My first reloads, hostile cans, and the rescue.

[Budda]

So, over last weekend, I reloaded 150 .38's with 125 cast lead bullets over 3.7grn of 700X. I am rather new to reloading and my father in law was helping look over my shoulder....we got to the powder and bullet step, and were adjusting the bullet seat depth. My father in law was showing me while I watched on as he would add powder a case, seat a bullet, check depth, adjust then repeat the process until he was satisfied with the depth. He then turn it over fully to me.....I grabbed a case put it in the press and added a bullet and pulled the lever...it looked PERFECT!! I was so happy that I quickly seated another, then another and another!!! LOOK AT THESE!! I showed my wife as she peeked in room...rolled her eyes and went back to watching soap-operas and eating Bon-Bons....(just kidding...but this is MY story). I was SOOOO pleased with how they were looking that I was holding a bright new .38 in my hand, rolling it around in my fingers and shining the light off its curves is when it happened......It hit me like a fat kid landing on your stomach in football practice.......I lost all my air....I looked over to the auto powder measure on the back of the press, I am sure I heard it laugh at me.......I turned around to my father in law who was putting a scope rail on his .30-30.......My face red with embarrassment.

"Lars", I said to get his attention, He looked up from his work. "Umm" i stuttered feeling more scared then asking for his permission to marry his best looking daughter. "I forgot to add powder".

Lars, lips went thin with disgust.....I about pooped my pants...."How many?" he asked calmly.

"I don't know" I said feeling an inch tall...."have your bullet puller?" I asked

He sighed and pulled out a box buried in a cabinet with his bullet puller.....we whacked three apart in about 15 mins we then decided to weigh them to sort them out but my brass is mixed and I did not know if they were consistent enough to be successful. So we weighed an empty case and a bullet thrown in to see what a no load looked like on the scale. So we counted 11 that I loaded with out powder. Good to go...

Fast forward 3 hours later, we drove out to our favorite shooting hole and shot 5 out of my Taurus 85 snub..... Perfect...5 bangs....5 dead hostile tomato cans at 25 feet. Feeling safe to reload another five rounds in my gun before the next wave of zombie cans came into range, I single actioned the next 5 rounds into another five hording cans.... Excellent....I then felt I was safe to grab the "big" gun...my 99% Colt Trooper MK III .357, I hurried before the last of the cans noticed their fallen brethren who died with valor just 40 feet away from me....these last 3 cans were about 50 yards away on this little ridge, looked like they got stuck in some sage brush. I took this opportunity to load the Colt with six of the .38's and slowly pull the hammer back to single action on these last bogies before my carnage is found out.....I two hand aimed and slowly started to squeeze the excellent no-slack trigger, and BANG! Dirt fllew up just a foot in front of the can.....I missed....Darn must be 60 yards not 50....I Set for single action again fast this time.... because my presence was well known to these last bogies....Bang...again...the report surprised me....a perfect trigger pull this time......Direct hit...the can back flipped out of the sage brush and rolled into a rock.....Two more to go.... set the hammer again.....slow squeeze......POW another down....the last can had tried to make a run for it rather than fight like his fallen buddies.....he was far left now...still about 60 yards...set trigger.........aim.......sqeeze and the hammer fell in slow motion....seemed like it took 5 seconds for the hammer to fall.....this felt like a scene from The Matrix.......then the hammer finaly made it to the transfer bar, and pushed the firing pin into the primer.......the next sound made my knees week and hair on the back of my neck go to full attention!

The sound.....how to explain.....it sounded like taking the lid off a chapstick too fast....or a finger out of a kids mouth while sucking on it...

"smmboonk" went the Colt......I found the last no-powder load I had put together, and it had lodged the bullet into the forcing cone, but no further......I was bummed.....I called my 7yr old over with his .22 and 4x scope to dispatch the last tomato juice can who was ROTFLHAO taunting me....(edited for language).

"Crack!" went the .22, the bullet found purchase at 60 yards and my 7yr old saved us from fate unknown.

I failed to dislodge the squib in the field....back to the Taurus 85 to finish off the last of the cans who were rolling around in pain at 25 yards...

"Here comes reinforcements!' I told my 7yr old...they snuck up to 25 feet again.... Round Two began.....with S&W, Ruger and Taurus.....Colt was never seen that day again.

And thus transpired on Saturday afternoon.

.......And I smiled.............

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[Olevern]

Nice tale/ when reloading I always put all the powder in all the cases, then shine a light into them to make sure all are charged with powder and none are double-charged. Good practice to get into.

Glad to see another youngster sharing our love with his pop.

vern

[Blammer]

ah, lessons learned and fun had, sounds like a good combo.

[Bloodman14]

He killed 'em with a Cricket?! Man, that is just sad.[smilie=s: Glad you had a good time!

[koehn,jim]

Valuable lesson learned, as long as you are safe and no damage, it will be a good learning tool.

[runfiverun]

bet that thin lipped look come briefly into your mind again just as you heard the pffft.

[Echo]

Great story, Budda! And +1 re having the Cricket well-manned.

[Bullet Caster]

Nice descriptive tale of the "cans". Nothing like practicality for a learning session. When I reload, I do the charge cases all in one step. Once the cases are all charged, I do the visual to check that all are charged and not doubled. The boolit seating is then the next step. You know, just like the old IBM 360, batch mode processing. BC

[a.squibload]

Good report.
Good to have backup... with a scope!

I prefer the one at a time method, case gets powder and a look,
then into the shell holder for a boolit.
If I stop there are only empty cases on the bench.
Absolutely impossible to get a squib load.

I hope!

[Budda]

So years later, countless reloads later. Not one more squib.

I did sell the Colt Trooper though.... :(

[snuffy]

Next time you suspect you have a shell that may have no powder in it, take the shell, place it it the small end of your powder funnel. Point the top/big end of the funnel towards your ear. Shake the shell and funnel holding the shell tightly into the bottom of the funnel. You'll clearly hear the powder as it bounces around inside the case.

Your small charge of 700-X would move around a lot, so you can hear it. (This is mainly for us old £arts that can't hear too well, like me!):-x The kids can hear it without the funnel. The funnel acts like a megaphone, amplifying the sound.

Best bet is to prevent it in the first place! As others have said the old tried and true method of single stage loading, dropping powder in all cases at once, can't be beat. Those of us with powder check dies on our progressives, just don't have to worry. OOPS, I may have just started a discussion/argument with those that think progressives are the main cause of squibs/ no powder loads![smilie=b:[smilie=f:

[Wayne Smith]

Had one of those in the 32-20 last time we went shooting. I keep a short piece of brass rod in the shooting box. That and a rock and we were back shooting in no time.

[Budda]

I still use the whack a mole. I size and load to completion each round. Works well for me. After powder it gets boolit and crimped right away.

I load .38 .44mag and .223 this way.

It is slow but I don't shoot much.

I did add an auto prime though. That is way faster!!!