Cautionary tale

[Random 8]

Last night, I made a very serious mistake in the reloading room. While making up some practice HD loads, duplicating a Hornady 9mm loading, I managed to double charge a case. I caught it as seating the bullet felt abnormally difficult, and the case had a slight bulge and the COL was still a bit long. It might have chambered in a handgun, I wasn't getting it anywhere near one to find out! A scale and pulldown confirmed the double charge.

It absolutely is possible to double even a case filling powder such as HS-6! Don't count on this safety check to save you. Moral of the story is pay attention! I was distracted thinking about an upcoming real estate deal I may pursue, had the measure dialed in, and simply spaced out for a moment! Had this been a low loading density powder, I wouldn't have found out until I pulled the trigger.

 

[AJC1]

Glad you found it. Stay frosty...

 

[Bazoo]

I appreciate you sharing and I'm glad it didn't end catastrophically! Good to have a reminder every now and then to stay diligent on focus when charging cases.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

The guy who just bought two pounds of TiteGroup for .357Mag loads needs to read this. Talk about a bad powder to double up!

Really glad you caught it and thanks for posting.

 

[74man]

Had just the opposite happen this morning. When I was loading .223 Rem, I have a piece of dowel that I put in the empty shells so I know where I left off because I put it in a shell with powder and it sticks up high. I was loading .223 Rems with 26.4 gns of CFE223 and I was just on the last case when I noticed that I hadn't moved the dowel so I poured the last shell into the scale pan and there was no powder in it, I went back about 8-10 cases and found out that I had ran out of powder in my hopper for my powder measure. I filled the hopper with powder and dumped all of the cases, even the ones with powder and started over with the dowel, this time I kept my mind on what I was doing and loaded the 49 rounds. It was working with no problem. Just the opposite of what happened to you with a double charge although mine would not have blown up the weapon. Glad you caught it and it made the statement, "KEEP YOUR MIND ON WHAT YOU ARE DOING". Just a caution to reloaders, cause it works both ways

 

[bullseye308]

Definitely need to keep your focus on the task at hand. I load single stage and using bullseye loading 38 & 357 can be bad if you loose your focus. Do you realize just how much bullseye will fit in a 357 case? That would be a catastrophe.

 

[HowieG]

I am very careful with handgun rounds for exactly that reason. You can get away with it loading most rifle rounds as the powder will overflow the case if you double.

I did read about a guy that managed to blow up a 308 rifle, however. He was using a ChargeMaster type measure. Unsure if it was actually an RCBS or one of the clones. Anyway, he apparently had been measuring a fast pistol powder, and then switched over to whatever rifle propellant he was loading. He didn't manage to get all of the pistol powder cleaned out of the measure, so some snuck into a charge for the rifle. BOOM!

 

[FROGO207]

The thought about a bulky propellant still being able to be double charged is true. However my step when batch loading to actually put my eyeballs onto the level in every case in the loading block at the same time should have revealed something was amiss. With Tightgroup or such it is MUCH harder to see a double charge due to the low volume used. More economical is not always a deal. Just sayi'n.

 

[MEHavey]

Load powder in all cases in a loading block at one time.
Drop a short (2"-3") dowel into each case (pencil-marked) to look for dramatic differences.

Costs you an extra 60-90 secs . . .
Saves you a lifetime.

 

[Mark_Mark]

I still charge in the green tray, then look at every case before topping off with boolots. Single stage, gotta love it. I’m scared of my progressive

 

[mdi]

N/A

 

[mdi]

Good catch! I too use my eye balls as a safety check. All primed and ready brass is in a pile on the far right side of my reloading area. I pick one up, glancing inside, charge all cases, by hand, and put them in a tray. On my bench is a bright LED flashlight and I look in every case before moving on. I also glance at each charged case as I put it in the press. (I had a squib long ago and began using this method many years ago and have caught a couple "no powder" charges and IIRC one double charge).

 

[Bartojc]

This is the reason I wont even start a reloading session in the evening if I am feeling sleepy. If the wife needs my while I am working down in the reloading room she will ask if she can interrupt before she starts carrying on with conversation. I feel you need to give it your full attention always.

-Jeff

 

[jak67429]

I know someone who did a double charge of tg in a 4 mag case, there are still pieces of his torus tracker stuck in the roof of the pistol range.

 

[HowieG]

Good catch! I too use my eye balls as a safety check. All primed and ready brass is in a pile on the far right side of my reloading area. I pick one up, glancing inside, charge all cases, by hand, and put them in a tray. ON my bench is a bright LED flashlight and I look in every case before moving on. I also glance at each charged case as I put it in the press. (I had a squib long ago and began using this method many years ago and have caught a couple "no powder" charges and IIRC one double charge).

Same. Bright light and a few seconds.

 

[rdnktrkr]

Glad you caught your mistake and are safe.
I started using the dowels yrs ago and last year started using a sewing machine light to see in my LCT, 3ft dowels are cheap and last a long time since you only use a few inches at a time. I helped a friend get started last year and showed him the dowel method and it settled down his fears about reloading