theres a 1st time for everything

[tdoyka]

i was cleaning out my desk drawer when i found 45 cartridges in 270win. i knew i had them, but 20 years go by and i forget the load. so i pulled the bullets out, dumped the powder and now i have 45 150gr bt. since i don't use the ballistic tips(i use the sst), what to do with them. so i texted my brother and he said he'll take them(bt).

so today i decided to load the bt up and give them to my brother. i primed 45 of the 270win and i put in what i thought was h4831sc and then i put the bullet on top. i didn't check to see my powder fill up the case. i might have been thinking of something else, i may have been distracted, but i did not check the powder fill on the 2 cartridges i have done. on the third cartridge i did check the powder fill. i said to myself, h4831sc doesn't compress the bullet? does it? so i leave it there on my reloading tray. so i take my Hornady Lock-N-Load Auto Charge Powder Scale and Dispenser and check to see if i entered it right. i did, 57.0gr of h4831sc, so let me see another cartridge. it measures out 57gr and i put in the cartridge, it does the same thing, it compresses the bullet.

and then i look to see the powder....................h4198!!!!! i almost fell over!!! how did i do that? THINKING OF SOMETHING ELSE!!!!! the only thing i could consider, i was thinking of something else when i should have been thinking on the powder i have used. i could just see my brother bloodied up and holding his now completely destroyed rifle, knowing that it was MY fault. i'm just lucky that i caught it in time. i don't know how much of h4198 is needed to "blow up" the rifle and i never will!!!

i have been reloading 25+/- years and i have never "mixed" up powder. to "mixed" up powder on someone else's rifle and he/she shoot the "mixed" up powder and the biggest thing would be the poor person's health. to be injured or cause death because I mistook something else, is NOT right. not in anyone's book.....

i'm sorry. i have never mixed up powder in 25+/- years. knowing that i could hurt or kill someone else. i'm just reminding you to check on everything and then check it again, and if you are not sure, check it a third time, fourth, fifth......... just check it.

[Jkrem]

Well, you caught it which is the most important thing. And a quality control lesson learned.

[NoAngel]

I picked up CFE pistol a while back and poured it into my Lyman 55. I knew something didn't look right so I stopped......... I wanted CFE223. That could have been BAD! All my CFE pistol gets orange duct tape on the lid from now on and stored on a totally different shelf on the other side of my work place. I always store pistol and rifle separate but the shelves are next to one another. Not any more. Shelves are now very much separate.

Poop happens. Good you caught it before it hit the fan.

[Texas by God]

Yep, that would have been BAD in every sense of the word!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

[DerekP Houston]

Yikes, makes me feel slightly better about my paranoia when loading though =). Good thing you caught it!

[NoAngel]

I knew as soon as I poured it that it was wrong, but I STILL made the mistake of picking up the wrong one. I really like the new CFE powders but using the same moniker was none to brilliant. Add to that red/green color blindness and I really have to be mindful of what i do.

[Bloodman14]

I once picked up my Lee 1.9cc dipper when I had reached for the 1.0; as they are plastic, and use the same font, and are the same color (obviously), I missed it. Loaded 3 rounds of 7.62x39 for my Yugo SKS with 1.9cc's of 2400, not 1.0. Pulled the trigger on the first one, the mag blew out the bottom of the receiver, the bolt was jammed in the rails at an odd angle, the other two rounds were on the ground, and smoke was rolling from the action. Put her away and didn't touch her for a week. I put the remains of the case in a plastic baggie and tacked it to the wall above my loading bench.

[MT Gianni]

I like nail polish. A little on the Lee dippers marks the size for a long time.

[Bloodman14]

Yeah, I used a red Marks-a-Lot to highlight the graduations. I dang sure won't do that again.

[jetinteriorguy]

Like you, I too have had some close calls but managed to just catch them in time. I once overloaded some .357 mag loads by 5 grains on my Lyman scale because I didn't clearly see that the 5gr poise was set one notch too far. I didn't catch this until I shot a full cylinder, good thing it was in a model 28, which is built like a tank. I remember thinking boy this seems like much more recoil than when I worked this load up. And yes, like a dodo brain I did fire all six. I did figure it out when I couldn't extract them without giving the ejector a good rap with my hand. I no longer use that scale, and picked up an older RCBS 505 that I can read the scale much easier.

[sghart3578]

Thanks for the heads up. It is a reminder to all of us that we can make mistakes, even on what would otherwise be a routine task, one that we have performed thousands of times before.

[Greg G.]

Almost did the same kind of thing my self, just glad that I am mildly OCD. Makes me go back and check everything a lot, but better then the alternative.

[OS OK]

My 'OCD' blossomed after watching videos like this!

https://video.search.yahoo.com/video...&fr=aaplw&tt=b