I thought it would be funny /useful as a learning experience for new loaders to list up your mistakes.
I'll go first.
One that I've done more than once is to load powder and bullets and... Oh yeah forget primers!!
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I thought it would be funny /useful as a learning experience for new loaders to list up your mistakes.
I'll go first.
One that I've done more than once is to load powder and bullets and... Oh yeah forget primers!!
Haha. Been there, go to crimp bullets for pistols and have powder running out the bottom.
Me next:
Lube your cases. If you feel it chatter going in, back it out and relube. I got one stuck in a f/l sizer die and had to go get a tap, drill out the primer pocket, tap and thread the hole, then use a socket and a bolt to remove the case. About an hour of downtime because I was trying to go too fast.
I'm a **** good bullet puller!
I have got side tracked double charged the same case with powder all over the table.
This should be a pin on home page... I feel like it could be a popular thread ;)
Load Accurate 7 instead of Re7.
had a 25-06, and a 270. A buddy convinced me to start reloading. bought Winchester brass for the 25-06 REM and Remington brass for the 270 WIN.
followed everyone's advice to run new brass through resizing die to true up mouth dents.
set up the 270 die per instructions. Lubed the 270 casings, went to work. Was excited about my success smoothing out all the neck dents.
Finished the 270's.
lubed all the 25-06. the first 25-06 casing was a lot harder to run through the dies. Stopped and googled "is Winchester brass harder than remington brass". found several posts that Remington tended to be softer, so ok, I continued with the 25-06 casings through the resizer. They were all noticeably harder to resize than the 270's, but afterward I was excited - I'm on my way.
primed all the casings the next day. I'm on my way
Next day, loaded 5 3 shot powder charges of imr 4831 in my 270 casings. Put the 270 seating die in and seated 15 150 partitions. I'm on my way.
next day, loaded 5 3 shot powder charges of Imr 4831 in my 25-06 casings. went to put a 110 grain accubond in the 25-06 Case mouth. It fell into the case until it hit powder.
i then realized that I had yet to open the 25-06 die box! The first day I had resized all my 25-06 brass with the 270 dies! No wonder that winchester brass seemed so hard?
Was so flustered. I'd ruined my brand new 25-06 brass. so I dumped the powder back in the bottle, and threw the brass away. Ordered some new brass
didnt tell my buddy, who had convinced me to start reloading, until about a month later. He said "don't worry about it, it didnt't hurt the brass to neck it back down." That was 5 years ago. To this day I've never told him I threw the brass away.
book max powder charges are more important in July than February. Just ask my gunsmith
Having one 45 Auto small primer case slip through sorting on a progressive setup for Large primer makes for some ringing ears.
See! Already helping by learning by others mistakes. I got to be good at some things because I learned really well how NOT to do it.
A few times, seated bullet, no powder in case........Squib load at range.
The occasional seating an inverted primer.
Loading the wrong powder is probably the most dangerous of F-ups....
I once woke up around 5am to put some loads together to go shooting later that day, but I forgot to re-zero my scale.
Wasn't until I'd done about 40 rounds that I noticed the charge weights were off by 2-3 grains. Never again will I wake up that early to try and reload. It's always better to sacrifice the sleep on the front end.
lubed my cases with 5w30
Titanium cylinders are easier to blow up than steel cylinders.
Lets see.....loaded cases with no primers...just the other day actually....missed powder charges...fortunately caught before I shot...couldnt hear any powder in the case, seated and crimped without powder....
Makes me feel better Im not the only one thats done this before 😉. I leave myself alot of notes now lol
Scooter
Being totally new to reloading, I am trying to develop some good habits, including the flashlight trick. Works good. When I put my primers in, I put the case neck down in the block with the primers where I can see them. This is a great thread. I know from years of experience with other endeavors that it is so easy to space out or get distracted, sometimes costing extra hours of work, more money, or worse.
working from memory, i loaded up 50 rds of 9mm with a powder charge that did not seem right
instead of checking my log book went ahead only to find they were very undercharged with powder
pulling 50 rds of 9mm was not fun with a kinetic puller
I check my log on everything now LOL
Jack
I have pretty much done it all at one time or another. Have tried to develop habits that eliminate most of them
but I still put primers in backwards
or not a all. Wondering why all that powder is in the loading block
Or miss sizing a case and with it primed and charged the bullet just drops through the neck
I have learned the hard way
to only have one set of dies out when you are sizing cases. Why is that case so hard to size?
and only one powder out when you are charging cases. Oops did I use the varget or the RL15?
I stuck a 221 FB brass in my 20 VT FL die today..........what a dumb azz......
yes I have a stuck case remover..........if you ain't got one........
get one........
http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd8zminu5.jpg
My all time favorite. Glad it wasn't me.
^^^ wth. How is that even possible?
Finger in wrong spot on progressive?
Can't to that one...you win
Forgot the primers, forgot the lube, and prob the biggest was forgot to write on the box what the load was...yep found a box of 50 .270 rounds that I'm not sure if they are 140g or 150g sst's I'll run a few through the chrony and that will tell me.
As far as the case in the finger. I think that is not too far fetched. Moving fast holding or grabing wile pulling the handle while watching tv!
Bet that hurt more coming back out.
Sorted couple hundred 308 brass into junk bag and bag to tumble and load. Tumbled for 3 hours before I realized I tumbled the junk bag instead
Here is one for new folks. The other day I walked back into the reloading room to get started and I had left powder in the chargemaster. I had loaded a couple different powders the day or so before and totally couldnt recall with confidence, which one it was. I had a couple half full bottles on the shelf. Note to self, put current bottle behind chargemaster!!! Sucks to trash 1/4 lb of powder. Better safe than sorry.
...
now about wasting powder. My first time emptying my uniflow powder measurer, didn't think it all the way through, unscrewed the stem, dumped 1/4 lb of VV N310 on the floor. In my tool bag, junk brass bucket, empty ammo boxes, freaking everywhere.
I have of course charged pistol cartridges with no primers and of course was using VV N310 so it promptly went everywhere. I have a 22-250 that shoots heavy bullets and a 220 Swift that takes a very light bullet. I loaded 50 rounds of 220 swift with 60 gr. bullets and had to pull them all and start over. READ THE BOX!
Tumbled in walnut media after priming once. Probably not an issue, but like all things reloading better safe than sorry.
This seems like a good place to write this. A while back I wrote about witnessing a guy nearly blow up his 243 at the range. Thought at the time it was due to adding a magnum primer to an already too hot load receipe.
Just to close the loop on this story, I saw him again some weeks later, having problems popping primers (again) with that same 243.
In passing the time with him during a cease fire period (actually it was a grass fire started by a suspected FMJ skipping off the ground, fire dept responded, etc) , I asked what he used to trim his case neck to size after FL sizing.
He said "what do you mean trim? I just run a chamfer tool around the mouth".
I measured a couple of cases he'd reloaded and found them .020+ over max length.
I advise him on the dangers of pinching a bullet and suggested he throw away his brass and get new off the shelf ammo, then learn a bit more about what he is doing before attempting to hand load anymore ammo. And if i ever saw him there again, I'd make dang sure I was nowhere near him while he was shooting.
Haven't seen him since….which is fine by me.
Ahh last night,I'm loading some test bullets....never set my bullet depth...went to seat a bullet in and wham...what was suppose to be 2.650 col....turned out to be 2.350...what a pain to pull out!
Just last week.... bought a collet/neck sizing die, second time using it. I forgot to check the necks before priming. Well... first bullet fell right in. Then I got the bright idea of pulling the decapping pin and neck sizing without it. Now I've got a bunch of cases too small to seat... :confused: Gonna try some boattail bullets and make sure the case doesn't get shorter meaning I crushed the shoulder and need to throw them out.....:rolleyes: