I Found A OOP's Today

[JimP]

Well, a few years ago I loaded up a lot of .340 Weatherby round with the 225 grain Barnes TSX bullets and I decided that I wanted to just switch them over to the rest of the 225 grain TTSX bullets that I have. So I pulled out the old hammer type inertia puller and went to work beating them on a 4x4 to break the bullets loose and save the powder and old bullets.

I was going good and then I came upon one that only had about a 1/4 charge of powder. Now these loads hold 88 grains of powder so to dump the powder out and only see around 20 grains I was quite shocked. I even hammered the pullers reservoir a few times thinking that it may of been stuck in it along with tapping the case and getting a flash light to look down into it. Yep, it was only about 1/4 full of powder.

I have no idea of if that charge would of pushed the bullet all the way through the barrel and out or if it would of just lodged the bullet in the barrel, but I am glad that I found it now instead of pulling the trigger and wondering just what happened. I am usually very meticulous when it comes to charging the case but this one slipped by.

This goes to show that even after loading metallic cartridges for over 50 years mistakes happen.

 

[AKaviator]

Glad you caught it that way. I can think of several ways that could have been worse!

 

[memtb]

Jim, Glad you found it....sometimes it’s good to be lucky! The bullet may have stuck in the barrel, or depending upon the powder......an undercharge is much worse than an overcharge!

Over the years, 53 or so, and I’ve made about every mistake you can make. If I can load for another 15+.....I’ll probably make another! memtb

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

I found a round of 30-06 that way on some reloads my Dad loaded. I only pulled a few bullets to weight the powder and find out what he had for a load. When I found the one that was about 1/2 full, I quit pulling bullets. I weighed the rest of the ammo (50 rounds as I remember) and found 4 more that were light, so I just pulled all the bullets and dumped the powder.

 

[JimP]

It just goes to show that no matter how careful you are that you can and will end up making a mistake.

When loading my rifle rounds I will dump the powder into a pan that came with the scale, weigh it, and then dump it into the case. I have no idea of what happened with this one.

 

[dan maule]

Thanks for posting this, it's a great reminder that we are all humans and need to check ourselves!

 

[mallardsx2]

When I was about 15 years old I first started reloading shotgun shells. This was back before Hodgdon Longshot came out and I primarily used BlueDOT for my magnum crow loads.

I kept getting burnt powder in my eyes when hunting and couldn't figure it out.
On afternoon my buddy ( Who was older and more experienced than me at reloading ) cut one of my shells open and weighed the charge and I had been overloading them by 8 grains.....My friend looked at me and said "I thought those shells sounded a little loud....better get you a scale ya damn wildcatter!"
We still laugh about it.

I bet you I fired over 1000 rounds of that stuff through that SuperX2 of mine before we caught the error.

Present day- I am pretty careful and I am extra careful with rifle shells. But it could easily happen to any of us.

 

[JimP]

Well, my scale is wore out. I went through close to 3000 rounds today and all came out where they were suppose to.

That's one way to do a inventory.

 

[kidoggy]

this thread is a perfect example of why I will not fire a reload through my guns unless it was I who did the reloading.

not that I am above mistakes either . it is just that I trust no one more.
even factory loads cannot be trusted completely. I recall once . some 30 years ago, coming across a rem factory .270 load that had zero powder in it . all are prone to mistakes.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

Many years ago when I started reloading, a couple of friends and I were trying to work up a 12 ga 2 3/4" magnum waterfowl load. We played around with powders and wads and found something we thought was the one.

We took off for a weekend of duck hunting at the Salton Sea's Wister Waterfowl Management area in southern California. It is a public hunting area that has a drawing for hunting permits. We had drew permits and were there Friday afternoon. I decided to shoot some of the new reloads to pattern them. When I shot the first one, my Winchester M12 3" mag duck gun kicked like hell. The action opened by itself and the extractor fell out with the empty. It was just too damn hot! I decided not to use them and set the box on out truck/camper's bumper when we went to bed. We camped in the hunter camping area and sometime that night the box of reloads "disappeared".

I sure wish I could have seen the results when the person who took reloads shot the first one! LOL. OOOPS!

 

[JimP]

this thread is a perfect example of why I will not fire a reload through my guns unless it was I who did the reloading.

not that I am above mistakes either . it is just that I trust no one more.
even factory loads cannot be trusted completely. I recall once . some 30 years ago, coming across a rem factory .270 load that had zero powder in it . all are prone to mistakes.

That is where when you reload you need to come up with a system that works for you as you go through the steps. For me once I am ready to put the round together I'll prime a group of cases then move to loading the powder and bullets. I use a RCBS Chargemaster now and while it is dumping the charge onto the scale I am seating the bullet on the previous case and dropping it into a box. I then come back and pick up the pan with the powder in it and dump it into another case and it starts all over. My old way in which this round was loaded was to dump the powder out of a powder measure, weigh it on a scale and trickle in to the weight that I am loading and then dump it into the case and load the bullet.

I'd have to go through a dozen different logs that I keep to see just how many rounds that I have loaded and this is my first squip or under charged load. As I mentioned above I went through nearly 3000 rounds putting each one onto a scale and checking the weight of it and all were right where they needed to be. It's just that this one round happened somehow.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

I load exactly the way Jim does it. I too have a Chargemaster. It is really great.

 

[HuskyMusky]

you still would've had around 338win mag power

 

[JimP]

I looked in my loading manuals to see if I could find something with that little of a powder load and didn't find any.

However I think that I may of actually seen that bullet hit something if I would of fired it. It may of been the dirt right in from of the barrel but I could of seen it.

 

[BuzzH]

Easy way to avoid that...I throw all my charges, keep them in the loading tray and then take a flashlight and look at every single case mouth to make sure they all have the same amount of powder. Then I seat the bullets.

Never have found anything out of the ordinary, but I have a process that I follow when handloading, never vary from it either.

Another thing I do is make sure to never be in a rush when reloading.

 

[JimP]

I haven't used a loading block in over 25 years. I load one round at a time once I have the case prepped and primed. I'll take the powder off of the scale and dump it directly into the case and then seat the bullet.

The only time that I change is when I am loading pistol rounds. Then I dump the powder directly into the case and then seat the bullet and weigh every 10th powder charge

 

[THelms]

Well, my scale is wore out. I went through close to 3000 rounds today and all came out where they were suppose to.

That's one way to do a inventory.

That's a lot of work

 

[JimP]

It was worth it for peace of mind