Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Why I quit reloading a cautionary tale

about 10 years ago I started reloading with my BIL,I got a Dillon rl450b? and all the stuff to do it right.
we were chugging along and had probably made about 1000 rounds for 38,357,45acp,9mm altogether with no problems,we were taking our time and we even made a check list to insure saftey.

we were going to intoduce my other non shooting BIL to shooting so we made 1000 rounds of 38 spcl and went to the range.
on my second cylinder of rounds with my mod 66 the 2nd shot went pop not POP!
just about the same time my newbie BIL comes over and says he thinks he has the same problem shooting my 686.
so now I have 2 revolvers with bullets lodged in the barrels,only by the grace of god the newb didn't fire a 2nd round.
we ran through our check list and were scratching our heads at how this could have happened until Bingo,the spring for the powder feed came off and we never noticed it!
so we chucked all the ammo we made and the gear has been in the attic ever since.
just trying to prevent a catastrophe

Of course nothing could ever go wrong in an ammunition factory, right?

I have always been leery of progressives. I know that a huge number of people use them, but I am the type of person who can always be the one to justify "if it can go wrong, it will go wrong".

As a rule I try to do all the reloading by myself, if not my brohter in law comes over to help but we have our own jobs. To many distractions are a bad thing. But I know that sometime something will go wrong I just hope I am paying enough attention to notice. HAPPY HUNTING

I'm sure you'd find a buyer right here on this board for that 450, ADK. But price it low, because Dillon no longer officially supports that model. No sense cluttering up the attic.

Why not use that as a learning experience, and carry on? Chit happens. I have had plenty of stuff go wrong, but got smart quick. That's life for ya!

this is why I have a powder check on my progressive.

It's not a problem - i hear the alarm sound and know - oops

Adapt and overcome..

So two misfires and youre done? Wow, people sure are results oriented, especially given such a small sample size. Im in the market for some reloading equipment, if you want to sell PM me.

I didn't get the nickname "Shrapnel" from serving in Viet Nam. A couple of "pop pop's" sure wouldn't make me stop reloading, as a matter of fact a couple of KA-BOOMS didn't stop me.

Granted, blowing up guns isn't cheap or healthy, but I am still reloading. Just as you mentioned about your spring on your powder measure, I experienced a similar problem with a primer feed, which ultimately led to a double charge on a Dillon 550.

I didn't call or blame Dillon, I realized how important it was to pay attention to every step in the reloading process to avoid these catastrophic results.

My apologies to those of you who have seen this picture before, but this is what a corner of my basement looks like with the reloaders that I use, I will continue on, reminding everyone to just be careful!

Now that's a bench I like to see.

"Clean" benches make me nervous...

Clint Smith has a collection of factory ammo with "issues" that would AMAZE any shooter. Granted, he see's a lot more factory ammo than almost all of us put together in a year. But, it does happen.

In fact, the only gun boo-boo that I ever had was in an AR15 of mine firing factory S&B M193 equivelent loads. One of the flash holes in a case was so big, it blew the primer out the back end. No, the rifle didn't fire out of batterey either. I looked over several other fired cases from the same lot, and several other flash holes were .150" or so.

I've loaded well over 100,000 rounds on a Dillon 550, and I've not had a single boo boo yet.

Glad to hear that no one was hurt. I've managed to screw up during reloading plenty of times. But after each faulty procedure, it sure as heck never happened again. Get that reloader back out and keep going! You already figured out what the problem was and I'm sure it will not be an issue in the future.

So, did you quit eating because Momma once burned the biscuits?

I just got really spooked because I could've hurt my sisters husband.
then life took over babies and such,I've been thinking about doing it again.
I guess the point of my story was look out for the small things.

I wasn't blaming Dillon,just wanted to let you know what I was using.it was purely an operator malfunction.

With my Chargemaster I never have to worry about not having exactly the right charge.

If I ever got into reloading high volume rounds (45APC, 9mm), I would probably get a Dillion. But since I reload all rifle rounds (20 - 50 max at a time), I use a single stage press.
I verify all new loads with at least two manuals for charge range; weighing every charge I throw; and weighing the rounds after I'm done.

"Measure twice cut once", "Look Left, then Right, and then Left again before turning", or just plain over kill, I try to be as cautious as possible.

Just remember the two ladies of reloading Patience and Prudence.

Which is one reason I weigh every charge�

ADK4Rick: I taught myself to reload Rifle ammunition 48 years ago at age 12!
Thank God I have all my fingers and eyes in tact!
Like someone else here mentioned I DO NOT TRUST progressives!
In fact the VarmintWife and the VarmintBrother got together about 15 years ago and unbeknownst to me, they bought me a brand new Dillon Progressive 550 Loading Press and all the bells and whistles to make several calibers of Rifle ammo FAST!
That Dillon 550 Progressive has as yet to make a single round of ammunition!
I do the thousands of centerfire Rifle rounds I make every year ONE at a time on a single stage press!
Having said those things, IF the progressive press was your first loading tool then I fault with that decision.
And having said that, I have seen many, many dozens of revolvers (made by Smith & Wesson!) loaded up with 2 (two) and 3 (three) bullets "stuck" in their barrels!
Haven't seen any injuries caused by these though!
The source of this not so rare situation was an electric powered "progressive" press making target loads to the tune of hundreds of thousands of rounds a year.
If you like to shoot and shoot a "fair" amount I would sell the progressive press and get a single stage press and get back to handloading - the money savings alone should motivate you to do that let alone the customized and accurate ammo you can make cheaper than factory.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

One needs to be just as careful handloading as they are handling a firearm.

They only time I've had a bad load was from an indoor range that had inexpensive reloads for practicing. I was using my buddies alloy framed 1911, and my friend was shooting. One round drove the slide back so hard that the force that cocked the mainspring broke the bottom of the frame.