Dumb things you did when you first started reloading?

[jason75979]

Second guessed someone's help and got berated for it.
But I ain't mad, I've learned a lot from most of y'all.
A special thanks to Mr. Pflueger and Uncle Nick.

BTW, stuck my very first 30'06 casing to resize as I was scared to apply too much lube due to too much reading

[the led farmer]

read too much bad information in the internet

[wizrd]

Used loading data that I found on a web forum. (Not this forum). Resulted in a blown primer, jamming the bolt of a Bushmaster AR-15. Trip to gunsmith and $35.00 later problem was solved. Never used load data you get off of a forum like this. Rechecked my loads against data, they were correct. Rechecked data next day on the forum, load was still there, powder weight was 5 grains LESS than was listed the previous day. Always use the books or the manufacturer's site data for bullets & powder. Never trust a forum.

[ScottRiqui]

Not really "dumb", but definitely a result of inexperience:

My first-ever box of reloads (.38 Spl) had about a half-dozen duds because of high primers. I had hand-primed them, and didn't have a "feel" for how hard to seat them. The primers weren't visibly sticking up out of the primer holes or anything, but they were high enough that they needed a second strike before they'd fire.

[Edward429451]

I bought about 500 rounds of brand new Remington 45acp Brass......

Ouch! that hurts even hearing about it. I didn't make blunders in the beginning, I was being too careful. I had to wait until I knew too much to have my close call. I had no load data and had to guesstimate how much RX7 to use behind my new 350 gr 45/70 Lee boolit. SOmehow I wound up at 50 gr and I'm pretty sure it was a proof load.

It didn't show any pressure signs but my shoulder did. I believe it was someone on this board that ran it through Quickload and said it was around 40K.

The really really bad part was that it shot one ragged hole and when I dropped it to 40 and began working up, accuracy was not as good. Every grain pulled it in tighter but didnt get as tight as 50 gr shot.

Whats that they say? Anyone can make a mistake, but to really foul things up takes a degree.

[TripHlx]

Started out with .38 Special/.357 Magnum on a Lee progressive, indexing manually. Size, prime, expand, charge, seat, done. Only problem was I managed to seat 5 bullets with the expander die. Took me a moment to figure out why the bullet was seated almost to the bottom of the case...

[Reef]

I am VERY new at reloading, approximatley 500 rounds to date reloaded. I started out buying all the ingredients, then, after they arrived in the mail only to realize the bullets and or powder I had didn’t match the load data in any of my manuals. Now, if for example, I want to load my 45 ACP, I go to my manual FIRST and select the type/weight I want and THEN buy the ingredients. Simple I know but why I did it the other way escapes me.

[ragwd]

i tumbled 200 .223/5.56 cases with a cheap medium and a little car wax. result was medium inside cases, expanded with the car wax and medium stuck inside when i opened. took about 3 hours to extract all that stuff from the bottle necked cases. I will never do that again.

[dacaur]

I learned on 9mm. The first bullets I loaded were Berry's 115 grain RN. When I seated the first bullet and the tip of the bullet was even with the top of the case I knew something just didn't look right.

Heh, thats exactly what my first 9mm out of the press looked like....

i tumbled 200 .223/5.56 cases with a cheap medium and a little car wax. result was medium inside cases, expanded with the car wax and medium stuck inside when i opened. took about 3 hours to extract all that stuff from the bottle necked cases. I will never do that again.

lol I did this one too, stupid wal-mart.....

Dumbest thing I have done is read the load from my manual, which happened to be sitting next to the computer at the time, then checked my email, walked across the basement and loaded 20 rounds..... THEN walked back to the manual across the basement to double check the load, which I had remembered wrong, and loaded way too much power, at which point I had to finally break down and buy a bullet puller . Now my manual is sitting by my side when I load, loading from memory turns out to be a bad plan, while double checking the load is a good one.....

[farmerboy]

When I first started reloading I was so excited that I would find a recipe and start loading in the middle of the load and load thousands. That's been about 18 years ago and I have tons of rifles and pistols that all work fine but now I find an accurate load now and then load tons. Wish I would have always found the most accurate round first.

[Don P]

Had this uncanny thought that I would save a bunch of money by re-loading (at least thats what I told myself) knowing that I would be shooting 2-3 times as often and shooting that much more ammo. Guess in the end it all works out.

[Casimer]

I'd made the mistake of leaving powder in my hopper between reloading sessions in a humid room, which caused it to clump when feeding, resulting in a bunch of squibs. This was when using a Lee auto-disk.

[SIGSHR]

1. Set off a primer using a Lee Loader-this was in 1975.
2. Bought a nice all steel Lyman 310 tool-then realized it was for 300 H&H Magnum. Still have it-don't think I've EVER seen a round of 300 H&H Magnum.
3. Graduated from a Lee Loader to Lyman 310 tools. Both taught me the importance of full length resizing.

[10-96]

I wasnt all that new to re-loading, but I pulled 2 major boners at once. 1. Don't reload during a major thunderstorm. 2. Don't mix reloading with food and drinks.

I'd gone to fetch a cup of coffee and was just in the motion of sitting down. With my left hand I had grabbed a can of IMR 4895 and at the exact moment my butt hit the seat cushion and I had the can of powder up in front of my face- lightning struck a transformer right outside. I guess the explosion of the transformer made me flinch and fling hot coffee all over me, everything went pitch dark. I was waving my hand in front of my scalded face thinking "Oh my God- I've blown myself up and I've gone blind!" Somewhere in here I got turned over along with the chair when the thought occured to me that I ought to be running, but I couldn't get up because I was tangled up in the chair legs. I launched myself forward and jammed my head square into a wall, but I was free of the chair and running still seemed to be a major priority. So, I was able to stand up, turn 180 degrees, and resume my running game plan. In maybe a step or two, the chair got me again- and down I went again. I don't really know what all happened next, and I didn't come to my senses until I was a mile to a mile and a half down the road. It never occured to me that I'd doused myself with hot coffee and it went dark because the transformer blew. However, I did use the incident as a learning experience and have since ceased drinking anything around my reloading area and I don't reload during thunderstorms.

[1stmar]

I started out reloading 38/357, got the cheapest bullets I could, which happen to be lead wadcutters. I had never seen one before, I saw the lube ring and assumed that was the proper seating depth and the case mouth was to be crimped into the ring. So the bullets were seated to far out, had a number of bullets stuck in the barrel before I figured it out.

[tkglazie]

I wasnt all that new to re-loading, but I pulled 2 major boners at once. 1. Don't reload during a major thunderstorm. 2. Don't mix reloading with food and drinks.

I'd gone to fetch a cup of coffee and was just in the motion of sitting down. With my left hand I had grabbed a can of IMR 4895 and at the exact moment my butt hit the seat cushion and I had the can of powder up in front of my face- lightning struck a transformer right outside. I guess the explosion of the transformer made me flinch and fling hot coffee all over me, everything went pitch dark. I was waving my hand in front of my scalded face thinking "Oh my God- I've blown myself up and I've gone blind!" Somewhere in here I got turned over along with the chair when the thought occured to me that I ought to be running, but I couldn't get up because I was tangled up in the chair legs. I launched myself forward and jammed my head square into a wall, but I was free of the chair and running still seemed to be a major priority. So, I was able to stand up, turn 180 degrees, and resume my running game plan. In maybe a step or two, the chair got me again- and down I went again. I don't really know what all happened next, and I didn't come to my senses until I was a mile to a mile and a half down the road. It never occured to me that I'd doused myself with hot coffee and it went dark because the transformer blew. However, I did use the incident as a learning experience and have since ceased drinking anything around my reloading area and I don't reload during thunderstorms.

Now that is a hell of a story. I am exhausted just thinking about it.
_________________

[CS86]

I thought 10-96's story was good too. I couldn't stop laughing even though I'm sure it wasn't all that funny at the time. Its an experience you'll never forget.

[CowboyinIL]

I wasnt all that new to re-loading, but I pulled 2 major boners at once. 1. Don't reload during a major thunderstorm. 2. Don't mix reloading with food and drinks.

I'd gone to fetch a cup of coffee and was just in the motion of sitting down. With my left hand I had grabbed a can of IMR 4895 and at the exact moment my butt hit the seat cushion and I had the can of powder up in front of my face- lightning struck a transformer right outside. I guess the explosion of the transformer made me flinch and fling hot coffee all over me, everything went pitch dark. I was waving my hand in front of my scalded face thinking "Oh my God- I've blown myself up and I've gone blind!" Somewhere in here I got turned over along with the chair when the thought occured to me that I ought to be running, but I couldn't get up because I was tangled up in the chair legs. I launched myself forward and jammed my head square into a wall, but I was free of the chair and running still seemed to be a major priority. So, I was able to stand up, turn 180 degrees, and resume my running game plan. In maybe a step or two, the chair got me again- and down I went again. I don't really know what all happened next, and I didn't come to my senses until I was a mile to a mile and a half down the road. It never occured to me that I'd doused myself with hot coffee and it went dark because the transformer blew. However, I did use the incident as a learning experience and have since ceased drinking anything around my reloading area and I don't reload during thunderstorms.

ROFL....Great Story 10-96. I just can't stop laughing...bringing tears to my eyes from laughing soooo hard.

[gunloony]

... 1. Don't reload during a major thunderstorm. 2. Don't mix reloading with food and drinks...

I know it was not at all humorous to experience, 10-96, but reading it I almost fell out of my chair. Hope you have recovered and made it a lesson learned.

My dumbest mistake - besides getting into reloading - was getting a bullet stuck in the cylinder and barrel on my Model 19 S & W because I missed putting a powder charge in a case. The incident definitively ended that range session, but I learned to always check and recheck that there is powder in the cartridges before seating bullets.

[jmorris]

Al Gore hadn't yet invented the internet when I started reloading, so all of my information had to come from books.

That didn't keep me from doing dumb things though. On the top of the list was trying to cheap out on equipment. From posts I read on the internet folks still make the same mistakes.

[FiveInADime]

I made a mistake right off of the bat when I listened to a guy on a YouTube video who claimed 409 was great for case cleaning. It will corrode the cases because of the ammonia in it. I went to load the cases days later and there was all kinds of corrosion built up in the primer pockets even though I rinsed them and dried them well.

Best thing I did was ignore all of the fools who claim all Lee reloading equipment is worthless junk. About 2/3 of my equipment is Lee and it all works fantastically.

Sent From My GIalaxy S 4g Using Tapatalk

[tkglazie]

Best thing I did was ignore all of the fools who claim all Lee reloading equipment is worthless junk.

seconded

[jepp2]

Blindly following the die manufacturers recommendation for setting the die = 1/4 turn after the die makes contact with the shell holder.

I wound up sizing and loading several hundred rounds that wouldn't reliably work in my AR. I had always loaded for bolt actions and they would tolerate the longer cases. Turns out my die just will not adequately set the shoulder back sufficiently for an AR. Now I measure fired cases and set the sizing die bases on measurement not worthless guidance like provided by die manufacturers. Also got a different sizing die and now no problems with shoulder setback.

[Edward429451]

Best thing I did was ignore all of the fools who claim all Lee reloading equipment is worthless junk.

Lee stuff isn't all worthless junk. They make a darn fine dipper set.
Their moulds are good too for the most part.

[Hammerhead]

I de-primed 3 or 4 cases that I had just primed. I was using matching bins for unprimed and primed brass and was reaching into the wrong bin. I think I turned white when I realized what I had done.