Share your hand loading mistakes!

[mhayd93]

The only real mistake I have ever made while handloading is "mushing" or setting back the shoulders on some 300WM handloads. They were the first batch I reloaded entirely all by myself, and in my attempt to put a light crimp on the final product, I set the die too far down and was contacting the case-shoulders. It was only a slight deformation, but definitely noticeable. A few took quite a bit of persuasion to chamber into my Remington 700, but worked just fine otherwise! I have never had that issue again though!

 

[orygun]

I bought a new full length sizing die from Redding in 30-06 Improved 40, as they call the Ackley Improved. Cases all lubed up and the very first one left me with this. Crap!

I didn't think to lube the die, too. I was probably going in too fast cuz I didn't stop short enough when I heard it making noise. Got this one pulled out, cleaned and lubed the die and wouldn't you know it? The 5th one did the same damn thing. After that it was smooth sailing, but losing those two cases sucks.

 

[Mikej]

I bought a new full length sizing die from Redding in 30-06 Improved 40, as they call the Ackley Improved. Cases all lubed up and the very first one left me with this. Crap!
View attachment 1029575
I didn't think to lube the die, too. I was probably going in too fast cuz I didn't stop short enough when I heard it making noise. Got this one pulled out, cleaned and lubed the die and wouldn't you know it? The 5th one did the same damn thing. After that it was smooth sailing, but losing those two cases sucks.

Man, I don't get it? I was nervous as hell about doing rifle brass after hearing of stuck cases. And being aware of too much lube too. Already done several 1000 straight wall hand gun cases. I started with .30 carbine using RCBS lube on the pad. it was like bubblegum through a goose smooth. And I wasn't "goobing" the lube on cases. I was able to get a real good feel for it by skipping the lube some too. On the down stroke I KNEW it wasn't right, backed off, lubes and it was smooth.

..06 being a much bigger case I never tried skipping a lube, but I still wasn't goobing it on. Just a roll on the pad, and from the feel I never felt like there was enough resistance to pull the rim off. Same experience with 6.5x55. No lube 9mm has about the same resistance on the stroke(s).

Maybe the lube pad is better, though more time consuming?

Oh. And I never lubed the dies. New dies get cleaned good with Brake Kleen.

 

[Labradorian]

I shot out a squib once in my 45 and then blew it out with a follow up. It wasn't a traumatic event, the handloads were gas checks with enough powder to cycle the gun. It just stopped functioning and locked up. There is a mark on the left where the first bullet stopped and the second fragmented the barrel.



ETA: Put a new barrel and bushing and all was well with my franken gun.

 

[Capn Jack]

Remember where your chair is.

I just finished up adding shot to 50 shotshells -- I did this step standing. I had used my powder measure to add powder to the shells and before moving on to the buffer step, I figured I'd empty the powder measure. I took the cap off the powder container and go to sit down to do this job, and sat flat on my as* right down on the floor because I had pushed the chair out of my way earlier. Of course as I'm falling, my free hand flew out and upset all the shotshells so the shot went everywhere, and the open powder container is now a good pile lighter. The only upside is that the powder in the shells is under wads and so I don't have to redo that at least.

View attachment 739198

Just put a match to it to remove the powder.

 

[slm9s]

You guys whose biggest mistake is "I mushroomed a case" haven't done it long enough or you're dam lucky IMO!

I was priming 50bmg brass and had a primer go off. Now THAT will make your heart skip about four beats and your ears ring for about four days.

I chambered and shot a 7RM case in my 7STW, yep short neck resulted.

I remember reading that reloading is like a math test, but if you get one wrong you lose one finger.

 

[Capn Jack]

A group, "Build" may be fun, but "Group Reloading" not so much.

 

[ageingstudent]

You guys whose biggest mistake is "I mushroomed a case" haven't done it long enough or you're dam lucky IMO!

I was priming 50bmg brass and had a primer go off. Now THAT will make your heart skip about four beats and your ears ring for about four days.

I chambered and shot a 7RM case in my 7STW, yep short neck resulted.

I remember reading that reloading is like a math test, but if you get one wrong you lose one finger.

Or an eye. Or maybe something worse if you shoot from the hip .

 

[welderman1949]

The only real mistake I have ever made while handloading is "mushing" or setting back the shoulders on some 300WM handloads. They were the first batch I reloaded entirely all by myself, and in my attempt to put a light crimp on the final product, I set the die too far down and was contacting the case-shoulders. It was only a slight deformation, but definitely noticeable. A few took quite a bit of persuasion to chamber into my Remington 700, but worked just fine otherwise! I have never had that issue again though!

One mistake I saw was when my dad and I were getting ready to cast some bullets. My dad dumped a box of old bullets into the hot lead so we could rerun them. Turned out there was a stray primer mixed in with bullets. There was still lead on the ceiling for several years and also a few burns on my dad's wrists.

 

[RVTECH]

I have had my share of mistakes over the years (nothing major - common, basic stuff) but a new one I would have never guessed happened a while back.

I was resizing some recently given to me .357 brass and one stroke of the press handle came to a sudden stop. When I backed off and pulled the case a 9mm bullet was in the bottom of the case!

Noting but a bent decapping pin. Check your 2nd hand brass !

 

[Capn Jack]

Once I mixed small rifle with small pistol primers in my .22 K-Hornet.

Sure made those cases hard to extract.

 

[TTSX]

Today I was loading some rifle rounds to keep warm for deer season. Ended up capping my 120 grain loads with the 150 grain bullet and vice versa. Would have been about 5 grains over Max. Glad I caught that one.....

 

[ageingstudent]

One mistake I saw was when my dad and I were getting ready to cast some bullets. My dad dumped a box of old bullets into the hot lead so we could rerun them. Turned out there was a stray primer mixed in with bullets. There was still lead on the ceiling for several years and also a few burns on my dad's wrists.

Holy heck ...lead showers are too hot.

 

[boattail]

Been reloading for a long time and have made some dumb mistakes. It's usually when something interrupts your routine. Only loaded one round so far without powder and it locked up a revolver, stuck the bullet in the forcing cone. Somehow the round got out of sequence when my 650 got tangled up most likely.

I once loaded 200 rounds of 38+p with 7 grains of Unique by mistake. I wanted 5.2 and set the beam scale at 5 on the big end and instead of .2 on the little end I went a full 2. Loaded them all up and went to bed that night and woke up thinking I screwed up. Went to the reloading bench and sure enough 7g not 5.2. I pulled that entire batch down and now I have a different routine when setting the scale up.

I have loaded 12,000 + .223 based wildcat cartridges and the only mistake I have made on those was wet tumbling a few cases and not getting them dry. I had a few duds and figured it out pretty fast. That ended my wet cleaning and I went back to walnut in a shaker, good enough for me.

 

[Caveman Jim]

I've had a few problems with dry tumbling after resizing, had powder stick to the case mouth and spill all over the place...
no pics but it did happen...

 

[Local Loader]

I had the bad luck of crushing the necks on some 300WM all because I forget to adjust the die when I switched to a non cannelure bullet.

 

[washagonian]

 

[American123]

View attachment 1042713

Is that from the insurance money afterward or because he was already using it?

 

[Dr Prepper]

Not really a mistake, but just a short while ago I was just using a kintetic hammer to encourage a 5.45 bullet out of the steel case which was also lacquered in. So i could use the base of it to make a tool for removing a stuck case in a co workers 556 rifle (What a dunkompft!!)
The cap loosened a few times during about the first ten hits. Kept tightening it. If at first you dont succed hit it harder right?
Last time a gave it a really good whack on the poured cement floor and i heard bang a couple milliseconds after i realized i was still holding the hammer and didnt have frag in my face im praying, bubblegum i hope that thing doesnt hit a sharp pointy corner or something in the garage. Then i realize the round is laying about a foot away on the floor and then i hear a shower of the plastic end cap, and the three sections of the little collet raining down all around in the garage.
Amazingly i found all the peices but one in the heap of disorganization we call a garage. Sucks because i have about 6 boxes of pistol ladder tests to pull the remainders off and load down.

Boohoo right? I'm just glad all that happened was some rapid sphincter dialations! (No mess)(Should I post this myself in the quotables thread and beat ya all to it? Nah..)

 

[Dr Prepper]

Well i guess i should have been wearing actual safety glasses instead of my Rx glasses.. That was my mistake.