Reloading hall of shame

[schnyd112]

You both have more gumption than I. No way I would have pulled those bullets. A good stock of fouler ammo if you ask me.

[Chamdaddy]

You both have more gumption than I. No way I would have pulled those bullets. A good stock of fouler ammo if you ask me.
Don't confuse it with gumption, I was just out of brass.

[schnyd112]

I had a similiar experience, but mine was with 9mm. I had loaded up 50 rounds with new lead bullets, 5 of each charge, to chrono and settle on a load. After crimping, I instinctively threw them in a tin instead of putting them back in the block. Didn't realize what I was doing until I had done half of them.

[Phranque]

Well, I've sat here & gone through this entire thread for a few great laughs, as I have done most of these things myself over nearly 30 years (though no brass through the thumb....yet). I'd have to say my most recent embarrassment that I have not seen listed here was with the Chargemaster... emptied powder & forgot to close the drain. Next time I went to use it, powder everywhere.

I just set up to reload 7-08 along with 308, so I'll be expecting my first major blunder there, though I am cautious of it ahead of time & don't plan on ever shooting the two at the same time, and the ammo boxes are very different.

And, doctnj, no offense, but I hope to never meet you anywhere other than here... :heh:

[Hot Brass]

With divorce, moving, another marriage, moving, and moving again, time flies. Had not reloaded in years. Wife out of the house, I set things up (in the kitchen), portable reloading table bolted to a Black & Decker Workmates. Loaded .223 with Varget. So happy to be reloading again I did not think of making .5 grain increases. Result is 100 rounds of the same load. Live and learn.

[Texas10]

You know how they say to never anneal brass with a live primer? Seems pretty obvious, heat and explosives don't mix well. So I had a couple of FTF's at the range the other day, and pulled down the cartridges to save components but got side tracked before I could de-capp both and apparently just set them aside on my loading bench.

Next day decided to anneal all the shot brass on it's fourth cycle and somehow got the FTF brass mixed in with the other shot ones. Proceeded to start annealing and bout the time i dropped the fifth case into the bowl after annealing, a very loud bang rang out. Knew exactly what I'd done, but couldn't remember if I de-primed the other FTF.

About 10 cases later, just as I dropped the newly anneal case in the bowl, another loud blast. This time however, the force of the primer (CCI 450) blowing out of the pocket of the 6mmBR case and hitting an adjacent case and almost flattening it completely. Quite amazing how much force it (the primer) had. Gave me a whole new respect for what a primer can do all by itself.

[88Magnum]

I just started reloading about 2 months ago. I've already crunched my fingers trying to hold the bullet in place as I was seating it and lowered the ram and forgot to get my fingers out, took a chunk of skin and nail out of my 1st finger and thumb.

I forgot to remove the sizer and put in the bullet seating die and kept popping primers on 5 rds while checking bullet seating depth. I'm sure I'll be making more mistakes along the way.

[Stumpkiller]

Years back I was shooting PPC with a local sheriff's group. I was using a Colt Trooper III revolver and Keith style lead bullets.

One of my round just made a little "Mmfh" when I pulled the trigger. The primer fired and it moved the bullet up into the forcing come - jamming the cylinder.

The range boss shut everything down (embarassing enough) and I had to walk my locked-up pistol over to the sideline with the range haulted and try and drive the bullet back into the cylinder with a dowel.

It had powder. Never did figure why it didn't fire - oil or lube wax??


And then there is the forgetting t lube a .223 case and sticking it well and truly on the resizing die with the expander down in the case and the rim torn off. I eventually got it out, but I see why RCBS used to offer that as a regular service (removing stuck cases - I think they charged $15). Now I would paid it. ;-)

[88Magnum]

Years back I was shooting PPC with a local sheriff's group. I was using a Colt Trooper III revolver and Keith style lead bullets.

One of my round just made a little "Mmfh" when I pulled the trigger. The primer fired and it moved the bullet up into the forcing come - jamming the cylinder.

The range boss shut everything down (embarassing enough) and I had to walk my locked-up pistol over to the sideline with the range haulted and try and drive the bullet back into the cylinder with a dowel.

It had powder. Never did figure why it didn't fire - oil or lube wax??


And then there is the forgetting t lube a .223 case and sticking it well and truly on the resizing die with the expander down in the case and the rim torn off. I eventually got it out, but I see why RCBS used to offer that as a regular service (removing stuck cases - I think they charged $15). Now I would paid it. ;-)

Did the same thing with .308, full sized thinking it was a Neck Size die, no lube and it was hard as hell but it didn't get stuck. That's testament to the quality of Redding S Type Comp Dies.

[rerun5]

Yeah when I was a newbie reloader I was reloading some 38spl for my wife's revolver and seated the bullet with the expander die, shoves the bullet well into the case. I didn't bother telling her about it. Unfortunately she was in the reloading room when I did it again with one of my 357 mag cases. That lesson was learned VERY well. :(

[joebobsmith]

I'm new to reloading, and new to Savage Shooters forum. But I'll fess up, and tell my "never do this'rr". It's not really a reloading blunder, but this is the right place for it. I was setting up a corner dedicated reloading area "which I had already been using" and was adding hooks and pegs to hang stuff on. Well I had hung up my RCBS hand prime, which I forgot that I left 25 CCI 200 primers in. And noticed I need to grind a little VB more on one of the hooks about thirty inches away from it.

One spark and all 25 primers went off.

Ears ringing---wondering what the bleep just happened ???
Word to the wise. Highly Explosive! Really does mean HIGHLY Explosive.

[rosewood]

Here is what I do to keep my powders "pure". Against the recommendations of the powder manufacturers, I never pour powder back in a bottle once I pour it out. For some reason, my mind sees pouring powder in a hopper, then back into a bottle after using that hopper for other powders as cross contamination. I have always stored powder that was in a hopper in a separate container. I use the ziplock type bowls labeled with the specific powder. I also leave the bowl for the powder in use on my work bench until I am done with that powder that way I know what powder is in the hopper. This also prevents me from ruining a whole factory bottle because I dumped the wrong powder back in on top of it. If I mix them up, it is in a smaller container with less powder to ruin.

Rosewood

[rosewood]

One of my blunders was when reloading 7mm-08 for a new rifle. Went to range and was shooting over chronograph. Noticed the velocity was 150 fps or more faster than what it should be. Had me scratching my head. I stopped after a couple of rounds. Got home and figured out what happened. Powder, bullet weight was all in order. My OAL was too long and the bullet was jamming in the lands. By starting in the lands, the bullet was building higher pressure which gave more velocity. I had loaded different bullets and neglected to adjust my seating die. Fortunately it didn't hurt anything, but taught me the dangers of seating too long.

Rosewood

[rosewood]

Probably my most risky scenario was I had a 7mm TCU loaded and it would not chamber so I decided to run it in my Redding body die (looking back, I should have pulled it). I failed to lube it enough and it got stuck. Imagine that, a loaded round stuck in a die. Not good. I can't remember all of the details but I think I oiled up the case and then carefully cut it open to get the powder out, was able to get it out safely, but there was a lot of butt clenching during the process.

Rosewood

[Taz575]

Worse one I did was when I mistook a can of 3M 77 Spray Adhesive for my Hornady One Shot dry lube when I went to spray down my dies. Took FOREVER to clean those dies out completely!!

[OLEJOE]

Glad I’m not the only DA that does this stupid stuff. Loaded an OCW test yesterday and I live where I can load and shoot. Loaded up 3 rounds for my next step and 1 didn’t have powder. Luckily the bullet didn’t move out of the case. You can imagine what I looked like with my kinetic bullet puller around the corner of the house from me trying to break it down and then realizing it didn’t have any powder. I thought the primer was bad but it had fired. Needless to say, my groups were not as good after that. LOL.

[PhilC]

Worse one I did was when I mistook a can of 3M 77 Spray Adhesive for my Hornady One Shot dry lube when I went to spray down my dies. Took FOREVER to clean those dies out completely!!
I use a lot of 3M 77 in automotive work and lacquer thinner kills it fast. ;)

[OLEJOE]

Acetone will melt it also.

[Taz575]

I used Denatured Alcohol, didn't have acetone or lacquer thinner on hand readily. It was all over my hands, so everything I touched got sticky and I had taken apart a few dies and sprayed each piece, so it was in threads and all over! Took a few dies to realize it, too.

[onespeedbiker]

I remember one time I had loaded some 40 rounds of 308 with Varget. After I pressed in the last bullet I looked at mt scale and realized I had set it 10 grains too low. Since this brought the load under the published weight, I pulled all the bullets and started over.

I have also messed up with sights. My first foray into owning a 308 rifle was a AXIS XP ii. I started shooting some real good groups than all of a sudden the rounds were scattered all over the target. After 10 frustrating shots, I realized the scope mounts had come loose. Then recently I was shooting my newish Marlin 45-70 with semi-buckhorn sights. All of a sudden the bullets started to drop, even with the sight adjusted as high as it would go. Finally figured out there is a little adjustable plate in the sight held on with a small screw. The screw had come loose and the plate had dropped down to it's lowest part.