It happened to me

[memtb]

I've noticed a fairly common comment by several folks....leaving powder in the powder thrower (dispenser). I always empty the thrower back into to "only" powder can at the load site, even if I intend to come back and commence loading the same cartridge! That way I can't mix powders. However, you could still grab the wrong canister of powder, for that cartridge designation. I guess there is no "absolute" fix for being human! memtb

 

[ForgivenAll]

I had the bad habit of leaving powder in the thrower and forgetting what was in there. Now a piece of tape goes on the hopper with name (since my adult boys use it too), powder type, and charge weight.

 

[19elkhunter51]

I was embarrassed by my screw up. I used RL-15 for a 25-06 load instead of RL-22. Shot a buck and noticed a stiff bolt opening. Back at camp I pulled the case out of my pocket. WOW. Rim is torn and the primer is blown out of the pocket. Don't know how it happened but you can bet I will triple and quadruple checking my powders and load.

 

[gmessina]

I think we have all done it, or will!!
Mine was WW 748 and WW 231. Luckily 231 overfilled the 7 IHMSA

 

[jes10x1]

So After thousands of rounds, i made a mistake and somehow grabbed the reloader 15 instead of reloader 25 for my 257 bee. Fired one round at minimum charge ( thank goodness) and the bolt was locked up something fierce. The rifle appears to be ok. Always look at your bottle twice I know I will for now on!

 

[Pdyson]

Back in 81 a friend wanted to show off his new Remington Mohawk 600 in 243. We were shooting off the hood of my Bronco and chit chatting. I should have been paying attention but I loaded and fired a 243 in my 30-06. It sounded funny and had almost no recoil. I extracted the cartridge and it had ironed out the bottleneck looked like a 45-70 case. I was lucky that my gun was unharmed and I wasn't bleeding.
I've seen what powder mistakes can do to sturdy Firearms. Not personally but people I knew. I was hit by pieces of an old Winchester pump shotgun that was double charged.
I only put one bottle of powder on my bench and I clear away everything not related to what I'm loading. On several occasions, I've thrown away powder I couldn't identify after forgetting to put it back in the bottle I poured it from some days or weeks later. It's a stupidity fee I gladly pay for peace of mind.
I too get that panicky feeling when I think I may have grabbed the wrong ammo. The hair goes up on the back of my neck when I realize I "spaced out" at the range and changed guns on auto pilot. Makes me stop, unload, verify I have the correct ammo before I proceed. You can't be too careful.

 

[freddiej]

I am so happy this thread came about.. I have been waiting the share this one. I am a pistolsmith in the Carson City area of Nevada. I do some general smithing but no barrels or muzzle brakes, there is a wizard in Carson that does that kind of work on an hourly basis. well a guy came into my shop and asked me to inspect his rifle and tell him if there was anything wrong with it. I start tearing it apart and see nothing wrong with it, the lugs are great, the bolt lugs are great, no setback on the receiver, the pin ejector was not even stuck/bent. I then measured the bore. OOOPSIE! did you know you can get a 338 Win Mag in a 300 RUM chamber? It will fire and come out the barrel. well I told the guy what damage had happened to his gun. the story on the 338 through the 300 is his friend borrowed the rifle for a Elk hunt, his kid handed him a round, he chambered it an fired it. the kid was holding the ammo for all the guys in the hunting party, he got the boxes mixed up and gave this guy the wrong ammo. Now the gun has a 0.311" bore. I sort of started laughing and told the guy he could start using 7.62X54 slugs. The guy laughed with me and said he would like the barrel replaced. I had my doubts but a quick check of the ring of the receiver showed the ring had not been expanded. I asked Remington themselves and they said it should be good still. the wizard was 3 months behind so the gun went off the Hart barrels and came back with a new hart attached. the guy reports the gun shoots so well that he has vowed never to lend the gun out again.
I personally would not have wanted to be the guy shooting this gun with a 338 Win Mag in the chamber. it must have done some real hard recoiling.

 

[nicholasjohn]

I am so happy this thread came about.. I have been waiting the share this one. I am a pistolsmith in the Carson City area of Nevada. I do some general smithing but no barrels or muzzle brakes, there is a wizard in Carson that does that kind of work on an hourly basis. well a guy came into my shop and asked me to inspect his rifle and tell him if there was anything wrong with it. I start tearing it apart and see nothing wrong with it, the lugs are great, the bolt lugs are great, no setback on the receiver, the pin ejector was not even stuck/bent. I then measured the bore. OOOPSIE! did you know you can get a 338 Win Mag in a 300 RUM chamber? It will fire and come out the barrel. well I told the guy what damage had happened to his gun. the story on the 338 through the 300 is his friend borrowed the rifle for a Elk hunt, his kid handed him a round, he chambered it an fired it. the kid was holding the ammo for all the guys in the hunting party, he got the boxes mixed up and gave this guy the wrong ammo. Now the gun has a 0.311" bore. I sort of started laughing and told the guy he could start using 7.62X54 slugs. The guy laughed with me and said he would like the barrel replaced. I had my doubts but a quick check of the ring of the receiver showed the ring had not been expanded. I asked Remington themselves and they said it should be good still. the wizard was 3 months behind so the gun went off the Hart barrels and came back with a new hart attached. the guy reports the gun shoots so well that he has vowed never to lend the gun out again.
I personally would not have wanted to be the guy shooting this gun with a 338 Win Mag in the chamber. it must have done some real hard recoiling.

It's absolutely amazing that the guy came away from that one un-scathed. The fact that the rifle digested a bullet that much bigger than the bore is shocking. That guy must be living right, or something.

 

[freddiej]

It's absolutely amazing that the guy came away from that one un-scathed. The fact that the rifle digested a bullet that much bigger than the bore is shocking. That guy must be living right, or something.

The guy was only bruised by the excessive recoil that is all he remembers. what I find amazing is the gun was virtually unaffected. The only damage being a bulged barrel/bore, and I measured exactly where the bulging started on the barrel.. I still have that barrel on my wall with the story written under it.

 

[IHFarmer07]

All very eye opening information/story's to newbs!!

I just started reloading about a year ago for 1 cartridge and my mistakes have been, well, newb mistakes so far thank god. Just the other day I had measured my chamber for the H of it to see if I had any throat erosion after 1000-1500 rounds. So I measured the eldm's several times in 2 different ways and found I had throat erosion, so I thought well I guess I'll have to redo the loads for that bullet. So I carried on to the the Berger bullets and did the same process as before but different bullets, got those measurements and made up some loads and then went to shoot them, which turned out good. Well for some reason I decided to clean my barrel and check those numbers again. I found my measurements from a day or two ago was off, the search for how and why the differing measurements was on. Come to find out, it was a bit dirty, which I should have known common sense wise to clean before doing such measurements but Idk I just didn't clean before. I got it all straightened out and now only have 1 way to measure the COAL/bto.....the whole thing where you use a bullet as far out as you can in a case and shove it in the chamber, close the bolt and then open it up to put it back out and there you go, welp that bit me in the butt that time, never again.
I have also forgot to prime shells before putting powder in them.
I always keep the powder jug I'm using at the powder throw and scale and empty everything thing out after I'm done. I tend to keep the powder at one end of the bench until I'm done or need it and get only one powder at a time. When I do ladders with differing charges I take that one she'll or those shells and seat bullets and write on the casing what powder, charge and what bto, and write down on a little piece of paper all the details and put that around a shell in that row in the ammo box.

 

[rbTanzan]

'Yote'...how the heck did that bullet get thru that barrel....
I just don't see that happening......

A cup and core bullet might do that (308 in 270 [p3] or 338 in 308 [p6] ) and self swage. An all copper bullet would probably have blown up the action.

 

[Alibiiv]

It's really great to read threads like this one. I have made 73 orbits around the sun and have been reloading for 55+ years. So due to those numerous orbits....I presently am a whole lot carefuller with my reloading and with my components. Sorry but it happens to all of us where we have to be a bit more careful with maturity. As with many replies I always leave the powder canister/bottle just to the right of the powder measure; check it before filling and after emptying to make sure it's going into the correct bottle. I usually will use the same load data with the same powder, so I highlight the load data in my manuals. I use Alliant powders and I am always careful when setting up load data in the Chargemaster; and....with the Chargemaster it's always a good idea to check the emptying portal to make sure that it is closed before filling the reservoir! I also have a Dillon 650XL that I only load .45s on. I use Unique powder and have the powder charge and the powder, "Unique", written on a piece of masking tape on the powder measure; I don't empty the powder measure.

 

[nicholasjohn]

It's really great to read threads like this one. I have made 73 orbits around the sun and have been reloading for 55+ years. So due to those numerous orbits....I presently am a whole lot carefuller with my reloading and with my components. Sorry but it happens to all of us where we have to be a bit more careful with maturity. As with many replies I always leave the powder canister/bottle just to the right of the powder measure; check it before filling and after emptying to make sure it's going into the correct bottle. I usually will use the same load data with the same powder, so I highlight the load data in my manuals. I use Alliant powders and I am always careful when setting up load data in the Chargemaster; and....with the Chargemaster it's always a good idea to check the emptying portal to make sure that it is closed before filling the reservoir! I also have a Dillon 650XL that I only load .45s on. I use Unique powder and have the powder charge and the powder, "Unique", written on a piece of masking tape on the powder measure; I don't empty the powder measure.

I haven't orbited the sun as many times as you have, but I have abused myself a bit too much with transiting time zones & sleep pattern disruption, so I can empathize when you talk about how you insulate yourself from lapses in thinking in the loading room. Copious notes, highlighting in manuals, writing checklists, etc. are all good memory helpers for guys whose "handsome grey temples" now meet in the middle on the tops of our heads. I used to circle stuff on aeronautical charts before I had grey hair, so I wouldn't screw up. Now I talk myself through important processes out loud to keep everything straight. I spend more time reading my notes before I do something than I spend doing it, but I haven't blown myself up yet, either. Measure twice; cut once.

 

[ltrmc02]

A friend of mine took his son deer hunting a couple years back and was toting some loose rounds for both his and his son's rifle in his coat pocket . After his son shot a deer with his .243 Winchester then dad tried finishing the deer off at less than 20 yards away and missed twice with his .270 Winchester. He then realized he was creating a new wildcat cartridge but it was a flop.

Loaded .243 on left, new wildcat in center and .270 case on right.