Disaster Report

Davidf said:
I've loaded and fired 10's of thousands of my own reloads.

With rifle cartridges I hand weigh every charge but with pistol cartridges I've been weighing every tenth charge (after I have the thrower set and working consistently). If when I weigh a load and the charge is not exactly what I expect I go back and redo the proceeding 9. Remember many people do these on a progressive press.....

It seems highly unlikely but I must have made a squib load and thankfully the pistol was strong enough and the loads light enough not to blow up with the next rounds.
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OK then David.

For 357 mag and 158 grain LSWC, can I suggest Unique. It is accurate, consistent and meters well.
I don't remember off hand, but a starting load would be 3.3 grains of Unique, and you could make the bullet go up to like 900fps with this powder. You'd have to work up your own load. Check your manuals.

Universal Clays does have a wide spectrum of calibers it is great with, but not specifically 357 mag. Especially not with lead bullets.
38 special, OK... 44MAG, OK... 357MAG, not so good.
 
Davidf said:
Any way during the match the recoil was very low. After the final stage of a 600 match I found I couldn't open the cylinder. It turns out that there are at least 4 and possibly more bullets lodged in the barrel of my favorite handgun.
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Actually... How many rounds in a 600 match? Were you even hitting the targets? I mean if the loads were so barely close to leaving the barrel that you were able to jam up 4 and not realize it.... Did you go to the match without testing the loads for accuracy/performance first?

Makes me still think missing powder in at least one load. The next 3 may have been these supra light loads and with the obstruction may just have only further push the lodged bullets down the barrel. Feel lucky that on Bullet #2+ jammed it was still able to open the cylinder....
 
You will find however, that if you continue to shoot, eventually the bullets will spill out the muzzle and newer ones will take their place, start using slightly undersized bullets and you will be able to drive the newly fired bullets out of your barrel with doweling. This is why i use a single stage press and always check powder levels of charged cases in the reloading blocks, i have a mini flashlight handy and take time to do a good inspection......Oh and by the way, just kiddin' about trying to shoot them out!!!
 
I have seen this more than one time!

Sometimes the gun is fine... but you nd to check it out.

Have a smith check the cylinder, and barrel for cracks, if it was lead he may be able to drill it out for you.
 
Davidf said:
I've loaded and fired 10's of thousands of my own reloads. With rifle cartridges I hand weigh every charge but with pistol cartridges I've been weighing every tenth charge (after I have the thrower set and working consistently). If when I weigh a load and the charge is not exactly what I expect I go back and redo the proceeding 9. Remember many people do these on a progressive press.....
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Exactly. I do the same. I doubt there are many volume reloaders who weigh every pistol charge (unless someone bech rests their pistols for competition all the time). It kind of defeats the purpose of having a progressive press!

If you stay 10% below a recommended max load on a progressive machine the slight , occasional variation in powder throws either plus or minus will still not put you in the danger zone.

Regards,
 
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