Could have been disastrous....

CyaN1de

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First off let me start by saying that I am pretty anal and careful when it comes to loading.

I went to the loading room to make up some 6.5-08 rounds for tomorrow, I went to my powder cupboard and grabbed the powder I wanted to use and took it to my bench.

When I got to the bench I had another pound of powder on their so I took it and put it on the floor beside me so I wouldn't inadvertantly use it or dump the dispenser into it when I was done (only 1 powder type on the bench at a time).

I filled up my powder dispenser with my chosen powder and started to go town filling cases and seating bullets.

I was on round 30 when for some reason I grabbed the powder bottle to take a look at (I really had no reason to do this other than the fact that I did it), I realized at this time that I had grabbed IMR 4895 out of the cupboard instead of IMR 4350 and loaded the cases with far more of the 4895 than would have been safe. Since I don't use IMR that often, the label and lid color did not clue me in.

Quickload estimated this would have been a 90,000+ PSI load.

Maybe it was Intuition or 6th Sense, but something made me pick up the bottle and look at the label.

I guess my mind was elsewhere when I was going through the cupboard to choose my powder in the first place.

Needless to say I pulled all the bullets, dumped the cases, cleaned the powder all up and got the right powder out so I could finish what I had started.

I just wanted to post this to remind people that you can never be too careful in making sure everything you have on your bench is EXACTLY what you want. Never hurts to double check.

I shudder to think what could have happened had I not realized I had the wrong powder in the cases.

STAY SAFE!!!!
 
You are not alone my friend, happened to me as well and I was also lucky...

you can not be careful enough while reloading.

At one point I had 17 different kinds of powder in inventory.

Nowadays I use only two powders, W231 for handguns and Varget for rifles,
much safer that way, and it works very well...
 
Man, I really want to start reloading... but this sh!t scares the hell out of me.... I know myself and I am meticulous about safety but I also have young kids that can be distracting at any time. The thought of losing eyes and or hands to save the $100 per month or so that I MIGHT actually save by reloading keeps scaring me off... Someone tell me not to worry about it...

Jeff
 
It's a good practice to read the label out loud. It makes you think about what your looking at just a little more.

Glad you're still with us CyaN1de.
 
I use lots of different powders to get the results I want from many different cartridges. I can read and I am not color-blind.
 
Man, I really want to start reloading... but this sh!t scares the hell out of me.... I know myself and I am meticulous about safety but I also have young kids that can be distracting at any time. The thought of losing eyes and or hands to save the $100 per month or so that I MIGHT actually save by reloading keeps scaring me off... Someone tell me not to worry about it...

Jeff

Always load after the children have gone to bed , works for me. FS
 
Apparently not as much as you lead yourself to believe ! ;)

:) Glad you didn't face any dire consequence ! A lesson well-learned.

Yup...just wasn't paying 100% attention when getting the powder out, had other stuff on the brain.

And to the poster asking about getting into reloading. As long as you're safe and pay attention, loading is safer than a lot of other hobbies. Don't worry, get your gear and start loading, just pay attention to what you are doing at ALL TIMES.
 
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