WHEW!! My intuition was right...Be CAREFUL

[Hickory]

Weigh powder, charge case, seat boolit.
One at a time, every time, no exceptions.

I have loaded 10's of thousands of round like this without using a loading block and see on reason to ever use a loading block.
To me a loading block makes absolutely no sense.

[ak_milsurp]

THanks for your comments.... In 30 years of reloading I've never had this happen.... THen again this is my first foray into small charges into deep dark rifle cases......lol

While I've loaded a few thousand full power rifle cartridges, the vast bulk of my reloading experience is from pistol and revolver cartridges. No way I could double charge the rifles cases with the bulky powders I was using... and the straiight walled pistol and revolver brass is easy to spot a double charge in.....

At any rate... I felt compelled to write about it! Live and learn! WInks

[ak_milsurp]

Well... the digital scale is on a bench separate from the reloading press (the other side of my shop) the Lyman scale instructions said "we recommend you place the scale in a different area from your press for best accuracy" OK then so walking across room and back for every round was.....tedious....

So I used the loading block.......

My 8x56R and .303 brit won't fit my block, lol so I did those three at a time and handcarried them....

Still, as long as you have your block set up so you have about 1" separation between cases you can still check...

SO-- now I use the block, but only put 1/2 as many cases in it widely separated, so I can inspect them much faster and easier to catch a mistake..... (you can bet your booty I will be looking into each and every case with a flashlight from now on!)

I have loaded 10's of thousands of round like this without using a loading block and see on reason to ever use a loading block.
To me a loading block makes absolutely no sense.

[LuvMy1911]

When charging cases I use two loading blocks. The first contains the sized and primed brass, case mouth down in the block. The case to be charged is removed from the first block, the powder charge thrown, and then placed mouth up into the second block. Prior to seating the boolit, all cases are given a careful visual inspection under good light for the powder level in the case.

If a case is mouth down it cannot contain a powder charge and if it is mouth up in the second block it has been charged. The visual inspection is just another check to prevent a double charge. ....

PB

I also use two loading blocks and flip the primed cases up only after charging and moving to the second loading block.... So far, so good.

[canyon-ghost]

To me a loading block makes absolutely no sense.

Sir, they are good for working brass, sizing, cleaning primer pockets, etc.

[Donor8x56r]

I charge all cases in the loading block and take them all under table lamp light.

I can see inside all charged cases and I never managed to double charge any so far.

On the other hand I found many empty cases this way.

[vernz]

I did not see any suggestions to use a very cheap piece of insurance....a dowel.

My mistake occurred a few years ago. I was helping a friend shoot my M1 Garand and had a failure to eject a round. No problem, just cycle the action by hand. The next round failed to fire and when I checked that one I found that the bullet was pushed partially into the case. Closer examination showed a bullet jammed in the lead to the barrel. The round that failed to eject did so because it had no powder, only a primer. Luckily, it only pushed the bullet a little way into the barrel and the next round hit it before fully chambering. If that primer only bullet had gone a little further, we would have had big problems.

This really bothered me as I'm always careful when loading. No distractions allowed, empty cases upside down, then turned when filled. I apparently lost my concentration at some point and got myself out of sequence. Obviously something had to change in my loading technique. I added a step to fill all cases in a batch, then use a dowel to check the powder level in each case. I validated the method by deliberately double filling and not filling cases to ensure the difference is readily visible. It is. Vern