too soft load?

[Swede 45]

136281

Well, I`ve done it..:oops:
Got distracted and loaded up a bunch of squibs and got them mixed up with the good ones!

I was loading up a big bunch of 145gr H&G SWC for my 38spl.. had a good rythm going on my progressive press..
Noticed that it was time to fill some powder into the hopper.. but a important phonecall called me away for 30 minutes and when I got back to the press i just kept on loading..
About 10 minutes later I noticed that I had alost run out of powder! Checked the last case before seating, yep it had powder! "Phew! that was close!" (hopper was not empty, but down to about a 1/10) and I filled up the hopper and continued.. Stooopid! :groner:
( If I had stopped here, there would have been less rounds to pull!)

First range visit with this load, first round fired was a squib! :-(

I´ve tried to shake and listen for powder, and weigh them, but the natural variation by weight of boolit, case and such makes it impossible.. and since the charge are ranging from full to null, there are no way to exactly tell which ones are good or not!
I did sort them into two batches.. the "prolly powder" and the "prolly not powder"!
The above round was amongst the "prolly powder" ones.. Now, all goes to pulldown!
And of course my RCBS bullet puller are broken, so I have to wait for parts before I can pull all these!!

Lesson learned:
Dont get distracted, turn of phone, close door et.c
Do fill up your powder hopper often and keep the level even.
Dont run your powder level low, that will throw uneven charges!
Empty your finished rounds bin regular, so that you only have a limited amount of rounds to pull if you notice something wrong!
You can´t sort pistol cartridges by weight.. to small charge and to big variation in other components.

[RobS]

Never seen one stop right at the muzzle. Live and learn.........been down the road too.

[1Shirt]

Never stuck one YET, but there is always time!
1Shirt!

[John Allen]

I hate to say but the pic looks kinda of cool. Now all you have is the aggravation of getting the slug out.

[mdi]

BTDT, but it happened once 30 years ago and none since! Since you can't tell for sure which rounds are "sans powder", pull 'em all (unless you want to take a "squib rod" and hammer to the range and check them by firing :shock: ). Don't get overwhelmed, you don't have to do them all at once, just pull as many as you feel OK with each time...

There's only one way to eat an elephant, that's one bite at a time...:bigsmyl2:

[EDG]

Your barrel is too long. [smilie=l:

[bangerjim]

Surprisingly the primer pushed the slug that far!

I have tried the "weighing/shaking/guessing" thing before and it does NOT work! Just pull the questionable ones and reload. Fortunately I have only had to do that 3 times over the years.

Makes for a nice wall hanging!!!!!! HA.....ha!

banger-j

[Cherokee]

Well, you can check the measurement of your bore - one bight side, plus the lessons

[Swede 45]

Allen: This one was quite easy.. just took a plier and pulled it out.. :razz:
EDG: Short as they come in a 686.. any shorter and I have to put a hacksaw to it! :lol:
Banger: I guess this one had a few flakes of powder in it, maybe half a grain or so ?
I hade one that barely made it into the forcing cone, (primer only?) and some that left the barrel but didnt make it the 25 meters to the target! :neutral:
Cherokee: yepp, i got a few quite nice ones to measure ! :razz:

These was out of the "prolly powder" lot after trying to sort them.. but I called it quits and decided to pull them all..
And I always have a squib rod in my rangepack.. not only for my self, but I´ve lended it to fellow shooters more than once ! ;)
I rather have a squib than a double charge!

[Motor]

Yeah it's really tough to weigh loaded pistol ammo to tell if the powder charge is correct. The charges are too small and the cases vary in weight.

I liked the barrel is too short comment. I LMAO :)

Motor

[Litl Red 3991]

Yeah it's really tough to weigh loaded pistol ammo to tell if the powder charge is correct. The charges are too small and the cases vary in weight.

I liked the barrel is too short comment. I LMAO :)

Motor

But you can check by weight if your components allow you to. Range brass won't allow you to. But if you're one of the gun nuts who sorts and such..... the new digital scales at least make it easy to find out if your components allow you to... and to find out which mfg of brass is selling you higher quality brass, and cast slugs worth buying, and such.

You're not going to find out anything for sure, but if you're a pure bred gun nut and haven't got a digital scale for any reason, think about it. It makes it possible for me, and what I know about my components, to sort through a 50 round run on my Dillon to do an additional quality assurance in a couple of minutes. Those scales can tell you in a heartbeat when that commercial cast that is such a great deal really is. And you'd be surprised how uniform some brands of brass are. Of course, it's good to see that your casting is easily produces slugs far, far more uniform in weight than most machine made commercial. Unfortunately, the scales won't tell you why those mfg'd ones weren't.


Using a digital to see if the pile of reloads has a bunch of oddly light ones doesn't really take long, no matter what that weight range is.

[Motor]

I agree in principle but I don't fuss over my pistol ammo. When you're only loading 4.5gr of Bullseye for example there is no way weighing loaded ammo will give you any peice of mind.

Especially if you are using cast boolits. I know this from experience not conjecture. :) And yes I do have a digital scale. A RCBS Chargemaster.

Motor

[skeettx]

For the 9mm and 38 and 357 the best way to get stuck bullets out of the barrel is a push rod from a 350 Chevy engine.
Go to the auto parts store and get a new one. It will be rounded on the ends and have a hollow in the end. They are hardened
and will not mess up your rifling.

Mike

[mold maker]

I just started to load some name brand, 95gr FMJ that consistently weighed 100 gr. A max load would be dangerous.
Somewhere, somebody mislabeled them.
Don't trust the label until ya verify it for yourself.
Yep, the electronic scales make fast work of it.

[gunwonk]

For the 9mm and 38 and 357 the best way to get stuck bullets out of the barrel is a push rod from a 350 Chevy engine.
Go to the auto parts store and get a new one. It will be rounded on the ends and have a hollow in the end. They are hardened
and will not mess up your rifling.

Mike
That is so cool! :)

How about for a .45?

[Errokk]

Oh wow!

[Bonz]

Just the opposite of life, bullet charges are always better under than over...

[dg31872]

Thanks for posting this. I have learned from your mistake.

[mdi]

I would never stick a hardened steel rod down any barrel. Anything that goes in or comes out of my gun's barrels are much, much softer than the barrel steel (lead bullets, plated bullets, jacketed bullets and brass squib rods/slugging rods). As you can see from the varied answers; yep you may be able to weigh the cartridges, if certain criterion is met, and no way, too many variations in weight of all components. So, it's up to you, weigh them and take them to the range (don't forget the squib rod), or be sure of your reloads and pull 'em all I learned from my mistake many years ago and one simple operation has kept squibs from returning; I look in every case I charge with powder before I stuff a bullet in it...

[gwpercle]

That's a cool photo, I would consider it for an avatar. I have never seen one stop halfway out the muzzle.
Whenever this happens I notice two common denominators : " a distraction" and " a progressive press". But you did well because you knew something might not be right and looked for it, nice call. So how many rounds do you get to " reverse load" ? I hope it's not too many.
load safe
Gary

[skeettx]

:) To each his own, the hardened rod is slick, does not deform to injure the gun and works for me. Enjoy the day