Watch your loads

[Darryl]

http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread.php?t=70926

[Junk Yard Dog]

Blood on the weapon, not a good sign, too bad, he is very lucky to be alive and that he didn't kill anyone.

[Rongo]

It could have been a lot worse.

He was lucky...

[Junk Yard Dog]

Yea, gettin' dead yourself is one thing, killing someone else by accident and then surviving it yourself would be bad. Civil suits, and living with it, shooting any firearm has some level of risk involved. Add 60 years or more to the weapon and the risk goes a bit higher, add reloading the ammo and the possibility of errors and the risk is higher still. Still safer than jumping out of a perfectly good airplane with little piece of silk to hold you up, or diving of bridges with rubber bands tied to your feet.

[desdem12]

Crazy stuff. I guess he didn't hear the puffer before cause of ear muffs. Did you read the whole thread about the guy that rechamberd a M38 jap to 30-06 but left the barrel in 6.5?

[MN Fan]

Scarey stuff. I am glad it didn't turn out any worse than it did.

[Dragunov sniper 777]

loading ammo is not for everyone , but hey a lot of factory rounds that were improperly loaded have blew up guns , so you really are gambling every time you pull the trigger ...

[desdem12]

factory rounds that were improperly loaded have blew up guns

Nosler even burnt down their factory making ammo

[Ironnewt]

factory rounds that were improperly loaded have blew up guns

Nosler even burnt down their factory making ammo

Yeah but many a guy blew up his loading bench by not paying attention to what powder he was using or forcing a primer in an auto feeder.

[Simo]

"no powder" .................. What is the point of reloading if you are not going to put powder in the round?
"not enough powder" can we say SCALE???????????????????

[Simo]

I like the last post about the 1917 blowing because of snow, amazing how people will make some off the wall stories just to cover up their mistakes

snow blowing up a 1917

[etprescottazusa91]

About ten years ago a well known collector in the Prescott area home burned down when a primer went off in his press while reloading, sparks caught some old newspaper and clutter on fire and the next thing there went the house with everything in it and a really nice collection.

[Simo]

About ten years ago a well known collector in the Prescott area burned down home when a primer went off in his press while reloading, sparks caught some old newspaper and clutter on fire and the next thing there went the house with everything in it and a really nice collection.

those primer accidents get to me. Those rare and random detonating primers are the only thing that I worry about when loading. My method of re-loading leaves no possible way to make a mistake. There is no way to under / over charge a case, there is no way a error can get by. I do each step in a slow step by step fashion. Tumble all cases then decap / re-size all cases, trim all cases, chamfer / deburr flash hole / clean primer pocket on all cases, charge all cases and then seat the bullet. I use 2 50 round loading blocks and I start with 50 cases in one block and in order for one case to go to the other loading block it must go through the current step and then once that step is done on all 50 cases then its on to the next step and back the cases go to the other loading block. So if you understand what I am trying to explain you'll see there is no way for an error to go forward without being noticed but you really can't do much for a weak or displaced primer detonating. My safety and the safety of others is the reason why it takes me so much longer to hand-load as I am much more slower than those "I just loaded 500 rounds in an hour" guys.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I eliminate the loading block and do each case individually each step, takes longer, but there always exists the possibility that a double charge can be added by accident when charging cases in a loading block. My Star reloader for the .38 is a progressive, but it only moves in one direction, you can't rotate it back and dispense another powder charge or try to seat two primers in one pocket. I also weigh each rifle round after it's finished to check for a major discrepancy, paranoid? You bet!

[Simo]

I eliminate the loading block and do each case individually each step, takes longer, but there always exists the possibility that a double charge can be added by accident when charging cases in a loading block. My Star reloader for the .38 is a progressive, but it only moves in one direction, you can't rotate it back and dispense another powder charge or try to seat two primers in one pocket. I also weigh each rifle round after it's finished to check for a major discrepancy, paranoid? You bet!

In your / our case it is not paranoia....... it is being wise! I only use IMR4064 for rifle and if there was an over / double charge, most would spill all over my bench.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Right now I am only making one smokeless rifle cartridge, the 8mm Lebel, others are in the works as I need them in the future. I am using IMR30-31 as I happen to have several pounds of the stuff. I don't shoot the Lebels much, just make a few hundred rounds at a time, slowly, over a week or so, or longer. The BP stuff is a lot easier, you can't overcharge a BP case, undercharging and leaving an air gap is the danger there.

[bunkysdad]

Eddy, your procedure sounds like a good one, and that is how I do it too. I did however have a squib load last year in my Enfield No. 1 and as mentioned above wearing hearing protection made it slightly less noticeable, but mainly because there was other large rifle traffic on benches on both sides of me. Best I figure is that I missed the powder all together. I was just about to cycle another round when the voice in my head screamed at the top of it's lungs S T O P! And that is what I did. I removed the bolt, looked down the barrel and only saw darkness. At the least I could have detryed a nice rifle, and at the worst could have killed someone. Paying attention is important at te bench and at the range. If it doesn't sound right when you pull the trigger you must stop and check everything. I thought I was about as slow and careful as they come. I had a real eye opener that day. Weighing all of the rounds like junk yard dog said is a very good idea, and only takes a very small amount of time. Any charge variations large enough to be a concern should be noticeable.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I learned that lesson well back when I was shooting cheap Chinese 7.62x39mm in the AK, BANG, BANG, BANG, pop.........found the bullet on the ground a foot in front of the rifle. That was it for that crap.

[bunkysdad]

I found my bullet lodged 6" past the breach.

[Ironnewt]

My safety and the safety of others is the reason why it takes me so much longer to hand-load as I am much more slower than those "I just loaded 500 rounds in an hour" guys.

i have a Dillon and a Star progressive presses and I never "work" them as fast as they are listed. I weigh every 10th charge on the Dillon and although I don't get the volume of ammunition I could per hour I feel a lot safer about it. A squib load is a lot scarier to me than an over load.