Reloading hall of shame

[Ted_Feasel]

Load some rounds, change dies and powder. Load a different cal, .220 swift. Wrnt to the range and shot the best group ever. Came home to load some more! Before i forgot the load. R17 sitting out. R17 is not listed as a swift powder. Forgot to change the powder. No pressure signs and no idea on velocity

Lol, that's scary:) I did a brain fart last week loading some 6.5 grendel. I used 123gr ELD load data and realized after getting 50 done that I had seated 129gr SST. I thought long and hard about just shooting them then decided not to risk it. The load is use for the 123gr is just a grain over max listed for 129gr so probably good I didnt use them.. was a pain pulling all those, i just neck sized and seated 123gr.

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[Bill2905]

I was using my RCBS Charge master doing my loads and when I was done, I prepared to return the powder from the Charge master to the 1 lb. jug.. Problem is when you unload the powder, there is a knob on the side of the Charge master to use to dump the powder back to the original jug. I changed calibers, grabbed the next powder jug to pour into the powder measure tube and noticed the level of powder was not rising in the tube as it should. I noticed a nice sized pile of powder laying neatly on the side by an open valve that someone forgot to close.
Unfortunately I have fallen prey to many of the oopsies mentioned on these pages, but I have learned to reload with no phone near me, no tv, only a radio for background , and try to keep anyone out of the reloading area until I am finished. Luckily, my mistakes have been at the bench and aside from shooting my chronograph rail at the range, nothing overly scary.

I bought a new Chargemaster Lite a few months ago. I did a review of it on this forum and warned potential users about forgetting to close the hopper drain and making a mess. Several days ago, I repeated this mistake for something like the fourth time since initially using it. Not the worst mess to clean up but man, what an aggravation.

Last month I took my left handed 10 BA Stealth to the range which is about 40 miles south. When I set it up on the bench, it didn't take long to realize that I had accidentally grabbed the bolt to one of my right handed receivers. Fortunately, I took other guns to shoot that day. Since then, I have disassembled the left hand bolt for cleaning. Finally made it back to the range the other day after nearly a month away. I took the Stealth again which then had ejection problems. After five rounds I realized that the bolt head was rotated 180 degrees. Borrowed some tools, disassembled and fixed the bolt issue (so I thought) and went back to the bench. Then it wouldn't fire at all. Fiddled with it some more, finally gave up and put it away. When I got home, I looked at it and eventually figured out that I had assembled the bolt with the cocking piece on the left side. On the positive side, I now a good understanding of how the fire control works on these things. Many things I have learned in life came as the result of being forced to solve a problem, some of them self inflicted.

[Ted_Feasel]

I bought a new Chargemaster Lite a few months ago. I did a review of it on this forum and warned potential users about forgetting to close the hopper drain and making a mess. Several days ago, I repeated this mistake for something like the fourth time since initially using it. Not the worst mess to clean up but man, what an aggravation.

Last month I took my left handed 10 BA Stealth to the range which is about 40 miles south. When I set it up on the bench, it didn't take long to realize that I had accidentally grabbed the bolt to one of my right handed receivers. Fortunately, I took other guns to shoot that day. Since then, I have disassembled the left hand bolt for cleaning. Finally made it back to the range the other day after nearly a month away. I took the Stealth again which then had ejection problems. After five rounds I realized that the bolt head was rotated 180 degrees. Borrowed some tools, disassembled and fixed the bolt issue (so I thought) and went back to the bench. Then it wouldn't fire at all. Fiddled with it some more, finally gave up and put it away. When I got home, I looked at it and eventually figured out that I had assembled the bolt with the cocking piece on the left side. On the positive side, I now a good understanding of how the fire control works on these things. Many things I have learned in life came as the result of being forced to solve a problem, some of them self inflicted.

That's unfortunately the best way we learn most often lol I've had some fails that I'm to embarrassed to go public with lmbo

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[PhilC]

That's unfortunately the best way we learn most often

And are most always lessons we never forget.

[rerun5]

In alot of these posts I see folks talking about being in a hurry. It happened to me a couple times loading pistol ammo. I have two loading blocks out so I can work 50 rounds at a time, stay safe. So I go back and check all my cases for the powder charge, all good. I place bullets in the cases and start seating them. First round after seating the bullet tip is just peeking over the case mouth. I was very upset about my new bullet seating die, that is until I realized I forgot to take the powder through expanding die out and replacing it with the bullet seating die. Actually happened again on another caliber a while later. That was an attention getter, after that I became really more safe when reloading.

[Orezona]

I have two loading blocks out so I can work 50 rounds at a time

I also do this. I have two blocks for each caliber I load.

[glockmeister]

Well I am not new to reloading, I started in the early 1970's, but after reading this thread I find I have many kindred spirits. Thanks for all the trips down memory lane, been there done that. I first started with an RCBS Jr. ,years later a Dillon 550, later still a Lee Classic cast turret press and now I am back to the RCBS Jr. I use the Lee for my .45 ACP rounds and the RCBS for my other loads. Reloading is a much slower paced pass time for me now, I enjoy it sloooooowly and make fewer mistakes. The one that scares me to this day, when I think of it is when I had reloaded some old cases for my son's .357 S&W 686, WE were on his In-Law's ''range'' when he had fired several cylinder loads with no problems, then he fired one that did NOT sound right, he called me over and we decided to check the gun. Thank the Good Lord we did, slug was lodged abut 2'' up the bore, I carefully checked the rounds in the cylinder and found the culprit a split casing. Guess I reloaded that one once to often. Took the gun to my house and tried the old method of a dowel in the barrel and a hammer, no good. Scratched my head for a while and headed to Ace is the place and got brass tubing that would fit in the bore and smaller sizes to fit inside that one. Used a transfer punch to get a solid place to start the drill, drilled through the slug, took out a tube, next size drill bit and so on. Finally got the hole big enough that the wall pressure eased up and I could drive out the slug. Yes we pulled the rest of the slugs and deconstructed the ammo. Still scares me, I could have had a dead or seriously injured son that day, only the Good Lords intervention prevented it.

Judging from this thread, the Reloading Gremlin is a very busy fellow, he sure has visited me more than once. I try to learn from my mistakes and NOT do it twice, most times I do. Take care and reload safe, John

[Ted_Feasel]

Well I am not new to reloading, I started in the early 1970's, but after reading this thread I find I have many kindred spirits. Thanks for all the trips down memory lane, been there done that. I first started with an RCBS Jr. ,years later a Dillon 550, later still a Lee Classic cast turret press and now I am back to the RCBS Jr. I use the Lee for my .45 ACP rounds and the RCBS for my other loads. Reloading is a much slower paced pass time for me now, I enjoy it sloooooowly and make fewer mistakes. The one that scares me to this day, when I think of it is when I had reloaded some old cases for my son's .357 S&W 686, WE were on his In-Law's ''range'' when he had fired several cylinder loads with no problems, then he fired one that did NOT sound right, he called me over and we decided to check the gun. Thank the Good Lord we did, slug was lodged abut 2'' up the bore, I carefully checked the rounds in the cylinder and found the culprit a split casing. Guess I reloaded that one once to often. Took the gun to my house and tried the old method of a dowel in the barrel and a hammer, no good. Scratched my head for a while and headed to Ace is the place and got brass tubing that would fit in the bore and smaller sizes to fit inside that one. Used a transfer punch to get a solid place to start the drill, drilled through the slug, took out a tube, next size drill bit and so on. Finally got the hole big enough that the wall pressure eased up and I could drive out the slug. Yes we pulled the rest of the slugs and deconstructed the ammo. Still scares me, I could have had a dead or seriously injured son that day, only the Good Lords intervention prevented it.

Judging from this thread, the Reloading Gremlin is a very busy fellow, he sure has visited me more than once. I try to learn from my mistakes and NOT do it twice, most times I do. Take care and reload safe, John

I recon any of us that have been doing it long (I've been doing it about 35 years with the last 5 or so really digging into precision reloading) have had some butt hole puckers lmbo. Thank the LORD I've caught mine before firing any rounds.. a few times ive over charged rounds by looking at the wrong line on the load data.. I started using a yellow highlighter to highlight the line of the powder I'm using and cured that mess up. Another one I've done is forgetting to prime the brass before dumping the charge, luckily I caught that before pressing any pills in the brass

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[Ernest T]

A few times, seated bullet, no powder in case........Squib load at range.

Happened to me on Sunday. What a pain in the butt getting it out using a dowel down the muzzle.

… My worst is not charging some cases. The weirdest part was that the bullets never left the cases.

I’ve done this twice — primer, but no powder. With 60 dB of ear protection, I didn’t hear the primer go off. Waited ten seconds and ejected the round and it came out complete with bullet. When I took it apart, it was obvious the primer went off, but the bullet remained seated. Should a primer be able to fire a bullet into the barrel by itself?

[Ernest T]

Dupe

[Robinhood]

I’ve done this twice — primer, but no powder. With 60 dB of ear protection, I didn’t hear the primer go off. Waited ten seconds and ejected the round and it came out complete with bullet. When I took it apart, it was obvious the primer went off, but the bullet remained seated. Should a primer be able to fire a bullet into the barrel by itself?

Neck tension and bullet weight might be some factors as well as case volume.

[charlie b]

I've had the same thing. For some reason in a rifle I've never had the primer put the bullet out of the case and jammed in the barrel. It might be jammed, but, the case is still 'stuck' to it.

[PhilC]

I've stuck one in the throat a few times when shooting cast with very light neck tension.