Worst mistake you've made reloading?

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I loaded my 500 with large magnum pistol primers not knowing they changed the pocket depth to accept large rifle in the newer brass. Lucky for me I caught the high primers after a couple. I would have been in a bind had I loaded these cases. Newer brass has an "R" stamped in it, but dont take my word for it. Good lesson though. Now I check EVERY case for high primers as I seat them.
 
ive made 2 mistakes in the year ive been loading

i load alot (about 200 per wk) in many different cals

first one i made was loading a 110gr bullet on a .30-30 (intentional) out of the 10 i loaded i forgot to charge one so it was primer only caused a squib i watched it carefuly so i knew right away that nothing came out

second mistake was i loaded some .45colt with greendot instead of unique doh! i was loading 10% below the unique starting load so it ended up fine after i did some research on a green dot load
 
Thank God I haven't made any mistakes to speak of. I'm not saying it will never happen but I will never take safety for granted. (but mistakes do, and will happen)

I guess the biggest mistake I've made was not buying enough powder before this latest scare happened. I did buy primers but only because the prices were climbing and I wanted to save money. Who knew the shortage would happen and how bad it was going to be? I'm very short on 30-06 rifle powder.
 
Letting one of the guys on this forum get me pissed off enough to get a week in the hole. (No Access to THR)

LGB
 
Forgetting to lube a case and get it stuck in the die (RCBS). I also was reloading 45 acp (auto) had all 100 of them powdered up and realized I was using 45 revolver balistics. Just dumped and redid them. I read where several members have had squibs, my dad showed me a trick I still use and have never had one! When I get done putting powder in the cases and while they are still in the loading block(s) I use a flashlight and look down inside them, any empties show up in a hurry. Also any that look lower or higher than the others gets dumped and redone! Ive caught a few potential squibs this way and so far have never had one get beyond the loading blocks! KNOCK ON WOOD!!!
 
Hope I never find out

Reloading is step-by-step simple, so what's to error? Double-charge - No charge? Lots of recoil boot or a jammed barrel? Wrong powder selection or bullet WAY to deeply-set. These are all possible, yet HIGHLY unlikely. Reloading is basically SAFE. No FEAR should accompany reloading. I've loaded many thousands of SAFE rounds, and I cannot foresee a problem that could possibly harm me. I load and unload thousands of rounds yearly. I FEAR FISH HOOKS, since I've had them pierce my fingers, ears, and feet. I've also cut myself on countless pocket knives. Yet, I've never had a serious encounter with reloading, ever. cliffy
 
I'm not sure what happened, but apparently I had two rounds with no powder in them. The bullets stuck in the barrels, and I didn't notice, then fired another round into the stuck bullets. Cost me two 1911 barrels, in the same day! Boy, was I pissed.

I'll never know if it was my mistake, or if the grandson was dinking with my stuff and loaded up a couple rounds with no powder. But when I get the press setup again, it's going to have good lighting overhead, and I'm going to rig a padlock so I can lock the handle to the press to keep little fingers from dinking with it. I've also picked up a safe to put by the loading bench, so I can lock up my powders and primers. Don't need him and his friends "experimenting".

DSCN1784.gif
 
Im glad you are still here to tell us about it! Did the rounds fired behind the squibs split the barrel at all. It looks like it just bulged your barrels?
Bulges look like they are almost in the same location. Again Id say you were lucky twice to walk away from this day in one piece!
 
Nope, no splits, but the slides on both pistols locked up tight when the bushings hit the bulged spots! I had to knock the slides loose with a plastic mallet. Up to that point, I had NO idea what had happened. When I got the guns apart and saw the bulges, then it became obvious.
 
"Worst mistake you've made reloading? "

Buying an RCBS RockChucker II press instead of a Forster Co-Ax.
 
Worst I've done is not sorting brass absolutely correctly.

Was loading up a batch of .38's and there was apparently a piece of .357 brass mixed in.

Beyond that, i have to agree with the poster that said it's a step by step process with little to go wrong (at least on a single stage) so long as you are dilligent in your process.
 
Rondog...
Are those barrels with a single squib or two squibs in succession each?

Why did the barrel bulge?
I have had a couple of squibs in rifles but the barrel showed no bulge.
 
Sure a lot of Squibs going on here.

I have never had one so far, in 47 years of reloading.

Course, I always have used loading blocks, and I look at every charge, while comparing them to the other 49 in the block.

Only then do they get bullets put in them (All 50) and seated one at a time.

rc
 
I mistook my .44 crimp die for the bullet seater die. When I lowered the arm all the way down on the first bullet it locked up tighter than you could imagine. It ripped the case in half when I raised it back up. I had to take the die apart and knock the bullet and case out with a hammer and screwdriver. Felt like an idiot.
 
I just started and shot my first hundred .38's today. 6 had high primers that locked up the revolver.

I just have to pull them and reset. I was a bit timid about setting a live primer with the Lee auto prime. 5 of the 6 were in the first 50 I loaded.
 
Got in a fast paced decapping operation when the lights went out and ran the decapping pin through the middle of my left index fingernail into the bone ,,, Does that count ? ( thought about priming it afterwards but that might have been a bit much ) the tetnus booster shot was kind of like double jeapordy as it was ,,,
 
The worst mistake that I have ever made was not that big a deal I had a few rounds with no powder when I was first learnig on my new progressive press (which I instantly stopped shooting and cleared the barrel) after having loaded on a single stage press of 25 years.:uhoh: Havn't had that problem since.:)
 
Double charge that trashed my barrel on my .45.

Although it actually benefited me. I replaced the barrel with a Wilson Combat match grade barrel, and my group sizes about halved.
 
Double charge of Bullseye. Supposed to be 5.0 gns - wound up being 10.0 in a Ruger .45 Blackhawk. Had the pistol butt resting on top of a car when I squeezed off the round; pistol slipped out of my hands and flipped over my head, landed in the gravel. Holy Moly!!

Gun was fine, pride was messed up pretty badly.
 
Reloading should be a Schedule 1 drug.... it too addictive. Just say no! the honey do list, wife and family become secondary to this addiction. Ya just can't stop....till the primer/powder runs out.:rolleyes:
 
Long ago and far away, not to mention young and stupid, managed to put together some concoction of buckshot half jackets and bullseye that converted my K38 into a three shooter. Cant fault he revolver, cant fault the component manufacturers, sure can fault the #@%%^(me). Really liked that Smith
 
Years ago when I was new to reloading I destroyed the bolt of a sporter 30-06 03A3 springfield. When I touched it off the gun kicked like a mule and the action was locked up tight as a drum. When I finally got the action open the primer was blown, the rearmost lugs on the bolt had been sheared off, and the bolt face was shattered. Way.... way... overpressure. I was obviously scared so I pulled all my other loads and double checked everything to see what was wrong. I was trying to load a max book load but after checking everything it turned out that I hadn't calibrated my pacific balance beam scale correctly and was three or four grains over max in one of those old reloading manuals that was pushing the safety factor to the limit anyway. I wasn't hurt, there wasn't any shrapnel, with a new bolt the gun was fine, but I learned my lesson, became a wiser reloader I haven't had another dangerous mistake since.

Scared now? ;) Don't be, just be smart and careful.
 
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