dillon powder measure

[ihuntbear]

last sunday i was loading 40 cal boolets..I loaded maybe 200 when i noticed the powder wasnt dropping..I noticed the slide was stuck..I couldnt see why it was stuck so i took it off the press,emptied the powder back into the jug .While doing this i noticed the slide was stuck about halfway..I tried moving the linkage but wouldnt move..I took the unit out to the garage and put it into the vise ..Gave the slide a few taps with a wooded dowel that i use for making boolet and pow.the whole thing blew up sending me about 5 feet backwards.metal pieces flew everywhere..Took chunks out of my thumb and fingers..something hit me in the stomack causing a 10 inch bruise.powder burn marks all over my face.....For the life of me i cant figure out why this thing blew up..ended up at the hospital and they gave me really good drugs for the pain..they thought i was shot because of all the blood until they did exrays....yesterday I went out to the garage and picked up the pieces..some of them were 30 feet away....I know i should have dropped it in water before i worked on it but i didn't.I called Dillon,they said they never heard of a powder measure blowing up and to send it to them for warrenty..nice people...I got my wife to pack it up and send it to them...my thing is when my wife went to the post office to mail it they asked her what was the contents ..she told them a bullet maker..............I live in canada and the package is going to the states..will the border patrol let this package through or should i buy a new one??????????

[Alvarez Kelly]

Wow! I'm glad you are doing OK and able to tell the story.

The first thing that jumped into my head was an odd thought. Would it have been possible for you to accidently get a primer into the powder measure? If you didn't have the lid on the measure while adding primers... just a thought. That would sure cause a powder slide jamb and explain a lot.

As for it crossing into the US, it really depends on the person looking at it. Since it's addressed to a company that deals with reloading, and not a politician (for example), I'll bet it'll make it through just fine.

Let us know what ultimately happens with the measure AND yourself.

[1874Sharps]

Ihuntbear,

Darn, I am glad you are OK in general and am very sorry to hear of the mishap. I am really glad you were not injured worse than you were! I am curious as to what powder was in the hopper. I have had times when the slide in the Dillon powder measure froze up and I had to remove it and stone down a burr or two. It seems like I have far fewer problems with my measure when I use a ball powder such as Winchester 231 instead of Bullseye to Unique. It is strange to me that you had an explosion, as the Dillon powder measure is made of non-sparking aluminum, not steel. I suppose either the shock of the hammer blow or compression set off the powder. I would not have predicted this, but then again, all it takes is one molecule to light off and the whole bunch will go up.

P.S. -- I went hunting bear once but I got so cold I wore clothes the next time.

[Shiloh]

GEEZ!!!

I have NEVER heard of anything like this. Smokless powder detonating??? It really does need to go back to Dillon for the post mortem. From what you described, it will take the makers to figure out what went wrong.

On my older style powder measures, there is a little white plastic square on the linkage to the powder bar actuator. This fits in a small cutout and acts like a bearing. If the bolt holding it on comes loose, it can slip out of its track and jam things up. It can however be removed and re-tracked, and the bound up powder bar freed quite easily.

The only thing I can think of, is that powder grains got pulverized and turned to dust, or a primers in the hopper. This may explain the explosive situation.

You need to have your wife try again only this time with the correct description. It is not a bullet maker but a broken powder measure going back to the states for warranty service... Sounds a lot less intimidating to uninformed, not a clue, bureaucrats.

Keep us informed. Glad you are safe with all body parts intact. Other than needing new laundry, you came out OK.

Shiloh

[DRNurse1]

+1 on Mr Kelly's observation. I am wondering how much powder we are talking about here. I have accidentally detonated 3-5 grains of Bullseye and it did not shred the container (brass w/o bullet or some such situation). Even in the Dillon powder slide, I think there may be room for the gasses to expand with out a fatal casualty to the device, but I have not tried this. With a primer added to the powder, I am not so sure.

BTW : 1874 Sharps>> [smilie=l:[smilie=l:[smilie=l:[smilie=l:; and for the sailors::2 drunk buddies:

Just thinkin, and that is usually where my trouble starts.

[ihuntbear]

thanks for all your kind words...Im just able to get around today..My face in mending pretty good but no lost there hahahaha..I have powder burns to my left hand ,face and missing a chunk of skin on my thumb and little finger..thank god for safety glasses...the worst is my stomach,,about a ten inch bruise that is really black and really sore..the doc said i have bruised ribs and lots of bruised muscle..He said im lucking my spline is still intact and i'm still alive to talk about it..He gave my wife **** for driving me to the hospital..should have called 911...I was using unique powder...i cant see it being a primer in the mix but dumber things have happened...hopefully it will be covered under warranty...worst case would be is buy another powder measure,,$98.00 plus tax

[ihuntbear]

here are a couple pics

[ihuntbear]

the pics were taken at the hospital..stomach is a lot blacker now

[DRNurse1]

Not that these photos are lacking in value or quality, but i was hoping for a photo of the failed device. Did the vise or the powder bar assembly hit your abdomen?

[ihuntbear]

i think everything did but not sure..everything happen to fast to see

[ihuntbear]

sorry no pics of the unit..all ready sent back to dillon

[Shiloh]

sorry no pics of the unit..all ready sent back to dillon

Glad you sent it to Dillon. I would guess that they have been made aware of this by now.
Gruesome pictures. I am so glad that you will mend. I am shocked by the pics of your injuries.

Shiloh

[220swiftfn]

Not to be flippant, but they say that laughter is the best medicine........ Universal burns cleaner........ (Sooty hand)



Glad that you're on the mend.


Dan

[rbuck351]

I'm betting a primer somehow got in the powder measure then jammed it and the rest is history. Smokeless powder is difficult to set off by hitting itwith anything.

[Alvarez Kelly]

... the Dillon powder measure is made of non-sparking aluminum, not steel...



The Dillon powder measure body is pot metal with a high zinc content. The powder slides are aluminum now, but I have many older ones that are steel.

Hard to say which he had...

Like others have mentioned, I would have liked to have seen photos of the powder measure carnage too.

[DRNurse1]

Glad you are mending. I would be interested in Dillon's evaluation and to see if they replace the unit.

But back to the humorous side: with the bruise and burns you will blend into the foliage better when you are hunting 'bare.'

[runfiverun]

from the look of that rectangle i'd say you took a powder slide to the stomach..
i hope you get better soon.
i remember my dad blowing a tube of primers out and shooting himself in the chest and stomach.
one of the primers had lodged in the tube sideways and he was trying to tap it out too.
he set it off and blew all the others out.
you might have/probably had some powder trapped in the stuck chamber.

[Lloyd Smale]

i too would bet on a primer getting in the hopper if it could be proved one way or the other. For one i cant see what else would jam one up so bad. I sure hope your healing up well though. that must have been an experience.

[ihuntbear]

i didn't know the wife took a few pic before sending it back

[ihuntbear]

thats all the parts i could find

[ihuntbear]

went back to the out patients last night now i have infection on my stomach and they found a small piece of steal in my hand..Thank god for health care

[Shiloh]

Glad you are mending. I would be interested in Dillon's evaluation and to see if they replace the unit.

But back to the humorous side: with the bruise and burns you will blend into the foliage better when you are hunting 'bare.'

Dillon will replace the unit.
Dillon and RCBS are primo when it comes to customer service.

Shiloh

[ihuntbear]

just got an email from Dillon..One is on the way to me covered under warranty....wow great service

[Alvarez Kelly]

just got an email from Dillon..One is on the way to me covered under warranty....wow great service

Yep... Great customer service. :-)

Are you all healed up yet?

[jmorris]

I've seen a lot but have never seen that one.

Was your powder bar a steel one or an aluminum one? Might not know and they have made both in black and silver.

[Russ in WY]

1st , glad that U-R recovering . 2nd , seems like the powder measure did not have the positive return link on it , or would have stopped the reloading sequence at the 1st non-return of the powder bar. I have 2 550's & go back to the original 550 that wasn't the B model. Both have been updated to B-model long ago. I recently talked with a fellow reloader using a 550-B & he has removed the positive return link. Not a good idea to way of thinking. I am going with a primer in there someplace to cause the explosion... My 2¢. Russ.

[Bombmaster]

I concur, primer in the powder system. Dont know how the powder system is stored when not on the press but I can easily believe a rogue primer found a way into the funnel. I find primers in the strangest places.

[Spruce]

Wishing you well. I hope the infection is under control and you are mending up well.
That is a nasty bruise. Glad to hear your powder measure was replaced free of charge.

[ihuntbear]

thanks so much..i'm on the mend,the Doc put me on the strongest antibiotics...Bruising went from black to a little blue and yellow...feeling a lot better..Can't wait for the new powder drop to arrive..Screwed up my hunting season though..Last day is this saturday..Can't lift the gun for to long from the bruised ribs..oh well there is always next year

[hunter64]

Years ago I was loading on a Lee 1000 and started to get some squib loads at the range. After my third one I quit and went home and started to pull bullets from the boxes I had loaded and sure enough there was only about 1 in 4 that had powder in it. I went to the bench and removed the powder measure and dumped it out in a big aluminum tray. There was a primer in the bottom of the slide that was holding it up from dumping powder sometimes. Looking at it is was indeed a live primer. How on earth it got in there I will never know.

I moved on to a 550 and love it, now I always check the powder measure before I start to load and when adding powder to the hopper it goes thru a screen that I place over the mouth of the hopper. Yes, I am paranoid that I never want that to happen again.

Once the powder is in the hopper the cover goes on and then I deal with the primers.

Glad you are on the mend.

[WilliamDahl]

All your body parts are still in the same general location -- you're doing good... :)

It's when you have to search around for body parts to put them on ice to take to the hospital with you that you know that you've really screwed up...

[dillonhelp]

The spacer bar in the photo is a teflon-coated alloy part, so it is unlikely the corresponding bar was steel. While a very few handgun powders can be ignited with a concentrated impact, I don't believe Unique has a sufficient nitroglycerin content for this. (Bullseye does). We have seen some most unusual objects extracted from the interior of a powder measure. A primer is the most likely ignition source for this.

[Dale53]

I am truly thankful that the O.P. is recovering well. This is not a parts failure, per se, but an accident (I fully agree with most conclusions that it was an errant primer).

Dillon is to be commended for replacing the powder measure. They are excellent people to do business with (and I mean EXCELLENT!).

Dale53

[destrux]

Yikes... well this has been a lesson for me.

I always handled primers like each one was a live bomb... but I would have never thought about one making it's way into the powder measure. If one made it into my RCBS rotary measure I don't think I'd even need to hit it with a hammer.

I'll probably stick a screen in my powder funnel and be more vigilant about keeping the lid on my measures from now.

[Shiloh]

just got an email from Dillon..One is on the way to me covered under warranty....wow great service

I never doubted it.

Shiloh

[robertbank]

Glad you are ok. Dillon has great service.

Take Care

Bob

[kayak1]

Interesting old thread.

[wv109323]

Would black powder have been involved by mistake? I can not see a primer and smokeless powder creating pressure. The primer anvil needs to to be stationary and the primer compound crushed to create discharge.

[David2011]

That's some nasty looking injuries. Glad it came out so well, considering what might have happened.

How do primers end up in places they don't belong? A few months ago my casefeeder was hanging up. When the casefeed plate was removed it looked like a rivet was interfering with the smooth movement of the cases, except I didn't recall there being a rivet in the bowl of the casefeeder. When I TOUCHED it with hemostats it blew up. I realized it was a primer that was so mashed it looked more like the head of the rivet than a primer. I couldn't believe that after being mashed almost flat that it hadn't popped before then. I was amazed at how sensitive it had become. I was going to grab it with the hemostats and as soon as the first tip touched it, no perceptible pressure applied, it went off.

David

[shoot-n-lead]

Glad you are doing well and this was not worse than it was...not in anyway minimizing the injuries that you did sustain.

Prayer sent thanking GOD for it not being worse and asking for his help in reminding all of us to be as safe as possible when we load ammunition.

[Silver Hand]

Hoping all is well and you are healed up by now.
I regained a lot of respect for the processes we may take for granted having seen your accident. I and I am sure many others would like to know just what set it off, so this type of accident does not have the chance of duplicating itself.
Thanks for the post.
Silver Hand

[jmorris]

I imagine the primer in the powder measure idea is likely the correct answer in the end, however in the OPs original post a few years ago...


While doing this i noticed the slide was stuck about halfway..I tried moving the linkage but wouldnt move..I took the unit out to the garage and put it into the vise ..Gave the slide a few taps with a wooded dowel that i use for making boolet and pow.

You can find the answer. You shouldn't force things reloading.

[fguffey]

There is another thread covering primers. seems a reloader folded a primer tube, when the tube folded primer were crushed, primers made an exit out the top and bottom and blew out the side of the tube at the bold. My opinion he dropped the tube then made a mad grab for it.

Blame game, static electricity. He received damage to his hand while his hand was at the fold of the tube. I believe that thread went for 6 pages. No one knew what caused the problem, they all decided it could not have been caused by a Ki-rack chop to the primer tube. And no one wanted to line up tubes of primers and fold them with the back of their hands.

There was an old movie about WW11, seems a line in the movie by a British officer on the beach saying something about mechanical things, "If it is mechanical and does not work it deserves a good whack". Then there is "If it does not go don't force it". I have tried to set off primers, for my efforts I managed to set off one, not in a lee auto hand primer system but in an RCBS hand primer.

F. Guffey

[jmorris]

What kind of primer tube folds or did he bend an aluminum tube in a mishap?

I remember crushing a few primers completely flat in a bench vise back when I first heard about setting them off reloading. Nothing happened; however, I do know that it can be done.

I was over at a friends house working on something and he went to load on a different machine and was having problems. I could tell he was getting frustrated and was going to suggest he stop and find the problem, then fix it. Less than a minute later he lit off an entire tube of primers.

[EddieNFL]

There was an old movie about WW11, seems a line in the movie by a British officer on the beach saying something about mechanical things, "If it is mechanical and does not work it deserves a good whack".

Don't know about WW11, but "The Longest Day" (D-Day, WWII) had such a line.

[fguffey]

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=495909&page=9

F. Guffey

[jmorris]

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=495909&page=9

F. Guffey


I had used my primer pick up tube to grab about fifty primers and had it in my left hand, placed it at the top of the 550 primer magazine, and with my right hand started to pull the pin. Kaboom!

That doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary, except for the kaboom part. Too bad he took his photos down.

[fguffey]

[QUOTE][ I couldn't believe that after being mashed almost flat that it hadn't popped before then./QUOTE]


A shooter purchased a new Ruger rifle and 2 boxes of R-P ammo. Out of the first box he had 5 fail to fire, volunteers with 30/06 rifles offered to help by attempting 3 addition attempts at busting the primers, nothing but click. that afternoon a shooter at the range brought the 20 cases to me, the 15 that fired and the 5 that didn't. I was impressed with the 15 that fired, according to my chamber gages the 15 cases would chamber in any 30/06 I have.

We pulled down the the cases that failed to fire to check the components, again I was impressed with the weight of the bullets, powder and case, we removed the primers then installed them back into the case they were removed from. I chambered the cases without powder or bullet in one of my M1917s, all five primers busted off. The primers had been struck at least 7 times each but only once with a killer firing pin.

F. Guffey

[fguffey]

I had used my primer pick up tube to grab about fifty primers and had it in my left hand, placed it at the top of the 550 primer magazine, and with my right hand started to pull the pin. Kaboom! That doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary, except for the kaboom part. Too bad he took his photos down.

50 primers, primers blew out the side of the tube. and primers exited out the top, side and bottom. If we are reading the same story static electricity was blamed. I did not believe that story, I am not the fan of jerking the steering wheel when something runs out in fount of me, jerking the wheel can get the driver hurt. If I should drop a tube of primers, same thing, duck, cover, the last thing I want to do is grab for the tube. There is a chance I could fold that little tube up and crush a few primers. That could cause the primers to exit the side, top and bottom if there were enough primers above the crush.

F. Guffey

[jmorris]

It didn't seem like he dropped it from what I read. I don't see how static electricity would do it because you are already holding the thing with two hands before you start pulling the pin. One hand on the tube the other on the pin.

Besides I have never been charged with static elec and shocked myself or anything metallic I was already holding.