Casting and Reloading Accidents! Share Your Stories!

[Land Owner]

I cleaned and washed several hundred 223 cases. I took the concave expanded screen from the fire pot, turned it over, poured the wet cases in, and fired up the optional burner on the side of the grill. Then I took my sweet time heating those cases to get the water out fast. Annealing the whole case is a real bad idea. I did not think about those brass primer pockets being softened.

While individually hand priming 50 cases there was no direct evidence of poor primer tension. The cases looked discolored in red, orange, yellow, and white. Loaded mid-level with Win 748, a 55 grain pill, and shot from a bull barrel Handi-rifle, the primers (PLURAL) exited the back of the case, slammed into the bolt face, and OPENED the ACTION. FOUR TIMES I SHOT THAT LOAD before my brain functioned and said enough is enough.

I had shot that same load in that same rifle MANY TIMES before and since, the action never jarred opened. The Primer pockets (and whole cases) on that day were far too soft. I unloaded, deprimed, and crushed them all.

[Echo]

My Offering is a TF visit that never happened. I bought a SAECO furnace, 4-banger mold 2/handles, and a box of solder snippets from an old rummy gunsmith who was retiring. The equipment was well-used, but the price was right. And I showed a very unusual burst of smart - I went through that 8x8x8 box of solder snippets with a fine-tooth comb. And found about a half-dozen small primers. Carrumba! Think what would have happened if had dumped that box into a melt...

[koehlerrk]

I've made some mistakes... worst one was having a 10lb ingot roll off the table and smash my big toe... it turned all sorts of colors and then the nail popped off 3 days later. X-ray confirmed I had broken it, wife made me get it checked when it wasn't getting better after a week. Sooo.. anyone know how good it feels to have a splint taped to your big toe with no toenail? Let's say the only thing that hurt worse than putting it on was taking it off.

[Bongo Boy]

Well, my big story is squibs. Over the past say 5 years, I've had maybe 8 squibs. The first one blew up the barrel on a Sig P220, and it was a bitch getting the gun apart. The rest of them were all recognised before any damage ocurred. I don't have no squibs no more. Just about the most insidious loading error a feller can have. Nasty. A contributing factor is shooting fast...I mean really fast. You shoot as fast as you can for a couple of years, you don't even notice or hear the squib.

[rr2241tx]

Have a plan that minimizes the opportunity to make mistakes, and stick to it. I had determined that a certain lot of military surplus 8x57 shot much more accurately in my rifle if the powder charge was reduced 10% and that the point of impact was something like 18 inches lower at 100 yards than the original load. An opportunity to go hunting arose unexpectedly and having none of the 90% loads for which my rifle was zeroed, I rushed downstairs with the intention of making a box of ammo for the next day's hunt. Plan: pull the bullets, dump powder into powder measure already set for the 90% charge, weigh each charge and reseat the bullets. But, Mr. Wizard got to thinking that if I measured out the desired charge on the scale, dumped the excess powder, then reassembled the cartridge before moving to the next one it would save time and that's what I proceeded to do, 100 times before being called to supper. After supper, I went back down and boxed up 20 for the hunt.

Midafternoon the last day of the hunt the best buck I'd ever seen alive strode into my sendero at about 70 yards and angling toward me. Not wanting to lose a lot of meat I decided to shoot a high neck shot. He went down like a bale of 80s junk bonds! When I got to where he went down, the ground was all torn up but he was gone. Never touched a hair. On the way home, I pulled the empty case out of my pocket and sure enough, the primer was ironed out flat as it could be, just like the original, "too hot" load. I pulled the remaining 99 from that batch and there was 1 more that I had neglected the "dump the excess" step on as well. I saw the buck again a month after season closed, shot him with my index finger pistol. I know I got him that time.

[ColColt]

No real horror stories, thankfully but early on when I first started casting back in the 70's I wore sandals in the summer months and that was a big mistake. One drop of 750 degree lead between the big and index toe was a quick lesson in wearing regular shoes...and long sleeve shirts. If bare skin is exposed lead will see it and jump on that bare spot. The lesson was learned very quickly and adhered to.

[detox]

I was spraying One Shot aerosol case lube too close to my gas hot water heater and a big fireball erupted and quickly went out. Cases were on floor about 4 feet from heater while spraying. I never told my wife, but I bet she could hear my hands playing the drums on the floor.

[detox]

My Lee Drip O Matic emptied all 20 pounds of lead onto wood picnic table. It was hard to get all that thin and solidified lead back into the pot.

[milsurpcollector1970]

shooting an inline muzzle load with loose pyrodex, the slug kept bouncing off the powder charge. Static electricity (I think) set off the powder charge. Almost blew my trigger finger off. After about 6 months I had 80% use of it back. Haven't touched a ML since. Gun club almost kicked me out said I was negligent. I guess I was, experience is a hard teacher sometimes

[milsurpcollector1970]

Was melting some boolits from an estate sale in my 10lb pot when a 22 short that was in there went off. Got lead all over my new carhartt coat and a new pair of shoes . I was able to scrape it off my coat. Threw the shoes away.

[groovy mike]

I tried using "One Shot" lube and destroyed a die with a case stuck in it. About a year later I tried it again and messed up another resizing die. I'll stick to RCBS lube from now on.

[dondiego]

You have to clean your dies of all other lube before you use Oneshot.

[Ola]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...d-the-hard-way

[Blackwater]

I refuse to tell on myself. Well, OK, I have in the past, but the main thing I can contribute here is that if you'll notice, it's always our foresight and GOOD habits that enable us to make a mistake now and then, and still not have to pay too badly for a mistake. That's why we never let a gun, loaded or not, point toward anything we're not willing to kill or destroy. Anticipating the probability of an accident sooner or later is one of the wisest thing we fallible human creatures do. Even the "near misses" are rather invigorating and memorable, and help engrave safety habits in us more indelibly.

[groovy mike]

You have to clean your dies of all other lube before you use Oneshot.

. I'll never use it again, but the remainder of the can is in my office desk - 50 miles from my reloading bench so that I can oil squeaky chair springs. It wont hurt anything there.

[BrianL]

shooting an inline muzzle load with loose pyrodex, the slug kept bouncing off the powder charge. Static electricity (I think) set off the powder charge. Almost blew my trigger finger off. After about 6 months I had 80% use of it back. Haven't touched a ML since. Gun club almost kicked me out said I was negligent. I guess I was, experience is a hard teacher sometimes

I had a similar situation when loading my 12 gauge double using plastic shot cups. Not the detonation but the whole charge kept riding up off of the powder.

[taco650]

I've had the tinsel fairy come a couple times when smelting. Also had a squib from not putting powder in the case which locked up my 44mag and required dropping a rod down the barrel and beating the bullet back into the case. Also have had head separation several times with my 303 British. The chamber is fat on my #1 Mk3 and I used some loads I'd made for my dad's #4 Mk1 that had been FL resized. The loads were safe loads and 303's are known for this but it was still my fault because I'm too cheap to buy new brass which reminds me that I need to get some more...

Bottom line, follow established safety rules. In the 35 years I've been reloading I've done this for the most part and its saved me grief. Close calls will happen to the best of us but if you're casting in flip flops and shorts or ignoring legitimate loading manual guidelines and the like, you're asking for serious, potentially life threatening problems.

[olafhardt]

I use to flux with chicken scratch , a mixture of grains, this one batch had some popcorn in it. I don't do that anymore.

[Catshooter]

I tried using "One Shot" lube and destroyed a die with a case stuck in it. About a year later I tried it again and messed up another resizing die. I'll stick to RCBS lube from now on.

Yep, that can happen when you don't read and follow the instructions.

OneShot is great lube, I've used it without a problem for years and years.


Cat

[altheating]

One while casting my pot had to be refilled so while it was melting I decided to sweep up sprues that had missed the tray. I swept them up and dumped them into the pot. Well it seems a lone live primer got swept up with the sprues and as soon as it hit the molten lead it exploded. Thank god there was a bunch of unmelted sprues on top of the molten lead as there was only a small bit of splatter, but the noise was like standing next to a 22lr, sure made my ears ring. Lesson learned, pick the sprues up by hand.