What's the most stupid thing you did casting/reloading that you won't do again!

[gwpercle]

This reminds me of an old Woodwright’s Shop episode, think it was the first one that Roy did with a blacksmith. Roy kept reaching over to touch stuff, to feel the surface, etc as if he was working with wood, the blacksmith corrected him at least a half dozen times. He didn’t get burned, at least not on camera.

I love that show .... and would bet money there were some edited clips of him touching hot stuff !
Or at least the blacksmith yelling...Don't Touch That !
Gary

[xiholdtruex]

Loaded a .357 mag case without a primer. Last week I loaded 100 rounds of 9mm with cast bullets and apparently seated too deep or crushed primers because about 20 of them did not fire.

[goryshaw]

Not a reloading mistake, more of a cleanup brain fart. Cleaning bench at parents house when I was a teenager, found a primer with no idea what kind it was. Disposed of it by putting it on the concrete garage floor and smacking it with the flat of a shovel, after my ears quit ringing found a burn spot on the floor and a dent in the shovel, had more respect for primers ever since.

[rockrat]

My biggest mistake was stopping my casting to talk to the tinsel fairy. Such a nice smile, till all 20 lbs of hot lead came out of the pot headed for me, the ceiling and the old pie cupboard behind me. Took a long time for the scars on my arm, to fade. I just turn up the music now so I can't hear her sireen song anymore

[Onebad06vtx]

dumped a container of rejected bullets into hot lead. problem is there was a hidden primer at the bottom of the cup. 2nd problem, i wasnt wearing eye protection, or shoes or pants. Primer popped in the hot lead and the primer went flying and hit my an inch under my eye. I got startled from the pop and stumbled backwards lol the little **** scared me good

Note to self,ALWAYS CAST WITH SHOES AND
CLOTHS ON AND EYE PROTECTION

[Green Frog]

Unknown alloy. Took out a long pig of “something plumbous” and cast a season’s supply of Minie balls for my N-SSA musket. Problem was, the MBs should be pure lead and I used LINOTYPE!

Froggie

[Jedman]

I have a Sig/ Sauer M 200 switch barrel rifle and I found a local guy selling a 9.3 X 62 barrel, magazine, dies, brass, and bullets that fit my rifle so I bought it all. The brass was brand new Norma in boxes of 20 so I loaded about 10-12 with a couple different powders to try out. When I tried to use them I couldn't close the bolt on my handloads. I simply forgot to run the new brass through the sizing die first and found out that expensive brand brass doesn't come sized.
I think I never loaded new bottle necked brass before at that time.

Jedman

[nvbirdman]

I melted some lead in a thin aluminum pan on my camp stove. Never did get all the lead off the bottom of the stove.

[Dvdmacdaddy]

When I first started casting I was none the wiser, I was given 2 cavity 9mm TL lee mold, Lee .356 sizer, cast iron pot and ladle, and a boat load of unknown alloy lead ingots. Casted 5k bullets, TL, sized, TL, did 3 round ladder test, then loaded all 5k. Never occurred to check for leading, slug barrel size appropriately, and do all the testing needed. I now have 5k of rounds I’ll eventually get pulled. I didn’t use a M Die then and also put a heavy crimp, the ones I’ve pulled are .354 mostly. I have since learnt better, from reading the Lyman cast book and this forum.

[RogerDat]

I like just lighting a grain or so of new powder when I get it to see how it actually burns. One day I decided to "set off" a WLP primer with an extended length lighter and my wife was PISSED. *POW*

Bet she wasn't more pissed than my wife was when she set off one with an upright vacuum in the basement. How the little bugger got all the way from the smooth concrete floor where my bench is to the carpeted area is beyond me but it did. Thank goodness it was only a SPP and went off down in the brushes/blower several feet away.

Which leads me to... using multi colored traction sprinkles in blue, gray, black, and white when I painted the smooth concrete with epoxy floor paint. Wife spread the sprinkles and she did it as a "decorative" function not as a practical traction function. Lots and lots of decorative multi colored sprinkles from two bags of mixed chips. Should have used just white because I can't find a thing that hits the floor that isn't brass. I find any dropped shot or small screws/clips/nuts by taking off my shoes. Guess I never thought to search for a dropped primer that way. I tend to think if I can't find it then it rolled under the bench, not all the way to the carpeted area.

[odfairfaxsub]

Worst thing I ever done.... prob when I grabbed the wrong cab of powder because the color of uniques label is about the same color as bullseye. Shot my gun and thought man this feels really magnum like. I stopped and went home eventually and pulled the rounds, weighed the charges and realized I used unique data w bullseye powder. Could have been worse.

One time shooting my gp100 w 38 specials I shot and shot and shot and the noise changed from poof poof poof to VaROOOM!!!!!!! Must have double loaded a shell. Now I check w a flash light for differences.

[bikerbeans]

Cast 500g 45 rifle cal boolits from pure linotype and shoot them from a 458 win mag. Boolits measured 0.463" and chambered in my Cz550 just fine. Apparently these bullets didn't appreciate being swaged in my rifle as they keyholed at 25 yards.

BB

[rrob692326]

I used a propane torch to heat my lyman 450 bullet sizer filled with hard bullet lube on a cold morning, a few minutes later I hear a cracking sound as the cast iron housing broke. Had to get a new one, but on the good side I have extra replacement parts now and I did get 40 years of use out of the thing before I busted it. We learn as we go.

[Baja_Traveler]

Went to load some 44 mag with 7 grains of Bullseye two weeks ago, and set the powder measure bar one click over and rolled the fine weight to 2 grains. After 100 rounds I wanted to set the powder drop to 5 grains to load up some 44 special - it was then I realized I had just loaded 100 potential pistol exploding rounds with 12 grains of Bullseye. Spent the next two days hammering them apart. So glad I had discovered my brain fart before it was too late.