Improper mold fill out; not just a human problem

[hornady308]

Pulled out a mold that I haven't used before and found that I am not the only being on this planet to have improper mold fill out on occasion.
128604

It seems the mud daubers in my area could use some help with their raw materials.

[country gent]

Atleast it dosnt appear to have caused it to rust

[wallenba]

Critters. I had a dead spider in my Uniflow once. Had me fearsome confused for a while as to why my normally accurate measure was whacko.

Came back from a two week vacation once, to find that wasps had built a nest in the quarter panel of my Crown Vic. They accessed it through the finger lift of my fuel cap door, then down a little hole.

[hornady308]

Spiders will wreak havoc on powder measures, powder funnels and scales. I wish I could figure out how to stop them.

[Dale53]

[QUOTE=hornady308;3109064]Spiders will wreak havoc on powder measures, powder funnels and scales. I wish I could figure out how to stop them.[/QUOTE
Kill Them!! lol
When I was a youngster, I was a home appliance repairman. My specialty was automatic laundry equipment. Spiders building webs in gas appliances caused me fits the first time or two I ran into this. I DO NOT like the critters. In fact, I had a kind of irrational fear of them. However, I got cured of that when I came face to face (so close I couldn't focus on "him") with a VERY large spider under an automatic washing machine. I nearly tore my head off recoiling from the contact. Then, close examination revealed it was a spider "skeleton" of a tarantula sized spider. I got so mad at myself for being so scared of a dead spider that the fear pretty much disappeared.

Now, when I think about the issue I realize me being fearful of spiders was a GOOD thing. I was raised on a farm and outhouses were the norm. Black Widow spiders used to build webs across the underneath of toilet seats. They are extremely poisonous and if bitten in a sensitive part of the anatomy, SERIOUS results are to be expected. One learned to clear the toilet seat area before sitting down.

Just remember, a dead spider will NOT disqualify you for heaven - on the contrary, a high count might help to ensure entry;)...

Back on topic. Many of us reload in a basement. I reload in a finished basement and it is dry, so spiders are not common. They seem to thrive in damp conditions. Of course, a lot of that depends on if there is something for them to feed on. At any rate, it definitely pays to keep an eye out for the critters. I am especially attentive to my powder measures and drop tubes.

I do NOT store bullet molds in my casting barn simply BECAUSE of "mud dobbers". Typically, they will ruin anything of iron or steel that they build their mud nests in. I had a friend who came back from a varmint hunt and set his Remington Model 722 in the corner of his attached garage for just a couple of days. A mud dobber (wasp) built a nest inside and that fine shooting .222 ended up with a severely pitted barrel where they built their nest (some inches down from the muzzle).

I personally was shooting my custom high end Schuetzen rifle at a National Match. We had steel lockers in a club house to keep our rifles over night. A wasp entered the locker through the ventilating slits and built a nest in my custom match rifle barrel. BAD!! A half minute plain base lead bullet rifle almost overnight became non-competitive.

FWIW
Dale53

[CastingFool]

Spiders will also make nests on various gas appliances found on camping trailers. You may have two full 30 lb propane tanks, but with a spider nest in the gas tube, the appliance won't light up.

[Blackwater]

Well, Dale, you're not the only one to succumb to arachnifobia (sp?). I too was, and still AM, irrationally afraid of spiders. A few occasions in the outhouse as you describe as a kid, before we got indoor plumbing in '56, and I was left with a permanently imprinted fear of the creepy, silent sumbix ever since. You just have no defense until you're bit, unless you see them first, and that always requires you LOOK for them purposefully. Many years ago now, Dad went out on the oak ridge by the house in search of wood grubs to fish for catfish. A buddy had caught a big mess of rather large ones using that bait, and he aimed to do likewise, or try. He turned over an old rotten log, saw a black "marble" embedded in the decaying mess, and picked it up. It then suddenly "grew" big, long legs, and he saw that red hourglass on its abdomen - a black widow. I wasn't with him when it happened had to study for a test the next day - but he came back to the house immediately after picking up that spider, that old 3-war Marine had a look of great "concern" on him that clearly showed SOMETHING bad had happened. When he told me what had happened, the story "put the shivers in me" as my son once said long ago now. This is a big part of the REASON that we're SUPPOSED to check the bore EVERY time we pick up a gun intending to shoot it. Can't say I do that always, but ..... I'm getting better at it ..... slowly. We "new millenials" take too much for granted these days, even sometimes us old farts that know better. Remember that old admission, "I knew better, I just didn't DO better?" I don't hear it much any more. Just more and lamer excuses, but that's jus the way of the world today. Dang it!

[beagle]

I have also had a spider in the Uniflow. Reckon they're partial to RCBS stuff?

[OptimusPanda]

I bought a big bag of 9mm brass that had been neglected and left open for a while. About a quarter of the cases had dead spider eggs in them...

[hpdrifter]

I hate mud dobbers.

[Sekatoa]

My garage is most underground, built into the hill the rest the house sits on. It's finished and quite dry, but critters love to attempt to emerge from the joint between the wall and the floor. Since its dry, a one time heavy coat of boric acid I forced into the crack along the entire perimeter has worked for years. I only find dead spiders or here friends that went through the powder to get in, and promptly died.

Boric acid is great stuff for this purpose, and will until it gets wet.

[Walter Laich]

spiders are evil!

[Tatume]

I ran down the runway one time but didn't take off because I had zero airspeed. Instead I returned to the ramp and used my pocketknife to clear the mud dauber nest from my airspeed pitot. I should have caught it on the preflight; never made that mistake again!

[gwpercle]

Raid Wasp & Hornet Killer, does them dirt daubbers and spideys don't care for it either!

Gary

[bruce381]

you guys are babys now mosquitos that to me is worst thing at night in my ears.

[dondiego]

I once saw a Michigan mosquito overtake and kill a hummingbird! Sucked him dry.