What Mistakes Have You Made While Reloading??

[Fullmag]

Trying to find the OAL on cast bullets. In the past used the reloading book as a guide. After having problems with over crimping or under crimping the brass. Then the slide not closing all the way from the headspace not being enough to getting a loaded round stuck in barrel due to OAL being too much. Since have bought a headspace gage and setting bullets to cannelure to get the recommended seating depth of cast bullets.

Another thing that was almost a disaster built a new loading bench that vibrated too much which really wasn't that much. Was loading for a 357 sig which is a high pressure round that uses a lot of Longshot. Noticed that I was getting a lot of flash and the the next round a little more than a puff then normal recoil. At first thought it was the Hornady powder measure so bought a RCBS same problem. Even worse with light Bullseye loads in 38 special. Moved the powder measure to work bench to eliminate vibration and it worked since rebuilt bench bolted it to the wall and made it very sturdy.

 

[Mark 1911]

Doesn't take much case lube to make the brass run smoothly through the resizing die. Doesn't take much more to get dents in the case shoulder. I've dented a few cases. Good thing is its an easy mistake to learn from.

 

[Wolfhound]

I think the worst I've done is run a 270 case through with a batch of 30-06. Caught it after I had sized it and ruined it. Or maybe it was a 30-06 with a batch of 270.....

 

[IndyDave1776]

I have never made a mistake reloading.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I have never made a mistake reloading.

Never reloaded, eh?

 

[billybob44]

This can not be....

I have never made a mistake reloading.

^^^HA HA HA....If true??NOT...You have NOT loaded ANY rounds....Bill.

 

[IndyDave1776]

Never reloaded, eh?

^^^HA HA HA....If true??NOT...You have NOT loaded ANY rounds....Bill.

Come on guys! I was going to try to get a little more mileage out of this before I got caught!

 

[88E30M50]

I hate running a 10mm case through a batch of .40 and not realizing it until it's case was bellmouthed like a blunderbuss

 

[billybob44]

I hate running a 10mm case through a batch of .40 and not realizing it until it's case was bellmouthed like a blunderbuss

^^^Did this MORE than a few times with a .357 in a .38Spl. bell die...Bill.

 

[Old Dog]

Reloading 38spl, had two rows of cartridges in the tray charged with 3.7 gr of a certain powder, turned the tray to run the last three rows under the powder measure. Phone rings... half hour later returned to loading bench and rotated the tray to charge the last three rows (you see where this is headed?) Finished job and went to test fire in 2" 38spl. First round shook my eyeballs and teeth and really hammered my hand. Shook it off and second round seemed normal. Third round hammered me again. Fourth sounded like a fart, same with fifth. Went to open cylinder, would not open as lead was jammed between cylinder and forcing cone. Had to drive it out with dowel rod. Pondered the situation and (here it comes) decided that something was wrong with load. Pulled bullets from the rest of the rounds and measured the powder charges. 20 were 3.7 gr, 20 were 7.4 gr, 10 were 0 gr. 7.4 grains of this powder exceeded maximum 357 mag charge! Two lessons learned from this 1. If things sound or feel "funny", stop and check it out. 2. No matter what, always, always, look down in the case to confirm the powder charge. I still work and so does the 38!

 

[romack991]

once I was loading primer tubes and somehow forgot to get the cotter pin in the end. that was a surprise when I flipped it over.... now I check it's in place every time....

You only have to do that once before you religiously put the cotter pin back in immediately after you dump the primers down the tube.

I don't recall any issues loading on the 650. Had two whoops with my 1050.

First was forgetting to put the primer rod back in. On a 650 it's not really an issue since you feel the primer seat. You realize it immediately and add primers. On a 1050, you don't notice till you have 10 or so loaded and start to wonder why you are seeing powder on the shell plate.

Second was after the autodrive was added. After a few previous runs, I had gotten "comfortable" with it. Turned it on, checked the first three or four rounds and everything was running well. I looked away for a second to grab a box of primers. Forgot to turn on the bulletfeeder... After the 6 or so bullets that were left in the tube were used up, it dropped 5 or 10 cases/powder without bullets into the bin before I noticed it.

 

[Gluemanz28]

I loaded too many test rounds (100 to be exact). It was 700x powder at max charge on some 380 rounds. My wife shot them in her G42 and they wouldn't cycle. Stovepipe or wouldn't eject and insert another round. I told my wife it would be good practice to learn clearing a jam. Truth is I didn't want to pull them. She shot them all and had to rack the slide on almost everyone of them.

 

[chezuki]

When I first started loading, I had a Lee Pro 1000. It took a while to be able to "feel" when a primer didn't feed, so several times I dropped powder in an unprimed case. A fine powder like AA#5 runs right through the case and gunks up the whole primer feed system, which required a tear down and clean.

 

[PGRChaplain]

Putting a Cigarette out in an ashtray. ( that my Trap Shooting bud had put spilled Powder in. 2 loads of 700X) It's like sticking your hand in a Cutting Torch.

 

[OHOIAN]

Over the last 36 years I have made just about every little mistake that can be made. I have inserted primers and bullets upside down, tumbled different size brass together, poured powder into the wrong container / powder measure, brass not inserted fully into the shell holder, installed wrong dies, over crimped causing cases to buckle. And just about anything else one could imagine. I have always caught myself and never caused any damage to a firearm. Knock on wood.

 

[Gluemanz28]

The biggest mistake that I ever made was using equipment that wasn't blue

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Well, after 15-ish years of reloading I finally had a squib. I did what I was trained to do when I felt the reduced recoil and heard the different sound, stopped shooting, announced "squib!" (even though I was the only one on the range) and then opened the cylinder and looked in the forcing cone. I could see the base of the bullet, so I was done with the LCR for the day. Shame, too, I was shooting pretty well. Finally got that dang Bigfoot on the first shot.

.

Got it home, tapped it out with a dowel and a hammer, and now it's just time to clean it.

The drill it interrupted:

 

[dccrpet]

I blew up the dillion xl 650 primer tube while doing 10 mm auto reloads. Scared the SH.. out of me & my wife came running from the yard. It sounded like a gun shot in the garage. I could not hear from a moment and was patting my self down for holes. Luckily the primer rod was in the ceiling & I was not hurt, only my pride. called & told them I was ramrodding the machine & pushed to hard when I should have backed off. They No BS warranty is 100% true. They laughed & sent me a new one free of chargeo

 

[Spyco]

Not seating some tight fitting primers far enough for 38spl and over crimping one 7mm Rem Mag. Basically, every problem I have had prevented me from chambering a round, thankfully. Other wise, nothing catastrophic yet.

 

[bigbore]

Not so much a mistake but just a PITA is finding the right bullet depth for each gun.