Reloading... Pay Attention!

[Ranch Dog]

Decided to take a stroll in the pasture yesterday late afternoon with the R762. The weather was so nice, I thought I would just patrol a couple of senderos to see if any hogs were out. I'd been walking about 10 minutes and stopped. Durn if a big old boar hog stepped out about 50-yards from me. I shot him. After I got him things settled, I walked another 100 yards up the sendero and another large boar hog stepped out in front of me.

I settled in for the shot and just heard the hammer click. This is the Single Shot that I thought I had cured of the light primer strikes. To say I was upset would have been an understatement! I thought about planting the rifle muzzle first in the sand and leaving it! At the hammer drop the big hog looked at me, he was about 80 yards down the two track but went back to eating. I pulled another cartridge out of the "wallet" but I never had another good shot.

no_powder.jpg

This afternoon, I pulled the cartridge with the intent of knocking out the primer and reloading it. I have to say that I was surprised when I found no powder in the case!

The good news is that I didn't stick that barrel in the sand! The primer ignited.

Don't know how I missed the charging step on this cartridge but there is a couple hazards here that I will bear in mind. The most obvious is that the bullet could have been lodged in the barrel and another cartridge loaded on top of it. I'm really surprised that the bullet did not unseat from the case but I do have the ogive resting on the groove and apply a tight factory crimp. With all the reloading I do, I've never have had this happen.

[Tuco Ramirez]

Welcome to the club.... If we can get a few more to admit to this happening to them we will hold elections for officers and hold our first meeting....

Happen to me last summer but with my G-29 10mm during a timed event that involved magazine changes. Mine did enter the barrel but lucky for me it did not go far enough and the slide would not close. I racked the slide thinking there was something wrong with that round. The next round did the same thing and I knew something was wrong. My guardian angel was working overtime that day!!

For me it is all about having a system that you follow each and every time. Check and recheck......

[Ranch Dog]

What is weird is that with the bullet firmly in the case, there was no noise with primer ignition. I heard nothing over the hammer slap.

[akuser47]

glad all is fine but yes I have had this in .308 I use single stage. it was in a batch of 50 I had done so I learned to do batches of my match ammo in no more than 20 at a time. It takes way to long past 20 for me. I weigh evrything and batchthem all by weight. bullets cases etc. takes awhile. at least the primer ignited and your rifle is still gtg.

[mr surveyor]

must admit .... been there done that too. Locked up one of my best bud's S&W .... fortunately "locked up". He's too deaf and too inattentive to have even noticed a primer pop, and if the bullet hadn't just barely pushed partway out of the cylinder into the barrel throat and instead completely cleared the chamber abd b/c gap .... I would have owed him a revolver that I couldn't replace . I could track that batch of bullets by the date on the load card to a particular night that mrs. surv kept coming out to my man cave with "questions". No doubt, I was distracted on one .... and to make matters worse, I must not have checked the cases for powder. I won't say it will never happen again, but just as I learned to not do my beer brewing while anyone else is around (too many potential ways to contaminate a batch at certain times in the process), I make it a point to never handle powder when there's a probability of a distraction.

Brass in alternating holes in loading block .....measure powder, drop charge .... repeat for 20 (then pull 2-3 at random and recheck powder on scale) .... flashlight and visible look into every case .... twice...... seat bullets .... start at step one....

slow, but sure.

I do appreciate these threads .... "stuff" happens, try as we might to avoid it, but it helps to be reminded that we can use redundant checks and procedures to reduce the "stuff" from happening.


JD

[Tuco Ramirez]

Brass in alternating holes in loading block .....measure powder, drop charge .... repeat for 20 (then pull 2-3 at random and recheck powder on scale) .... flashlight and visible look into every case .... twice...... seat bullets .... start at step one....

This is how my Dad has done it for years. I have an older Redding T-6. I was just spinning the head for each process but I believe your description is the way to go.

[Archer]

I have a tendency to use multiple load blocks and transfer the round from the prep block to the finish block at completion of each step when I'm doing single stage loading. Uncharged brass upside down, charged case mouth up.

You need 1 more block than required to hold the brass you are loading and I tend to move the blocks from the LHS of the bench to the RHS when each is complete then move the entire batch back to the LHS and start the next step.
--
On a progressive I try to never let the powder dump get lower than half.

[Tuco Ramirez]

Thats a good idea Arch!!! I just got in some extra loading blocks a few weeks ago. I will give that a try!!

[Trailboss]

Michael,

Glad nothing bad happened, it easily could have. I've been doing single stage reloading for around 40 years now. Still use a loading block, with empty primed cases primer up, load powder into each and place them neck up. After all have been filled with powder, I do a flashlight inspection of each. Occasionally find one that doesn't look right and re-do it. Haven't had a failure with this method, though it is quite slow compared to multi-stage loaders.

[donhuff]

If you have not done this at least once, well your not a real reloader! I know I have done it a few times through the years. And it always scares me when I think about, did I put the missing charge in a case next to it??? Or did I just skip one and go on?

For pistol cartridges. I load 50 in a tray and sometimes do 2 trays at a time. I dump powder while holding the uniflow by hand. I find this way quicker and a lot easier. I count from 1 to 50 while dumping, and if I end up on the last case at number 49...I know I skipped one. Then I look at each case to #1 make sure there is powder in them and #2 make sure that the powder level is the same in each one. I like you guys flashlight idea. I usually step outside in the sunlight (now that I'm older) so I can see better to give them a look. #2 is all it takes to be absolutely sure that you got them all. But it is so easy to get in a hurry or get distracted and forget that one simple step. I know I have missed it a few times and got all the bullets sitting on there cases and remembered ...WHAT ABOUT THE POWDER LEVEL??? Then I have to take all the bullets back off and have a look.

Reloading is an interesting hobby, but when you sit there and work that handle a few hundred or thousand times....well, it gets pretty boring. That makes it real easy to get in a hurry to finish and forget steps. A flying friend once told me, RD you'll know this one, " flying is hours and hours of shear boredom, accentuated with brief moments of stark terror" reloading is like that only without the terror part! If it wasn't for the wife coming out and startling me every now and then, I think I might fall asleep.