Hiccup At The Loading Bench

[alamogunr]

I have always prided myself in being very careful when reloading(as well as casting). Yesterday I was at the range checking some .243 loads before turning them over to the grandsons. Got pretty good consistency thru the chronograph. These were low mid-level loads for them to use for practice.

Now to the purpose of this post. I also had 2 samples of .45 ACP loads that I wanted to get some idea of how strong they were. Two different powders were involved and I had loaded between 40 and 50 rounds of each. I only brought 5 rounds from each batch to check. The first 5 rounds registered 825fps to 860fps. So far so good. The next shot with the different powder, same boolet registered less than 200 fps. It felt different and the case did not eject. Same for the next 4 rounds.

Today I pulled the boolets from the remaining cartridges in that batch. I dumped the powder into a plastic container and brushed the powder from the lube on the boolet. I know I missed some but not that much. When all boolets were pulled, I weighed the accumulated powder. It averaged a little over 1 grain per cartridge.

I obviously screwed up somewhere and it must have been when I set the measure and the scale. I usually check the charge every 10-12 throws so the scale must not have been set. The only thing I can think of is that I failed to reset the scale's 1 grain increment when I set the 10 grain increment to zero. It should have been set at 6.0 grains of Unique. This is still a light load but it would have operated the slide and registered around 700-750 or more on the chrono.

My face is still RED!

[DeanoBeanCounter]

I don't know what kind of press you have. Mine's just a single stage. Can't do this with a progressive press. I fill up with 50 shells and shine a flash light in every one of the shells. If it doesn't look right the I try again and make the correction. Mind you I said if it doesn't LOOK right. Never mind if it is the correct amount of power or not. Don't know if this helps or not but that's my 2 cents worth.
Dean

[kartooo]

i have a progressive and can see inside the cases as they come around for bullet seating.
i look at every one as they come around.
just be glad you were on the - side not the + side with your load !!!

[starmac]

I am in the look at every round camp myself.

[USAFrox]

I reload on a single stage, and throw all my powder at the same time, before seating any bullets. Then I take a flashlight and look at every shell filled with powder to make sure they all have the same level of powder (easy to do in a loading block). That way I make sure they all have the same ballpark right amount before seating all the bullets. I learned to do this after skipping putting ANY powder in one and only one .45 ACP round, and sticking it into the barrel. The primer had enough oomph to kick the bullet out of the case and lodge it in the lands at the barrel throat. Luckily it was far enough back to keep the next round from going completely into battery, or that would have really ruined my day.

[alamogunr]

I normally do as most recommended. Yes, If I had done that this time I would have caught the error. I can't explain why I changed my procedure as well as I can't explain my setting of the scale. I may have to set up a written checklist if this is a symptom of aging.

[starmac]

It amazes me that this doesn't happen more with factory ammo, you know that they are not looking at every round.

[km101]

I load on both single stage and progressive presses, and I STILL look at every round for powder level.

In the near future I am going to get a powder check die for my progressive to ensure that I don't miss anything, but I will still check visually.

[375supermag]

I drop powder through a Little Dandy measure.
I visually check each case and weigh every tenth charge.
Does it slow things down a bit?
Sure does and it's worth every minute of time it takes.

FWIW...when I load rifle ammunition I weigh every powder charge.
I have enough time to do it the safest way.

[opos]

Old and very slow here but got nowhere to go....I load single stage press and I weigh and inspect every charge and seat the projectile right away after charging and looking so no chance of a double (or should I say less chance)...Never had a squib and never had an over charge (Yet!!) I'm not cocky...I'm just older and in no hurry for anything. I have never used a progressive or automated press of any kind....I guess I'd still be using a dial phone if I could figure out how to press 1 for English.

[C.F.Plinker]

I put the empty pan on the scale and zero the pointer. Then I set the poises to the weight of the charge I am weighing. As the final check I put check weights that equal the charge weight in the pan. If it is within one or two tenths of a grain I will do a final zero adjustment, otherwise I will need to find out what is causing the error be it the setting of the poises or putting the wrong amount of check weights it the pan.

[DLCTEX]

I was loading 243 for my grandson for deer hunting one evening. I normally use my tried and true RCBS scale, but my son had borrowed it so I put my Lyman 100 to work. Needing 42 gr. of the powder I chose I set the large poise one space back from 50. then moved the small poise to 2 gr. and loaded 20 rounds. As this was a proven load I did not fire to test. The next day before he went hunting I decided to load another caliber and during adjusting the scale I realized the Lyman scale was five gr. per mark, not 10 as my RCBS scale is. This meant the large poise was set on 45 gr., not 40 as intended. I stopped him from using those rounds and am now much more aware of the difference between the scales. 42 gr. is not a max load and 47 gr. probably would not have caused problems, but in the case of my grandson the thought of such an error was sickening.