Oddest 'Oh-Oh' at YOUR reloading bench

[m657]

OK, nothing too special....little things still happen all these decades later well past when ALL those little 'oopsies' should never occur.

Had one little strange incident a few days ago....

I've been wrestling with 308 cases of late, and have had to reacquaint myself with the peculiarities of long-gun bottle neck cases.

Solved one of the unsolvable mysteries of reloading, by finally buying a NEW set of dies, which produced sparkling prime ammo for my next range outing.

But....had to take the 650 tool head off and fiddle a bit with some otherwise minor adjustments....only to discover now just where I had put that tin of Imperial sizing wax...*kaff*kaff*....

Well....it DID leave a marvelous exact impression of the decapper/resizer die and the powder funnel die in the otherwise barely used container.

And it DID give me an opportunity to find how effectively various approaches are in removing considerable-sized gobs of semi-hard wax from the dies.

Leaving the dies directly under a 60w bulb for a while does soften it considerably, if you need to know.....

 

[Bib]

OK, nothing too special....little things still happen all these decades later well past when ALL those little 'oopsies' should never occur.

Had one little strange incident a few days ago....

I've been wrestling with 308 cases of late, and have had to reacquaint myself with the peculiarities of long-gun bottle neck cases.

Solved one of the unsolvable mysteries of reloading, by finally buying a NEW set of dies, which produced sparkling prime ammo for my next range outing.

But....had to take the 650 tool head off and fiddle a bit with some otherwise minor adjustments....only to discover now just where I had put that tin of Imperial sizing wax...*kaff*kaff*....

Well....it DID leave a marvelous exact impression of the decapper/resizer die and the powder funnel die in the otherwise barely used container.

And it DID give me an opportunity to find how effectively various approaches are in removing considerable-sized gobs of semi-hard wax from the dies.

Leaving the dies directly under a 60w bulb for a while does soften it considerably, if you need to know.....

I was filling up my MEC reloader to load some shotshells. I filled the half-full powder hopper with shot....never noticed it until I finished filling the other half full hopper (shot hopper) with powder. It took a while but I salvaged it all.

 

[Smithhound]

A couple years ago I came across an old can of 4227, when I dumped it into the measure a redish dust came out. This can was about 20 years old and had deterioriated, so I dumped about half the powder out, it was full of red colored flakes and smelled bad. For some unkown reason I decided to check the inside of the can for rust and before thinking I stuck the ring finger of my right hand into the hole to check if the can had rusted. As soon as it went in I knew I had a problem, it wasn't gonna come out.
A moment of panic set in, all I could see was me walking into the ER with a half full can of gunpowder stuck on my hand. Thoughts of panicked ER personel calling in the bomb squad ran thru my mind. Not wanting that to happen I twisted, turned and pulled my finger back out, 'ringing' the skin and tearing it back all the way to the knuckle. It bled everywhere and hurt like crazy. For a few months I had a 'tatoo' around my finger where the ruined powder had worked its way in.
I had to put up with the Wife's ribbing for a long time afterwards but I didn't cause a scene at the local hospital.
That is one of the dumbest things I've ever done.
RD

 

[Willyboy]

Stupid Reloading Tricks

A few weeks ago I was humming along decapping some brass on my single stage RCBS press when I got out of sequence and decapped my finger. But it was a nice neat, little puncture...Willyboy

 

[jwr0201]

Watch the corncob...

A while back, had just completed charging 200 rounds of 38's using HP-38. When checking the visible volume AFTER weighing every 10th case, I noticed one that was had a LOT bigger charge than the others. Strange - I was sure that I didn't double charge any of the cases. Weighed the charged case - was not that much heavier. Only one thing to do - dump it and re-charge. Surprise - a stuck piece of corncob popped out with the powder. Sure got my attention - make sure I double check the volumes before seating the bullet!
RR

 

[jrhoney]

Realizing after loading 50 rounds of 30-06 to match specifications for a customer friend custom for his chamber that the overall case length was a tad too long. 5 hours of work down the tube.

 

[Maximumbob54]

I keep finding that my powder measure on my Hornady LNL AP likes to drift and drop a little more and more until I'm a full grain heavy if I don't adjust it. Still can't figure out what the problem is. I degreased and cleaned EVERYTHING just like the DVD showed. Everything is nice and tight that should be. And she just drifts a tiny bit more each time until I have to adjust it again. I'm using the baffle in the powder and I keep the powder at least 2/3's full when using it. This doesn't happen with my Uniflow, Lyman Ideal #55, or Lee Pro Auto Disk. This is the only powder measure I have to watch like a hawk and measure and adjust so much. I'm only using ball powders like HP-38/Win 231 most of the time, but it still did it with Bullseye and Unique was even worse. But I struggle with Unique in anything. I'm at a loss. I just got the micrometer insert to see if that holds it any better.

 

[madmikeb]

I was loading .44 mags with a load of 10.5 grains of Unique. problem was I set my scale for 15 grains! They were a "little stout" and required a fair amount of force to eject the empties, as in pounding on a cleaning rod for each case. Needless to say after the first cylinder full in my 629, the rest got pulled, which is when I discovered my error. This is my only mishap in over 30 years of reloading.

 

[snowman]

My eyes didn't follow the correct line in the reloading manual all the way across the page, and while working up a .44mag. load of H110, loaded a full grain over max. in several rounds. They were super accurate, but super fast, too! I didn't discover the error until I happened to be looking at the manual again some time later. Then I realized why such high velocity. No more of that nonsense.

Andy

 

[Larry from Bend]

Loading 240 grain JHPs in 44 Special using Power Pistol. As always, I looked down each powder-charged case with a flashlight. One had a double charge. Well, that's why I look ---- but that had never happened before.

 

[44wheelman]

I always put a name tag in the top of the powder in the powder hopper. Well, a couple months went by, I go back to the bench and realize two canisters of powder on the bench, and two name tags in the hopper. Doh, well it's either Unique or Herco- hope its not mixed.

 

[Fishslayer]

The first time I used my Lee Classic Turret I got a primer stuck halhway into the pocket. The press was locked up. Couldn't get the shell holder out. Couldn't figure what I did wrong.

Internet to the rescue. Apparently I'm not the only one.

Ya gotta make sure your press handle can make a full upstroke without contacting the edge of your bench. :facepalm:

 

[125JHP]

I decided to load some stiff 95gr .380 using N-320. Problem was I grabbed 124gr bullets instead. They shot like magnums.

 

[johncantiusgarand]

I was setting up my brand-new lubrisizer and had decided to use my home-made beeswax/olive oil lube since I was loading up some blackpowder .45 Colt. I installed the sizing die, melted the lube, and confidently poured it into the lube reservoir. Imagine my horror to discover that without a bullet in the sizing die, there was nothing to keep the melted lube from running out of the holes in the sizing die, gushing out all over the place and running onto the floor. Then, of course, it immediately hardened into a nasty mess. It seemed to take forever to clean that mess up.

 

[Fishslayer]

I was setting up my brand-new lubrisizer and had decided to use my home-made beeswax/olive oil lube since I was loading up some blackpowder .45 Colt. I installed the sizing die, melted the lube, and confidently poured it into the lube reservoir. Imagine my horror to discover that without a bullet in the sizing die, there was nothing to keep the melted lube from running out of the holes in the sizing die, gushing out all over the place and running onto the floor. Then, of course, it immediately hardened into a nasty mess. It seemed to take forever to clean that mess up.

That reminds me. Always turn off the powder hopper before changing discs on your Auto Disc...

 

[dmar]

I keep finding that my powder measure on my Hornady LNL AP likes to drift and drop a little more and more until I'm a full grain heavy if I don't adjust it. Still can't figure out what the problem is. I degreased and cleaned EVERYTHING just like the DVD showed. Everything is nice and tight that should be. And she just drifts a tiny bit more each time until I have to adjust it again. I'm using the baffle in the powder and I keep the powder at least 2/3's full when using it. This doesn't happen with my Uniflow, Lyman Ideal #55, or Lee Pro Auto Disk. This is the only powder measure I have to watch like a hawk and measure and adjust so much. I'm only using ball powders like HP-38/Win 231 most of the time, but it still did it with Bullseye and Unique was even worse. But I struggle with Unique in anything. I'm at a loss. I just got the micrometer insert to see if that holds it any better.

Interesting problem... I have always used the micrometer, and have never had an issue, mine does not vary a bit.

Have you called Hornady about the issue? They have very good CS, and should be able to make it right by you...

 

[ghitch75]

loaded some 45 Colts....was havin' a good time shootin' and one went puff....squib....open cylinder and there was corn cob media everywhere

 

[butcher1]

I have loaded for years on single and turret presses. Well a couple months ago I dived into a Hornady LNL, What a press. Went through 38 spl like wildfire, so switched to 45 ACP.Everything goin great, I love this machine. I ran out of new brass, so I had some that had already been sized and flared, so I threw em on the press. For some reason my powder measure went nuts, only went halfway up, no powder in the cases, what the ? Got out the manual, took the PM off, disassembled, reassembled, reinstall, same thing. Wait a minute, this happened with the case change. Old sized and flared cases was letting the powder thru expander to go to deep in the case, didn't realize I had that much of a flare on the old die. Took about an hour to figure that one out.

Lee

 

[sar4937]

Before I knew about 45acp Winchester NT's, I would just toss them back up into the caseloader when they failed to prime on the Dillon.

 

[HIKayaker]

I was running a Hornady LNL. That day I was filling up 44 specials for SASS (Trail Boss 5 gr) and came up with a stoppage when a bullet wouldn't seat.

I pulled it and found a 9mm case inside the 44 special.

That case passed through the resizer where it was decapped (!), the priming station where it was reprimed, and the powder station where it was filled and flared.

Can't remember whether the 9mm case was primerless, or if the decapping pin pierced the small primer before decapping the 44 spec. But anyway, I was impressed.