Reloading incident. Remeber to check before seating bullets.

Yup happened to me last year with .223 rounds, missed a row of powder in shells, luckly only one at range and recognised the sound. Took a bit to the rd out. Now I check with flashlight every row in tray. Scary to of what might have happened.
millwright said:
Hello All. Took my Bubba 4 out to the range to sight it in the other day. I had fired about 27 rounds down range, and then when I sqeezed the trigger on the second round from the magazine I heard a small bang. Now I wasn't too sure if the round had gone off because my buddy was firing right beside me so the noise sounded the same but the recoil wasn't there. I ejected the casing and saw that the bullet was gone(not in the casing)I was thinking something very weird going on. So I took the bolt out and looked up the spout and couldn't see daylight.Out comes the cleaning rod and down the barrel it went. With a lite tap out pops my 174 gr Hornady rdnose. This was obviousley caused by no powder in the case. First time (and I hope last) this has ever happened to me. So remember always check for powder levels before seating the bullets.
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MLine052 said:
Yup happened to me last year with .223 rounds, missed a row of powder in shells, luckly only one at range and recognised the sound. Took a bit to the rd out. Now I check with flashlight every row in tray. Scary to of what might have happened.
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this,
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I have had this happen two times with 45 ACP. Never with anything else I reload. I generally deliberately load on the light side so if this happens the total charge is still under the proof load so it only gives you a fright. It is very easy for this to happen on a progressive press. I have caught it a number of times but obviously missed a couple. It almost always happens when there is a problem with the deprime, size, prime stage which is where most problems seem to occur. I only load handgun so the powder charge is small. I am thinking of switching to a more bulky powder so that it overflows with the double charge. Trouble is powders are so efficient these days if you are loading 38spl you can get a triple charge in the case. Also finding specific powders seems to be a problem these days. For example I would like to switch to HS6 for my semi Auto's but I can't get any.
 
I am just looking to getting into reloading and threads like this provide useful info and scare me at the same time. I guess going with a single stage is much safer than a progressive press.
 
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I feel your pain a few month ago I picked up a remington r1 enhanced, the next week I picked up a Dillon and the rest of the fun stuff to reload up some 45's, So out of my first 100 I had one squib load like you. The worst part is I had a feeling I had forgot powder in one of them but it fell in the pile of the rest so I had no choice but to shoot them all and find it since they all seamed to weigh out the same in the end. Well needles to say it came out easy and the next day I fashioned up about 30 leds to the press so now its well lit and no mistakes can be made. On the bright side is that it got noticed before the next round went down the pipe.
 
Doubtful about the barrel . . .



I would like to have seen that one cartridge case on the table. From what I was told by someone there at the time, the Yellow Stripe in the first picture and his Henchmen were at a loss.
 
I did this once on a 9mm. Got distracted. At the time I was loading 50 cases with powder and then seating all the bullets. Now I load the powder from the measure and then seat the bullet on that case. I am thinking about a turret press, but will look into a fail-safe process before going that route. With the rifle cartridges, I have started weighing each powder charge. Haven't found a load out more than few tenths of a grain yet, but schist can happen. Powder measure works better with ball or flake powder than stick. Probably need a better powder measure.
 
I once had a double-load in my Ruger Old Vaquero, 357 Magnum. Recoiled so hard, it almost knocked it out of my hand. Then it bulged the case out of the back of the cylinder and jammed the cylinder in the frame. Took a while to break that loose, but the gun didn't suffer any damage (old model brick-$|-|!t house).

I normally inspect cases visually for presence of powder, but must have skipped one, or not payed enough attention. Anyway, as an additional safeguard to prevent any future mishaps I numbered the loading block wells starting at 1. The number of the well with case then gets checked against the load number displayed on my automatic powder dispenser system.
 
Thank you for sharing, I'm a newbie reloader for a week or two only, I'm very paranoid with powder issue so what I do is, I have two sets of scale(one physical another one digital), I weight my powder with these two scales and always confirm the exact powder charge before I pour it into my brass, also I weight brass and primer and powder and bullet, lets say I'm reloading 308 for now, I weight my brass+primer as heavy as 183gr, my powder charge is 44gr, an my bullet is 168gr, so the total weight of a 308 round is 395gr, give or take 1gr, i only use those that match the weight requirement, every round that weights rediculously heavy or light would be considered as overcharged or no powder.

So far I had 150rds that I reloaded down the pipe with NO issue at all, and with those precaution I think bad things wont happen in the future, I can't afford any thing happens to my beloved precision rifle.
 
I shoot a lot of light cast bullet loads so the danger of double charge is real. What I do other than the being careful using the shells blocks and conducting visuals on them etc. is, I weight the complete shells on the digital scale after loading is complete It works great - so far........

Lets say I am using 10 grains of Unique in a 303 British with a 180 grain cast. I know the overall weight will be a certain number lets say 400 grains plus or minus a few grains because of the casing, primer or cast bullet differences.

I zero a full live shell on the digital scale and then throw them on one at a time. 1 or 2 grain plus or minus - no problems I am good to go. If I get one shell with a big difference it needs to be opened up and investigated more closely.

This is an easy process that is really good insurance. I ran into some lads at the range that bought some cheap 5.56 ammo that blew up a fellows rifle. This would be a good safety method to ensure the cheap rounds are uniform. Unless all the cheap rounds are off then your are screwed :(

Have fun and play safe.

EDIT - As 2sec said above - oops.
 
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I have been using a well known brand name electronic powder measure-scale. A few years ago I took my 6.5 Swede 63 target rifle to the range, first three shots were were on top of each other, fourth shot and all hell broke loose, part of the stock adjacent to the magazine came back and stabbed me in the lip, blood everywhere! The action rails were all warped, metal case head surrounding ring came off the bolt, quite a mess! Day was done!
Went home after the clinic and pulled the bullets on the next 5 cartridges, two were 10 to 13 grains overloaded, then checked all the rest, yet the scale always indicated a correct charge. Still use the scale after the manufacturer checked it out, but from that day on a wooden try stick is inserted in each case, to visually gauge the powder level prior to bullet seating. If there is any space on the stick between the pencil line and the case neck, the charge is re- weighed and verified.
 
For me, with the bottleneck rifle cart's .. it's bulky slower powder that settles high up in the case. Up to the base of the neck at least, or part way up the neck and then compressed. Charges trickled to +- 1/10th grain on a reliable Ohaus 10/10 balance beam scale.
EVERY single case .. always .. gets inspected before seating. .. Has kept me out of trouble for forty plus years now. And, casefull/compressed slow burner charged ammo can be both wicked fast, and so very accurate.

The one and only scew-up, ('cept for the odd no primer) was the 1 time a single 7.62 DA milspec case got mixed in with the .308 Win commercial stuff ... locked down that Rem 600 carbine's bolt, so it did. Broke the bolt handle off pounding with a 2x4. Not a good thing, that.

Now, as for the Antique revolver cart's. with smokeless loads?. Those, ... am super-tight-assed-anal. Weigh each and every charge on two scales.
Run a marked dowel down onto every charge.
So far .. so good. :)
 
sharps74 said:
I have been using a well known brand name electronic powder measure-scale. A few years ago I took my 6.5 Swede 63 target rifle to the range, first three shots were were on top of each other, fourth shot and all hell broke loose, part of the stock adjacent to the magazine came back and stabbed me in the lip, blood everywhere! The action rails were all warped, metal case head surrounding ring came off the bolt, quite a mess! Day was done!
Went home after the clinic and pulled the bullets on the next 5 cartridges, two were 10 to 13 grains overloaded, then checked all the rest, yet the scale always indicated a correct charge. Still use the scale after the manufacturer checked it out, but from that day on a wooden try stick is inserted in each case, to visually gauge the powder level prior to bullet seating. If there is any space on the stick between the pencil line and the case neck, the charge is re- weighed and verified.
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That's why I'm of the "throw a rough charge and trickle up" school of loading. If the rough charge thrown reads approx. the same each time when placed on the scale and approx.the same number of turns on the trickler are required, it's pretty hard to get 10-13gr. over without noticing. Kinda like a virtual wooden stick.
 
I have a question, can you de-prime good primers. I was reloading and took one step too soon. Primed 50 .308 shells before resizing the collet. Part of the collet die is a depriming pin. Is there a danger of setting off the good primer or damaging the good primer. Thanks for the help. I have loaded thousands of 9mm and 45ACP, first time doing .308 rifle. COMPLETELY different animals. I am measuring overall length, using case lube to resize outside, cleaning the collet opening, cleaning the primer pocket, trimming them all to same length 2.010", deburring inside and outsize of trim. I am at the collet resize now, but got ahead of myself and primed all the 50 cases. Live and learn. I just want to be safe about removing the "live" primers. Thanks in advance.
 
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