380 without "bench testing" when I had oversized the case and having the bullets flew sideways throuch the target.

4 spilling my powder hopper all over the floor

5) spilling my beer all over my desk

6) dumping primers onto the floor

7) buying 100 lead projectiles for my 30-06 realizing I didn't have any lead data.

8) starting out reloading, trying to make the fastest and most powerful 9mm rounds that rivaled 45 ACP, how stupid.
 
I loaded Hornady swaged 240 Lead SWCs in 44 magnum to about 1400 fps and shot them out of a 1894 Marlin microgroove.
 
There was a time in my life I was loading 44mag well past a reasonable and safe limit
I had worked up a load for my Ruger Red Hawks. I will not give the chg weights but lest just say that under a 240gr JRN bullet it was well compressed load requiring a mag primer.
These rounds were like sledge hammers when shooting.
Well one day I brought Ruger ammo and a S&W model 29 to the range. This was not my intention as I was unsure of the strength of the S&W because I did not develop the load for that gun.
That was a nice S&W pistol.
Notice I said “WAS”
Blew the top strap and cylinder all to hell.
I got some nice cuts from flying bits and pieces.
I would say lesson learned but NOOOOOO I caulked it up to a gun failure not over charged ammo and later blew up another model 29 with the same ammo.
Lesson learned
#1 Ruger and S&W are not built the same
#2 Jacked up ammo can and will cause bodily harm
#3 Stick to published load data and save yourself and your guns.
 
OK, try if you will ----figure out an easy way to find a 180 grain flat nose .40 caliber bullet in a box of 5000+ 165 grain flat nose .40 caliber bullets.
Now you see the problem.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I don't have an easy way but I can tell you what I would do if I were in your shoes...

The biggest issue with this is if the bullets have very much the same profile, most seating dies will go ahead and seat the heavier bullet perfectly fine and without noticing any difference from all the others you are building... resulting in an overcharged round due to the bullet being 15 grains heavier. So, IMO, that is not a minor annoyance -- that is a hazard. It's not an atomic bomb, but it is far from ideal and to me, unacceptable.

I would immediately cease other operations.
I would disassemble the entire bullet storage area and extract all the containers.

I would start with the obvious ones -- boxes of slugs of radically different construction and I would dig through them until they pass clear with no 180gr .40 in them. Repeat as necessary.

I would do the 165gr .40 box last. I would start carefully from the top and I would hand place all the bullets on a flat surface until one of them stands proud and you can FIND it and clear the issue.

When you consider that your storage methods are half the reason you found yourself here, you'd have to make some changes anyway, so chalk it up to experience and you'll feel better when it's been done. :p:D
 
Have any of you heard of the Darwin Awards? If you haven't, it's the award given to people who kill themselves in the most bizarre way thus doing the gene pool a favor. No, I'm not talking about Gene Pool who posts on this blog. Anyway, I've created a new category for the Darwin Awards. It's called, "The Darwin Awards Honorable Mention List". I think a few of you qualify for this. Or maybe, the phrase, "life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid" is applicable here.

Or, as Red Green says, "Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" ("When all else fails, play dead"). Or, as Red Green says, if it ain't broke, you're not trying".

I don't know what the Red Green sayings have to do with stupid reloading stunts but they're kinda neat.

Of course, you do realize I've never done anything wrong when it comes to reloading.
 
about the dumbest thing I did was picked up a freshly cast lead muffin ingot with my glove removed. instantly got 3rd degree burns on 4 out of 5 fingers on my left hand. now I keep the cooled led away from the hot lead ingots
 
I sat down once with a bag full of about 700 many times fired 9mm Luger cases and a Lee hand trimmer, thinking I would trim all these cases. Of those 700 odd cases, exactly 2 had any metal removed. Never bothered trimming 9mm again.

I also, at one point had 2 powder pans for an RCBS scale, and it never occurred to me that the pans might not weigh exactly the same. Zero the scale with one pan, somehow, in the middle of loading a bunch of ammo, check the powder measure and grab the wrong pan. Wow, that is way off. Second guess everything you have done so far that day. :o
 
I primed all of my 308 brass after sizing and realized I forgot to size one, so I took the pin out of the die and thought I didn't need lube. Ended up getting a primed casing stuck in my die. Murphy's Law.
 
Yeah, reloading,...... It's not for everyone. If you do it wrong, maybe shouldn't do it at all. I've never been wrong. Thought I was, once, but I was mistaken.;)
This is a great thread, actually. There's been some good laughs here as well as some alarming experiences. We can all make mistakes, and when shared here we can learn from one anothers errors and all be safer for it.
 
Biggest reloading mistake ever: Starting. Now I can never go back to being happy having a .308 with a box or two of hunting ammo, or thinking 100-rounds of 9mm is "a lot". :o

OK, things I've really done:

1) Squibbed some .38 Specials due to bridging of Unique in my powder measure. Must have been that specific charge weight and meter opening combination, because I used 2-lbs of Unique loading 9mm with heavier charges without a single issue.

2) Damaged some .38 Special brass while using an inertial bullet puller. (See #1 for reference.) Similar experience posted earlier in this thread: heavy neck tension, firm crimp, lots of bullet in the case. I still have a bag of rounds I could not dismantle tucked away in the cabinet with "DO NOT USE!!" written in red marker.

3) Pierced primers in .223 loads. Turns out the brass-colored Winchester Small Rifle primers aren't up to dealing with the pressures of running heavy-bullet .223 match loads. And before somebody tells me that's an "obvious" overpressure sign, I switched to CCI BR4 primers and chronograph checked the ammo, never had another issue. It really was just those primers.

4) Loaded a bunch of lead-bullet 9mm ammo, then proceeded to trade the pistol they were loaded for. Not a mistake in the sense of being a danger ready to happen, but I've learned to not make ammo for a gun I'm vacillating on keeping. (See also the box of .45-70 and box of .260 Remington sitting in the cabinet with the DO NOT USE!! .38 Specials.)

5) Over-swaged some crimped .223 brass learning how to adjust and use a Dillon swager. Had a couple primers fall out of cases between the loading bench and the chamber of my Colt. I'm STILL finding cases I swaged on that run; now when they prime with little to no resistance I mark them with a black ring around the case head. Those cases get loaded up like usual after, but tossed into the trash after firing.
 
You often think you are the 'ONLY ONE' that has these stupid screw ups...
I'm so glad to see that 'Mr. Murphy' doesn't only live in my house!

I learned reloading from my grandpa who had some questionable practices...
But when you have been doing it since the Wright Brothers were still making cutting edge aircraft, modern equipment and safety weren't really in practice...

(Reloading as a hereditary disease, grandpa to grandson, skipped a generation)

SO, my BIGGEST screw-up was probably the waste powder incident, as I've come to call it.
You have to remember, the 'Depression Era' people WASTED NOTHING, so the waste powder went into a big glass 'Ash Tray' with a seal-able silver lid...
(I don't know what is actually was, but we called it an 'Ashtray')
And grandpa would figure out how much of it he could reuse in different rounds through trial and error.

The thing was probably 6" across, and had about 2" of powder in the bottom, which he would 'Dry' out before using, actually putting it in the oven to dry out before use!
(We would NEVER do anything like this today, but this was the mid 60's, and he had been doing it since the 20s or 30s)

So, Grandpa is reloading some 'Cowboy' black powder rounds, and the powder is getting out since the copper funnel grandpa used didn't fit the mouth of the cases properly.

I was a young pup, and I swept up the droppings and put them in the 'Waste' container...

About half way through, the local cigar chomping game warden came in to talk to grandpa about some deer carcasses that had turned up in the river bottoms...
(Deer hunting was illegal at the time)
Because my grandpa was a 'River Rat' that trapped, fished, hunted and cooked a little whiskey once in a while, and he figured that if grandpa didn't do it, he knew who did...

When this particular game warden thought he had something figured out, he would light that stinking 10¢ cigar...

And you know where this is going...

He lit up, dropped the wooden match in the 'Ash Tray' and all hell broke loose!

Three things happened instantly!
1. An INTENSE flair, followed by pieces of glass ashtray flying all over the work bench,

The 'Fight Or Flight' instinct kicked in with two of us,
2. The game warden heading out of the pole barn/shop towards the barn lot,

3. And me headed for the door/path past the garden to the house and the safety of Grandma!

Grandpa, keeping a cool head, capped the TWO POUNDS of black powder in the metal can before it became part of this catastrophe...

The next thing I know, I hear SCREAMING like a little girl...
So I turn around and run back to see what's happening.
Grandpa is coming out of the pole barn/shop choking on the smoke,
So I follow the screaming and find the game warden hung astraddle the barbed wire electric fence getting his privates cooked and screaming in a voice my 8 year old sister couldn't reproduce!

The next thing I know, grandpa is standing next to me, next to the plug for the fence charger saying,
"Just let him hang a little more..."
Then pulling the plug... The screaming stopped.

No damage other than some loaded cases in a block ignited, and a HUGE scorch mark where the ashtray had been sitting on the back of the bench... AND LOTS OF SMOKE...

And one old, cooked, NOT so cocky game warden rolling around in the pasture moaning and holding his sack with BOTH hands!

The end results...

He was a LOT more polite after that when we saw him...

I dispose of Waste Powder in a SEALED container, and wet it down with water...
 
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Finger in press, above case when sizing.

Not my finger, but you get the idea:

OUCH.jpg
 
I loaded about 30 cases of pistol cases once. Then went to put them on the press and started to wonder why powder was on the press.

Forgot to put the primers in. I mostly use a handpress for primers.
 
I've been reloading slightly over a year, and yes, I've made some mistakes, mostly minor ones that caused a little inconvenience but no danger. Yet.

But after reading through this thread, I'm shocked at the number of posts about damaging fingers by getting them between the sizer/decapping pins and the press?:eek: What kind of press are you guys working with where you can't stop the upstroke before you rip into a finger? When I load, either Lee single-stage or turret, the only hand on the press is the one pulling the lever.
 
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