Reloading-PAY ATTENTION!

I need to admit to making a dumb mistake yesterday when I was reloading a few .30-30 cartridges. I have been loading some 45 Colt ammo and I did not clear off my bench and put away the pistol primers I used. I inadvertently loaded (15) .30-30's using large pistol primers instead of large rifle primers.

I had to do a lot of searching online to find out if I was going to blow off a finger using the cartridges. I have an inertia type bullet puller and I can unload the cartridges, but then I will still have the problem of killing the primers with oil and I have never addressed that issue so I do not know how long it will take to kill the primer charge by soaking. I do not want to just punch out the primers so the last option is to just fire the primer and empty shell. That would be the safest. However I did see online that it is usually ok (but not exactly advisable) to just shoot the loaded shell and then be careful to not do it again.

I wrapped the rifle up and fired it with 1 shell in the chamber and it was ok. No bulged primer and the primer did not back out any discernible amount. I did see a tiny bit of cratering but comparing to a factory load I fired previously, there is not much difference in the look of the fired primers. I will ponder the situation and if I get cold feet I will pull the bullets and reload after firing off the primers.

I wrote this as a lesson for new reloaders, and as a confession of my lack of caution and planning and organizing my bench so as to eliminate as much as possible, mistakes that can cause injury or death. Hopefully by writing this I will remember better to not get lazy again. Hopefully also newbies or experienced alike will be reminded to check, double check and then check again.

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I also would like to comment on my portable loading bench. Basically...it sucks. It is ok for everything except full length resizing of bottleneck cases.​

I "felt" the empty all the way through the ram movement and eyeballed the shellholder vs. die mouth and did not see a gap. I accepted that the case had been sufficiently resized. However, there is just enough "spongy-ness" in the table to absorb part of the ram movement and fool me. I tried to chamber a round and it was a little difficult. Doable and ok, but not exact. I need a bit more solid table that will not flex under pressure from the ram.​

Another tip to the new reloaders: full length resize one cartridge and then try it in the gun you want to fire the shell in. If it fits perfectly and without any forcing, ya done good. If it is tight or hard to chamber a shell and close the lever or bolt, go back and check your dies. Make sure you are set up to resize the shell properly. (This goes for overall length too. If the bullet is not seated deep enough you may experience trouble closing the action.)​

It isn't so bad if this problem is discovered during a day at the local range, but if an expensive hunting trip could be ruined by shells that wont chamber I am guessin' that the owner of those cartridges is gonna be a bit out of sorts...to say the least.​

This is one of those times when I just have to say, "Don't do as I do; first take time to read the instructions, and follow them. I know I will now that I have embarrassed myself."​

 

No powder

I too have found a few rounds that had no powder. These were 45 Colt rounds (1) and several 9mm. These pistol cartridges were loaded on a progressive press and I have never run any cartridges through when there was no powder in the hopper. It had to be a failure of the powder measure to dump powder. I still haven't figured out how it happened.

Like you said though, it could have been worse...a double load. I just discovered the flaws the other day, but the shells that had no powder were loaded a year ago.

The Colt cartridge failed to fire and I pulled the bullet and found no powder. The 9's may have had a partial charge or a contaminated charge because the 3 that failed did fire the bullet but with only enough power to stick em in the barrel. I had to drive them back out of the barrel (carefully so as to not mess up the barrel) with a long drill bit. I have since fired the gun many times ad it is still accurate and no damage was done that I can find. (BTW it was a Hi Point 9mm)

 

Savage muzzleloader

I have heard of that too OB. I really wanted a Savage muzzleloader (10ML) back when they first came out. They were made to shoot black OR smokeless powder and I heard, capable of un heard of velocities. I haven't looked to see if they are still made but I wouldn't mind having one.

I saw a split shotgun barrel and also saw a partially unwrapped Damascus barrel but I believe those were damaged or were overcharged. Can't remember.

But I know it do pays to pay attention.

 

Ocd

Well, not ALWAYS a symptom of OCD anyway. Unless of course you prefer that people think it is so they keep their distance at certain times.

 

LP in a LR case

I have read the same as you state...not such a big deal. While the LP primers are a bit shorter, and may be made of softer material the difference usually is not too much of a worry. I can see a heavy powder charge may cause the primer to back out a bit and as in my case, crater the primer a bit, but unless the primer blows out or is punctured by a too long firing pin, not much will happen. And, just to mention to those who do not know, the Large Rifle primers will stick out a bit if used in a pistol cartridge, being a thousandth longer than the depth of the small primer cavities.