SHARE YOUR HAND LOADING MISTAKES

[Ghost In The Fog]

I've done several of these on the list. Forgot to seat the primer before charging. Had 380 cases mixed in with 9's, weighing individual charges for a ladder work up and dumped the powder from the case on to the scale instead of back in to the hopper and various other stoopid things.
I just started loading bottleneck rifle and I am not sure I am smart enough for it.
Have a bunch of range 223 pickup brass and started to process it. Well, no one ever told me to size it before you trim it. DUH! I removed primers, wet tumbled, swaged, chamfered and de-burred then decided to check case length to see if it needed to be trimmed.
Anyone know how to trim cases after they have been primed? Sand paper works but is slow. Fortunately it is only 50 cases and I am almost done.
I then was messing with the expanding die. (After another lesson learned here that you don't install Lee dies per factory instructions on a LNL) Again, DUH! I was tinkering while waiting for my dinner and had a case that the primer was seated crooked so I got the genius idea to just use the die and let the pin push it out. It de-primed it like butter. The primer fell right out but... The case did not.
No lube. No brains.
I read the directions on the die and was able to use a punch to drive the pin and case out of the die body. The pin was stuck in the case so with some hillbilly engineering I was able to cut the case without damaging the pin. Reinstalled and tightened everything back up.
The next morning I was reliving my mistake sitting at my bench as I drank my coffee and wondering how I remember to breath sometimes and I found a case that did not fit the case sizing gauge. Looked over at the LNL and the resizing die was still installed. Swiveled my stool and put the case in the shell holder and pulled the handle. Yes, again.
5 years of reloading pistol and this was my pièce de résistance -so far.

 

[entropy]

Anyone know how to trim cases after they have been primed?

RCBS trim dies. It's my preferred method of trimming.

 

[Dudedog]

I had been using a Lee Pro disk measure for a while on one press.
Got my new Lee Auto Drum and was using it, went to dump powder back in the jar, ooppss hopper is not screwed on like the disk measure.....

Dumped about half a hopper of powder all over my bench....

 

[JonMorganHill]

I now understand the use of putting primed cases in a holder upside down until filling. While reloading .223 yesterday, I charged the case and watched a trail of powder as I went from dispenser to tray - 1 case had no primer.

 

[MauriceSam]

I don't load 50 BMG, so that post leaves me puzzled.

Other cases stack inside of 50bmg. Like tumbling 9mm with 45acp etc. One fits inside the other and with media makes it difficult to remove.

 

[Jim Watson]

Gentle hint. Don't dump a tube of small primers into the feed of your dedicated large primer Dillon. That was an hour with no productive activity at all.

 

[Spare Parts]

I run a progressive press. It allows me to make mistakes at 5 times the normal rate.

It's really annoying when I let the primer feed run short. The powder leaks all over the place - mostly into The Well with the spent primers, but also onto the digital scale and the finished bullet bin. What a mess. Takes several minutes to clean.

Recently, I forgot to turn off the powder hopper prior to removing it. A stream of W-231 fell onto everything - bench, press, me. What a mess. That one took about 10 minutes to clean.

The easiest mess to clean up is the one you don't make. Think twice, move once.

 

[TTv2]

The biggest one was fairly recent: I was using a hand primer and priming .45 with Federal primers (you can guess where this is going) and I got a primer stuck in a way I couldn't remove the case and toss it to the side, so I decided it just needed a little extra English, so I wrapped both hands around the arm squeezed like Randy Marsh after eating at PF Chang's and POP!!!!, the primer went off.

No damage to the hand primer, but the hearing in my left ear didn't go back to normal for a day or two.

Other mistake was I was using a powder measure, had put Trail Boss in the hopper, decided to use a different powder, and upon dumping the Trail Boss back into the container realized I still had Unique in the part of the measure that's below the hopper, so when I had emptied the hopper last time I used it, I forgot to dump what was in the measure itself.

It was probably about 30 grains of Unique and I felt it wasn't enough to justify tossing the rest of the Trail Boss, so now that can of TB is dedicated for use in .327 and .357 magnums only.

 

[TTv2]

My biggest mistake was waiting until I was 65 yo and retired to really get started on handloading.

My second biggest mistake was waiting until in my 50's.

My biggest mistake was deciding to start now. Still haven't been able to find primers, so I haven't been able to load anything!

Although I think another mistake was reading this thread. Some of these stories are a bit scary!

Being one month removed from turning 30 and all the ammo shortages going now, I can say I'm happy I decided to start a few years ago. The worst thing about people in their 20s who get their first gun almost always go with whatever calibers are popular, but not necessarily the best for their use. I've been tooting the .32 revolver for years now and if people loaded they wouldn't be so apt to go with .38 or .357 just because it's the standard. Similarly they wouldn't be stuck having to pay out the nose for real 10mm and not the Fake 10mm Federal makes.

Reloading allowed me to get experience with calibers I never would have bought. Now when I talk to noobs in gun stores and they don't know what caliber to get I can tell them more than the guys working behind the counter can because they've mostly only ever shot .22,9mm, and .45.

 

[25wssmSS]

Had one of those Lee loaders when I was eighteen. Put a primer in backwards. Yup tried tapping it out backwards. Went through a Luan material bookshelf that I used as my desk, through my jeans and burn my skin. Always respect them powerful products.

 

[25wssmSS]

Hmmmm? In 55 years of handloading I’ve done a few stupid things, I’ve got about half a pound of powder that’s approximately 50/50 760 and VV N-140. I had a primer jam up my 366 at the primer seating station. I keep an extra Hornady de-priming punch pin combination on my bench for a multitude of uses. Not thinking at all I stuck it in the hull, pin down and smacked it with my plastic face hammer, expecting that to pop the primer out freeing up the press. Yup! It went BANG!
I once fired a round in my custom match AR that I had charged with 5 gr too much AA2200. Sure glad I didn’t have my hand under the magazine! When I set my scale to set my powder measure the pose was off one notch. It was still like that when I got home trying to figure out exactly what happened! I can tell you one thing, the DPMS heavy match upper is built like a tank, so is the Kreiger barrel extension. A new bolt and carrier and it’s no worse for wear. Old eyes, late at night, wanting to put together a few rounds to try tomorrow, pay really, really close attention to what you’re doing. I’m sure there have been other things that have happened, these are just what quickly came to mind!

How are such "squib" loads happening with any regularity?

Progressive presses, I have switched to a Redding T7 Turret press. I inspect 50 rounds of powdered shells then press bullets till moving on.
Works for me.

 

[The_Savage]

A few minor things that have already been mentioned here, like putting in a primer backwards, but I'm just grateful that I've not made any handloading mistakes that would cause me to no longer have any hands to load with.

 

[Typetwelve]

I've only been reloading for about 18 months now...so there's still plenty of time.

-Brass issues like 357 in the mix loading 38 and 380 in the mix loading 9mm
-Spilled my fair share of powder getting in a hurry and smacking the powder cup on something while in motion

That's about it for now...but I'm sure there will be others in time. I recall an instructor telling me years ago "When it comes to an accidental discharge, it's not "if", it's "when" and I thought he was full of it...right up until I had one back in 2012. Thankfully I was at the range, and my gun was pointed in a safe direction...but I fat fingered what I through was an empty XDm and POP! right into the dirt. My point? I'll load a squib eventually...hopefully never a double charge but I know that I'll get a squib one day...

 

[Todd NE WY]

My first single shot pistol was a TC Contender win .35 Remington. Lots of advice in magazines and reloading manuals on how to reload that cartridge because it doesn't have much shoulder so you have to be careful. I read everything I could get my hands on and proceeded. When I went to seat the bullets I collapsed the case long before I got the bullet where I wanted it even with the seater basically unscrewed all the way. It took 2 or 3 before I decided to stop and re evaluate. I went back to reading and looking for answers, this was pre internet days so no forums like this to get answers. I was literally on the verge of trying to find a way to call Bob Milek who I knew lived here in WY and was a .35 Rem guru when it hit me. I had the seating die screwed to far in, all I had to do was back it out and everything was fine. I was really glad I hadn't made that phone call to be told something that simple.

 

[Armored farmer]

When I first started reloading. 357 the interweb information highway had yet to be developed by al gore.
With a hew set off Jee equipment, a minimum of information and zero experience I did a little math converting grains to cc's and dipped powder into primed cases. I was too excited to try my new reloads to travel the 1/4 mile to my parent's house and get dads balance team scale.
Man those loads were stout. Much more so than factory ammo...? They were supposed to be mild...? Flattened primers and flat head stamps....
Luckily I was shooting them in a. 357 blackhawk.
It was too many years ago that happened for me to remember how I messed up. Somewhere in the conversion from grains to cc. Im pretty sure I was loading either red dot or green dot powder.

 

[Hondo 60]

Back when I was new to 32 H&R Mag, trying out a new powder,
(I don't remember which one), It was dropping 6 grains or .6 grains.
The ones I checked were normal.
But the .6 was making more of a pop gun sound & you could watch the bullet hit the 20 yard target.
A couple of them even fell short & landed in the grass.

At least it was easy to reclaim the lead.

 

[Highland Lofts]

Last weekend I was resizing twenty-five 22-250 cases.
I sprayed them with the Lanolin Liquid & Dry Gas.
I let them set for five minutes.
I wipe the case mouth with a paper towel abd apply redding case mouth dry lube. After resizing I wile the redized case with the paper towel and drop it in a small tupperware container.
I had four cases to resize and I wiped a case mouth and then the whole case and dropped it in with the resized cases.


Should of been useing a reloading block.

So I put them back through the resizing die unlubicated figureing theyvare all ready resized buy that one case.
The 18th case got stuck in the resizer die.
I guess Forest Gump was right "Stupid is what Stupid does"

 

[NMexJim]

Mistake #1: Drinking alcohol within 12 hours of reloading.
Mistake #2: Eating while reloading.
Mistake #3: Loading more than one cartridge at a time.
Mistake #4: Failing to have a set of written reloading procedures to be followed EVERY time the operator approaches the press.
Mistake #5: Failing to have a written checklist to verify each step of the reloading procedures was actually followed.
Mistake #6: Failure to adequately inspect cases entering the reloading stream.

Hugh


.

Make mine scotch please. Works as a case lube too.