I've had this LEE LOADMASTER for a dozen or more years, and have loaded tens of thousands of rounds with it, so it's not like I'm a noob, OK? (Just a "boob".)

Cranking out 40S&W all afternoon, got some dragginess in the indexing, short-stroked it, and kept on loading - THIS!



The mouth of the case was custom-collapsed by the mouth of the seating die, and the bullet was impaled on the ragged edge of the sliver of the case-mouth. That example now sits on a place of honor above my loading bench - - no, not as the ONLY mistake I've ever made there, but as the only one that I can point to which didn't give me a serious adrenaline-rush. (I think a number of you guys can relate to that).

Flash

Powder spills like most people. Overcharged or undercharged cases a few times. Had a misfire and a bullet stick in the barrel once (bolt action spanish mauser chambered for .308). I put a heavy crimp on bullets now. I use a hornady powder measure and never had a problem with it, always user error.

I like to mix 5 pieces of ammo that I have deliberatly put oil into the primer into every box of fifty I plan shooting at the range. This creates a misfire that typically won't put the bullet in the barrel. It also keeps me very aware if I am flinching. A buddy was having problems zeroing his weapon one year so I "checked the scope mount" picked up a round, palmed it for a empty loaded the weapon with the empty and gave it back. He checked to make sure there was a round in the chamber, but, he didn't pull the bolt all the way back. When he fired his flinch became obvious and he settled down to quickly zero his rifle. I know people at the range look at me funny when I have a mis-fire, but, I can out shoot most of them so I don't care.

If you ever have a light recoil check the barrel before shooting another round. A friend at work put about 8 rounds of 30 carbine in his ruger blackhawk. Bulged the barrel, the cylinder wouldn't move and that is how he figured out the problem. Can you say "miracle"?

Loading 44 Special for my 696. Always used 5.5 of Universal with a 200 LRNFP.

Had clipped an article on the Special April 2011 G&A. They had a load table.

Called for 200 grain lead w/7.5 grains of TiteGroup.

Started to load them. Seems a bit hot - lets check Hodgdon.

Yikes!! Big time overload Max listed is 5.4 grains!
Lesson learned again - always cross-check load data!

__________________
-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Or this one?

[QUOTE[/QUOTE]

That looks a lot like the wildcat 357/44 B&D.

Then there is always the famous 5.7 XPress:



Handloader once had a spec drawing and calculated performance
numbers for the .50BMG/223 but I can't find it right away.

...Nemo...

That looks a lot like the wildcat 357/44 B&D.

...Nemo...[/QUOTE]

You are quite correct!

A couple of weeks ago I was in the process of loading 100 rds of 308 and had all the cases primed and charged. I was about halfway through the first 50 seating 168 SMKs when I ran out of bullets. No problem, grab another box off the bench and continue. The problem was that I also load 190 grain Sierras in 300 Win Mag and the boxes look identical, bullets look similar (although a little longer), and they seat just fine in 308 cases. Had to go back and weigh all the cartridges and pull about 20.

Hi,

about 18 months ago, I nearly shortened my left index finger in the expanding die by adjusting a .45 ACP shell casing in the shell holder while to fast pulling the lever. I neatly punched a horseshoe pattern in the tip of the index finger. When I realized something had gone wrong and I felt the pain, I didn't dare to look at my finger because I thought I had severed the whole fingertip with the case mouth, and immediately ran from the basement to the bathroom to get my bleeding finger into the washbasin. I remember asking my wife who came to see what happened: "Is the finger tip off?" Fortunately, it wasn't, and the wound healed astonishingly quickly.

regards
Ulrich

__________________
Life is too short to own a bad gun

Yeah, reloading your finger is a bad idea.



...Nemo...

my buddy and I were reloading 40 S&W. Had a little H110 in a container in the cupboard, it was dumped in the hopper, followed up by HS6. We had loaded several hundred rounds when I discovered two types of powder on the bench. The loads that were predominatly H110 often stoved piped in his Ruger, less often in my CZ 75b. We took care to make sure the bullets made it out of the barrel. We knew the loads would be safe to shoot from a pressure standpoint. Had we been loading our .44 Mags and found HS6 on the bench we would have pulled every round.