The dumbest reloading thing I'd ever done survey.
- Thread starter Smoke & Recoil
- Start date
Jbar4Ranch
New member
Double charge of Clays in a .38-40 case. 
I know a fellow that did the same thing in a Tikka .25-06 when he was shooting test loads in both rifles. He just reached into the wrong box for a round.
The barrel went 20 yards downrange and the scope bounced off the underside of the canopy and ended up next to my right foot. He got a nick on the end of his nose that bled furiously. Damn lucky man.
stagpanther
New member
Yup--that's what I did--I had two of those psychedelic colored boxes Fusion ammo, one in 308 and one in 270, which I was hand-feeding into the chamber and ooops! grabbed the wrong one while keeping my eyes focused on the target. Yes dumb--easier to do than you might think if you are out firing more than one caliber rifle though. A mistake I'm sure I'll never repeat.
drain smith
New member
First off I have a family shoot 3 times a year. Labor day, Memorial day, and Independence day. What that mean is my wife and three of my daughters and their husbands bring their guns to my range and I get to supply ammo.
Well 2 July 2014 I have to make 3,000 .223s. But first off one of my backhoe operators calls in sick so I have to run one of my backhoes for 9 hours that day. It was 90+ degrees with about 65% humidity. I did manage to eat 3 tacos and a soda around noon but that was the only thing I had all day.
Well about 6 PM I get to the reloading room. I reload on a Hornady Ammo Plant with a deluxe control panel. This means it has a primer slide sensor, primer level sensor, and a power level sensor. But due to the fact I am loading rifle rounds I don't have a power safeguard die and only have a power cop that I have to watch. But in 4 hours I am done with all 3,000.
This is where I should point out that I am diabetic. Not only do I not remember watching the power cop, I don't even remember pulling the handle on the press. So I did a blood test, and holy crap. The next day I remade all 3000 rounds I can't take the chance of a squib with my wife or my daughters shooting. I ended shooting all 3,000 rounds myself later and they were all fine but I couldn't take the chance with my family.
Now to fix the problem for Christmas I bought my son-in-laws each there own Ammo Plants with 3 shell plates and 3 sets of dies each. I set them up and timed them. So now it's up to them to bring their own ammo.
Well 2 July 2014 I have to make 3,000 .223s. But first off one of my backhoe operators calls in sick so I have to run one of my backhoes for 9 hours that day. It was 90+ degrees with about 65% humidity. I did manage to eat 3 tacos and a soda around noon but that was the only thing I had all day.
Well about 6 PM I get to the reloading room. I reload on a Hornady Ammo Plant with a deluxe control panel. This means it has a primer slide sensor, primer level sensor, and a power level sensor. But due to the fact I am loading rifle rounds I don't have a power safeguard die and only have a power cop that I have to watch. But in 4 hours I am done with all 3,000.
This is where I should point out that I am diabetic. Not only do I not remember watching the power cop, I don't even remember pulling the handle on the press. So I did a blood test, and holy crap. The next day I remade all 3000 rounds I can't take the chance of a squib with my wife or my daughters shooting. I ended shooting all 3,000 rounds myself later and they were all fine but I couldn't take the chance with my family.
Now to fix the problem for Christmas I bought my son-in-laws each there own Ammo Plants with 3 shell plates and 3 sets of dies each. I set them up and timed them. So now it's up to them to bring their own ammo.
stagpanther
New member
Not sure this counts--sounds more like you did a very smart thing--circumstances considered. You got my respect.
drain smith
New member
Thanks. But it didn't feel to bright the next day when it took me about 5 1/2 hours to make an other set. When I have a large run I stage brass and bullets in baggies in 100 count and I didn't have my Brass monkey filling primer tubes for me. All I kept thinking is all I had to do is eat a few crackers or eat a piece of fruit.
I began rolling my own in 1972 when I came home from Vietnam. Bought a Lee progressive and started with 44 Magnum for my Model 29. It went something like Bang, Bang and a pop. Bullet now stuck in forcing cone. Went to range smith Emery. Emery got out plastic hammer and wood dowel. Problem fixed and went back to shooting. Bang, Bang and again pop. Went back to Emery, again hammer and dowel. The third time Emery just told me to keep the hammer and dowel till I was done.
I think I managed to load something like 6 of 50 as squibs without any powder. Haven't loaded another squib in over 40 years but the look on Emery's face when he just handed me the dowel and hammer was priceless.
Ron
I think I managed to load something like 6 of 50 as squibs without any powder. Haven't loaded another squib in over 40 years but the look on Emery's face when he just handed me the dowel and hammer was priceless.
Ron
pctechdude
New member
Was disassembling my Glock 20 10mm, removed magazine, pulled slide back, nothing drops out. Proceed to pull the slide lock down, slide won't budge off. So release slide lock, pull slide back nothing.
Mind you I had a dumba$$ moment and didn't look in the chamber, had gun slightly tilted so I couldn't see inside.
Again, release the slide, pulled the slide lock down, pulled the trigger. BANG! OH SH*T My hand, is it OK?
Bullet went through exterior door of the garage into the truck tire.
So after collecting myself, and checking my drawers for soilage, I examined the gun. The extractor was broken and not grabbing the case. I am thankful that I had the extended barrel in the gun (6" KKM precision) instead of the factory barrel at that time. Had the factory length barrel been in the gun, I probably wouldn't have a left hand.
The extractor was promptly fixed and I always remember to check the chamber.
Mind you I had a dumba$$ moment and didn't look in the chamber, had gun slightly tilted so I couldn't see inside.
Again, release the slide, pulled the slide lock down, pulled the trigger. BANG! OH SH*T My hand, is it OK?
Bullet went through exterior door of the garage into the truck tire.
So after collecting myself, and checking my drawers for soilage, I examined the gun. The extractor was broken and not grabbing the case. I am thankful that I had the extended barrel in the gun (6" KKM precision) instead of the factory barrel at that time. Had the factory length barrel been in the gun, I probably wouldn't have a left hand.
The extractor was promptly fixed and I always remember to check the chamber.
stagpanther
New member
Wow--that's up there with my 308 in a 270! Thanks for mentioning it--I have a glock 20 sf myself--the scariest thing I have had happened with it so far is had a squib end up just forward of the chamber--I was lucky as all heck because I didn't notice anything different in the firing report but the next round refused to chamber without jamming. Had the bullet lodged a little more forward--it would have been.... KA-BOOM hand grenade!
pctechdude
New member
Wow yeah, that would of been all bad. Can never take things for granted, I did once and it almost cost me dearly! The gun was newer to me at the time as I bought it used. I may have missed the extractor being broken? It's a gen 2 but in recent times I bought a new gen 3 SF frame for it. My wife likes the sf frame a lot more for her smaller hands. So it's a win win!
On the bench, I've ever only had two goof ups, I ran 50 rounds of 45's without powder :-(
The second was 20 rounds of 243 with large pistol primers. Caught that after seating the last primer. No powder or anything in the case so easy fix.
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On the bench, I've ever only had two goof ups, I ran 50 rounds of 45's without powder :-(
The second was 20 rounds of 243 with large pistol primers. Caught that after seating the last primer. No powder or anything in the case so easy fix.
Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
stagpanther
New member
You mean you had a completely charged cartridge--and put it in the press to try to get the primer flush with the case rim face?
stagpanther
New member
I think those extractors simply take a beating over time--especially if you "experiment" with high power reloads and conversions--which I do with mine. I use it not only with 10 mm but also 9 x 25 dillon.
Yep and had done it many, many times before with out a problem. You guessed it, now they get placed on the side, when the loading session is done the bullets gets pulled, powder dumped, then an attempt is made to seat the primer deeper. Hard lesson learned, never to make THAT mistake again
stagpanther
New member
Good thing I've been reading these--I just did a box full of reloads and one of the cartridges I crimped a tad too hard and pushed the shoulder down a couple of thousandths ". I left it in the box thinking --what the hey--it'll be pushed back out. But it is one of my hottest compressed loads--and hmmmm, well let me just pull the bullet and call it a day. : )
pctechdude
New member
I haven't experimented to much, used loads listed in the hornady #9 manual. I worked up to the max, substituting 180gr gold dots for the xtp's as the xtp's are a tad longer. I still question whether or not hornadys data is trustworthy in the charges they list for AA#9 and 800x. Much higher than anyone else. However The max charge of AA#9 at 14.9gr produced a spread of less than 9fps. Out of the 6 inch kkm precision barrel they were zipping along at 1380fps.
The 800x with both gold dots and xtp's were 1450fps with the max charge of 10.1gr....
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stagpanther
New member
Been a while since I loaded up some 10mm having switched over to 9 x 25 dillon (9mm at 2000 fps, why not? ; ) ) but my reload energy calculating program agrees with you--by a VERY wide margin that 14.9 grs of #9 in a 180 projectile is over-pressuring--but I've seen funky returns before.