Or at least are willing to admit to...

Today, I was loading some new bullets (Beartooth, but that is unimportant) to check the behavior of one of my newest aquisitions. Since I had no idea of how the rifle would behave, I decided to load 10 rounds with two different powders, 5 rounds each, and see how they worked. (A bell should have rung at this point...) It takes me arount 5, or so, minutes to load 5 rounds, so I got BOTH powders out of the locker and set them on the bench. While loading the first 5, my wife came home and wanted to talk to me about her day. (Stop reading if you see where this is going...) When I finished loading the first 5, I dilligently emptied the powder measure into the jug, closed it, went out to the garage to blast it out with compressed air, returned and went to fill it with the "other" powder...

Much to my surprise, there were two different looking granules pouring from the jug. I count myself as exceptionally lucky that I had the wherewithall to look. I had previously dumped several ounces of HP-38 into my H-110 jug!

I now realized I had some very expensive fertilizer...

But it is a heck of a lot cheaper than body parts...

Lessons learned:
1) Don't EVER have two jugs of powder on the bench!
2) Don't EVER allow anything to distract me from the task at hand.
3) When the wife comes home, stop loading!
4) ALWAYS pay attention to what comes out of the jug!

I was EXCEPTIONALLY fortunate in that I only wasted a half a jug of H-110. I could easily have lost body parts.

I'm off to buy a lottery ticket...

My thumb got between the die and the bullet when seating - for a second or two, couldn't figure out why my thumb was suddenly hurting and just kept applying more pressure to the ram to seat the bullet. :eek:

Stanger73: I remember reading somewhere when I first started reloading that it was recommended that, since reloaded is a procedure that must be done accurately to be safe, that it was best to work uninterupted. Try telling that to the wife or girlfirend that wants to talk about her day. This discussion takes about 30 minutes or so at my house and nothing short of a nuclear holocaust will stay it happening the moment she arrives home from work. I tried fighting it for awhile, but now when I hear her car pull up when I am in the garage reloading, I simply wash my hands and give my progress the once over so I can remember where I am. My part of the conversation consists of me saying, "Fine. Nothing special happened really." Then she's off to the races with me adding the occasional interest grunt or sympathetic look.

Okay, to the question. I think the stupidest thng I have ever done was try and pour some H322 into my Uniflow with the cover still on. Second stupidest thing I have ever done was slide open a box of primers upside down. The second thing I can blame on my girlfiend, who was real busy telling me the last stupid thing her mother did. After the 100 primers had finished tinkling around on the garage floor, we just looked at each other. She left the garage, closing the door quietly behind her. --Mykal

Stanger73: I remember reading somewhere when I first started reloading that it was recommended that, since reloaded is a procedure that must be done accurately to be safe, that it was best to work uninterupted. Try telling that to the wife or girlfirend that wants to talk about her day. This discussion takes about 30 minutes or so at my house and nothing short of a nuclear holocaust will stay it happening the moment she arrives home from work. I tried fighting it for awhile, but now when I hear her car pull up when I am in the garage reloading, I simply wash my hands and give my progress the once over so I can remember where I am. My part of the conversation consists of me saying, "Fine. Nothing special happened really." Then she's off to the races with me adding the occasional interest grunt or sympathetic look.

Okay, to the question. I think the stupidest thng I have ever done was try and pour some H322 into my Uniflow with the cover still on. Second stupidest thing I have ever done was slide open a box of primers upside down. The second thing I can blame on my girlfiend, who was real busy telling me the last stupid thing her mother did. After the 100 primers had finished tinkling around on the garage floor, we just looked at each other. She left the garage, closing the door quietly behind her. --Mykal
mykal, you got her to leave quietly for less than $2.50 worth of primers? I'd say that was exceptionaly smart!! ;)

greatnorth: I never looked at it that way! Wow, I'm a genius! I'll have to keep a couple of sacrificial boxes of primers around just for that purpose. --Mykal

Been married 4 times. Nothing dumber than that.

Well there was the the 50 round lot that I loaded that looked good in the manual but shot like crap. then there was the time I was emptying my shotshell reloader and dumped a shot charge in the powder canister. I did start seating bullets before I dumped powder one time on a batch of 22-250's took me 8 rounds before I realized it

I seated a .458 bullet (45/70) without powder.....did "mixing powder" thing as mentioned above.

It's in times like these that you get your smarts back in a big hurry. This is dangerous stuff. I still get nervous about pulling the trigger on the first round of a new load even if it is "starting load".



Perferator

Got you all beat. I had an almost new glock 21 (45 acp) that I was loading for. I had run about 2 boxes of factory loads through it to make some brass. Started loading with ww231 powder. had a dyslexic moment and loaded 9.5 grains of 231 under a 230 gr bullet instead of 5.9 grains. Bad move. Real hard on the gun and my hands. Fortunately no permanent hand injuries. Can't say the same for the glock, serious internal (and external) injuries! Never found all the pieces. I sent the gun to Glock and carefully explained my screw up and they sold me a new one for what was probably their cost. Thought that was more than fair on their part. They're probably still laughing at me! Moral of the story, I switched to Unique, it is bulky enough that you can't double charge a case.

siamese4570

Mykal,

You are not alone in the conversation you have with your wife when she gets home - my day is summed up in one sentence because I just want to get back to loading or whatever and hers is at least a 20 minute barrage :rolleyes: - longer if I act interested ! Anyway, I once loaded 20 .280's and went to the range only to find that four of them didn't go off. The primer was dented, but I heard no noise and the bullet didn't move from it's seated depth. I always heard that just a primer with no powder could send a bullet out of the case and get stuck, so I assumed that my primers were bad. I even stopped at the gun shop on the way home and bought new ones. When I got home and pulled the bullets, the primers had gone off but there was no powder to ignite! I still can't believe it didn't move the bullet or make a noise that I could hear.

I have had 3 or 4 rounds that got moved in the charged loading block with out getting the powder, My bullets have never moved more than a few thousandths

I put bullets and powder in a few 270 rounds with no primer.

greatnorth: I never looked at it that way! Wow, I'm a genius! I'll have to keep a couple of sacrificial boxes of primers around just for that purpose. --Mykal

Why couldn't you just just fill up a primer box with spent primers. I doubt she would notice the difference and then you could say that you would need to buy another box to replace those. Those would be your "throw down" primers.. :p

I've learned to be real careful with my lever-guns once I get to the shooting bench. It's amazing how many will chamber rounds they aren't supposed to. I've shot a 30-30 Win out of a 35 Rem a couple of times.

I think accidental discharges are the dubest things I have ever done. Remember there are always prevention for an accident. Too bad it ususally takes it happening to you before you realize it can happen to you.

"I did not realize"

If this were a competition - Swany would be out in front with a commanding lead over the rest of the pack.

Well no, this wasn't a competition, but I'll agree...

It was actually my venting in a positive way so that I, and anyone else on the forum, could laugh about it along with some of the other dumb things we've done (we're all human, after all :) ) and take note so we can do our best "Homer Simpson" impressions later ;)

Incidentally, my wife felt really bad about distracting me while handling ammunition. She is a chemist, and her dad is (was) an honest-to-gosh Rocket Scientist (35 years with Aerojet, retired, and a heck of a nice guy). Mother's Day will be a lot less expensive this year :rolleyes:

Swany has me beat by 2 miles.
Getting married for the second time in July...

I charged 20 30-06 cases after having forgotten to prime them.

Swany has me beat by 2 miles.
Getting married for the second time in July...

I charged 20 30-06 cases after having forgotten to prime them.

I knew I did something stupid, and you just reminded me of it. I was trying to figure out where all of the powder grains were coming from when I started seating bullets in my new batch of 308 shells. Yep, a shell without a primer doesn't hold the propellent all that well.

amndouglas

Dumbest thing I ever did was to reload from memory. I had been loading for about 6 years at the time and being 18 figured I had this reloading crap all figured out. At that time I was loading a lot of .22-250 using H380 and a lot of loading for my .458 x 2" American using an IMR powder, don't recall which now. Well, in my genius I loaded up the .458 x 2" with H380. When I went shooting recoil was nil just giving me a muffled pop, VERY ODD. I knew something was wrong so I checked the barrel, it was clear. So I shot again, same thing. Did the barrel check and tried again. Some people don't learn. This time all I heard was the firing pin fall, not much more. I opened the bolt and a case load of ball powder poured out of the action. The previous brain fart had subsided so I knew that was not right (should have been stick powder), and the bullet was lodged in the barrel right in front of the chamber. In this case for some reason there was so much volume with the H380 that I was getting very poor ignition and pressures were obviously way low. When I got back and checked the data I found that if I extrapolated H380 powder in the .458 I was terribly under loaded (which is why there was no listed loads for the .458 using H380, not enough case to hold enough powder to push those 300 gr. bullets with any velocity), but IF I had made the mistake the other way around and used the .458's powder in the .22-250 I don't think all my body parts would still be in-tact. So, the reloading manuals really did know what they are talking about when they say "NEVER RELOAD FROM MEMORY." Now that I am 30 years older and realize the older I get the less I know I would never, ever try to do any loading from memory. So, I guess that really was not a mistake, but a LESSON, and one I thank God I learned the first time.

I've reloaded fo many years and did sveral dumb things confssed here.
My dumbest,was charging 20 rounds of 45/70 without any primmers. I discovered the oversight when I picked up the THIRD one to seat the bullet.
Frank

Reckon most of us have wondered at one time or another why there seems to be powder on the floor and crunching under feet - especially with fine grained ball or flake powders! :D

That's what IMR stick powders are good for - they mostly stay in the case when you forget the primers, LOL.

yeah but you still have to dump em, then re-weigh them to make sure you didn't lose too much so that kinda makes it a moot point doesn't it. IMR powders were designed with immense foresight to speed the development of electronic powder dispensers

Many years ago, an associate asked me if I could/would load for his 25 Auto. In a moment of stupidity I told him that if he would buy the dies, shell holder, and bullets for me that I would load for the thing. Can't even remember who made the dies that I used, but he came up with 100 pieces of once fired brass, and I loaded them for him with a minute amount of bullseye. After durn near punching paper cutter holes through my fingers, and dropping the little things and being nervious in the service about double charging the things, they did function well in his little auto. Colt I think. The original deal was that he would buy and give me the dies in return for loading. After I loaded the 100 rounds and the few plus that we used for test fired for function, I gave him the loaded rounds and the dies as well. Think I would almost rather have a hemorridectomy than to load for 25 auto again. But like they say in Pa. Dutch country, "Ve get too soon old and to late smart.

Paul

That's what IMR stick powders are good for - they mostly stay in the case when you forget the primers, LOL.

Ummmm, not always Mike.
IMR 4350 in those 20 rounds of 30-06 mentioned above...

Way back in the dark ages of my youth .I was about 15 at the time.I had (&still own & and use ) a lee shot loader .You know the real old everything by hand Job!
I was pretty cocky in those days & instead of completing 1 shell at a time I would go through the stages,prepareing 25 at a time through each part of the operation .Ok we've all got a mental pitcure forming here .Now invision in your mind ,25 shells sitting on a bench about 2'x2' in a bedroom with polished wooden floor boards! (nothing wrong with that is there?)
Now in your minds eye envision the 25 shot carts filled with 1 1/8 #10 shot all waiting to be crimped!(May Isuggest anyone who is going to find this funny please leave this post now .as I'm doing a sympathy thing here)
My dear mother walks into my Room to see how I'm going & as I swung around to tell her that Everything was Ok! I knocked over 25 rnds of shells! there was shot bounceing every where! She tried to Vacum it she tried to sweep it up but strangley enough some 20yrs later even with the Room carpeted .She asured me every time that I spoke to her that it was not unuseral to hear a couple of peices of shot go into the vacum cleaner.At the time needlss to say I was bannished to the shed to continue my loading.I still look at that Old lee loader & think to myself Well if she had'nt come in ........

There are some really great stories here and my hat's off to all who were honest enough to 'fess up! Let me add one more to the fire. While reloading .45 ACP on my progressive, fumble fingers here managed to spill some primers from the pickup tube all over my reloader. So I had to get down on all fours to retrieve the primers. After loading, I came up one primer short. I could not find it ANYWHERE! Then the light came on! All the cases were positioned mouth up under the primer tube where the spill occured. Not wishing to shoot a primer along with the bullet through the barrel, I had to shake 300 cartridges to find one that rattled. I finally found it and needless to say, I am a little more focused when I reload.

Ahhh, those Lee shotgun loaders. When I started loading it was for 12 Ga. on a used Lee loader someone gave me. I was in high school and was making fair money working at the local grocery store. The thing is I didn't want to go buy a better loader or hulls. I preferred to spend my money on guying gas or gunpowder. I used whatever hull I picked up. Federal, Remington, Winchester, Fiocchi, etc. Paper base or plastic- It didn't matter. The loader was set up for 3 1/4- 1 1/4- probably something along the lines of 22.0 grains of Unique. Well, all of those hull had different internal volumes. It became a fine art in filling up the hulls with shot (after dropping 1 1/4 oz. from the loader) so the crimp didn't cave in. I never did blow anything up or to my knowledge damage anything but it sure did make for some interesting shooting! Those were the days...
That was the most foolish thing I ever did.

The dumbest thing I ever did was not look at my scale wrong RCBS 10-10 and proceed to load 1,000 rounds of 12 grains of Universal instead of 7.0 Regardless of what you hear, It WILL completely destroy a brand new HK USP on the first round. A USP does, by the way, bounce off of a forehead rather well. Got electronic scales now.... I gave up after pulling 700 rounds and chunked the rest.

Lvl1trauma

Well, I've just started, but so far I've tried to neck expand only in a full lenght sizer and primed the cases only to find out that there was no-way-jose the case was going to seat bullets. Gee, I'm glad I learn quick :rolleyes:

Cleaned some 458 win mag cases along with some 45 Colt and 38 special cases. Strained the media and separated the cases. Later broke two decapping pins, the only ones I have ever broken, while sizing the 458's that had 38 special cases stuck inside. I use those neat little mesh baggies now to separate the different cases.

What a great thread! Reading them over has jarred my memory. One time I had two hundred nicely primed and loaded cases of .357 Mag cases sitting in front of me on my in loading trays on my bench, all waiting patiently for bullet seating. I went to seat the first one and realized I had forgot to bell the case mouths. I sat staring at the cases, letting the reality sink in. I had to dump the powder of every case back into the powder dispenser, expand the mouths of the cases (with the primers in, which isn't really the way you want to do it, anyway), and remeasure all the powder. No interupting girlfriend to blame on this one as in my previous stupid moment. This one was all mine. --Mykal

Too dumb to post.
1x2

Tearing up my Pact PC2 chronograph using cast bullets.

Last week, while trying to zero POI at 100 yds, managed to shoot a sunscreen holder in two - hit that sucker dead center and cut it like a hot knife! Got that epoxyed with some Richards Inletting epoxy and clipped braces.

Today, the rear sensor cord was shot in two and I spent the entire morning wondering why the unit quit recording after a few shots. Didn't discover the break until dragging the stuff in to box up and take home. Only thing I can figure, the gas checks are coming loose and shooting separately once out of the muzzle, as the target holes are slightly egg shaped. The groups at 25 yds resembled 00 buckshot groups. :eek:

Gotta reload some a little slower and with a different powder to see if my poor chrono will stay together and record the velocities.

Ah, the trials and tribulations of trying new things!

For several days I couldn't think of anything quite dumb enough to report. I've done lots of little dumb things like priming cases that weren't sized.

Well, today I found out my dumbest thing: I let someone else do some reloading for me.

A few weeks ago I found 50 rounds of 35 Whelen that I paid a fella to load for me several years ago before I was set up for the Whelen. Today I decided to zero the Whelen with these loads and maybe save the bulk of them for elk season.

First shot at 25 yds. was centered L&R but about 1" low. I made scope adjustments. Second shot went "click." I rotated the bolt to recock, "click" again. The extractor didn't grip the shell so I borrowed a cleaning rod to knock it out. Hmmmm, must be a bad primer.

Load third round. "Click." Worked the bolt and the casing ejected. But there was no spilled powder. Hmmmm. Cleaning rod, knock out bullet stuck in lands. Done for the day as I had only brought the one batch of ammo.

At home I got out the inertia bullet puller. Results: 15 of 50 rounds had no powder.

Okay, I can see missing one, but 15 of 50?! The guy must have been drunk or high. I pulled all the bullets, dumped the powder, and carefully resized all the brass, ejecting the live primers (carefully with a piece of canvas draped over the press, just in case).

I've seen where lots of folks say "I'll never let ANYONE load for me!" Now I am a believer.

Thank goodness I discovered this now and not by "click"-ing on an elk next October.

I loaded 100 rounds for my 7x57 Ackley Improved. When I fired them at the range I got a 10-15 inch pattern (about a dozen shots) with some of them entering sideways.

I was checking my scope mounts and everything else trying to figure out what was wrong. As I was chambering one round I noticed that the bullet was loose and slipped in the neck. Closer inspection revealed that I had loaded them with .277 diameter bullets mad for a .270 instead of the correct .284 diameter.

Dumbest one I've seen done was a guy had his friend load him some 223 rounds he chambered one and I was standing behind him watching the procedings when he pulled the trigger all that happened was a big pffftt noise and lots of gas venting out the safety holes in the action. He fired 2 more rounds before stopping and looking at the primers turns out they were in backwards! Don't ask me how!