Almost destroyed a rifle and hurt myself yesterday.....

[jdad]

Never start to reload 2 hours before a match starts. I had to load 30-30's and 32-20's, on a single stage press, and I usually do it a day or two before to prevent things like this.

Here's what happened..........
I had about 1 minute left, in my relay, to get the last 2 of 5 shots off. "Click"...nothing, so I cocked the hammer again, "click"...nothing, so I cycled the action and was getting ready to take my next shot when out of the corner of my eye I saw the empty case. I ejected the live round and saw how it rammed up into the lodged bullet. Missing 2 points is better than what may have happened if I pulled the trigger.

I have learned a real important lesson about rushing and not being careful through the entire reloading process. It was an eye opener.

[claybob86]

Sure glad you noticed that case!

[Mike-in-WV]

Someone was watching over your shoulder. Gives me the shivers just thinking of what could have happened.
I was shooting some reloads from a .40 Taurus semi auto one day as fast as I could just for fun. At one point I heard a pop instead of a bang. For some reason it was enough to make the empty shell eject and chamber a new round but he still kept me from firing that round right then and there and check things out. The last round I shot left the bullet stuck half way up the barrel. Just a "squib" load I guess but it could have been a disaster because when I checked the last round it chambered it fired perfectly. Mike

[Blaine]

I seem to do that.....I forget to rotate the die to the next step.......I have a little box for them....there's no real good way to get rid of them......I've broken a inertial puller trying to unseat them

[Pete44ru]

I'm shore glad yore Guardian Angel twern't off looking out for someone else, when thet happened !

[marlinman93]

Nice catch! Had you not spotted that empty case you truly could have ruined a good gun, and a good guy!

[Sixgun]

Yep. Good observation on the empty case. With a cast bullet in the 32-20 you would probably only "ring" the barrel.

Its good that you take your mistake "to heart". A smart man reminds himself of his mistake and is less likely to do it again.---------Sixgun

[jdad]

9.5gr of 2400 that had become compressed, in the cartridge, may have done more than ring the barrel. I still can't believe I was in such a rush that I bypassed, this one time, looking down into the cartridges before bullet seating

[jnyork]

Thanks for posting that, a good lesson for us all!!

I have SO FAR avoided this by charging all the cases with powder, checking them with a little flashlight, THEN seating the bullets. I am easily distracted and get out of sync every so often so I try to use a technique that will negate this as much as possible. Works for me.

[El Chivo]

I have SO FAR avoided this by charging all the cases with powder, checking them with a little flashlight, THEN seating the bullets. I am easily distracted and get out of sync every so often so I try to use a technique that will negate this as much as possible. Works for me.

I started doing that, too. I used to do one round at a time with the turret press. One day I was loading and got interrupted, the coffee started boiling over. Then I weighed out a charge, dumped it, and was about to seat the bullet when I got a funny feeling. So I decided to check, and yes, it was a double charge. 15 grains of Blue Dot instead of 7.5, in a .357 case.

I weighed all my other completed rounds and they seemed ok, so I went ahead and fired them off without incident. But now I stop after filling the cases and check all the rounds at once before seating any bullets.

[1886]

Good catch. It is easy to miss something that is for sure. Glad you came out safely. I had a reloading mishap about 10 years ago. I was charging cases with Varget for a 7mm-08 Sako AII. For reasons I still can not explain I substituted H-4831 data for Varget. This bone headed move caused me to exceed the published Varget data by about 8grs. Still can not understand how I did not notice the high load density! At the shot I new instantly something was wrong. My first inclanation was the recoil and report of the shot being higher than normal. The second clue was the smell of burning oil and fiberglass. This smell was caused by hot gases burning excess oil in the action and the stock material while being diverted from a blown primer through the action. I had to hammer the bolt open with a rubber mallet. Upon examining the bolt I noticed the extractor was gone. I still have no idea where it went. The case head stamp was burnished into the bolt face. Pressures must have been astronomical. The case was not ruptured however. Good thing too. I sent the rifle off to the smith and he gave it a clean bill of health. I was concerned that I had set the lugs back or bulged a chamber. Needless to say I always check then I check everything twice more. Be safe. 1886.

[RIHMFIRE]

whoa....too close....

[JReed]

. Good catch and a good point on not reloading when you are in a hurry and distracted. Glad you caught it and glad your still with us.

[jdad]

Thanks for posting that, a good lesson for us all!!

I have SO FAR avoided this by charging all the cases with powder, checking them with a little flashlight, THEN seating the bullets. I am easily distracted and get out of sync every so often so I try to use a technique that will negate this as much as possible. Works for me.

Jerry,
This is the first and last time I deviate from SOP! You compete also, so you know when you're on the firing line, focused on the critters, time left, breathing, etc cycling out a round without checking is real easy to do.

[J Miller]

Years ago I loaded up a couple hundred rounds of .45 Colt cowboy level loads.
The charge was 5.? of 231 and a 250gr RNFP. I fired some and they were not an accurate load. So the rest sat on the shelf for a number of years. Then one winter with nothing much to do I sat on the floor and pulled the last hundred of them down. Poured all the powder in a bowl and then resized the cases.
Then I reloaded the cases using the original 231 but bumped it up to 7.1grs. A much better load.
I use the same technique as jnyork. Powder a tray of cases then carefully inspect them to verify all are the same level. Well somehow this time I missed one. One cartridge with NO powder.

A couple more years passed and I grabbed that box of ammo for that days shoot. I was shooting my 94AE Trapper that day. I filled it up 9 in the tube, one in the chamber and began a semi rapid fire session.

About the third round in the string it went click. Nothing. I ejected the "dud" round and for the first time in this rifles history the live round on the carrier came out with it. I stopped and looked at the floor, saw the three empties and the live round. Picked up the live round, loaded it into the chamber and ........ and ........ the bolt would not close. I had a brain fanny burp and couldn't understand what had happened. I ejected that round and tried to chamber the next one. Nope the cartridge would not allow the bolt to close.
By this time the brain was beginning to realize somethings wrong here. Stop, unload the magazine and lets start checking things out.
Unloaded it through the loading gate. Counted 10 cases, 7 loaded, three empty. But then I noticed only two holes in the target.
Finally like a camera flash bulb the muddy headed stupids evaporated and I realized what had happened. I had a dud. I had a bullet stuck partially in the rifling and partially in the chamber. Had that bullet been pushed all the way into the rifling I would have blown that gun up. Stupid me I tried to blow that gun up by being so muddy headed.
OK enough ranting, here is the bullet that the range master helped me remove from the barrel:

I'm glat it's a hard cast. I'm afraid a softer one might have been pushed further into the barrel. You can see the rifling where it stuck. It only need another 1/8" for the bolt to close. It scared me when I realized just how close to a KABOOM I had been.

Being cautious when reloading is a must. Even when you have developed a technique.

I keep that bullet by my powder scale as a reminder.

Joe

[horsesoldier03]

Good Catch! There have been alot of reloaders that werent quite as lucky.

[Griff]

Disaster averted! The devil is in the details. Both paying attention during loading the shooting is necessary. Sad to admit, I've done it more than once!

[Ysabel Kid]

Someone was sitting on your shoulder this afternoon my friend. You need to go buy a lottery ticket!

Glad to hear you are okay!!!

[Marlin .35]

Very happy to see that you are OK. Good lesson for all of us!!! Art

[TedH]

Yikes! That was too close. Glad you had a sharp eye.

[Travis Morgan]

Thanks for posting that, a good lesson for us all!!

I have SO FAR avoided this by charging all the cases with powder, checking them with a little flashlight, THEN seating the bullets. I am easily distracted and get out of sync every so often so I try to use a technique that will negate this as much as possible. Works for me.

You can mount a Streamlight stylus on your press to light the cases. It's a little LED light, and only runs about $10-15.

[C. Cash]

Very glad you're OK jdad! Thanks for the reminder.