Excerpted Tidbits of Handloading Wisdom

from the Handloading Talk Forum

(A Feature of Hunting Information Systems)

Hunting Information Systems is a fine website that makes a vast amount of very interesting material available to anyone on the Internet.  This is a small compilation of handloading mistakes that I felt had a place here at Sniper's Paradise because, in the quest for accuracy, many of us handload for our firearms.  Whether it's rifle, shotgun, or handgun, handloading mistakes are handloading mistakes.  The rules (and lessons learned) are applicable to whatever type loading you do.

Be safe, and ALWAYS wear ADEQUATE eye protection when handloading -- especially during the priming operation!

Russell E. Taylor

Posted by Gil J. on February 18, 1999 at 15:45:32:

Last weekend I came close to loosing a dear friend. He and I used to own a 50 BMG rifle and reloading stuff together. We still have the reloading stuff but he blew the kapock out of the rifle. The receiver is stretched out at the area of the locking lugs, three of the six lugs on the bolt are cracked visibly, the bolt flew back fast enough to put a 1/4 inch dent in the metal shoulder piece, one extractor is in half and the other is missing entirely, the case is "welded" into the chamber with the middle of the case head gone, or actually vaporized and sprayed on the receiver, bolt, and my buddy. The rifle, a nice British WW I anti-tank gun is history. On the lucky side, my buddy is not history. After 4 days he can get his right eye open where the scope whacked him. He has been in to the doc's 4 times to to sew him up and to get metal taken out of his head and right hand, but he will heal up, and for that I continue to thank God. As soon as he is up to it I am going to kick my buddy's ass around the block. Not for the rifle, but because of the risk he took. As it turns out, his mistake was a simple one. He used a very mild load of the wrong powder. A normal load is in the neighborhood of 250 grains of the slowest powder made. He used 200 grains of a powder intended for .223 and .308 by mistake. He bought several one gallon jugs of powder a couple of years back and was SURE that he knew which was for what. Well, he remembered wrong and it could have killed him. Glad he didn't go for the full load.

Between us we have loaded in the neighborhood of 10,000 rounds without a mishap. Reloading is fun and it can be done safely, but not if you are not careful or if you are not paying attention. Please, Please, Please follow all the rules, Don't drink or smoke while reloading, Don't use suspect components, Wear eye protection, If you don't know the rest of the list please read any reloading manual. But PLEASE if you are not absolutely sure, don't do it. Look it up, preferably in a couple of sources, ask someone like in this forum, whatever. Please be safe.

Posted by Water Rat on February 21, 1999 at 05:42:51:

I read in this forum about a guy who had a reloading mishap that could of been fatal luckily it was not!   He was shooting 50 BMG.  You can read about it a little farther down on this page.  One guys comment was that we should all post our reloading mishaps I fully agree that we can learn from others mistakes. I would hate to see any one turned off of reloading or shooting by a accident that could of been avoided by reading about someone else's screw ups.  Lets here about your screw ups. Mine goes like this. I had just started reloading didn't know much about it.  I was loading 30-06 I made the stupid mistake of checking case length before I resized the shell some shells just would not chamber.  I  didn't fire any of them luckily.  I did some reading and do it right now.  A friend told me of one mistake he made.  He was loading 357 magnum & looked at the wrong loadings in his book he loaded 100 rds, using loads meant for the 357 maximum well they were hot to say the least he did shoot a few before stopping.   He said that when he removed the shells from his S&W that some shells were missing about 1/4-1/2 of the shell went down the barrel with every thing else.  SO MAKE SURE YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE RIGHT LOADING DATA FOR YOUR CAL.  There are many cals. that what I call have a souped-up version of them.  "Please be careful folks" It would be very hard to enjoy this fine sport of ours if you were missing fingers, eyes or worse!

Posted by Rikkie on February 23, 1999 at 00:47:33:

In Reply to: Your reloading mishaps. posted by Water Rat on February 21, 1999 at 05:42:51:

Never thought I'd drag this embarrassing incident out in public, but since you insist....

I had been reloading for many years, when a friend of my wife asked me to give her a few defensive handgun lessons. I would use my wife's .380 ACP, but thought I'd load up some real squib .38 Special loads for my 3" barrel .357 Dan Wesson, so that she could experience both sides of the argument - hopefully it would help her when it came to deciding what to buy (revolver or pistol).

Late that night, I was still loading up the .38's, and I must say I was tired - I could really have used a bed.

The following day (at the range), my daughter was shooting my .357 in the bay next door, when one shot went off with a muffled "poof". I didn't hear it, and my daughter didn't realize the danger, so she carried right on firing. Well, if I didn't hear the 1st one going off, I sure did hear the 4th one! The cylinder was jammed solid, and half a semi wadcutter was protruding from the muzzle. Clearly, I hadn't put powder in that 1st cartridge, and the blast of the primer was just enough for the bullet to jump the barrel / cylinder gap, and get stuck in the barrel

Thanks be to the Almighty, my daughter wasn't hurt. Neither was my revolver. The loads were mild enough not to bulge the barrel. (and the Dan Wesson is a rather robust piece)

The lesson?   *Never* load against time!  It simply doesn't pay.

Posted by Skid on February 21, 1999 at 19:37:04:

In Reply to: Your reloading mishaps. posted by Water Rat on February 21, 1999 at 05:42:51:

I have a friend who was loading up 44 mag ammo and then went to load up his 300 win mag and forgot to switch powders.   We went out shooting one day and he let someone else shoot his rifle. Needless to say the rifle was a little worse for wear.  Luckily the guy shooting the rifle just got a big bruise on his shoulder and a small cut on his cheek. (The rifle was replaced by Ruger for free since they thought that it should have held up to the punishment.)