Reloading incident. Remeber to check before seating bullets.

I have squibbed a load in my Llama 357 Super Comanche and it sounded so wierd I knew something was wrong... the bullet was poking out the muffle just far enough to grab it with some pliers but most fo the other rounds I loaded that day were so slow I could see them all hit the targets... it was like i was shooting a sling shot. I guess 3 gr.s of powder was too little for range loads in 38 special casings with wad cutters :) gotta go up to 6 lol.
 
Funny thing, that happened to me years ago. I was using my dads 270 with some 130gr homeloads that were done up for him years earlier by a friend of his. Well cruising a cut block and spot a nice 4pt mulie about 100yrds away. Get out and load a shell. Lock onto him with the scope and squeeze the trigger......Pop. What the**** just happened? Jack the bolt out comes case, no bullet?. pulled the bolt and look in the barrel and there it was not 2" up the tube. The buddy of his forgot the powder. meanwhile deer is gone and have a rendered useless rifle. Turn the truck around and went home. That happened in the early 80's. I load my own now and always and I mean always check my powder levels...Its a habit I learned from that day...:)

Dan
 
yup that would be the 2nd worst case scenario, mine at the range, not so big of a deal.
Worst case would be if you fired off a 2nd round without checking the barrel... Do you think it would blow up the barrel or shoot both bullets out just fine? Anyone have any wisdom on this?
 
peter2772000 said:
Damn!!!:(
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no powder is not that much a bad thing, the primer just makes the bullet leave casing so you don't have much rifling to fight to get the bullet out. Too low powder charge leavign the bullet in the middle of the barrel would be a pain, especially with copper plated bullets.

and REAL problems happen when you double charge, that's one thing I religiously check. The way i sit in front of my press I check last station to see if powder level is higher than average.
I understand what I probably did wrong in order for this to happen (too complicated to write about)

When I had this happen at the range, someone told me: You know what we say about reloaders? There are those who have had a bullet stuck in the bore and there are those who will.
 
"I like to use a powder that nearly fills the case if possible. It eliminates double charges, and for most applications, those loads tend to be the accurate ones anyway."

This is the best advice.

Try universal for 9mm, trail boss for revolver loads and 4570.

I am not an overly careful exact person by nature. There are just days I am not in the mood to reload. So I do not.

I do not load right before going to the range. Too often I am rushed by a pre arranged time to get there. Never load in a rush or with other stuff on the mind.
 
Was loading today for my 204. Like one guy on this thread, got distracted by the phone. I thought later that maybe I messed up so weighed all my rounds & found 2 extra light ones. Pulled the bullet on one & found no powder ( fixed that). Second bullet would not come out using a kinetic puller & the plastic tip separated from the bullet body--weird. Used a pair of pliers to get the bullet out & checked it. The thing only weighed 9.3grains (no lead core, just a jacket & tip). Bullet was a 39gr Sierra BlitzKing.
 
Etter said:
Was loading today for my 204. Like one guy on this thread, got distracted by the phone.....
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A few guys mentioned double charging. I guess that's an issue for handgun loaders, but there's no way in gawd's green earth you're going to double charge a rifle load.

What you can do is forget to charge it at all. And that, my friends, is highly dangerous. I ALWAYS look into the brass before seating a bullet and then I shake the load when I'm done just to be certain sure before I put it in my ammo box.

Many moons ago, I was happily reloading some 90gr HP for a .270. They were hot loads and just disintegrated gophers. A nice summer afternoon was coming up with a pal and I was looking forward to it. Phone rang. Now, I never allowed any interruptions while reloading. Not sure why, but I went out and took the call. Came back and loaded up the rest of about 50 rnds for tomorrow.

Sooo, we're blazing away, bullshyting and having a good time the next afternoon. I'm shooting on a bipod and we're both poking at gophers 250+ yds away. I draw a careful bead on one between sips of coffee and squeeze 'er off. "click". WTF! I open the bolt and out comes a spent brass. s**t. Must be getting forgetful. Forgot to eject the last spent cartridge. There's another load in the clip looking at me. I rack it in and draw another, very careful bead on said gopher the next time he pokes his head up. Squeeze 'er off. "click". Now I'm spooked. I pull the bolt back and out comes a brass with a 90gr. HP poking out the end of it. WTF! (this time really loudly). Look down the barrel. It's black.

Here's what I did: I loaded 50 stoked rounds of 90 gr HP. I missed putting powder in exactly two of them. By chance (or a Divine nod) I chambered those two powderless rounds consecutively. And that is all that saved me from a world of hurt.

Turns out a primer will move a neck-sized bullet into the lands. Maybe a crimped bullet, too, for all I know. Then, when you pull the bolt back, it looks just like the last spent round - no powder and the primer is spent.

Moral: Missing a powder charge is a very big deal.
 
Wow! I'm planning to start reloading .45 ACP to cut costs down (have my eye on the Dillon 550) . . . fairly new to this, so I'm very glad to have found this thread. Really opened my eyes to what I'm planning on getting into and it's potential dangers! I'm a little nervous now, but I suppose that is a much better than being complacent and/or not informed. Thanks to all this posts contributors!

6Gun
 
just bought a powder checker, have yet to install it though, seems like a great investment at a ringin' 40bucks
 
This is the reason I went with the lee turret press vs. single stage. Lots of people say single stage is safer but it is almost impossible to double charge a case with the turret press. Once it's charged and the handle comes up it changes the die so it is nearly impossible to screw up, and with the auto disk measure adding powder through the belling die you can't seat a bullet without charging the case. The only screw up I have encountered is running out of powder and not noticing, and loading cases without filling the hopper agian. Had to go back and weigh the loaded cartridges to find all the ones i missed. was a pain in the ass pulling the bullets (15) but not dangerous.
 
So far I'm in the not yet category, but at 67, I find I can no longer trust my memory. I have reverted to a RC press and loading blocks for most loading. I'm shooting less because of prices and time constraints, so the inconvenience of a single stage press is minimal.
It's your weapon, held in your hand, in front of your eyes. Can you really be willing, to loose any or all of them, just to save the time it takes to check,,, AGAIN?
 
I single stage 6.5 x 55, .270 win, 7mm RM, 30-30, and 45-70. I weigh a charge and seat the bullet into that casing, double checking the 505 scale setting before I do it. The only time this had failed me when I shot the 47gr of a ladder test and didn't get to finish the rest... When I wanted to refill them I zeroed the scale and set it to 48gr and continued...

The human is the weak point in the operation.


I know the 47's shoot awesome, I did .6" at 100m with that load in a light hunting rifle.. So I don't NEED to shoot it again.. but I wanted to in case it was luck... but now I have 10 48 gr shells.

It's 48gr of H4831sc in 6.5x55 and 129gr SST's.. so it's not pushing boundaries.. But it was a screw up. 47gr is a beautiful light load that shoots so nice in my gun... Whitetail camp is nov. 19-24 and unless one of the larger loads impresses me, I'm just going to go with that one. It's a laser for the ranges I shoot deer at.

Could have been worse.
 
John Y Cannuck said:
Advice for newbies. ( and old farts that forget )
I like to use a powder that nearly fills the case if possible. It eliminates double charges, and for most aplications, those loads tend to be the accurate ones anyway.
For example You can't double charge a full load of H110 in a 44 mag case, it won't fit.
Use of a loading block.
Simple inexpensive little thing that could save your bacon. It allows you to compare the powder levels of all the charges. If they're all the same, either they're all right, or you really screwed up. It will quickly also point out the differences in powder capacities of different brands, and sometimes even different batches of brass.
Always check a few loads on the scale, (If you don't have a scale, GET ONE!) even if the levels are the same, then check that charge back against the manual one last time before you start seating bullets.
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Trail Boss is another powder that is hard to double charge, as it almost fills up the case even for cowboy loads.:)
 
I'll back up the comment back there about military ammo. I had squib load of Dominion '64 7.62 NATO in a semi-auto a couple of years ago. That one woke me up to listening to the gun, if it had cycled fully it could have been a bad day.
 
hunter64 said:
On the other end of the spectrum years ago I was out with 3 other buddies at our usual saturday morning shoot at the range. Everything was as normal and we all proceeded over to the pistol 25 yard range. Plinking away when we heard a huge bang and this guy white as a ghost was limping around the table holding his right wrist in a daze. Somehow he had double charged a 44 mag shell and his redhawk was letting him know it didn't like it. That redhawk took it and next week he said he took it into a gunsmith to check it out and all was well. Never load when you have distractions, everyone can make mistakes but here you can't afford to make a mistake.
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That is why I always advise people to use only blackpowder in their antique revolvers. If you double charge your original .44 Russian, you simply don't have the safety margin you would with a modern revolver. Of course, the folks on the BP and Antiques forum don't make mistakes.......;)
 
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