Reloading Safety

Gday hikinghunter
I'll add a couple of things you may consider
If using a electronic scale or electronic powder thrower/dispenser
Keep your mobile phone away as your loads will be all over the place

If loading a batch of bullets prior to seating projectile just run a torch over ea shell & visually see if nothing's majorly out of whack & not a cigarette lighter lol

Stick to headstamp brass as cuts out potentially a issue on ammo mix up or more importantly projectile mix up eg 277vrs 284
( it's why calipers are also valuable If you don't know just check pills before loading & weigh them also )

Stay safe
Cheers
Everything fordy said is true. l think by saying ''torch'' he means FLASHLIGHT!
l tumble my fired cases twice. 0nce before sizing and again after. Double tumbling keeps your dies clean. Gives you shiny bright ammo too. That shows you and others the pride of your work.
0ne can ONLY of powder on the bench at a time. l weigh each case before, during, and after its loaded.
l also chamber each round for feed and function. l load early in the morn when there are no distractions.
l use a Wilson Case Gauge for extra lnsurence. Keep good records and label ammo boxes legibly!
Happy New Year
282
 
Last edited:
Gday sw282
Thanks for that pickup yes a flashlight sorry for confusion
I use the one on my phone but leave it outside my reloading room & check once all filled

The cycle ea round through the rifle is gold & man I must be brain dead tonight as that is one I can't emphasise enough
Great stuff 👍
Cheers

Everything fordy said is true. l think by saying ''torch'' he means FLASHLIGHT!
l tumble my fired cases twice. 0nce before sizing and again after. Double tumbling keeps your dies clean. Gives you shiny bright ammo too. That shows you and others the pride of your work.
0ne can ONLY of powder on the bench at a time. l weigh each case before, during, and after its loaded.
l also chamber each round for feed and function. l load early in the morn when there are no distractions.
l use a Wilson Case Gauge for extra lnsurence. Keep good records and label ammo boxes legibly!
Happy New Year
282
 
Getting into reloading. After reading "the ABC's of reloading" by Phillip Massaro, I feel like I have a general grasp on the basics. What I'm looking for is the general "don't do this" safety measures that'll make sure I don't learn something the hard way. So far, it looks pretty simple. Anything I should add to the list below?

Note: I only plan to reload rifle ammo.

- don't mix up pistol and rifle powder (moot, as I won't be loading pistol)
- take measures to avoid spilling your primers all over the place. Keep them somewhere different from your powder.
- inspect your brass
-have a system for making sure you don't "double-load" (although it seems like if you double-loaded a rifle cartridge it would overfill and spill all over the place)
- don't smash your hand in the press
- don't light your can of powder on fire (ok, that one is a little too obvious)

Anything to add? Seems like a relatively safe endeavor if you don't do obviously dumb things. There's an endless amount of stuff to squeeze accuracy out of a round, but the basic safety measures seem pretty simple.
As a newbie. I would suggest in thinking about getting a CHRONO of some sort. Just a valuable tool that helps with determining what your loads are doing.
 
Getting into reloading. After reading "the ABC's of reloading" by Phillip Massaro, I feel like I have a general grasp on the basics. What I'm looking for is the general "don't do this" safety measures that'll make sure I don't learn something the hard way. So far, it looks pretty simple. Anything I should add to the list below?

Note: I only plan to reload rifle ammo.

- don't mix up pistol and rifle powder (moot, as I won't be loading pistol)
- take measures to avoid spilling your primers all over the place. Keep them somewhere different from your powder.
- inspect your brass
-have a system for making sure you don't "double-load" (although it seems like if you double-loaded a rifle cartridge it would overfill and spill all over the place)
- don't smash your hand in the press
- don't light your can of powder on fire (ok, that one is a little too obvious)

Anything to add? Seems like a relatively safe endeavor if you don't do obviously dumb things. There's an endless amount of stuff to squeeze accuracy out of a round, but the basic safety measures seem pretty simple.
I have a few pieces of advice.
1. Invest in a bullet puller. No matter your level of experience, there is always potential to want to pull some bullets and check something. Before I had one? My only consistent way of emptying cases or to check something that I did was tomfire the load. That is expensive, unproductive and sometimes dangerous.
2. I used to only reload when I had time to finish the process from A to Z. That can often take up more time than I had, when paying close attention to what I was doing. A few years ago, I cut a few cardboard strips and wrote on them the different statuses that I may be at and always had ziplock bags handy. If I ran out of time, or needed to stop what I was doing for some reason, I would bag up the brass and drop.the label in the bag. Here are some examples of what my labels looked like:
* Range pick-up brass (assume nothing)
* Deprimed and cleaned only.
* Cleaned, annealed, body sized.
* full length sized, ready to prime.
* Annealed, sized, trimmed.
* Primed and ready to load.
* Load these cases with 'XX' grains of 'Hxxxx' powder and seat 'x' bullet to 'x' length base to ogive.
3. When I am charging cases and seating bullets, I never charge more than 5 cases before I seat the bullets in those cases. For one reason, if you do have to step away, you are never more than about 2 min from completing that process ans being able to walk away without concern for where you were or leaving powder exposed to elements. Also, it will definately happen where you will bump something when transferring powder from dispenser to the case and somewhere between a few kernels and a whole bunch of powder can get into your already charged cases. This can be everything from a nuisance to a huge waste of time to very dangerous, depending on how you deal with it.
4. When you are doing load development, wrote your charge weight right on the brass case woth a sharpie. You can use this to stay safe and organized at the range. It also helps you analyze the cases for signs of pressure when you get home.

Reloading is nothing to be afraid of, if you respect it and follow some very simple guidelines. It sounds to me like your 'safety first approach' and doing a little reading ahead of starting will set you on a good path. Good luck.
 
I use an electric powder dispenser, and older RCBS that dispenses directly onto my scale. It is relatively slow so I charge a case and seat a bullet while the next case is getting powder. Even with a small case there is a short wait before the next case is charged. If I am interrupted only one case involved.
 
Getting into reloading. After reading "the ABC's of reloading" by Phillip Massaro, I feel like I have a general grasp on the basics. What I'm looking for is the general "don't do this" safety measures that'll make sure I don't learn something the hard way. So far, it looks pretty simple. Anything I should add to the list below?

Note: I only plan to reload rifle ammo.

- don't mix up pistol and rifle powder (moot, as I won't be loading pistol)
- take measures to avoid spilling your primers all over the place. Keep them somewhere different from your powder.
- inspect your brass
-have a system for making sure you don't "double-load" (although it seems like if you double-loaded a rifle cartridge it would overfill and spill all over the place)
- don't smash your hand in the press
- don't light your can of powder on fire (ok, that one is a little too obvious)

Anything to add? Seems like a relatively safe endeavor if you don't do obviously dumb things. There's an endless amount of stuff to squeeze accuracy out of a round, but the basic safety measures seem pretty simple.
Only work with 1 bottle of powder on the bench at a time. That way you cannot get one mixed up with another.
 
Point taken. I'm a naturally detail oriented person. I'll probably weigh each round after the bullet has been seated to ensure I didn't over load, and come up with some journaling system to ensure I don't use the wrong powder. I'm not inclined to load "hot" - seems like a good way to spend more time cleaning fouled barrels…

Glad you guys came out of the double load situation ok. Good point to think about any cases that might accept accidental double-loads.

With that said, I'm thinking more about any common newbie ******* mistakes that could be dangerous, rather than just goofy/pointless. Complacency seems to be more common with experanced hands - newbies are properly scared. Looking to learn from your guys newbie mistakes, rather than making my own 😁

For example - I used to homebrew beer. I was properly scared of the chemicals and compressed gasses with red warning labels. Turns out, the most dangerous thing I did in that hobby without giving it a second thought was carrying a glass carboy (think 5 gallon beer bottle) across a tile floor. Doesn't sound all that dangerous, but they are slick as snot, and it's easier than you'd think to drop those things and impale yourself on foot-long glass shards. To my knowledge, nobody has hurt themselves with the super-scary compressed gas cylinders used in brewing (which have enough energy to flatten a house), but plenty of folks have gone to the ER with serous injuries from glass carboys. Are there any equivalents in reloading - stuff that newbies do that old hands would never would?
Like a full tube of primers...
 
Getting into reloading. After reading "the ABC's of reloading" by Phillip Massaro, I feel like I have a general grasp on the basics. What I'm looking for is the general "don't do this" safety measures that'll make sure I don't learn something the hard way. So far, it looks pretty simple. Anything I should add to the list below?

Note: I only plan to reload rifle ammo.

- don't mix up pistol and rifle powder (moot, as I won't be loading pistol)
- take measures to avoid spilling your primers all over the place. Keep them somewhere different from your powder.
- inspect your brass
-have a system for making sure you don't "double-load" (although it seems like if you double-loaded a rifle cartridge it would overfill and spill all over the place)
- don't smash your hand in the press
- don't light your can of powder on fire (ok, that one is a little too obvious)

Anything to add? Seems like a relatively safe endeavor if you don't do obviously dumb things. There's an endless amount of stuff to squeeze accuracy out of a round, but the basic safety measures seem pretty simple.
Keep a flashlight on your bench and before putting bullets in check to make sure all the loads are consistent no empty cases
Getting into reloading. After reading "the ABC's of reloading" by Phillip Massaro, I feel like I have a general grasp on the basics. What I'm looking for is the general "don't do this" safety measures that'll make sure I don't learn something the hard way. So far, it looks pretty simple. Anything I should add to the list below?

Note: I only plan to reload rifle ammo.

- don't mix up pistol and rifle powder (moot, as I won't be loading pistol)
- take measures to avoid spilling your primers all over the place. Keep them somewhere different from your powder.
- inspect your brass
-have a system for making sure you don't "double-load" (although it seems like if you double-loaded a rifle cartridge it would overfill and spill all over the place)
- don't smash your hand in the press
- don't light your can of powder on fire (ok, that one is a little too obvious)

Anything to add? Seems like a relatively safe endeavor if you don't do obviously dumb things. There's an endless amount of stuff to squeeze accuracy out of a round, but the basic safety measures seem pretty simple.
Keep a flashlight on you bench to look in the cases to make sure everything is consistent, no empty case and no over filled cases
 
Although it has been mentioned "only 1 can of powder at the bench at a time" and "have a system" , I believe these can not be stressed enough.
I believe it is also worth mentioning, because you are new, empty everything when finished. Meaning powder dispenser, powder trickler, scale. If you forget, don't guess what powder was loaded last. Dump it. I know powder is expensive these days, but it's never worth it. If you are only loading 1 cartridge with only 1 type of powder , this won't apply to you ........yet. Remember it for when you do bring in that next cartridge / cartridges. If there is more than 1 handloader in the house, this is especially relevant.
Also keep your primer seater clean , a grain of powder setting on it can set the primer off when seating.
Have a system, but double check. I shake every loaded round before it goes in the box so I can hear the powder. A primer can have enough power to stick a bullet in the barrel. If loading compressed load, you can weigh it to be sure there is powder in it, but , remember that there are variations in bullet weight, casing weight, so this should just be a simple verifying weigh, don't start pulling bullets due to minor grain variation at this stage.
On that note, if while shooting a round sounds " funny" , stop take a second and assess the situation ( make sure barrel clear) before firing a second , proceed with caution . If a second round sounds " funny", stop. It is now time to go back to the reloading room , pull bullets and figure out what is wrong. Keep powder from these rounds separate until you verify what is wrong.
Reloading is simple , and for some therapeutic. Enjoy, but avoid complacency.
 
Getting into reloading. After reading "the ABC's of reloading" by Phillip Massaro, I feel like I have a general grasp on the basics. What I'm looking for is the general "don't do this" safety measures that'll make sure I don't learn something the hard way. So far, it looks pretty simple. Anything I should add to the list below?

Note: I only plan to reload rifle ammo.

- don't mix up pistol and rifle powder (moot, as I won't be loading pistol)
- take measures to avoid spilling your primers all over the place. Keep them somewhere different from your powder.
- inspect your brass
-have a system for making sure you don't "double-load" (although it seems like if you double-loaded a rifle cartridge it would overfill and spill all over the place)
- don't smash your hand in the press
- don't light your can of powder on fire (ok, that one is a little too obvious)

Anything to add? Seems like a relatively safe endeavor if you don't do obviously dumb things. There's an endless amount of stuff to squeeze accuracy out of a round, but the basic safety measures seem pretty simple.
Top of the my List is:
1) Keep only one powder on the work area per reloading session.
2) Same goes for the Primers; large, large magnum, small, et. al.
3) Always start at the load ladders well below max.
4) Consistency is the name of the game. Create a "Process" and double check everything.
 

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