Oddest 'Oh-Oh' at YOUR reloading bench

I did two stupid things this weekend.

I was getting ready to load some .270, so I dumped the powder in the hopper. A few minutes later I decided to check whether I had the rifle or handgun insert in there, so I popped the insert out and powder starting pouring out on the floor, DOH! Been reloading for over 4 years and I have never done that before.

So the next day I was loading some .223 rounds, and I just measured a few cases since they were all from the same batch, and they were all within length. So I proceeded to reload, after 50 rounds or so I realized some of the cases of the completed were crushed and expanded at the neck. Thats when I realized I threw some of my friends cases in the batch that he didn't want, and since those were longer when I crimped them I crushed them a little. Learned a valuable lesson there, don't assume all the cases are the same length even if you just trimmed them 1 firing before that.
 
It just seemed so natural to set the Lee Pro Auto Disk Powder Measure powder tube upside down on the workbench... i just needed my hands for a minute...worked great till I picked it up, and left the cap and the powder in a pile on the bench...

Tom
 
OK, OK so last week I decided to replace the grimey corn cob media in my case vibrator. I had read somewhere (maybe here?) that pet stores carry ground up corncob and that it is much cheaper than ordering it from a gun supply place, so I stopped at one and got a big bag for $6 (paid $7 a bag the last time I bought some at a gun show a few years ago). While replacing the dirty media I noticed the new particles were quite a bit larger in size but figured they would clean better and eventually grind themselves down smaller.

I threw in a bunch of unsorted range pickups and came beck a couple hours later... sure enough they were nice and clean but also all except the straight wall pistol were filled with media. The worst were the 223 & 22-250- they were packed tight. I had to use a needle file on every one picking the over sized media out one kernel at a time. To make matters worse, this weekend at the gun show a guy was selling bags of properly ground corncob OR walnut for $4 ea.

eta... Ha! - I should have read this thread first - I now see others did the exact same thing a few posts above
 
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I have experienced all the corn cob chunks before.. that was a fun experience. Glad someone posted about kitty litter too..Phew!

my problem Is I cant make a consistent round using my press.. Either my chain snaps, or a primer gets seated weird. Or if im in full progression my bullet seating will get longer.. and longer and longer. Making me have to single stage the whole lot in the seating again, one by one! I haven't deprimed my finger before But I had the slide of my gun catch my palm.. boy that smarts! I don't remember exactly how it happened but I think I one handed racked it and it slipped. Fumbling to grab it before it hit the ground the slide closed on my hand. It was unloaded of course.
 
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Mine are shotshell reloading. The powder and shot tubes on my MEC reloaders have to be flip back for some reason, I think to change the charge bar, anyway, I have poured pounds and pounds of #8 shot onto and into my carpet. Covered judiciously with a similar volume of powder.

Maybe not strictly reloading oh-oh, but one of the best I had heard about, was a guy at a local range that had matching sets mod 57 and mod 29's. Both in 4" and 6", nickel and blue. He usually loaded top end magnum loads for either. Yep, loaded that mod 29 with 41 mag rounds .... had a hell of a time getting those cases out.

Charlie
 
Back in the 70s when I started reloading, I first used a Lee Loader on the garage workbench. As I remember the procedure, you had to drive a case down onto a primer. Probably about 10% of the primers went off. I work very hard to maintain my concentration and go slow when reloading, doublechecking, etc. But I would get awful twitchy by the time I loaded a couple hundred rounds.
 
The only "uh ohs" I've had were in my early reloading days, and even then it was only a couple or so. I still have the results in my reloading room somewhere.

Back in the mid-90's I did some "laugh" rounds with my son ust for jokes and giggles:

- .40 S&W bullet in a 9mm case
- .44 mag bullet in a .40 S&W case
- .45-70 bullet in a 30-06 or .308 case

No primers, no powder, just messing around with my son. I still have the examples around here somewhere also.
 
38/44?
Pistolcartridge.jpg
 
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!

Picture216.jpg


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"?
 
Almost did it! Error in Guns & Ammo Magazine

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!
 
[QUOTE
IMG_1250.jpg
[/QUOTE]

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

Then there is always the famous 5.7 XPress:

5.7XPress.jpg


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

...Nemo...
 
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
 
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.
 
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