A mis-adventure in reloading..

Qc_BearHunter

Qc_BearHunter

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Yesterday, something happened that could have lead to serious problem, even if I've over 30 years of experience in reloading. Thanks to Ruger's revolver legendary strenght!

I went to the range with a few handguns. One of them was a Ruger Super BlackHawk in .44 Magnum. I've made a few reloads with 10 grains of Hodgdon's Titgroup under a 240 grains bullet (Nosler JHP and CamPro). That load is Hodgdon's maximum, and I've tried 9,5 grains before with no problem. So I felt very safe with the 10 grains load.

At the first shot, my feeling was that the recoil and the muzzle blast was a bit too sharp, more like a full load of H110, but I continue shooting. After the first 6 shots, about 5/6 cases were hard to very hard to extract. I should've stop there I know but I continue shooting..

I fired 18 of these loads, until 2 cases were impossible to remove with the extractor rod, so I called it off, locked the gun and put it back into the case.

At home, I removed the bullets of the remaining 6 rounds with a pair of pliers. I set my scale on 10 grains and dumped the powder charge of the first round. The beam just went to the top! After adjusting the weights, I found my load was not 10 grains, BUT 12,4 grains!!!!

I'm still not sure how this happened, because I always double and even triple check my setup. The only explanation I have is the weight of the scale was a little offset when I set it to 10 grains, so it gave me a false reading when I adjusted My powder measure.

2,4 grains over on a rifle load will probably lead you to a flattened primer or a sticky bolt lift. But not with a handgun load, it can goes really bad.

So guys, be careful. there are old reloaders and bold reloaders. But there are almost no old bold reloaders...
 
Last edited:
Thanks for putting this out there. It's human to make mistakes and hard to admit sometimes but we can all use a reminder now and then. Glad there's no serious harm done.

I tried approaching max loads with titegroup in the 44mag a little while ago too. It seemed to me that very small increments were beginning to have a disproportionate effect after around 9gr. One Ruger didn't have any pressure signs at the case but the extractor rod housing screw broke. The other one started to have difficult extraction on one or 2 cylinders.

From now on titegroup is for light to medium loads and magnum loads are made with magnum powders like H110 or lil'gun. They are meant for that and seem to be more forgiving.
 
This is why I use Trail Boss for light loads in all cartridges. No chance of kaboom

Quickload says :

240gr JHP, 9.5grs Titegroup : 49% load density / 35,000PSI

10.0grs : 52% load density / 38,500PSI

12.4grs : 64% load density / 56,300PSI

If you somehow double charged the case and put 20 grains in = 103% load density / 145k PSI

Trail Boss 8.0grs , 100% load density, 19k PSI
 
I accidently set a beam scale to 15 gr instead of 10 gr. Lucky for me it was Unique under a rifle cast bullet. I got away with it.

Tight Group scares me because it can be double charged. I prefer a powder that will overflow if double charged.

In a 44 mag that might mean nothing faster than Unique.
 
I use a balance scale and electronic scale at the same time when checking my powder throws. You are right to share this, fast pistol powders are no joke when it comes to even small overcharges.
 
Thanks for sharing, OP. To quote one part of Ganderites sig line "- Learn by the experience of others.... you won't live long enough to make all the mistakes yourself."
 
to the OP

oddly the same thing happened to me.

I hadnt reloaded for a couple years.
I was all set up for doing 9mm. buleseye at 3.8g

some how my balance beam got out of wack. Its kept in a drawer with nothing beside it to bump it or otherwise.
I caught it before I started reloading. I always Calibrate my scale first,...and it was out.

My scale was reading low by about 1/2 a gr so I would have had a hotter load for sure "4.3g" but not dangerous.

How did the scale get that far out just sitting ??
 
lone ranger said:
to the OP

oddly the same thing happened to me.

I hadnt reloaded for a couple years.
I was all set up for doing 9mm. buleseye at 3.8g

some how my balance beam got out of wack. Its kept in a drawer with nothing beside it to bump it or otherwise.
I caught it before I started reloading. I always Calibrate my scale first,...and it was out.

My scale was reading low by about 1/2 a gr so I would have had a hotter load for sure "4.3g" but not dangerous.

How did the scale get that far out just sitting ??
Click to expand...

Zeroing your scale is SOP for any diligent loader. It should be done before and at regular intervals during loading. It doesn't matter how you store your scale, acting otherwise is asking for trouble. Bullseye is a great powder but being near the top of the burn chart it could be very unforgiving.
 
B said:
I use a balance scale and electronic scale at the same time when checking my powder throws. You are right to share this, fast pistol powders are no joke when it comes to even small overcharges.
Click to expand...

Same here. And I calibrate my balance scale every loading session.
 
Years ago I was with a friend at the range who had a Ruger RedHawk in .44 Mag. We were shooting away when all of a sudden there was a huge boom and I looked over to see what happened and he was holding his wrist and blood was all over the right side of his head above his ear. Once we got him calmed down and bandaged his head we packed everything up and we were off to the hospital. I went looking for the redhawk and found it in a small creek that ran behind the shooting range about 40 feet behind us. Expecting to see nothing but fragments I picked it up and it surprisingly looked normal. He had a small cut above his right ear probably from the pistol just grazing him as it flew by. Had the redhawk sent to ruger for inspection and they suggested not to fire it again as the frame had stretched a few thousandths. He remembered his young daughter came into the reloading room and distracted him for a moment and he thinks that was the cause of what the ruger people labelled it as a double charge. Could have been much worse.
 
lone ranger said:
to the OP

oddly the same thing happened to me.

I hadnt reloaded for a couple years.
I was all set up for doing 9mm. buleseye at 3.8g

some how my balance beam got out of wack. Its kept in a drawer with nothing beside it to bump it or otherwise.
I caught it before I started reloading. I always Calibrate my scale first,...and it was out.

My scale was reading low by about 1/2 a gr so I would have had a hotter load for sure "4.3g" but not dangerous.

How did the scale get that far out just sitting ??
Click to expand...

?????

B said:
Zeroing your scale is SOP for any diligent loader. It should be done before and at regular intervals during loading. It doesn't matter how you store your scale, acting otherwise is asking for trouble. Bullseye is a great powder but being near the top of the burn chart it could be very unforgiving.
Click to expand...

^^^^^
this


McHoss said:
Same here. And I calibrate my balance scale every loading session.
Click to expand...


john-brennan said:
Me too I calibrate my scale every time also
Click to expand...

is balancing your scale enough?


I learned it this way:
Before weighing out a charge, I balance the scale, then I verify the charge and the balance by dropping 10 charges in the same pan and weigh it out.
If there is any mistake it will be amplified by 10, therefore easy to see and to correct.
 
I have 2 scales- one's a balance bean, the other a cheap digital a got off of flea-bay- I know it's an extra step, but after I get my measure on the balance beam, I ck it with the digital- if it's not within tolerance, back she goes- I only ck about every 5 reloads as I use an auto powder measure-basically one you set your powder, you should be gtg but I ck anyway for peace of mind
 
polaris said:
is balancing your scale enough?


I learned it this way:
Before weighing out a charge, I balance the scale, then I verify the charge and the balance by dropping 10 charges in the same pan and weigh it out.
If there is any mistake it will be amplified by 10, therefore easy to see and to correct.
Click to expand...

I have a digital scale I cross check to. I zero my balance scale, then set it to the desired weight, drop a charge, weigh it on the digital scale then on the balance scale. I do this every 10th round or so.
 
A cheap digital scale is nice to have for a quick reference. I’d say almost a must have. I reload rifle rounds with a pair of digitals and a rcbs beam to triple check every fifth or so load.
Pistol all goes though lee disc measures. They’ll fluctuate a little, but not 25%. Double charges are a risk during upset conditions on the press though. Lots of light and being very aware when seating bullets is the only true failsafe.
 
I knew a guy who blew the top strap and upper part of all the cylinders on a new to him 629. Double charge most likely. He had a few cuts on his hands, but nothing serious.
 
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