Perils of Reloading

[Jeff Higgins]

Ammunition reloading is not for the stupid or inattentive. This is what a double charge of fast burning pistol powder will do to a revolver. I've seen this too many times; that's why I like to use slower burning powders that will fill these large cases, precluding such a double charge.

[stomachmonkey]

So did Snowman survive that little mishap?

[tabs]

Some one could have gotten hurt with that thing going off like that!

[emcon5]

Damn, did the other 2 charges ignite? I would be suprised if they did, but the way the cases were sheared off is strange.

[Geronimo '74]

Wow, looks like someone "dodged a bullet" there...

[vash]

HOLY! that bullet must have gone off at lightspeed!

did the shooter get hurt? whose pistol is that?

[Jeff Higgins]

A shooting buddy sent me the picks. The gun wound up in a gun shop that a friend of his owns. The guy wasn't hurt.

I had some meathead pull this same stunt while standing right next to me in a gravel pit one day about 25 years ago. His was a Ruger Blackhawk in .41 mag, damaged in much the same way, but with the barrel pointing down as well. Double charge of Unique was the suspected culprit. It sprayed shards all over me; luckily it was a cold winter day and I was pretty bundled up. It still managed to bloody the side of my face a bit, but with ear muffs and safety glasses, none of the shards hit anything important. He was okay, too - this never seems to harm the shooter, just those unfortunate enough to be standing next to him.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

So did Snowman survive that little mishap?

Was thinking the very same thing!

He ended up playing games with me on the reloader, raising the price and so on. Hope he is happy where-ever he is...

[legion]

When handloading .38 special and .32 S&W long, I have a system in place to help me avoid double loads:

1) Primed cartridges are placed face-down in the reloading tray. They are flipped face-up when they receive powder. (This helps me keep track of where I am on the tray.)

2) I use an automatic digital scale. It tells me how many times it has dispensed a given load. When it tells me it has dispensed 20 times, I better be on the 20th shell. Step #1 helps me know this.

3) After a whole tray receives its powder, I look down the case neck of each shell on the entire tray, moving up and down the grid so that every case is seen. A double-load is easy to spot as the powder sits MUCH higher.

I have caught mistakes with all three methods above. I have never fired a double-charge that I know of.

[Jeff Higgins]

I prefer full cases, if not even compressed charges. Granted, that is easier to achieve in rifle loads, but it can be done is pistol and revolver loading as well. Magnum revolver loads are the easiest as far as finding powders to fill the case; 2400, W-W 296, H110 and the like will fill 'em up. Impossible to double charge with any of those.

Small capacity autos are next easiest. Unique, W-W 231, Universal Clays, and other powders in that burning range will generally fill even a .45 ACP case enough to preclude double charging.

It's the old, low pressure "standard" revolver rounds that are the toughest. Most perform at their best with light charges of relatively fast burning powders; charges that rarely even fill half of the available case capacity. Those make me very nervous. I've taken to using powders on the slow end of suitable for those, even going as slow as 2400 in standard velocity .38 Specials, .44 Specials and .45 Colts.

The .45 Colt is the worst of the lot, with a case meant to hold 40 grains of black powder. Typical loads with fast pistol powders are in the range of seven grains of 231 or nine grains of Unique. One could conceivably get far more than a double charge into one. My "standard" load of 16 grains of 2400 fills the case over 3/4 full, as the 2400 bulks up so much more than black powder. A double charge will spill over the top, immediately alerting me that something is wrong.

The other important safety step I employ is to store the powder away from my loading bench, only allowing one can at a time out on that bench. The powder measure is emptied and the can returned to storage before the next can comes out. It is often impossible to tell by appearance what is in the measure, especially with ball powders or extruded powders. The wrong powder can be even more dangerous than a double charge of the correct powder. Imagine loading 80 grains of W-W 296 into a .375 H&H case when you thought you were loading W-W 760... probably wouldn't survive that one...

[masraum]

It looks like that's a novel way to combat muzzle flip.

I suspect the guy that fired that gun may have pooped a little when that happened.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

So did Snowman survive that little mishap?

Ahhh, the good old days. Come to think of he went out with a bang also.....

[azasadny]

I think almost any hobby/activity can be dangerous if you don't carefully follow instructions, test/remeasure and recheck everything. I've only been reloading handgun and rifle ammo since last October, but I've been very careful and really enjoy shooting ammo that I've made myself. Reloading is not a hobby for the "looks good enough to me" guys, you really need to be detail-oriented and have a keen appreciation for what you're doing and the materials you're working with.

[targa911S]

I just don't shoot reloads. I don't care who reloads them.

[on2wheels52]

"HOLY! that bullet must have gone off at lightspeed!"

Typically it's the opposite, the powder ignition was closer to 'detonation' than combustion and the projectile fails to get the 'push' all the way down the barrell.
Jim

[Jeff Higgins]

Jim's right; sometimes the bullet doesn't even leave the barrel (in rifles, anyway). Pressure simply dissipates too quickly to continue to force the bullet down the bore. That, and they don't make as much noise as if they had fired correctly. It's more of a dull "whump" than the sharp crack we normally hear. So, really, the shot itself doesn't scare the shooter. Looking at the gun afterwards to see why it sounded funny tends to, though.

I can't remember the last time I fired a commercially loaded round in any of my rifled arms (I don't reload shotgun shells). Going on probably 30 years now, without any trouble whatsoever. In excess of a couple hundred thousand rounds in all, by actual record, between a once very active match career, load development, and just fun plinking. There is nothing to be afraid of, but it is not for the inattentive or careless.

One thing I absolutely will not do, however, is buy and shoot someone else's reloads. I will happily fire my shooting buddies' guns with their reloads, but they will never be fired in my guns. There are lots of reasons not to do that.

[berettafan]

Originally Posted by targa911S

I just don't shoot reloads. I don't care who reloads them.

for shame! sorta. i'd never trust someone elses reloads. using a progressive press really takes a lot of the potential for double powder charges out of the equation.

used to cringe at the idea of paying $5/box for AA or STS when i could load exactly what i liked for less than half that. then i found i wasn't shooting enough and was just too busy to justify keeping 100's of lbs of lead shot, 1,000's of primers and a large amount of powder on hand at all times. so i sold my Mec9000G and supplies, bought a case or two of the fiocchi i preferred at the time (crusher is the name, nice light but fast load) and was happy.

then ammo prices went through the roof!

definitely a whole 'nother level of care req'd to load multiple calibers of rifle/pistol ammo. the only variable when i reloaded was shot size. never had to worry about different powders and so forth.

[targa911S]

That's it exactly for me. I shoot but not enough to warrant reloading. I just buy a flat of each and shoot til they are gone.

[jriera]

I can do something even better than that!!! (don't try this at home)

What about dropping a primer inside the cartridge along with the powder ...

[azasadny]

I've seen commercial ammo that failed or was incorrectly built at the factory (rifle cartridges that failed due to sufficient crimp, pistol cartridges with no primer, etc...) so reloads aren't the only ammo that may have problems.