Reloading... Pay Attention!

[donhuff]

a particular night that mrs. surv kept coming out to my man cave with "questions". No doubt, I was distracted on one .... and to


Wooaah, blaming the wife for it eh? If I knew her cell ph # I might give her a call. I bet dinner time would be "interesting" after that call.

I TRY not to do that anymore......no matter how true it is.

[Steelbanger]

Michael,

I have been reloading for about 50 years but often wonder how many more are ahead of me. Although I have never experienced a missed charge I have had other incidents. I told my son that I will stop loading my own whenever I can see that I am losing the ability to concentrate as I work. I also asked family members to let me know if they notice anything different about me like forgetfulness, etc.

Thank you for fessing up to the easily committed mistake of the failure to charge a case. There are many distractions that often bombard us as we load. The distracting phone call, etc. where we take our mind off the job at hand and when we come back to it we simply go to the next step, failing to realize that we missed a step in the process. It takes a real man to post this on the web so that others may take a look into honest and valuable reporting. Thank you for that.

Frank

[pricedo]

I was the goto community handloader back when factory ammo was not the quality it is now and selection was very limited. I still have old presses and dies made by companies that have been defunct for years.
As factory ammo caught with the times in quality and selection I became lazy and now 90% of my shooting is done with factory ammo.
I still load for some hard to get calibers like the 416 Rem Mag which is $140 for a box of greenbox 20 rounds if you can find it.
If I still shot a lot like I did in my handgun competition, benchrest and varminting days I'd handload but these days I might put 2 boxes downrange from each of my hunting rifles a year for practise.......the rest are shot at live game targets.

[pricedo]

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!

No big deal ! ........you're not ready to be tied to the bedpost and a steady diet of porridge yet........your mind is as sharp as a straight razor.

The Federal Aviation Commission monitors websites and you might be hauled in for a chat with the nice smiley guy in the white coat when you report to work.

I've had the odd empty case over the years from powder hangups in tubes etc. Checking the bore for obstructions whenever I get a misfire is force of habit . It's not hard to tell when you've hammered down on a "squib" round......you don't hear a loud bang and the animal doesn't fall on the ground........this is sometimes followed by the air turning blue from the flow of unsavory words from your lips if it was a prize hog or a really nice buck.

[Ranch Dog]

No big deal ! ........you're not ready to be tied to the bedpost and a steady diet of porridge yet........your mind is as sharp as a straight razor.

The Federal Aviation Commission monitors websites and you might be hauled in for a chat with the nice smiley guy in the white coat when you report to work.

Haah... it would be awesome if those white coats will find me unfit. I can get a lot of hunting done on long term disability over the next five years! Work does get in the way of my fun!

[Mashuga]

I know this is probably a longshot...but, since you only heard the hammer click and no primer pop, could this have been an unprepped case that got a bullet put in it? Or, maybe one of your dummy rounds? It seems like you should have at least heard the primer go off.

[Ranch Dog]

I know this is probably a longshot...but, since you only heard the hammer click and no primer pop, could this have been an unprepped case that got a bullet put in it? Or, maybe one of your dummy rounds? It seems like you should have at least heard the primer go off.

Good suggestion but positive as the base of the bullet was burnt from the flash. It was loud enough that the hog heard it. I was more focused on him than the pop.

[ironhead7544]

I have been loading since 1972 and will admit I have had a few no powder incidents.

When I load hunting ammo, I check everything twice and use a turret press. Each case is removed and checked by eye for a correct powder charge. Also, every round is checked, at the range, for function in the chamber.

A lot of people actually laugh when I say I always carry a handgun as a backup when hunting. I know what can happen with ammo, even factory can be loaded wrong. One practical shooter lost a world championship because a factory round had no primer flash hole.

When I worked for the govt testing weapons my crew and I shot 6 to 7 thousand rounds a day. We found all kinds of bad rounds over the years.

There are all kinds of things that can happen to a firearm due to ammo. Remember, every round you load is an experiment. OAL can be a problem. If you only shot off the bench, single shot, you may not know that the rounds wont feed through the magazine. I have seen handloads that function OK that way but will pull the bullet out when a loaded round is ejected. This leaves a bullet stuck in the lead. If you are many miles away from a cleaning rod or gunsmith you may have just ruined a hunt.

[Rooster59]

Thanks for the reminder Michael. ANYTIME something doesn't go right a peek down the unloaded barrel is a must.

I am pretty strict about peeking into my cases after powder charging. Never have used a progressive or even my turret as an auto-index press. There is a little felt marker sized LED flashlight with my powder handling equipment that gets shone into every case before the bullets get seated.

Glad all is well, except maybe your pride.

Jeff

[parson48]

It seems that if we reload long enough, we will encounter such things. There is danger in thinking that we are too "experienced" to have reloading gaffs happen to us.

As mentioned above, I have always used 2 loading blocks, transferring charged cases as I go along.

I appreciate the fact that an experienced reloader will post this. Hopefully, it will be a reminder to us all to be careful.