Reloading Misadventures - Post your Whoops moments.

[chuddly]

I had a squib round that stuck in the barrel one time. It came out pretty easy and i was by my self when it happened so no one ever had to know really....but ill be the first to admit i make mistakes and i can only assume i missed a powder drop on that one.

 

[Disposable Heart]

Lol, let's see...

Loaded some 125gr 9mm with 6 grains of Titegroup rather than Unique. Popped every primer. Funny thing was the report wasn't horrific and there was a channel in the XD I was shooting that allowed the popped primer to fall out of the gun. Fire a round, the case would come out the side, popped primer out of the back. It was like shooting a self loading, self depriming gun. Stopped at 50 rounds.

Experimented with duplex powder loads (two charges, one of fast burning powder, thin wad, then slow burning powder). While it didn't blow up the Ruger .357 Blackhawk, the SD was sorta high (50+ fps), the velocity with 110 grainers was about 1800 fps with a 4" barrel and the recoil/blast was scary. Stopped after 5 rounds.

While not a misshap, I loaded 9mm and 7.62x39 (that's right, M43 Soviet) with blackpowder. The 9mm was actually fun, mild, shot decent enough, gummed a Beretta 92 to failing to operate after 47 rounds (if I recall). The 7.62x39 didn't cycle the AK, made a horrible mess and one round squibbed. Stopped after 17 rounds.

 

[Seancass]

I'll chime in!

I havn't put any bad loads in a chamber yet, but i have made some mistakes. Althought, i still havn't made enough to buy a bullet puller! I wouldn't get my money's worth out of it!

Most of my errors come from the bullet seater/crimper pushing the bullet too far into the case while i'm trying to set it up. I switch bullets a lot for a caliber. I also put a bullet on top of an empty 45C case, but instantly had an "oh no!" feeling and seperated it.

 

[Electronrider]

Here is one recently:

Resized about 1200 rounds of .223 and somehow managed to oversize them. checked them on the case gauge after I was all done and they were all 1-2 thousanths lower than they should have been.

Almost threw them all out until I remembered that I was thinking about building a 300 blackout, so now I have the brass to get me started!

 

[DownByTheTracks]

This one wasn't on us, but a pretty green reloader that learned to not use powders not listed in the book. This is what happens when you put 2 scoops of goodness in a 7.5x55 Swiss! The Schmidt-Rubin took 4 rounds before he had to beat the bolt handle open. That's one strong action!

 

[Tinner666]

Luckily, nothing to report here but the rare primer pop.

 

[Fullmag]

My oops is after taking some time off from reloading. I bought XD in 357sig. Was setting the powder measure with scales and finding a load that worked. Well the loads I was running were getting close to the max. Then noticed that some were less recoil than others and some were more recoil and flash than others. A couple were big flashes and big recoil. So I checked every throw from the measure on the scales, they were varying +/- .5 gr or less at any given time. The powder measure was gummed up from setting a couple of years it was not accurate or consistent. Just lucky I was not using Clays or something like it with a less than a grain from minimum to maximum. I was real lucky.

 

[bdybdall]

I remember someone reloading rounds for a friend of mine. I won't say who since it hits to close to home. Also, it was better than 30 years ago. Anyway, either one shell lacked powder or else the powder was contaminated. The primer drove a bullet into the bore of a Ruger Super Blackhawk and the shooter prepared to fire again, notr ealizing what had happened. Fortunately, the owner of the gun stopped him before he fired so nothing untoward happened. When the gun owner told me about this it made me rather sweaty. Another time I loaded a box of 50 .357 mag rounds. I fired a cylinder full at the old shooting range next to Expo Bowl in Beech Grove. They sounded even louder than a normal and I had to drive them out of the cylinder. It didn't seem to hurt that old Security Six but I didn't enjoy breaking down the other 44 rounds.

 

[kjf48197]

I had a small piece of debris in my powder drop tube on my mec 9000. Sooooo...that translates to not enough powder in some of the shells, maybe 10 or 12, but i do not know which ones because I loaded 1400 at that time and they drop off into a box . Even I laugh with my friends when those shells go pop instead of BANG. They reload too and sooner or later it will happen to them. I have not had any blow ups thankfully.

 

[bikeman]

I have not done much reloading but i learned quickly tumbling .32, .38. 41 mag and 444 Marlin bass all together is not a good idea. i think I still have a 444 case with a .38 stuck in it.

 

[Aszerigan]

I have not done much reloading but i learned quickly tumbling .32, .38. 41 mag and 444 Marlin bass all together is not a good idea. i think I still have a 444 case with a .38 stuck in it.

Lol. True. Try tumbling .40S&W with 9mm. That took me days to sort out the first time.

 

[billybob44]

+1 To ProFire..

Lol. True. Try tumbling .40S&W with 9mm. That took me days to sort out the first time.

Hay A, how about 9MM,,40 S&W, and .45acp. together...NOW that "Triple Play" will keep you busy for awhile..HA HA...Bill.

 

[sbrville]

I hate telling on my friend but it might help someone else. I made him a holster awhile back and to pay me back he reloaded 100 rnds of .45 for my new glock. I shot a mag and thought they were pretty warm. Then I picked up the brass and noticed they where bulged to match the feed ramp. I pulled one down and it measured 8 grains instead of 5 of Bullseye. I took one to him and he weighed it and showed me the "5" on his scales. The only problem was it was in grams instead of grains. He had loaded several hundred this way. Long night pullin bullets.

 

[kludge]

1) Let's just say that I have a "deep seated" 180gr .40S&W round that I keep for a good LOL every time I run across it and to remind me to pay attention to my setup, and a few crushed shoulders on .308 rounds from back when I was "learning the ropes."

2) My buddy (co-instructor) got some reloaded .380 ammo from a large reloader at the Indy 1500. (NOT Andrew) Well, we were doing a pistol class one day and unbeknownst to me the bag of ammo had a few misfires so a third instructor changed ammo. The fourth instructor, who wasn't told about the misfires, picked up my Bersa .380 and the bag of ammo for another student. The story is not quite clear what the actual chain of events was but suffice it to say that a sqiub occured and she (the fourth instructor) immediately stopped her (the student) and checked the gun. She called me over and we found a squib lodged in the barrel. Worse yet, upon disassembly the barrel was buldged. The club paid for a new Bersa and we keep the gun to show the students why it's important to pay attention to every shot that is fired. And the instructors make sure to communicate about these things.