Share your hand loading mistakes!

[tac]

True thing!!! I was very lucky when I dry-balled my revolver - it was at a guest day, and I was able to divert the guests into thinking I had done it on purpose and showed them how to 'get it right' as a demonstration. ahem.

 

[P7M13]

I'm thinking I must have inadvertently primed 100 of the bags with small rifle primers which then got randomly mixed in with the other bag with small pistol primers.

Possibly, or Federal vs CCI in SPP. IIRC, Federal primers tend to have thinner metal making their primer cups. SRP (in some instances) also has slightly thicker metal than SPP.

 

[Capn Jack]

A while back a recommendation was floated around the AR community to avoid reloading with, Federal Primers.
This was due to the possibility of, "Slam Fires" caused by the interaction of the AR's floating firing pin and Federals thin primer cup.

 

[tac]

I use CCI 200 large rifle primers, especially as I got gifted ten thousand of 'em for nothing.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Not handloading but prepping cases...
I think I'm done fixing my bubblegumup. I got distracted sorting some brass and weighing it. I had about 950 wolf cases that were already cleaned and swaged, I cleaned almost 200 wolf cases I picked up yesterday at the pit.
Got going to weigh them out to make sure I had 1100 to put up for sale. Went into counting and I realized that the first ones (the new ones) were not swaged and I dumped 400 on top of them.
So for two hours I sat glued to my magnifying light (thanks Jim, you know who you are @P7id10T ) checking primer pockets to see if they were swaged or not and then swaging the latter.

 

[awshoot]

...
So for two hours I sat glued to my magnifying light ...

Man -- I miss clear unaided vision.

 

[Caveman Jim]

self explanatory....,.
View attachment 648478

The battle of the Bulge???
Unsupported chamber???

 

[Caveman Jim]

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.

Tis the main reason that I deprime/prime off press.

 

[P7M13]

The battle of the Bulge???
Unsupported chamber???

Not enough crimp, bullet pushed back into the powder by the feed ramp -- KABOOM!!!

 

[P7M13]

I use CCI 200 large rifle primers, especially as I got gifted ten thousand of 'em for nothing.

For nothing... other than operating well above "the Grade". Right.

 

[CLT65]

Man -- I miss clear unaided vision.

I've always had excellent vision (and hearing), prided myself in it. Maybe a year or so ago I started to notice something odd. At the end of the day when I was tired, I'd be reading a book to one of my kids, and it seemed blurry. Then I'd try to read some fine print on something and it was blurry. At work, more and more when working on tiny components or trying to read P&IDs, things would occasionally be blurry.

I mentioned to my wife one day that something wasn't right with my eyes, as sometimes things weren't as clear as they should be. Her callous comment was "They're getting old. It's normal". I was still in denial until she bought me a cheap pair of reading glasses. WOW! I could see again! Dangit, she was right...

 

[gmerkt]

My very good friend of over 55 years and I have an agreement. I won't tell anyone about how he loaded up .223 ammo with 20-something grains of 800X and blew up an AR, and he won't tell anyone how I blew a hole in my bed with a round of 12 ga. 00 buckshot. Actually, it was a single hole going in, multiple holes going out.

 

[tac]

For nothing... other than operating well above "the Grade". Right.

Well, not zackly. My friend of many years here in UK, and owner of many of the beautiful older rifles you can see on tac's guns, was an executive for Audi-VAG here in yUK at the HQ in Milton Keynes. One fine morning he was advised that his Audi A8 was going to be replaced earlier than usual, and he could have the choice of a lower-grade model - an A3 or a VW Passat. The writing was on the wall.

He wrote out his resignation, cleared his desk and on a HQ-wide TV broadcasttold them to shove the job where the sun don't shine.

Luckily, he owns a nice farmhouse and associated gite in France, but before he left he emptied a trunk-load of stuff at me, including a 1000 x Lapua .308 bullets, twenty or more tins of percussion caps of #11 and Musket sizes, lots of Vihtavuori powder and a literal bucket-load of primers. AND fifty-ish large targets of the kind we shoot at 100m with big old BP stuff.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Man -- I miss clear unaided vision.

3 years ago I was always cleaning my glasses as it seemed that they were constantly dirty, at 59 I had cataract surgery so all better for now.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Ends up gorilla brass is my nemesis. It's been three in a row.
so no gorilla for me. And then looking at my die I see I'm marking the brass really bad. So it's timefor a new die.View attachment 667377

Gorilla brass?

When I first started reloading I found some really nice brass at a range so I snatched it up and got home and was prepping it. Yep, crimped pockets cut out, resized the first 3) then STUCK CASE!!! It seemed like forever but it finally succumbed to my brute strength and tenacity, I used penetrating fluid overnight and popped it out. After giving the Hornady die a thorough cleaning I resumed to resizing, 4 case STUCK CASE!!!! ARRGGGHHHHHH
That case did not come out no matter what I did and to my ignorance I tossed it in the trash and ordered a new 4 piece set of Lee dies.
I am almost certain that the problem was me not applying lube correctly on the RCBS pad.
That was the day I switched to the lanolin and heet concoction and have not had another stuck case (knock on wood).

 

[Caveman Jim]

• Did not bump the shoulder on 250 rounds and they were .005" too long to chamber on an AR. This required disassembly and resizing. Main problem was I had a kinetic bullet puller. That took forever.

I wonder if @leadcounsel will admit to reloading goofs.

One of the first good case prep sessions I did back at the beginning of my obsession were put in a box labeled LC ready to prime. Oh boy!!!
The majority did not chamber so good in my new 556 pistol build.

 

[Caveman Jim]

That was the deciding moment that I looked seriously to get a RCBS bullet puller...

 

[66PonyCar]

I was at the range today. Three stations down a guy was shooting his 1911 in 45ACP. Heard a very large boom, followed by some light cussing. He had a case blow out in the unsupported portion. It blew out into the magazine and the stocks split apart in his hand. Luckily he suffered very minor injuries. He was wearing eye protection and the gases did go up in his face. The gun looked ok except for the stocks. Not sure what damage if any to the magazine. He said it was a handload so I'm assuming it was a double charge judging from the loudness of the kaboom.

I reload, so this was a good lesson to always double check your charges.

 

[DLS]

I use these mesh fruit bags to separate loads in my tumbler.



They work great ... the mesh is large enough for the pins to move freely and the brass comes out as clean as when there is no bag. This way you can get a full load and don't have to sort after tumbling. So I throw about 200 7.62x39 cases in a bag and about 500 .45 ACP loose in the drum.

When done I pour out the brass into my media separator and this is what I get ...



Yep, every one of the rifle cases had a pair of friends attached !

The bag came untied somewhere near the end of the cycle as the brass was clean, even the areas covered due to the nesting. The rifle cases were full of pins, so I had a watery, pin infested mess to pull apart. I've done this dozens of times and never had a bag open up before. You can bet I'll make darn sure of the knot in the future!

In fact I'll just tie them tight and cut the knot off each time, the bags are free and long enough to lose a dozen knots and still be large enough to be useful.

 

[Alderman]

Ordered a Lee Collet Die for 338 Win Mag. Went to use it and crushed the case. Tried opening up the collet and no luck.
Contacted Lee Precission and was given specs for collet dimensions and was asked to measure collet.
Measurements showed collet was nowhere near specs. Took closer look at collet and plainly stamped on collet was 300 Win Mag. Seller sent the wrong die.
Tried seating 7mm bullets in 6.5 Creedmoor cases and that worked about as well as a 300 Win Mag Collet die with 338 Mag cases.