Lesson learned at the range yesterday

[DaSandmanCometh]

So I took 5 of my 44 mags with some new PMC and some of my reloads. I was shooting my 629 competitor when something happened and locked up the cylinder. What it turned out to be was a 9mm case inside one of my 44 mag reloads. I really don't know how it even fired as there's hardly any room around the edge of the 9mm case the inside of the 44 mag case. But it did bulge the case and also pushed the primer out enough to keep the cylinder from moving. I was very lucky this didn't turn out to be very different ending. I don't know how it got missed when I was running my reloads, I'm very anal when it comes to watching what I'm doing.

On the bright side, it was a very nice day and all but one of my 44 mags shot very well. I even survived 32 rounds in the 500 Mag.

[Nevada Ed]

............... nah.
What ever I say will not be right.

Just glad all turned out ok.

[noylj]

I think one needs to inspect the charged case--and, maybe, sort cases a bit better...

[ArchAngelCD]

No other comment other than, thanks for posting...

[Gyrene6891]

+1 is all I have to say

[ElmerKeith]

Do you clean your brass with a tumbler?

If so, you probably had a 9mmLuger tumble session before and one of the cases was left in the tumbler. It somehow found its way into the 44 Mag and the rest is history.

[DaSandmanCometh]

Originally Posted by noylj

I think one needs to inspect the charged case--and, maybe, sort cases a bit better...

Obviously as one made it past me somehow.

Originally Posted by ElmerKeith

Do you clean your brass with a tumbler?

If so, you probably had a 9mmLuger tumble session before and one of the cases was left in the tumbler. It somehow found its way into the 44 Mag and the rest is history.

I always sort at the range while shooting, I bring plastic bags and each cal goes into it's own bag. When I get home I go through each bag before I start processing them. I tumble each cal separately and completely screen the media before it goes back in, if I reuse it. Just a fluke that happened somehow.

[blujax01]

Wait - what?! The case passed through ...and then ... of course in order to miss ...

Nope. I got nuthin'...

[S&WNUT]

How in the world did the 44 get deprimed??

[littleriver1]

Thanks for posting a most embarrassing experience. Most people would not have admitted to a mistake like that. It is something most people would not look for. But now hearing what happened to you may make others look closer. Odd happening indeed, if it can happen it will happen. We all know you learned something from this. Thanks for the heads up. How many millions of rounds are reloaded in this country and how many mistakes are made and how many do we hear about? How many mistakes do we all make reloading and catch ourselves before we close the lid on that box and think little about? How many mistakes do we not make because we read about it here?

[greenmachine]

Originally Posted by S&WNUT

How in the world did the 44 get deprimed??

Must have been de-primed and then tumbled allowing the 9mm case to find its way into the .44 case.

[dickttx]

I had a somewhat odd experience last week too.
My first ever failure to fire. My 45 ACP reload. Tried it twice. Nice solid primer strike both times. When I got home and disassembled it with a kinetic bullet puller it had the proper amount of powder. Punched out the primer and---it had already been fired. Still trying to comprehend how it had a used primer. I keep my loaded rounds in 100 round plastic boxes and my last task is putting them bullet down in the box and looking that all have primers. Pretty easy to spot a missing primer, and I would think a fired one too.
If nothing else, we will both be a little more observant in the future.

[gaijin]

Originally Posted by S&WNUT

How in the world did the 44 get deprimed??

That would be my question as well.

[epj]

I've had small pieces of gravel from the range lodge in brass and survive tumbling. Caught when attempting to deprime, of course. Weird stuff can happen.

[mikld]

Prolly deprimed prior to tumbling, and a 9mm case was in along with the .44 cases in the tumbler. I used to get that often when I tumbled different calibers together.

You using a progressive press? I could see someone just dumping brass in a hopper un-inspected, but it would seem pretty difficult to do with multiple handling of the case.

Glad that .44 wasn't hurt. My all time favorite cartridge is the .44 Magnum...

[MichiganScott]

Seems to me that unless you are shooting cat sneeze loads, a normal .44 powder charge would overflow, or at least fill the case enough to prevent the bullet from seating normally. If you are shooting 240gr cast or jacketed bullet, a 9mm case occupies enough space in a .44 Magnum case that the mouth of the 9mm would prevent the 240gr bullet from being seated deep enough to be crimped in the cannelure.

[captainjohnsofd]

Happy to hear that there were no casualties. That is the important thing. And you learned a hard lesson for cheap. Count your blessings.

[mtgianni]

I was shooting a contender with a friend. Our range is slightly uphill and he fired a shot then said " I wondered what happened to that". He shot 223 out of his gun, hit the 100 yard gong and had a rattle in his empty brass that turned out to be a decapping pin. When it came up missing he put a new one in assuming it had dropped on his shop floor. I was amazed it did not leave the barrel or the empty case. We had a discussion on reloading practices and I made a resolve again to never fire anyone else's reloads in my guns.

[S&WNUT]

Originally Posted by greenmachine

Must have been de-primed and then tumbled allowing the 9mm case to find its way into the .44 case.

Should have been checked for meida in the flash hole therefore it would have been discovered at that time. Clean then deprime if not then check flash holes after tumbling.

[SMSgt]

**** happens, no one hurt, lesson learned. Back to the press.

[thebeamanater107]

I'm trying to picture a casing inside the casing full of powder and a bullet on top crimped in... I have no idea how it would happen, how you'd miss that, or how it would fire... So I'm not dwelling on that. So the 44mag primer still set off all the powder that I picture inside the 9mm brass and still sent the round out? I'm sure the round didn't have the correct velocity and such and the casing jammed up the cylinder...

And I also got hung up on 5 44mag revolvers and a 500mag. I'm not judging your collection, and it's good that they're not safe queens, I just have to have a variety. I can't stand having more than two of the same gun.

the original point and click interface, by Smith and Wesson

[DaSandmanCometh]

Originally Posted by littleriver1

Thanks for posting a most embarrassing experience. Most people would not have admitted to a mistake like that. It is something most people would not look for. But now hearing what happened to you may make others look closer. Odd happening indeed, if it can happen it will happen. We all know you learned something from this. Thanks for the heads up. How many millions of rounds are reloaded in this country and how many mistakes are made and how many do we hear about? How many mistakes do we all make reloading and catch ourselves before we close the lid on that box and think little about? How many mistakes do we not make because we read about it here?

Thanks for getting the point of why I posted this, it is very appreciated.

Originally Posted by MichiganScott

Seems to me that unless you are shooting cat sneeze loads, a normal .44 powder charge would overflow, or at least fill the case enough to prevent the bullet from seating normally. If you are shooting 240gr cast or jacketed bullet, a 9mm case occupies enough space in a .44 Magnum case that the mouth of the 9mm would prevent the 240gr bullet from being seated deep enough to be crimped in the cannelure.

The loads I was shooting was 10 grains of 231 with a 240gr plated FN. Not a weak load by any means, but not balls to the way. There was nothing noticeably different about the cartridge from the outside. I went over all of them the night before, but I only took 120 with me to the range.

Originally Posted by thebeamanater107

I'm trying to picture a casing inside the casing full of powder and a bullet on top crimped in... I have no idea how it would happen, how you'd miss that, or how it would fire... So I'm not dwelling on that. So the 44mag primer still set off all the powder that I picture inside the 9mm brass and still sent the round out? I'm sure the round didn't have the correct velocity and such and the casing jammed up the cylinder...

And I also got hung up on 5 44mag revolvers and a 500mag. I'm not judging your collection, and it's good that they're not safe queens, I just have to have a variety. I can't stand having more than two of the same gun.

the original point and click interface, by Smith and Wesson

I actually have 8 44 mags, just love 44 mags. I have a bunch of other calibers too, I just had a couple 44's that I hadn't shot yet so I took the kids out to play.



And to answer other questions. I tumble, then deprime and reload on a progressive lee press. It's just a mystery to me how this happened. I could see maybe the deprimer pushing the 9mm primer out and maybe the 44 mag if the 9mm case was in the 44 mag, but I think that would of caused a broken depriming pin. But the 9mm case has the spent primer still seated in it.

[Bkreutz]

Originally Posted by DaSandmanCometh

It's just a mystery to me how this happened. I could see maybe the deprimer pushing the 9mm primer out and maybe the 44 mag if the 9mm case was in the 44 mag, but I think that would of caused a broken depriming pin. But the 9mm case has the spent primer still seated in it.

Aliens, aliens did it, they're testing you!

[arjay]

Seems like it had to end up inside the 44 after depriming/resizing.

[rwsmith]

While we are admitting doing truly stupid things, let me just add that I ruined a decapping stem after getting frustrated trying to deprime a burdan rifle case.

[gboling]

Originally Posted by S&WNUT

How in the world did the 44 get deprimed??

Simple. The 9mm case greatly reduced the case volume of the .44 case. With a normal powder charge there was a drastic increase in pressure, causing the bulged case and the de-priming.

[ElmerKeith]

Originally Posted by S&WNUT

How in the world did the 44 get deprimed??

I always deprime before I start the cleaning process with the tumbler. Some people tumble before and after depriming.

[pokute]

Originally Posted by ElmerKeith

I always deprime before I start the cleaning process with the tumbler. Some people tumble before and after depriming.

I guess that's okay if you're tumbling with steel pin media, but depriming before tumbling in corncob/walnut is not fun.

So, I'm picturing what would happen if the 9mm were mouth-down and mouth up, and in both cases (no pun intended) I see the potential for serious damage. You are very lucky. Hope you never have to be that lucky again.

[Rule3]

Well stuff happens. Glad you and gun are OK

He who has never had a mistake or something screw up please post.

[gm272gs]

If ever there was a case for not depriming before tumbling, this would be it. It simply could not have happened, if depriming was done after tumbling. Also a good reason to not tumble more than one caliber at a time. 9mm brass will become quite well-seated in .45ACP brass (with corn cob or walnut media), as well. It sometimes requires pliers to extract the smaller case from the bigger one.

I understand the whole "I have to get them clean" thing, but really it's a waste of time depriming first. Brass does not need to be bright and shiny inside and out, to work reliably. Actually, it doesn't even have to be shiny. Clean is good, however.

I don't understand the folks who tumble and then put them in the ultrasonic cleaner. They must be retired, or have OCD, or both.

Maybe in lieu of OCD, it's CDO (because the letters are in the proper order - AS THEY SHOULD BE)

[mikld]

I have had my screw-ups in 30 years of reloading, some "oh yeah, I see how that happened" to some really stupid ones; "where was my head when that happened?". And I have had 9mm brass get stuck in .44 cases in the tumbler. But, the OP admitted his oversight and I'm sure he doesn't need instructions on how to correct his reloading methods.

I agree with "He who has had no reloading mishaps, cast the first round..."

[buck460XVR]

Originally Posted by DaSandmanCometh

And to answer other questions. I tumble, then deprime and reload on a progressive lee press. It's just a mystery to me how this happened. I could see maybe the deprimer pushing the 9mm primer out and maybe the 44 mag if the 9mm case was in the 44 mag, but I think that would of caused a broken depriming pin. But the 9mm case has the spent primer still seated in it.

I kept thinking you would have had to deprime before tumbling in order to decap one or both rounds as the 9mm primer would never fit thru the flash hole of the .44 round. I also figured that with the primer missing outta the 9mm case that the primer would still have enough flash to ignite the powder, but since none of these is the case.........I too have nuttin'.

[J. R. WEEMS]

Originally Posted by S&WNUT

How in the world did the 44 get deprimed??

Could be he deprimed the 44 before moving along in his brass preparation. I deprime everything before moving along.

[DaSandmanCometh]

The rounds that this was in was just bulk plinking rounds. They went straight from being shot to sorted and in the tumbler. From there they went into my lee loadmaster progressive. Somehow this 44 mag case was deprimed and then primed. Then between getting powder and a bullet, the 9mm case happened to get inside it. It really astounds me.

I'm not trying to push the blame off, but there is a chance it was a brand new 180gr SPHP PMC round. There was one in cylinder that didn't fire in my anaconda due to light hammer strike. I'm pretty sure it wasn't, but since I've had to think about it because of you guys, it could have been that one. Once I got the case out, I looked at it for a while and talked about it with the range master there and then just tossed it in the brass pile since it was bludged down around the bottom.

[Neumann]

I tumble before depriming and loading (Dillon 550B progressive press), mainly it keeps media from lodging in the ignition hole. I've never found enough residue in the primer pocket to prevent proper seating (but I check for high primers too).

It's very easy to get disparate cases to nest together when collecting brass on the range. Just sweeping them into a pile is sufficient. Then too, I've mixed cases when sorting them by hand. Statistically, you will miss about 15% of the close matches, especially when tired. I can't reliably sort .45 Colt from .44 Magnum, or SPP from LPP .45 cases, even when fresh. I can't count the times I've found 9s jammed in .40s or .40s jammed in .45ACPs after tumbling (and I don't reload 9 mm, and haven't shot it in several years).

There's no way you could deprime both cases at once with a 9mm lodged inside a .44 Magnum. Somehow the routine was broken, and a primed 9 mm was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I'm not pointing fingers. It's just extremely important to determine the root cause of a near disaster. When someone like the OP admits to such a mistake, we should all examine our own procedures to see how it could happen, more important, how it could be avoided. Visual inspection is much less effective than good procedure.

[ElmerKeith]

Last year I had a reloading session with 7 mm RemMag cartridges. I had the primed cartridges stored in the RCBS loading board a few days placed on the oak chest in the foyer of our house.

When I started filling the powder into the cases everything went fine until suddenly one powdercharge was overflowing. I first thought of a kind of doublecharging but when I emptied the case into the scale pan a small spider was poured out with the VV N 160 charge.

[silentflyer]

Another good reason for using 2400,Unique or 296.....