Dangerous Brain Fart

Banished, I have great admiration for your telling of this mistake.
I'm sure many of us have skeletins in the closet, but we keep them to ourselves.
You have added a lot to these threads. And congratulations on your fifty years of reloading. You have me beat by about four years, but I am also certainly not immune to making a mistake.
By the way, one of my long time favourite rifles I have is a Sako L61, so that made me feel even better yet toward it.
 
MapleSugar said:
"Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool."
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So true. I am paranoid about using the wrong powder and only ever have one container on the bench at a time while I am loading, but a momentary brain fade can have huge consequences. This is a great reminder to always be diligent, careful and deliberate when loading.

I can't even imagine 91gr of Varget in one round.:D

Mark
 
Danimal247 said:
is it common place to weigh each individual cartridge after reloading? it would point out any double charges or under charges and would only be 1 more step to your process
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I have never weighted finished cartridges ,i'm sure its a good idea and it is a good idea.
Most of the time i'm just checking cases for weight when setting up new lot of empty cases for reloading.Different lots of the same brass from the same manufacturer can have different internal capacity.I found that with 223 rem cases
 
H4831 said:
Banished, I have great admiration for your telling of this mistake.
I'm sure many of us have skeletins in the closet, but we keep them to ourselves.
You have added a lot to these threads. And congratulations on your fifty years of reloading. You have me beat by about four years, but I am also certainly not immune to making a mistake.
By the way, one of my long time favourite rifles I have is a Sako L61, so that made me feel even better yet toward it.
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H4831 Thanks for the kind words. I've been a Sako fan since 1963 when I purchased a very accurate Vixen Varminter in .222 Rem. Have had many more since then and found all to be well finished, accurate and strong.

Regards

Aubrey
 
Glad to hear you weren't injured and that the rifle withstood the faux pas. Gremlins in the loading room seem to be alive and well. I recall several of my own misadventures which include loading .38 Specials for a club with an old worn out Lyman powder measure. I hadn't checked the powder throw weight until I had more than 500 rounds loaded and instead of throwing 4.5 grs of Unique it was throwing nearly 7. Not knowing when the change occurred, and needing the ammo for the next days shoot, I shot those in my .357 and bought 1000 rounds for the shoot. Then there was the time I double loaded a charge of 25 grs of SR-4759 under a 210 gr cast bullet in my .30/06 . . . I've posted the details before so I won't now, but that was an eye opener. Then there was the time I rushed to clean up after a long loading session and inadvertently dumped a bunch of 296 into a can of 748. The occasional misstep I believe keeps us more alert and safer, although its always better if our eye sight, our number of digits, or a cherished thunder-stick is not compromised in the lesson. Your post is a valuable wake-up for those who are paying attention.
 
I saw a very pristine pre-64 M70 Winchester in 300 H&H destroyed completely due to a powder mixup such as you experienced, Aubrey. It is a reminder to all of us to exercise the utmost caution when we have different powders in our magazine, and the possibility of a mixup is present. Thanks for the "heads up" Regards, Eagleye.
 
I have done it too. I got a powder measure for Christmas a few years back and was having so much fun measuring and weighing powders to see how accurate it would throw various stick powders. I accidentally poured a hopper full of IMR 4227 back into the wrong can then a couple of weeks later used the mixed powder to load some 30/06. Needless to say the 4227 was much much faster than the other powder and I blew a primer. I also blew a piece off the bolt face and had to get a new bolt and have the barrel set back an re chambered. I thanked the engineers at Mauser and the gods who protect dummies like me many times for allowing me to keep my fingers and eyesight. I was pretty embarrassed to have to take that mess into the smith who built it for me and fess up to what I had done.

I am so much more vigilant now about only ever having one powder on the bench at any time. It can happen to the best of us, so be careful out there.
 
Thanks to the OP for his remarks. As a new reloader, I am always reading, and heeding advice from members such as yourself, who freely give their advice to us all.
Thanks for the "Lessons Learned"
 
Aubrey,

I am glad you (and your rifle) are still in one piece.

I did the same thing with IMR (Mistook 4895 for 4350) that could have been disastrous had I not caught the error before hand. I was pissed at having to pull 50 rounds but the alternative could/would have been worse.

Richard
 
Wow! I would have bet that the rifle would have blew.

I have been loading for 40+ years and made just about every mistake - but not that one. But, since we are sharing brain farts:

I have "assumed" that the power thrower had 4895 in it. It didn't.

Several times I have accidently emptied the powder thrower in the wrong can.

Note that both brain farts got me into the same situation as you.

I have learned to label the thrower with a piece of masking tape or to put power back in the can right away. I also make a point of having ony one can out of the locker at a time.
 
m39a2 said:
Take your rifle to a gunsmith who knows the action and have him remove the barrel. With that kind of preasure you might very well have set your lugs back into the reciever. What this means is, even with "Normal" loads you will have a hard time opening the bolt as the case will expand to fill the chamber as the bolt actually sits slightly back once locked. As you lift the bolt, you will actually be resizing the brass as the bolt lugs have to overcome the big dent in the lug way in the reciever.

Please have it checked before you fire it again, you may have toasted your reciever!!!!

Scott
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As an interesting note, Aubrey has been precision shooting for 40+ years and has probably forgotten more than I will ever know about gunsmithing, relaoding, shooting,

He is also the designer of many commercially produced cartridges! including the very 300 Imperial Canadian Magnum he nearly planted himself with.

It is humbling and infinitely educational to hear that even the true legends in the shooting community can not only make mistakes but have the character to discuss them in a way so we can all learn!

Gald to hear you're alive to tell the tale.... I suspect it wasn't a Stevens 200 action?
 
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Ganderite said:
I have learned to label the thrower with a piece of masking tape or to put power back in the can right away. I also make a point of having ony one can out of the locker at a time.
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I use an RCBS Chargemaster, and I discovered that those labels they stick with Berger Bullets can be just inserted into the powder hopper without having to peel them off or anything, they just stay there by friction. I simply write the powder type on one of those cards and stick it in the hopper.

I still f__k up, and have about 5 pounds of Vargy5031 in a tupperware container as a result of dumping the wrong powder in with another.
 
Ian, be careful with that legend crap. They may find out that I'm really just an old retired cop who now needs a bench to shoot from. Will phone you soon on that bench thing.

Regards

Aubrey
 
Actually, Big Foot, Ogopogo and the loch ness Monster are all legends too. I guess the term means that they are revered by crack-pots who find them selves on the short end of credibility when they talk about the objects of their fascination to the general public :D
 
"I still f__k up, and have about 5 pounds of Vargy5031 in a tupperware container as a result of dumping the wrong powder in with another. "

Been there. Done that. I used to have two 5 gallon pails of 4895 contaminated with BLC2. Since they are similar in speed, it was easy to use it for loading non-precision plinking ammo.

I recall a powder company calling me once asking if I was interested in 3000 pounds of 4895 type that had been contaminated with 88 pounds of 4350 type powder.

Murphy sure gets around....
 
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