I loaned a set of 243W dies to a friend who loaded up several boxes of ammo and has also shot some of it. I got the dies back and started to prep some cases and found the expander ball missing. Not a big deal as its a cheap item...................but I got to thinking of WtH that expander ball might be and what if its in a loaded cartridge?

So I called my buddy and asked him to look all over for it and if he couldnt find it to make sure that he checked all his unused ammo. Now I dont see how this could happen because when I prep a case I trim, ream the flash hole, clean the primer pocket, chamfer, and then polish. When taking the shells out of the tumbler I make sure theres no media left inside....so it should be next to impossible for this to happen.

Also, I'm thinking that without a expander ball it would be hard to start a bullet for seating unless you were seating boat-tails. Well I called him back just to ask and sure enough he loaded boat tails.

So in your experience, do you think this could happen and what if it did and the cartridge was fired???

He can weigh all his loaded ammo just to make sure it’s not in one of them.

Assuming he is using the expander while sizing, when the expander pulled out it should have stuck in the neck making it impossible to get powder into the case. If it somehow got into a charged case and was sitting mixed in with the powder and the shell was fired, some really bad things could happen although I don't see how that could have happened.

Actually that was our plan. Plan B was check all loaded cartridges with a strong magnet.

The magnet is a great idea!