Really didn't want to share.

[crystalgayleguy]

I brought a model 70 at a gun show said chamber I 6mm 47 lapua got dies necked down some 6.5 47 lapua brass went and shot it it blew the shoulder almost all forward found out it was rechambered to 243 win

 

[FEENIX]

After over a decade of reloading, meticulously checking myself, I screwed up bad. Nobody got hurt, but this type of mistake is inexcusable. I really didn't want to share. I just wanted to keep this one to myself.....But, it did happen. I see a lot of new guys here lately, and decided that my mistake may help somebody else from getting hurt, so here's what happened.

I was doing load development on one rifle ( friends 7 rem mag) and getting my rifle set up with a new scope ( kahles 624i is just bought from a member here) My rifle is a 7x300 win mag loading 175 eld-x...his a 7rem mag with 162 eld-x.

Everything went well, still need some tweaking on his, but mine still shoots like I expect it to.

While I was letting his cool after a couple shots, I grabbed my rifle to shoot a couple to get it zeroed. 3 shots, and I'm getting really close to shooting for a zero group. I grab his, again to shoot the next load. It shoots pretty decent. All is good. My spotter wants to verify his rifle, so we take a break from these two and let them cool, while he shoots his rifle. I shoot mine again, and get a really solid group for a zero on my scope.

I go back to shooting my friends rilfle's next load. I made a mistake right here, I left both ammo boxes on the shooting pad (same color ammo box, bullets and cases look very similar) I can't believe what I did next. I wanted to verify at 1000, so shifted everything a bit to the north to get to our 1000 ( 1005) yard target. My buddy helped move everything. During this time, the 7 rem mag somehow (my fault no matter how it happened) got switched with the 7x300.

I settled on my target at 1005 and let one go, my spotter called 2 moa low. I was really not happy about that, so I grabbed another one. I'm thinking no way I'm off 2 moa, I shoot another one ( stupid, stupid, stupid). 2 moa low again. So now I'm thinking, what the heck is going on? I'll check my zero again.....That's when I saw the two casings I just shot. I just shot two 7 rem mag rounds out of my 7x300. ( I can't believe how close those shot at 1000 yards to what mine were supposed to shoot)

I had to sit down for minute. I can't believe I did that, not once, but twice.

I know how it happened, I actually even thought about it before that. ( I didn't like that both ammo boxes were identical) But I knew what I was doing, and was aware that I needed to make sure. It was just a simple mistake (that could have been really bad). The wind was picking up, and I got in a hurry, I didn't move his box off the shooting pad, the spotter helped me move a few things, and his ammo ended up where mine was supposed to be, and they looked the same.

I broke some rules, got over confident, and made a mistake that I wouldn't expect from a rookie.

There isn't really any excuse for this, lucky for me, my rifle actually shot them pretty good, and no harm was done.

Mistakes like this are how people get hurt. Over 10 years of doing this, and getting better all the time, and then this. I've called people out on this site for doing stupid things, and I'll still do it when I see it.

I felt obligated to share this. I'm sure somebody is going to call me out for being a dumb ***, and they'd be right.

Nobody had to know about this, and that's how'd I would really like it to be......But If the stupid mistake I made keeps someone from getting hurt, and I take a beating online for it.....so be it. The truth is the truth. The stupid truth......I really, really don't want to post this

You are correct, you could have easily not shared it, but there is definitely a lesson worthwhile sharing. It takes a bigger person to admit mistakes.

To help avoid mistake(s), "I" only deal with one rifle at a time. "If" waiting for the rifle to cool off, I have my .22LR or air rifle to entertain myself during the cooling process.

Ed

 

[Bravo 4]

Considering the similarities in the case, I can see how you accidentally swapped cartridges, but don't think your mistake is as big as you make it to be. You fireformed.
Impressive on the repeatability at 1K

Not to denounce the possible hazards to your rifle and personal well being, as this type of mistake could be catastrophic, but sounds like you just made some short neck 7-300 cases. You got a pass and a wake up call on this one.

Added:
Correction, you made a no neck 7-300. That is pretty severe.

 

[Roninco]

Thank you for the real life reminder to pay attention and not get complacent in our sport.
Because of your post I will examine my range procedures and take heed.

 

[Pinoniper]

Thank you for the reminder!

 

[Alibiiv]

After over a decade of reloading, meticulously checking myself, I screwed up bad. Nobody got hurt, but this type of mistake is inexcusable. I really didn't want to share. I just wanted to keep this one to myself.....But, it did happen. I see a lot of new guys here lately, and decided that my mistake may help somebody else from getting hurt, so here's what happened.

I was doing load development on one rifle ( friends 7 rem mag) and getting my rifle set up with a new scope ( kahles 624i is just bought from a member here) My rifle is a 7x300 win mag loading 175 eld-x...his a 7rem mag with 162 eld-x.

Everything went well, still need some tweaking on his, but mine still shoots like I expect it to.

While I was letting his cool after a couple shots, I grabbed my rifle to shoot a couple to get it zeroed. 3 shots, and I'm getting really close to shooting for a zero group. I grab his, again to shoot the next load. It shoots pretty decent. All is good. My spotter wants to verify his rifle, so we take a break from these two and let them cool, while he shoots his rifle. I shoot mine again, and get a really solid group for a zero on my scope.

I go back to shooting my friends rilfle's next load. I made a mistake right here, I left both ammo boxes on the shooting pad (same color ammo box, bullets and cases look very similar) I can't believe what I did next. I wanted to verify at 1000, so shifted everything a bit to the north to get to our 1000 ( 1005) yard target. My buddy helped move everything. During this time, the 7 rem mag somehow (my fault no matter how it happened) got switched with the 7x300.

I settled on my target at 1005 and let one go, my spotter called 2 moa low. I was really not happy about that, so I grabbed another one. I'm thinking no way I'm off 2 moa, I shoot another one ( stupid, stupid, stupid). 2 moa low again. So now I'm thinking, what the heck is going on? I'll check my zero again.....That's when I saw the two casings I just shot. I just shot two 7 rem mag rounds out of my 7x300. ( I can't believe how close those shot at 1000 yards to what mine were supposed to shoot)

I had to sit down for minute. I can't believe I did that, not once, but twice.

I know how it happened, I actually even thought about it before that. ( I didn't like that both ammo boxes were identical) But I knew what I was doing, and was aware that I needed to make sure. It was just a simple mistake (that could have been really bad). The wind was picking up, and I got in a hurry, I didn't move his box off the shooting pad, the spotter helped me move a few things, and his ammo ended up where mine was supposed to be, and they looked the same.

I broke some rules, got over confident, and made a mistake that I wouldn't expect from a rookie.

There isn't really any excuse for this, lucky for me, my rifle actually shot them pretty good, and no harm was done.

Mistakes like this are how people get hurt. Over 10 years of doing this, and getting better all the time, and then this. I've called people out on this site for doing stupid things, and I'll still do it when I see it.

I felt obligated to share this. I'm sure somebody is going to call me out for being a dumb ***, and they'd be right.

Nobody had to know about this, and that's how'd I would really like it to be......But If the stupid mistake I made keeps someone from getting hurt, and I take a beating online for it.....so be it. The truth is the truth. The stupid truth......I really, really don't want to post this

Wow nmbarta you really are being hard on yourself!! Mistakes are mistakes and oftentimes are avoidable, however that's what they are "mistakes" and not intentional actions. When I hear people call themselves stupid, I ask them how they would like it if I called them stupid because there's really not difference. Anyway...........I did something quite similar as your mistake, something that I am, and was not to happy to have done. I was shooting five-stand with my Remington 1100 20 gauge with a bunch of friends. I was using an ammo bag to hold for my ammo and to hold my hulls. One of the guys who I was shooting with had a Remington 1100 in 12 gauge. While we were shooting the course I was talking with this guy about his 12 gauge 1100 and how it shot and recoil. After we had shot the course he asked me if I would like to try shooting a few rounds with his gun, and I said yes. He gave me a couple of rounds to shoot, I put them into my range bag, set my shotgun in the rack, all this time we were BSing and I was not really paying attention to business. I took his gun, reached into m range back, pulled out a round and threw the round into the chamber, BSed some more, called pull. I raised the gun up and "CLICK", so "Oh" I must have forgotten to put a round in the chamber so I reach into the range bag, pulled out another shotgun shell, put it into the chamber making sure there was a round inside of the gun this time. At this point I was getting ready to say pull when one of the other, more experienced shooters, told me to hold up and to check the barrel of the shotgun, which I did. I still thank Frank for paying attention because there was a very nice 20 gauge shotgun shell lodged inside of the barrel. Apparently there was still a 20 gauge round inside of that range bag and when I reached into the bag to get one of the 12 gauge rounds I pulled that 20 gauge shell out first. Had I pulled that trigger it would have been catastrophic for everyone on that shooting field. Had I been paying attention instead of BSing I would have realized when the gun went "click" that there was something seriously wrong or I would have caught it when I heard the round fall down the barrel!! When something like this happens it can be a blessing in disguise because it gives us a real "wake-up" call and keeps us on our toes. Sometimes after shooting for many years we become callous. Right now as I am writing this reply my butt cheeks slammed together and everything between them slammed up tight!! Thanks for sharing this with the group, by doing so you probably helped people to pay more attention and prevented something serious from happening to them!!

 

[Bullmark]

These are all great lessons and no matter how experienced you are, mistakes can happen. Reminders like these stories push safety to the forefront, at least for the short term.

 

[nmbarta]

Hopefully it didn't etch my chamber. Looks like it was close to being worse than it was.
I don't consider myself stupid, but what I did was.
Thanks for the nice responses, as meticulous as I am, this still happened.
Complacency was my problem, and it's almost unavoidable to become complacent to some degree.
It was a definite wake up call.
It's not fun to post this sort of thing, but I decided it's worth looking a bit foolish if it prevents someone from doing something similar. It's always better to learn from other people's mistakes than to make them yourself.
Mistakes will happen, in this sport, mistakes aren't always this forgiving.
The more we know, the less likely they are to happen.
My shooting pad will now have the same rule as my reloading bench (never more than one powder, primer, bullet, die on it)
Never more than one type of ammo on the pad at a time. That was already a rule....minus the "never" part I guess. I got in a hurry.

 

[Coldfinger]

I use completely separate mags, .223 go in magpul while the blackouts get clear or smoke lancer mags and I never run the opposite to avoid that issue.

Years ago my grandfather accidentally grabbed the wrong box of 06 in the morning when he went out hunting, I've been told 25-06 makes a weird noise going down a 30 cal barrel.

Prolly like 243 ammo down my 308 barrel!

 

[Bucklowery]

Thanks for posting this and for forth coming with information that does not always hold us in the best light

Thanks

Buck

 

[nwmnbowhunter]

If I'm by myself i never have guns with same family of cases [270, 30-06, etc].

Will only have two rifles at most so i can alternate and each are significantly different. [270 win vs. 300 prc for example]

I have switched over almost completely to hammer bullets and since doing this its only one rifle at a time as a quick glance isn't good enough to tell difference in cartridges.

When there are other people around I don't even shoot as i don't want to hurry and hurt myself or my family [usually nieces and nephews].

Glad you are ok. Thanks for the share.

 

[nwmnbowhunter]

OP's situation and a couple of examples within this thread involve more than one person and have a little bit of "we both know what we are doing" and each person relying a little bit on the other person and neither one actually verifying. [As you would if you were by yourself]

Ammo gets switched, guns get swapped.

Be careful and thank goodness you both are ok.

It's why i reload alone and shoot alone, no one touches my gun or ammo until we are all done.

 

[ndking1126]

Glad you are OK, and thanks for swallowing your pride. After joining this forum and reading a couple of posts like this, I implemented a "one rifle and one box of ammo on the bench" rule. These posts make a difference, and I'm proof.

I've got to say though, how well the wrong cartridge shot is pretty interesting.

 

[nmbarta]

It really doesn't make sense.
The 7x300 shoots 175 eldx at 3120 now.
The 162 in the rem is just over 3000.
How did that only hit 2moa low? I was shooting at a rock, so I don't know exactly how close the shots were to each other, but I know I'd be happy if I could always keep them that close. Pretty odd, the 7x300 does have an extra 4" of barrel, but still odd. Maybe I should try the 162's