Reloading Mistake

The trouble with learning something new is not knowing what problems you don't yet understand might arise. Good catch by the OP. You need to refine your process to include checks and balances that will help you detect problems as you refine your reloading routine.
I have been reloading for a long time. My steps are as follows;

Prepp and inspect brass.

Prime and inspect primers.

Put brass in loading block on my left primer up. (empty, has primer)

Charge case and put in different loading block on my right. Rinse and repeat to fill block.

Check all brass in loading block for equal amount of propellant with flashlight.

Take charged brass, place bullet and seat it/crimp if needed.

Final inspect rounds put in container and include labels indicating components used.

This has been a routine developed over the last 35+ years and works well for me. The OP needs to develop their own process that works best for them and stick to it everytime. Then when something stands out it will be easy to discover and correct before problems become dangerous.

Sounds like OP might have propellant bridging problems and might have light loads mixed in as well. Be aware for a squib in that batch.
 
I hung one of the extremely bright double tube Harbor Freight LED workshop lights just slightly in front of where I sit to reload. I no longer need a flashlight to check my powder even in bottle neck cartridges and no lights on the press either. I am a single stage press, no need for speed, reloader and check every case as I pass it from the powder measure to the loading block for pistol. All my rifle reloads are individually weighed and looked into after the funnel is removed. Slow, steady, and safe.
 
FWIW I also batch process using a turret press for both pistol reloads and then precision rifle reloads (yes, it's possible ... if you don't agree ... please start your own post, LOL!).

My batches are 50 for the pistol (loaded using a RCBS Lil' Dandy powder measure) and 20 for the rifles (using a Belding & Mull visible powder measure). Each case is set in a cartridge tray and examined under a good overhead light as an inspection check for the level. On some smaller neck rifle cases, I save old bamboo chopstiks, cut about 4" long and the thicker end is trimmed to enter the case neck, and then marked with 'fine' line Sharpie marker for level of the powder charge. The writing also includes the caliber, powder type and charge weight.

Works for me!
 
IMO, people make a HUGE mistake by:

-listening to music or watching TV while they reload
-drink beer/alcohol while they reload
-have buddies over while they reload

All these take your attention away from the task.

I have a different philosophy.
I do all my brass prep at an earlier date(cleaning, inspecting, depriming, resizing, etc.).
Once the brass is deprimed, cleaned, primer pockets cleaned, from an earlier day, I then resize, expand case mouth, and prime.
At a later date I do powder drop setup and then reload the cases.

I currently have 400 .44 Mag cases cleaned, primed, expanded, read to accept powder and have the bullet set in.

I like to break the tasks up over a period of days. I personally find brass prep incredibly boring and monotonous. The fun part is actually dropping powder and putting a bullet in.
 
red rick said:
How would I have caught the mistake if I didn’t do all of the things that I said that I did ? I don’t think many people weigh every charge , but if it makes you feel better I would stay with it . If I were loading max loads I would .
Click to expand...
I think more people than you think weigh every charge, and as powder machines have become hugely popular, a larger percentage does every day. I think it's a wonderful technology, and I hope it translates in an equal reduction in the number of rapid disassemblies.
 
Well I for one do not like catching my mistakes more than once. I try and correct or change anything that contributed to the mistake. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Others feel differently.

I like perfect/precise powder charges ergo I measure each one on a digital scale before it gets near a case. Cannot possibly overcharge.

And after finding some proud primers years ago I modified my process to both pre-stress (not correct term I’m sure) each seated primer and test it on a flat piece of steel after seating. Each and every one as part of the seating process. No powder gets near an untested primed case. In fact, I batch expand/prime cases completely separately from charging/seating. Very seldomly on same day even.

There is certainly more than one way to skin a cat and I make sure if I do skin one, that was my intent.
 
red rick said:
I don’t know what I could do to prevent it , I think the key is that you check and double check your work . Maybe slow down some or weigh every charge , but that would be way to slow and no fun at all .
Click to expand...

Im assuming you are dropping powder with a drop for expedience?
When I loaded pistol, I just went down the rows in the loading block, and gave everything a once over with a flash light. The only powder I load in pistol that is possible to double charge would be TiteGroup. Everything else would overfill the case.
I still load some rifle one at a time, so I just drop powder, and immediately seat a bullet.
 
red rick said:
My case was not that full , so it wasn’t double charged , it must have been the powder drop . I estimate that it was about .9 grains overcharged .
Click to expand...
You may want to check the N-1 case and see if it was undercharged, perhaps by a similar amount. I load on a progressive and don’t check every powder drop, only about every 25th, or 50th depending on how it’s running and what powder I’m dispensing. Volumetric powder drops don’t vary that much, but bridging before and after can affect drops. If it’s extra powder, that’d be after, not before.
 
I have made a wooden dowel just long enough to sit into and empty shell, I made it about twice a long as the case and made one end smaller so it fits inside the case, I move it as I fill the case with powder. if it sticks up from the case I will know that it has a double charge but that hasn't happened yet and even if it does happen, I will have plenty of time to dump the charge and recharge the case. Try that as a prevention techneik so as not to over charge the case or visually check each case after dumping the powder with a flashlight which is what some people do.
 
red rick said:
I batch load on a turret press . I also use a bench mounted powder measurer. I load them with all the cases in a loading tray and move the loading tray to the next case . I then visually inspect them , first with just my eyes and next using a flashlight .
Click to expand...

So, the primed, empty cases are in a tray. You then drop the charge from the measure and put the case back in a tray.
Same tray or in a separate tray for only the charged cases?

If your press is already set up ready to seat the bullet, once the powder is dropped, rather than putting it in a tray, why not go ahead and seat the bullet then put it in the tray?

Once the charged case is in your hand why not seat the bullet next? (don't know if you are using your turret as single stage or semi-progressive)

I only had a single stage press, and once the powder was in the case and checked, the case did not leave my hand until it was closed, then it went into a separate block from the uncharged cases. Just my process, in 38 yrs never had a squib, nor overcharge. Worked for me.
 
PWC said:
So, the primed, empty cases are in a tray. You then drop the charge from the measure and put the case back in a tray.
Same tray or in a separate tray for only the charged cases?

If your press is already set up ready to seat the bullet, once the powder is dropped, rather than putting it in a tray, why not go ahead and seat the bullet then put it in the tray?

Once the charged case is in your hand why not seat the bullet next? (don't know if you are using your turret as single stage or semi-progressive)

I only had a single stage press, and once the powder was in the case and checked, the case did not leave my hand until it was closed, then it went into a separate block from the uncharged cases. Just my process, in 38 yrs never had a squib, nor overcharge. Worked for me.
Click to expand...
I take the upside down cases that I just sized and primed and then flare them putting them in another tray upright . I then leave them in that tray and charge them without touching them . I weigh the first 5 cases and then every 10 cases . I also weigh any case when the handle pull fells different . After that I visually inspect them and then again with a flashlight . You might not have read all of my post , in another post I said that I loaded a double charge today to see if it would overfill a 9mm case . It didn’t overfill it but it was at the very top . So what I originally said in my OP didn’t happen . It was the powder measurer . It threw I estimate about .9 to much powder by the amount in the case and where my scale went . With all of the cases being in the loading tray IMO it is easier to see the difference like I had than if I charged and then seated a bullet .
 
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red rick said:
I take the upside down cases that I just sized and primed and then flare them putting them in another tray upright . I then leave them in that tray and charge them without touching them . I weigh the first 5 cases and then every 10 cases . I also weigh any case when the handle pull fells different . After that I visually inspect them and then again with a flashlight .
Click to expand...
"I batch load on a turret press. I also use a bench mounted powder measurer."

So you are double handling them:
1. Empty case gets charged then back to a block
2. Charged case from a block gets bullet seated

Once the charged case is in already in your hand why not seat the bullet next before setting it back in a tray? Handle the case / finished cartridge once.
 
PWC said:
"I batch load on a turret press. I also use a bench mounted powder measurer."

So you are double handling them:
1. Empty case gets charged then back to a block
2. Charged case from a block gets bullet seated

Once the charged case is in already in your hand why not seat the bullet next before setting it back in a tray? Handle the case / finished cartridge once.
Click to expand...
No that is not what I do . I charge them in the tray without touching them .
 
I went progressive years back which allows a powder cop, but that won’t help you. With a turret, you could use a powder cop. Little bit of a pain, but …..Here’s what I did before progressive.

Pistol is fairly easy. You need enough good quality, accurate, for-caliber loading blocks to cover what you intend to load plus a couple more (never have too many).

As I would prime, I’d turn cases upside down in the block and check primers using good light.​
Flip cases over in the blocks and powder charge. Check powder levels with a good light.​
If you’re using fine grained powder, don’t hesitate to weigh any looking suspicious.​
Seat bullets and set back into blocks bullet up.​
Look down the rows both diagonal and by row. This will show any unusual cartridge length.Maybe see high primer at this stage.​
Take another loading block and slide down over loaded bullets still in the blocks sandwich style.​
Flip both blocks over and now primers are up. Check them once again using diagonal and row exam with a good light.​
Should be good to go.​
​
Rifle can work pretty similar with the right blocks. A bit of a pain to get turned over.​
​
I load a thou pistol on my progressive and still use this method.​
 
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red rick said:
I take the upside down cases that I just sized and primed and then flare them putting them in another tray upright . I then leave them in that tray and charge them without touching them . I weigh the first 5 cases and then every 10 cases . I also weigh any case when the handle pull fells different . After that I visually inspect them and then again with a flashlight . You might not have read all of my post , in another post I said that I loaded a double charge today to see if it would overfill a 9mm case . It didn’t overfill it but it was at the very top . So what I originally said in my OP didn’t happen . It was the powder measurer . It threw I estimate about .9 to much powder by the amount in the case and where my scale went . With all of the cases being in the loading tray IMO it is easier to see the difference like I had than if I charged and then seated a bullet .
Click to expand...
So you immediately saw the overcharge almost as it was happening it would seem because it filled the case to the top? Then, you stopped, emptied the case, recharged it, and kept moving along to the others like normal? I’d say that works pretty well.

In some respects, as huge and troubling as a .9gr overage in an intended 6.6gr throw is, at least visually it’s obvious, but what if it wasn’t so obvious? You said you weigh every 10th? That’s probably more often than many. But for a while I’d check them all to make sure it’s a one-off problem.

Did you happen to check the cases before and after to see if they were okay? What powder drop are you using?

And this type of overcharge never happened previously nor since? I almost would prefer a recurring problem—often easier to diagnose. But don’t look a gift horse in the mouth I guess.

Primer—When/how did you find the primer? Did you check immediately after priming as you saw the upside down cases in the tray? If so that’s good too although I’ve had poorly seated primers that didn’t visually jump out at me.

I mentioned my steel plate test and should add I do use a straight edge from time to time to ensure I’m seating below flush.

You mentioned how you check things if something doesn’t “feel” right. I do a lot of that too—not as a primary safeguard but certainly as an important and accurate one.

Anyway, good luck
 
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I made two reloading mistakes in my time. The first one was about 15 years ago when I did not put any powder in a case, I pulled the trigger as you do, and nothing happened, I ejected the case and if fell with a load of others and I could not find it to check it. I chambered another round, then it occurred to me what might have happened, I ejected the round, took out the bolt and looked down the barrel, there was a bullet stuck half way down. :oops: Good job I checked !

The second mistake was yesterday ! I have several powder dispensers and I used the wrong one when loading .223. I used 24 grains of X39 military powder instead of 24 grains of BLC-2 . I realized what I had done as soon as I had loaded the round and put it aside to disassemble it later. I later decided to shoot it anyway and see what would happen. It shot about a foot low and four inches to the left at 100, and blew the primer right out of the case. ........ I don't think I will do that again:)
 
74man said:
I have made a wooden dowel just long enough to sit into and empty shell, I made it about twice a long as the case and made one end smaller so it fits inside the case, I move it as I fill the case with powder. if it sticks up from the case I will know that it has a double charge but that hasn't happened yet and even if it does happen, I will have plenty of time to dump the charge and recharge the case. Try that as a prevention techneik so as not to over charge the case or visually check each case after dumping the powder with a flashlight which is what some people do.
Click to expand...
I did the same thing. Once I didn’t put powder in a 9 mm luckily it didn’t sound right and I looked. The bullet was about half down the barrel. It scared the heck out of me. I made them for 38 357 and 45 colt
 
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I use two trays. Primed case in the one closest to the scale and PM. After charging it is placed in the second tray by the press with a look inside as it is moved to that tray. Never a double charge after many year's use of my system.
 
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