In my early handloading days, I put together a couple boxes of 250 gr. cast SWC loads for my Charter Arms Bulldog in .44 Special. It was a nice day, so I strapped my range bag on the back of my motorcycle and drove to the range. I got set up, and the very first shot 'squibbed.' It stuck between the forcing cone and the cylinder, tying the gun up. I had nothing in the range bag to reach down the bore to remove it.
I packed up and rode home. In the garage, I found some hardwood dowel that was close to bore size. I cut 12 inches of it and used that to knock the bullet back into the cartridge case. I sat the dowel and mallet down on the bench, took the offending cartridge inside and got my inertia bullet puller out. No powder!
I drove back to the range to continue shooting. The second round squibbed!
Of course, I had left the dowel on the bench in the garage at home. I packed up again and drove back there. Pushed the bullet back into the case and again and manned the bullet puller. No powder again!
This was serious. I began to weigh the remaining 98 cartridges and they were all within 2 grains of each other.
Not willing to risk another squib, I decided to pull the entire batch apart. The bullets I had used had quite a deep crimp groove and I had roll crimped them heavily. It took a good bit of smacking to force each bullet from the cases' grasp.
Every single remaining cartridge contained the proper powder charge!
What was the odds? 2 bad rounds out of 100 and I picked them out first and second!
That's six hours of my life I am never going to get back.
