What do you do with your mistakes?

Just use your decapping die and slowly push out the bad primers. They will not go bang because primers are designed to ignite when struck sharply on the cup when the anvil is supported by the case. Really, it's no big deal, just push out the primers and then re-use the brass.

I throw mine in an old wood ammo crate under the reloading bench.

Then every 15 years or so, i put them in a paper bag, and drop them in the river channel in the deepest lake around here!

Your stuck shell holder is a different matter though.
You want to recover that.

So, set it on top of your press ram. Then slowly push the primer out with your de-priming die in the press.

No danger, it you go slow and push, not slam the handle down hard.

Once the primer comes out, you can recover your case & shell holder.

rc

If they have no powder and/or projectile, I wouldn't worry about burying it or anything so drastic. Some folks say they just push out the primer like they would a spent one, just being slow and careful. Ear protection added to the eye protection you should be wearing anyway. I've never done this, but some folks say they have.

The couple mistakes I've made (backwards primer, torn case mouth) I put on a shelf over my bench. Kind of a reminder to pay attention.

Did you ever get the shell holder off?

Edited to add: apparently I type too slowly on my phone.

My mistakes get put in the "oops" drawer to serve as reminders of mistakes and to educate my friends. I have used them a couple times on here when people are trying to describe certain phenomena such as crushing nets due to an early crimp on rifle brass.

What mistakes?

Lets try this!
Guess I haven't been to the lake lately!



rc

That third one from the left, in the back looks like a new wildcat.

I've been working on one too, but having a hard time getting it to chamber.


Maybe a barrel hinged lengthways?

I`ve done a few 30-30 cases like the 1 in the back, most come out with little dents now from too much lube!!

I crunched a few (well 2)357 cases from a piece of corn cob in the shell holder not letting the case center up .

Crumppled a few cases trying to form em into something else , now I rarely do using RCBS LubeII , the plus is it washes off with hot water & soap !!

Under seated/over seated probably more than my share.
Ever run a batch of ammo on a progressive & forget to pour in the powder ???
That`s what I got for being in a hurry to go practice for competition the next day!!
30. caliber bullets won`t work for 7mm-08
Forget trying to salvage steel caseings of any caliber!

& many more but forgotten!!

Just remember , keep the fingers OUT OF THE WAY of the ram!

dickttx, ya gotta get a bigger press to seat those !!

GP

What do you do with your mistakes?

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Learn from them. Just throw them in the trash, some guy on a bulldozer will bury it for you.

One (1) primer is not a major danger, unless you point it at your eye as you set it off. Never had one go off in the press, and I have decamped (no, you stupid auto-correct, decapped) quite a few in about 42 years.
The RULE is: Don't force anything.
Stop if anything feels wrong, find out what is wrong, and fix it.

I divorced mine.

+1 on the safety glasses. I doubt you'll ever have a problem but 2 eyes are bettern one.

I take picture so that someday I can use them for teaching. Seriously.

modlaw said:

Nice pic. I've seen worse Picasso's.

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Good line!

Sell as scrap brass, all of the spent primers and any other junk that I don't shoot goes into a five gallon bucket for recycle =$$$

I've had my share and always deprime them.
I've even had to use a punch once with light taps over vice jaws cracked open enough to drop the primer.
With damaged primers removed, I smack them on a vice anvil using a ballpeen.
Yes, I have a grinding face shield.

Never had one go off removing a primer or in the press.
I don't want to fess up to how many live pistol primers I've had to remove when I was first learning to ream crimped cases.

I like a lot of these answers. (I learn from my mistakes. Only married once and divorced once.)

I don't make 'mistakes'.
I make 'learning experiences'.

I try to recover what I can from them after leaning from them. And toss what is not recoverable. (Not sure just what that would be. Pull or drill out the bullet. Dump out the powder. Ease out the primer. Melt the lead out. Scrap out the jackets and dead brass and dead primers. Burn the powder in little piles on the drive.)

"learnin lessons" Dad says rule #5 is " you always pay for your education, either with by busted knuckles or tuition." I can't say what the other 4 are in polite company.

+1 on the mistakes, ironworkerwill...

I toss my smashed/ruined brass into a recycle bucket (after squirting a little oil on the primer if I can't get it out) and when I get another few pounds (may take a while... ) I will take it to the metal recycling center & sell it. I have about half a 5 gal bucket with all manner of brass in it. They'll probably make me sort it... :banghead:

If it's a mistake while operating my progressive I just pour the powder out into the reservoir (if I haven't yet seated a bullet) and just toss the undamaged case back into the case feeder. If the case is damaged then it goes into the recycle bin. If I've seated the bullet and see the case is split or just seated too deep I put it in the "boo-boo bucket" and pull them down at a later date.


As for "live" primers, in nearly 40 years of just de-priming them like a spent primer I have yet to have one pop. The shell holder has a hole in it so pressure on that end is vented and if one wears the necessary eye protection, not that much comes out of the mouth. Only time it's a problem is if you have a finger over the case mouth or your face stuck in it and that's only IF the primer does go off.

Sometimes I wonder if anyone who gives all these warnings was ever a kid with a cap gun?

They'll probably make me sort it...

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Only time they made me sift through mine was when there was a bullet on top of the cartridge brass. They thought it was a loaded round. It was simply a poor bullet, and I didn't want to load it. Scrapper guy said it himself : its not that they are particularly dangerous in the steel clad metal shredder- but the pop gives the guy running the machine a heart attack.

I take my mistakes to the local indoor range,, they have a bucket just for this sort of things. Since most ranges sell reloads they get some rounds that don't fire,