Share your hand loading mistakes!

[Hemlock]

Early in my reloading hobby, I emptied a powder reservoir of Blue Dot powder into a can of Unique. Never again have I had two different powders on my reloading bench at the same time! Costing you money will teach you.
Primers in backwards, even sideways or no primer that too.
Loaded 50 rds of plinking ammo for my brother's 357 with no powder. I don't watch TV while reloading anymore.

 

[Eveskcige28]

I'm sure a few of us have poured powder into our dispensing scales only to find out the dump chute is open...

 

[Flatfish]

Step 1- Eat fried chicken (It was Mom's. So I ate a LOT)
Step 2- Handle primers without washing greasy hands (Finger lickin good!).
Step 3-Reload a few 30-06 rounds for testing the next am.

Result= "Click" at range. The primers (More than one) had been hit by the pin. But no bang. Maybe half worked.

That afternoon, Ient home, tried exact same components, but had clean fingers, and everything worked correctly.

 

[Deathgrip]

The stupidest thing I ever did was depriming LIVE (corrosive, crimped-in) primers from WWII .30 rounds with a pin punch and a plastic head mallet. I am damn lucky I was unscathed after the eventual detonation. I was 17...

 

[awshoot]

The stupidest thing I ever did was depriming LIVE (corrosive, crimped-in) primers from WWII .30 rounds with a pin punch and a plastic head mallet. I am damn lucky I was unscathed after the eventual detonation. I was 17...

On a similar vein but well before I was reloader, maybe age 5 or 6, I found an old box of 7mm Mauser shells in a storage bin in my dad's panel van. Having recently learned that if you took a whole spool of roll caps and hit them with a hammer on a cement block, that they make a much bigger boom than running them one at a time through a cap gun, I took one of the shells out to the cement block and proceded to pound it with a hammer until it went off. It is indeed true that a 7mm Mauser is much louder than a roll of caps. No adverse affects from the experiment, and it was so loud that once was enough. So at that point I decided to find out what was inside, put one in a vice, and used a hacksaw to find out. Luckily, that experiment did not end with a bang.

 

[gmerkt]

When I got home, I had to remove SIX lead slugs from the barrel.

I saw that happen at a range once. One of our members had a new girlfriend after his wife died. She wasn't a gun person but I guess he wanted her to be. His thing was shotgun. So he left this woman on the pistol range while he went over to blast clay birds. He left her with his prized K38 six inch. He was also a buyer of abandoned storage lockers and this is where he got some of his ammo. Including what he gave this lady to use that day. She had the same experience, fired six rounds at a 7 yard target, couldn't see any holes. I was an RSO that day, was called over to her firing point to find six jacketed bullets stacked in the barrel nuts to butts. I never followed through to find out how that was rectified.

When I got home, I had to remove SIX lead slugs from the barrel.

What method did you use to remove the stacked bullets?

I've seen people stick one bullet in a barrel. At this same range, I've seen people remove the bullet from a like live round, carefully chamber it so as not to spill any powder, then blow out the stuck bullet with the charge. I don't know if the sudden engagement of a bullet already seated in rifling does any harm but it worked when I've seen it done. Can't do it with six bullets.

 

[P7M13]

self explanatory....,.

 

[WoodsPlinker]

I've mixed up the primers, and accidentally dumped rifle powder into a container of pistol powder when I was done reloading.


Had to use it as fertilizer.

The most dangerous was still having a bullet in a poorly neck sized 223 that moved when you pushed on it. Didn't notice until I was at the range firing them and one looked a bit short.... Pushed on it against the table and it slipped in with very little resistance.

I decided to go home after that, my shorts were full.

 

[CLT65]

I loaded a batch of 9mm with small rifle primers instead of small pistol.

I took them all back apart and put them in a small empty cardboard box. Soaked them in oil thinking that would deactivate them - it didn't work. So, the next best thing obviously would be to put them all in my firepit and torch them (alcohol may have been involved).

As it turns out, the first primer that goes off will set off the remaining 99 which makes an EXTREMELY LOUD explosion.

A lot of people use small rifle primers exclusively for pistol rounds like 9mm, very common. I've done it quite a bit myself, works just fine. You just back off the load a little and work it back up like you would for any change in components. You can't interchange large primers, but small primers are the same height.

The closest call I had with regards to reloading was a LONG time ago. I bought my first shotshell reloader, a used MEC 600. The old-timer I got it from threw in a bunch of even older gear and components, including some ancient powder. I was young and dumb, but I started working up some loads according to the proper recipe in the manual. I had several shells loaded with progressively heavier charges of Alcan #5 powder, from an old can he gave me. Their was something written on the lid of the can in sharpie, but faded so I couldn't read it.

The first round- BOOM! Louder and more recoil than expected for a light load. Hm, odd. I'll shoot the next. BOOM!! Wow, that was worse, and the crimp on the hull is ironed out. Weird.

I know, I'll shoot another. BOOOM!!!! OK, something's wrong. That kicked like a cannon, the crimp is completely ironed smooth, and the bolt opened on it's own. Time to go back and recheck the manual, and pull down that last round.

Yep, I had them loaded correctly, according to the manual. Let's double check the powder. Looks good, smells fine. I wonder what that scribbling on the lid said? As I looked the can over, I saw a piece of tape on the bottom, with the words "Green Dot" written on it. I checked the manual, and the maximum charge of Green Dot powder with those components was several grains LESS than my starting charge of what I THOUGHT was Alcan #5. It's a testament to the strength of the old Mossberg 500 that it wasn't damaged. To this day I believe that it probably would have let loose if I had been dumb enough to pull the trigger on that last round.

 

[American123]

Very early on, misunderstood how to read the beam scale. 10.5 became 15 grains. Split the case in the chamber, blew the magazine out of the well.

Thankfully that lesson wasn't costly to my health. Since then, not seating a primer and then having powder trickle out of case while it's going through the progressive, thankfully you do that once and it is annoying enough to make sure to be real careful to prevent it again.

 

[Legion489]

Worst reloading mistake I ever made? I bought a Lee LOADMASTER press. Worst piece of junk ever! Naturally Lee would not stand behind their "love it or return it" policy OR "two year warrenty" (which is mentioned some 32 times in the "Lee Modern Reloading" book I rewrote for D-ick the Lee, but got no credit for of course), which is typical of Lee. Returned it to Lee on second day after I bought it, they sent it back, with letter saying it was warped from improper heat treating at factory. Of course the Lee (so called) warranty DID NOT cover "warped from improper heat treating at the factory", and I got it back with all broken parts intact and still locked up tight. Lee has the worst QC and repair service in the industry, well, pretty much ANY industry! You think computer or electronics are bad? Lee makes them look like paragons of service!

 

[Certaindeaf]

I never share my hand loading mistakes.. I make them all myself.

 

[pinne65]

This is not the scariest I've done - this summer I under-loaded a cartridge and got a hang-fire on my 45 Colt loads. 5 secs after pulling the trigger I got a fizzzz-BAAANG.

 

[2Wheels4Ever]

I've done the no powder once. Ended my trip to the range prematurely as the bullet stuck in the barrel.

When I first started reloading, I hadn't quite figured out the feel for setting the primers on my progressive press and a good amount of them had primers that weren't fully set. You figure that out when your cylinder locks up.

 

[Capn Jack]

I've mixed up the primers, and accidentally dumped rifle powder into a container of pistol powder when I was done reloading.


Had to use it as fertilizer.

The most dangerous was still having a bullet in a poorly neck sized 223 that moved when you pushed on it. Didn't notice until I was at the range firing them and one looked a bit short.... Pushed on it against the table and it slipped in with very little resistance.

I decided to go home after that, my shorts were full.

I had that happen on several .223/5.56 cartridges before I started checking and trimming them to the proper length.
I was using military range brass and it seems that the M16 is a notorious brass stretcher. Now I run everything
through a, "Factory Crimp Die".

 

[WoodsPlinker]

I had that happen on several .223/5.56 cartridges before I started checking and trimming them to the proper length.
I was using military range brass and it seems that the M16 is a notorious brass stretcher. Now I run everything
through a, "Factory Crimp Die".

I tried this as well but was not as successfull. In order to seat the bullet I had to screw the bullet seating die in all the way too to get rounds to fit in the magazine. Also the casings would stick in the chamber and were hard to extract.

In the end I just replacedy neck sizing die with a full length resizing die. Haven't had a problem since. I still have to screw the bullet seating die in all the way though.

 

[Capn Jack]

The only time I have had any success with a re-necking die was with a' "Bolt Gun" . I used the Lyman 310, (Nut Cracker) for years.
Most Semi-autos require full length resizing and I also went to the, "S" dies for my .223/5.56.
Proper crimping and trimming to length are critical with semi-autos due to the violence of the action that tends
to either throw the bullet out of the case, or push it back into the case.

* A stuck case can ruin your day.....Or your life.

 

[Xrperry]

Here's another I did. I just bought a rcbs 44 cal bullet mould..( I was dropping the bullets right out of the mould into a coffee can full of cold water to quench them) I whacked the sprue plate with a wood dowel, missed spruce plate, whacked my thumb and dropped the mould in the can of cold water! Yep warped ruined mould.

 

[CLT65]

Here's another I did. I just bought a rcbs 44 cal bullet mould..( I was dropping the bullets right out of the mould into a coffee can full of cold water to quench them) I whacked the sprue plate with a wood dowel, missed spruce plate, whacked my thumb and dropped the mould in the can of cold water! Yep warped ruined mould.

Ouch, that hurts! In more ways than one...

RCBS is a great company. It's clearly not a warranty issue, but it might be worth a call to them anyhow. I broke an RCBS tool once, more than once actually, and have called their customer service number to ask about parts. I was honest with them, told them it was my fault and not a defective product. On a cheap part they just sent me a replacement piece at no charge. On a bigger item (priming tool), they asked me to return the broken item (again, my own fault), and they replaced it at no charge. I was embarrassed to accept it since it was not their fault at all, but they wouldn't accept payment.

 

[Xrperry]

The mould is long gone, but yea rcbs is a great company..95% of my reloading tools are rcbs