The dumbest mistake you made when reloading?

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well here is one to add, yesterday i took one of my presses of the bench (still set up)and set it on the ground to make room on the bench for my bench grinder. (I have a T track mounting system) went to go clear a space on my shelves for it and came back and like the clutz that i am knocked it over when trying take the powder measure off. Of course I didnt empty the powder before I took it off the bench and of course the cap came off and of course powder went everywhere. I am such a bone head sometimes.
 
captain awesome said:
liar! haha just kidding. If thats your worst I envy you.
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Haha. Yeah, that is the truth. I have been pretty careful over the course of loading about 25,000 worth of 9mm. I actually feel like I wasted money on the bullet puller that I have never had to use.
 
Some of these are comic gold! I guess I watched a lot of reloading before I did it and learned that you take your time and check,check, and recheck. Then take into account the others mistakes and add steps so you will avoid problems. Single stage press, use the batch method, and have a set procedure that works---every time. I won't say I didn't crush a case or seat a bullet wrong but it was on a dummy round before the real reloading started. Funny thing is my Hornaday Cam Loc bullet puller has been used to take apart many surplus rounds to recover components and I do not remember having to pull badly made rounds. Now watch and I will do nothing but screw up for the next year or so.
 
Ok, I'll confess. I had some 170gr. LSWC for my 40 S&W Hi-Power, couldn't find a load for that particular bullet using Unique so I picked a medium load for another bullet of a different weight and loaded 200 rounds. I didn't mind that they had some major buck but the darned groups looked more like a buckshot pattern at 30 yards and I had 200 of them. The only thing that they were good for was making noise. The next time I loaded some I used Universal and only loaded 10. I tested them, they shot well and were 125 fps slower than the Unique load. No more starting in the middle of the loading tables for this old man.
 
Walkalong said:
I don't own a bullet puller.
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I'm with you there. Not that I've never had to pull a bullet, but I make a temporary bullet puller every time I need one! Drill a hole in a chunk of lumber bigger than the case, but smaller than the case holder, and beat it with reckless abandon upon the nearest concrete object; holding the case holder firmly with the index finger. I've probably made two or three "custom" temporary bullet pullers. They get tossed back onto the scrap lumber pile when I'm done with them.
 
I use my bullet puller ALL the time. Usually not for mistakes but sometimes yes.

If I load up a ladder load and get pressure signs part way through I pull the rest. If I load up a ladder and the lower charges are not showing promise I pull the rest. Some times I've had loads worked up for certain barrel and sold it. I'll pull all the ammo I have made for it and salvage it all. I once had a bunch of 223 ammo that was loaded and sat for about 5 years and show pressure signs when it did not originally. Pulled them all and reloaded them with new powder. Just today I pulled a bunch of 300 blackout that I found this winter to be over pressure at extreme low temps. I've pulled bullets to change primer type and put the powder and bullet back in. Sometimes I just decide I don't need a certain loading anymore so I take them apart.

A good bullet puller pays for itself quickly in saved components.
 
I had some 155g TMKs that shot really well, but I lost my note on what powder type and charge weight I used. Multiple attempts to recreate it failed to duplicate the results.

It speaks to a weakness I have that could get me into more trouble with this hobby. I’m not a good note taker
 
I use a setup on the lathe to decap live primers. All scrap brass with hot primers gets thrown in a bin until there's a pile to pull down and scrap. Broke three decap pins trying to push out a berdan primer, much cursing ensued. :cuss:
 
This wasn't a reloading mistake but it was one good enough to receive an DA award at my house. I had sold my year old home and had cleaned off my reloading bench in the garage. After dumping all of the spilled powder and tossing a couple of loaded rounds in to a cardboard barrel on top of other refuse I stepped back to admire my work. This was in the days when I smoked. Upon finishing my cigarette I casually snubbed it out on the inside of the barrel. I had an instant blaze, head high in the middle of my garage. I dragged the burning barrel out side and watched it burn all the way to the barrel rings with several rounds of ammo cooking off in the back yard. I don't smoke anymore.
 
mstreddy said:
But, did your eyebrows grow back?
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The eyebrow incident comes under the heading of Black Powder. I cleaned some spilled rifle powder off of my loading bench and piled it onto a cement block. Stuck a match to it at arms length and it was slow to ignite. I poured the same small amount of FFFG onto the block and stuck a match to it. Insta-poof! It takes about three weeks to see an improvement in eyebrow growth.
 
Now, this is what I call an educational thread!
We have now learned that smoking can lead to burned barrels, and Black Powder to burnt eyebrows, and Most Importantly - they grow back in three weeks!
Capt Curt - thank you for the education!

Yeah, I've lit some small amounts of smokeless, rather unimpressed. I will not be lighting off any amounts of BP, unless it's inside the respective cases under the bullets.
 
mstreddy said:
id your eyebrows grow back?
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Not reloading related, but I burned off my eyelashes working on a gas furnace. They grew back, but shorter. I saw it coming, but was boxed in, managed to close my eyes and only got some sunburn and lost lashes.
 
I guess my dumbest mistake so far is that I pulled a charged case off my progressive to check the powder throw, put it back on the press rotated the plate, and kept going. Five rounds later, I went to check another one and realized there was still powder in the pan.

Yep, I managed to load a squib on my very FIRST reloading session. Fortunately I realized what I had done, weighed all ten rounds, and the light one was obvious. so I gave it a charge, and kept going.

So............... I do own a bullet puller, and find it useful when needed.

I haven't been loading long enough to have any real good stories. Give me time and I'm sure a house fire will be in the works.
 
The dumbest mistake I have ever made on reloading is getting hooked on it , takes a lot of my time.:what:
 
Loaded a squib once. Changed my powder charging process after that.
Blew the head out of a .22/250 case by easing out into the lands too eagerly. It's a bit touchy that one.

But the dumbest was thinking I had the perfect hot AND cheap .44 Mag load worked out using a little extra W231 behind a 240 SWC. And loading somewhere near 1000 of them. Nearly had to beat the cases out of my Redhawk. I'd swear the test batch worked all right. :oops: I burned up all I could in my 94 Trapper which didn't exhibit any pressure signs, but they shot poorly. Pulled the last 300 after the Trapper left me. Can't really blame it....
 
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