Wellwhatdoyaknow . . . I'm human afterall

[briandg]

God yes I've been around the rodeo. Testing that bloody.380 I learned that three feet of water isn't enough to completely stop a little bitty 380, a heavy sheet of cardboard over it won't keep you dry, and that a sheet of steel on the bottom might be smarter.

I'm just baffled with it all I mean, you expect petals on the nose of a hollow point and not at the base of an fmj.

Sending the pistol back to Smith with three pages of problems.

 

[CommandoX]

Interesting post. Made me laugh a bit but only due to experiences.

Reminds me of an adventure at my range with my LCR and 125gr Xtremes loaded with w231. I was trying to get them out at about 750 but.....

The very first round went "Pop". I opened the cylinder and looked down the barrel. It was dark inside. Looked at the front of the gun and there sticking out 2/3rds its' length was the bullet. I took out my multi tool and pulled the bullet out. Put that gun away and pulled the bullets when I got home. I was short on powder because I'd used the wrong disk on the Lee Classic Turret Press.

Those bullets were "pulled" with the ol' hammer. Long before I realized the value of the RCBS Bullet Puller....

 

[Sevens]

Okay, so you have a tiny 'CHINK' in your armor. That's why you wear the armor! So it shakes your confidence a bit -- no worries, it keeps you on your toes. You pull the rest (pulling is no fun) and as you do that little bit of manual labor, you think about WHY you are stuck doing it and it helps you to remember.

Me? I think to think that you and I are kindred spirits, Nick. There are definitely areas where we take different forks in the road but I see far more similarities in our approach to this ballgame than I see differences.

I have stuck three bullets but none of them were my most embarrassing handloading failure. The three stuck bullets were absolutely my fault, but not the same as yours-- mine were not uncharged squibs... each of my three were a whole array of test rounds, loaded TOO LIGHT, using a powder that is arguably appropriate for the the task, and simply being over-cautious in the load, using plated bullets in revolvers, with the all-too-spacious .38 Special case that doesn't allow for "too wimpy" loads. Anyone familiar with my posts regarding plated bullets and revolvers know that I passionately campaign against going too light. With the pressure escape-valve (flash gap) and too light of a load, a stuck bullet is always around the corner with plated.

Anyway, none of the three stuck bullets led to catastrophic failure. But my single most embarrassing handloading failure was a round of 9mm, 124gr Plated that I crafted with a SIDEWAYS primer. I dropped the hammer and I hear a pop, watched a little fizzle and wisp of smoke appear from the pistol's chamber area while in full battery.

"WHAT?!" I carefully ejected the round to find a scorched end near the primer and a gorgeous, loaded round at the other end. The primer went POP but the flash hole was blocked so the powder charge never ignited and the entirety of the primer flash happened outside the cartridge case at the breech end.

A sideways primer does happen, but it was a huge personal failure that I skipped over part of my "checks & balances" process for quality control. There is no way that round should have made it in to a box, out of my house, to the shooting range, in to a magazine and "discharged" in my handgun. Obnoxious.

I still have the scorched round, it sits near my powder scale. No harm, no foul, just my most embarrassing goof-up. And the experience is tattooed on my brain and it absolutely has had a hand in the increased QC of my ammo. That particular round of 9mm has made all my ammo since... better.

 

[briandg]

When I was twenty and I first started , I put together my pistol, put my first rounds together but was was way too light on the crimp. The case mouths were still a but flared, and stuck. I had to knock them out one at a time with a cleaning rod.

So many things go into it.

 

[Nick_C_S]

Lots of great posts.

I would have never guessed that a sideways primer would discharge from the firing pin hitting the side of it. Learn something every day.

And Sevens, I can empathize with you . . . how could something so visibly wrong get past so many QC points (or "critical control points" as they say in the food safety / culinary world). Getting all the way to the loading the mags and still not noticing. That would be frustrating.

I'm still frustrated by the notion that I missed checking the powder levels in the loading blocks. And missed that step the one time that I failed to charge a case. In all my years of checking the powder levels in loading blocks, I can not remember one single time where there was a no-charge or a double-charge in the loading block (there's been times where I noticed and corrected before ever getting to the formal inspection point). And the chances of two happening at the same time would have to be astronomically remote. That's frustrating. I believe that the two mistakes happening at the same time are interconnected. I must have been distracted, or in a rush, or something of that nature. However, I know better than to be at the load bench when I'm in that state of mind. So that too is frustrating.

Okay, now I'm just venting. My apologies folks.

Moving on: I'm going to pull the bullets. I strongly believe that the remaining 36 are perfectly fine. And after I pull them, I'll report truthfully my findings. I can't stand (inertia) pulling bullets. The most I've ever had to pull at one time was 20. This is 36. However, the 20 I had to pull were light bullets with a heavy roll crimp. These are heavy bullets with a medium taper crimp - so they should come out fairly easy. I guess this is my penance.

 

[g.willikers]

Heck there's no need to pull all those rounds and beat yourself up, especially with a revolver.
Just load and shoot them one at a time.
Practice your slow one handed skills until they're gone.
If you get another squib, no harm done, just tap it out.
And at age 53, you ain't even begun to deteriorate yet.

 

[Sevens]

Haha, re-read what he just wrote. He -IS- going to pull them because he -NEEDS- to pull them, haha, and that is exactly what he will do.

 

[F. Guffey]

I was at the the firing range when a reloadr/shooter next to me was doing everything he could do to pull the hammer back on his Model S&W 66; there was no way. So he tried to rotate the cylinder, nothing then he made an effort to swing the cylinder out with no luck so another shooter/reolader and I got involved. We drove his bullet back into the case and then opened his cylinder and emptied it.

We gave him his pistol back and he immediately went to loading it again. We reminded him he just dropped the hammer on a case with no powder and we wondered if he considered the possibility if one case got no powder how die he know the next round he fires has all the powder for both cases. We offered to stop shooting and help him with his reloading, we offered him all the ammo he could shoot and we offered to loan him reloading equipment he did not have. All we managed to do was make him mad and then he left.

I tried to convince him had he weighted his components he could determine the amount of powder in each case. I tried to convince him the last chance he had to check his ammo was before he pulled the trigger.

The other shooter reloader told me I did not know how to load for the 45 ACP, I tried his and his ammo did not work in my 45 ACPs, it did not hurt his feelings.

I do not live that far from the range so I went home and ‘fixed’ his reloads. After fixing his reloads his ammo flew through my 45 ACPS.

F. Guffey

 

[GWS]

Yes, once you lose your faith in a batch there's only one thing to do. PULL-EM.

I had to pull 25 .45 ACPs once....when I first got my Pro 2000 progressive. I was demoing my pride and joy to a Dillon guy, the day after he demoed his and spending some time with him picking up primers and powder all over the floor.

And still I didn't learn............You don't demo your machine until you are a sage operator of it....no matter what the color!

What I did was load 25 perfect cartridges and 25 leesssss than perfect cartridges......without primers.....and powder leaking out the bottoms. Very embarrassing. I learned that you have to keep feeding APS primer strips after the first one. duh.

I do other stupid things as well at times....hopefully they don't kill me. Paranoia is superior (and safer to reloaders) to complacency.

 

[5whiskey]

I had a similar experience recently. First squib in thousands of reloads. It was in 357 rounds I had loaded a long time ago (found them in the back of the gun safe). They may even be from my first year loading. All I heard was click and the trigger pull was hard on the follow up. I could swing the cylinder out and the bullet had barely budged from the crimp. I never realized that a squib would fail to fully push the bullet out of the case and make no pop. It wasn't until I noticed the cylinder was tight that I realized what happened.

I have since placed several extra QC points in my reloading process. I'm loading a ton of 223 right now and I have 4 or 5 checks, including visually inspecting each round in a batch for powder, shake test each finished round when I pull it off the press, keeping cases upside down in my tray until they have a powder charge... It definitely was an eye opener.

At the end of the day, we are all human and its nothing to sweat over.

 

[Nick_C_S]

g.willikers, I'm not concerned with another squib. I already did the shake test - they all have powder in them. My concern is a double charge.

I've already come to the logical conclusion that I must not have checked the powder levels before seating the bullets. That alone is a show-stopper. I won't knowingly shoot ammo where I didn't check the charge levels. Time to pull 'em.

 

[g.willikers]

You do realize that Murphy sez the things we worry about aren't the ones that actually happen.
The ones that happen mostly come as a complete surprise - like your squibs.
Since you are now worrying about a double charge, instead of a no charge, there's little chance of it.
Trust in Murphy.

 

[Nick_C_S]

Thank you g.willikers. I always appreciate your insight.

Murphy is always right - until you expect him to be

Sorry, I'm not Yogi Berra. That's the best I can do.

I know what you're saying. But I'm still pulling them.

 

[briandg]

As was said, once you lose faith in either your ammo or that package of lunch meat you find in the fridge, you're going to have a real hard time packing a sandwich and heading off to the range. Don't let your wife tell you that the salami is still good, and don't let your buddies tell you that the ammo is safe.

Fix a sandwich for the spousal unit, hand the ammo to your buddy and go step behind a berm. Follow your instincts, and don't let your personal sense of safety be chosen by the democratic process.

We voted to recall six city councilmen at a huge expense for special election. In another expensive special election, five ran and were reelected, federal indictments and all. I had pizza delivered to the next counsel meeting from stubbies pub and put out of order signs on all of the restrooms. Wish I could have been there for the festivities.

 

[GWS]

Brian, that made my day! Fighting elected politicians is like kicking rose bushes with bare feet......but I enjoy hearing about it, all the same! They are all bums! Now what were we talking about?

Ah! Squibs and other bad surprises......the thing I know about Murphy is his law is right on. If it is possible....it WILL happen and were not talking about the positive possibilities...those only happen if the negatives are made impossible.

 

[briandg]

Yes. Murphy never meant that some day a person will trip over a crack in the sidewalk and gently hover in space rather than falling.

I once had a student argue with me about gravity. It's just a theory, right? It's never been proven, right? You can't prove that it's impossible to just float in the air, can you?

Okay. Go jump off of the roof and test your theory that gravity can be cheated.

 

[GWS]

What! Flubber isn't real????? Another great subject for another forum. I actually saw gravity cheated once.......UFO.....okay subject closed! back to squibs!! The OP didn't see this coming, betcha.

 

[briandg]

My physics teacher explained gravity I th, trajectory, and many other principles by describing ing shooting monkeys out of trees.

 

[Clark]

Metal god
Yea right ? I parked the truck in my drive way 17 hours ago and it just now decides to roll out . He says REALY your tuck is across the street . I go out and sure enough there's my truck smashed through the wall .

I got a new truck this week and have been asking for help on how to drive it.
I am 65.
I ran into the hedge across the street.
I ran into the hedge along our driveway.

Just like this computer wants to update from Windows 8 to Windows 10 and I don't know what to do.... when the truck starts, it asks me if I want to update software.

I have put on about a mile a day. I need more practice.

The humbling thing about reloading is buying more 30-06 brass, and then putting it away on top of the 30-06 brass I bought last time, that was put on top of the 30-06 brass I bought the time before....

If all my mistakes were compiled in one place, I would get committed. So they are a secret.

 

[g.willikers]

Nick,
Don't feel badly about this mistake.
I once loaded 250 9mms with way too much powder.
The little slider on the scale had been bumped by the powder cup and I hadn't noticed until the rounds were all loaded.
Hoping to get lucky I pulled one, only to discover - no dice, gotta' pull them all.
Waste not, want not.
There was an upside, though.
After using an impact puller on 250 rounds, there was no reason to go to the gym for awhile.