strange ,frightning or just plain funny

[waverace]

On a light note do any of you have any unusual , funny or downright scary reloading stories ?
as a couple of examples ,
A friend and I were at the range one day when a guy next to us started shooting a snubby .44 mag revolver , it was obvious from the recoil and the 5 foot of flame coming out of the barrel that something was not right , so my buddy asked him what loads he was using , he replied "dunno I just fill the cases up with Bullseye and seat the bullet down" .....We moved to the other end of the firing line and cringed for the next half hour as he expended his ammo despite our recommendations that he rethink his reloading practices.

The only reason I think that he got away with it is the fact that it was a revolver with a short barrel , if he had switched to a longer barrel or a lighter framed pistol I hate to think what would have happened , hopefully he bought himself a reloading manual after that.

Then.. just recently another buddy bought a .458 socom upper for his AR because of the cost of factory ammo he decided that he would start to reload , he has been a shooter for a long time as was his father before him but he had no personal experience in reloading , so he bought some new brass and all the other ingredients did some research on load data and set to loading up a couple of hundred rounds .
Next time we went to the range he was eager to try out his new loads so he fills up the mag puts it on the gun and racks the action ....about halfway forward the action stops and jams , he clears that round tries again , same thing ???? What the hey !! after a couple more attempts he gets a couple to chamber and they shoot fine then it jams again , this happens for a couple more mags some chamber most wont , so I ask him if I can take a look , the ones that chambered were all the same brand of brass the ones that wouldnt were a different brand , have you figured it out yet ? I point out this fact to him , he looks at me sheepishly and asks " do you resize your new brass ?" ,I start laughing hard , the ones that chambered were his once fired brass the ones that didnt were the new factory brass , he learnt a valuable lesson that day ...DONT rely on the manufacturer to get it right ! he spent a couple of nights pulling all the new loads and resizing them , since then no problems

 

[Otto]

he replied "dunno I just fill the cases up with Bullseye and seat the bullet down"

I'm thinking the guy was just pulling your leg.

 

[waverace]

not sure either but with the flamethrower effect he had going on ? LOL

 

[Ifishsum]

I'm thinking the guy was just pulling your leg.

That was my first thought too. He was probably sitting over there snickering as he was firing his full house loads (using 2400 or H110). I don't notice much flame with Bullseye even at hotter loads.

 

[THe Dove]

Well, I took my new SKS to my Dad's place about a year or so ago. The night before we shot, I was showing off all the fine attributes of my new weapon, including some kinda thingymajiger towards the end of the barrel. Turns out it controls the compression and if yuo don't lock it back into the closed position, you can only shoot one round at a time, then it will lock up on you. I was ready to throw the new rifle in the trash....... lesson learned!

The Dove

 

[rcmodel]

It's called a gas shut-off valve, used for launching rifle grenades.

(Off the granade launcher thingymajiger on the end of the barrel.)

rcmodel

 

[highlander 5]

worked with a guy with the same"ideas" on reloading,he would fill the case with powder,seat a bullet and head for the range. His 44 mag Marlin would have the bolt blown open haven't seen him for quite a while and that's assuming he's still got his face.

 

[THe Dove]

Well, RC

I won't be lobbing any grenades but sure found out quick that it controls alot of what I love about the rifle ;-)

The Dove

 

[waverace]

you guys must be right

looking at the load tables to fill a case with bullseye would be like a 4x overload !!!! a large charge of slow rifle propellant would probably cause some flameage , even so the guy scared the pants off us at the time

 

[Walkalong]

Yep, just pulling your leg. He would have blown himself to bits.

 

[Cougfan2]

A couple of stories. I used to work for Hodgdon Powder co. We also owned an indoor shooting range and retail store called the Bullethole. A guy comes into the range one day with a brand new 6" Blued Colt Python and some reloads. Sets up and runs his target out. On the first shot the topstrap is blown off and the sides of the two adjacent cylinders. Seems he wanted to get into reloading to get "hotter stuff" than he could buy, but failed to see the wisdom in purchasing a reloading manual. Found out that he had just dipped .357 mag cases full to the top with Unique and seated a 158gr JHP on top of it. Can you say compressed load! He's lucky he kept his hand.

Another time, our Balistician, Tom Brown, was out at the powder magazine working up some loads on a Sunday when he sees a bunch of people in white robes dancing around in a clearing. He pulls a 30-06 off the wall and sails a round over their heads. People start diving for the bushes. Turns out it was JB Hodgdon and a group from his church performing some passion play and no one had told Tom. JB comes roaring up to the magazine and yells at Tom "What the hell were you doing". Tom says "hell JB, I thought it was the Klan!".

 

[waverace]

that pretty much proves it then unique is slower than bullseye and .357 is smaller than .44 ok the joke was on me

 

[don]

A friend and I were groundhog hunting and when he shot, I thought it sounded a bit loud for a .243. It was a Remington 788. We had to open the bolt by banging the bolt handle on a fence post, the primer was gone, the firing pin was not to be found, the primer pocket had expanded in area by at least 50%. He sent it back to Remington for repair. When they returned it their only comment was "excessive pressure". They charged 20 dollars as I recall. When I asked what load he was using he said that he was using a Lee Loader and the powder was 4895 and decided to use more than one scoop because he wanted a bit more speed. Someone correct me if I am wrong about the rifle. It was the inexpensive Remington bolt rifle that had artillery type locking lugs on the rear of the bolt. Cheap rifle but very strong.

 

[Cougfan2]

When I asked what load he was using he said that he was using a Lee Loader and the powder was 4895 and decided to use more than one scoop because he wanted a bit more speed.

LOL I used to be in a duck hunting club where we had a guy that would load 12 ga. using a teaspoon and a car cigarette lighter to crimp the loads. For light game loads he used one scoop of Red Dot and for heavy game loads he used two scoops. Had an old Mossberg 500 and with the two scoop loads it would sometimes blow the bolt back! Needless to say, I managed to never be in the same Duck blind with him.

 

[gtmerkley]

.458 socom thats like .458 lott in a auto right?