Lucky To Be Alive

[herbeapuce]

eloder ?2 is a great powder BTW....

[Kirbydoc]

I just saw this and praying for your complete recovery.

I did almost the same thing with Titegroup several years ago.
Loading .44 magnum with Lil'Gun Something came up and I had to quit suddenly. I resumed the next day and had 10 loads made up with 240 gr. jacketed hollow points and 23.0 gr. of ???? WHY does that bottle say TITEGROUP and not LIL'GUN? After I took them apart I emailed Hodgdon and asked them what the pressure would be. Their answer was having not tested that load they couldn't say but it would absolutely have been over 75,000 psi.
I was blessed to catch it before as a friend would say I "pressure-tested it".
I DO wish Hodgdon and other powder suppliers would label their bottles differently.
Same powder TITEGROUP. To this day I do not know how powder bottles got switched. No kids here.
As always RELOAD AND SHOOT SAFELY.

[std7mag]

Dkyser,

Last update was November... How are you healing???

[skizzums]

he may have taken a little vacay from the firearm thing, couldn't blame him

[9MMand223only]

I put a typical Varget load, and put titegroup in there instead, to see what the PSI was in quickload?

its over 300,000 PSI.

The tensil strength of the strongest chromoly steel used in connecting rods on cars is ~220,000 PSI. So that blast was strong enough to break a connecting rod in a car.

[straightShot]

I hope that you're healing, and I'm glad that you got back out there.

[Wreck-n-Crew]

Wow! Missed this thread too. Was in the final run of work before winter and coming up on my birthday. In short absent and busy. Glad it turned out much better than what it could have! Well evidently healed enough to get out there again I see! Glad you can. Appreciate the share!

Man that's a lot of Titegroup in a small place! Fast burner like that, 300,000 psi...man I don't doubt it!

[dkyser]

I am healing but finger still numb, no fingernail and in the cold feels like its going to fall off. It will be a long healing process but at least now can somewhat type with it.

I put over 40 grains of tite group.

It was 1 heck of an explosion and I do know I am lucky, but at the same time get frustrated with the slow healing process.

I will get back to the bench for sure, but shot factory ammo when I sighted in my new rifle. One step at a time.

[riverratt]

Glad to hear your doing better. Hope everything heals up properly.

I did nearly the same thing a while back, fortunately in the other direction. See I was loading my favorite .44 mag load with 4227 (baby blue label) my hopper was getting low so I grabbed what i thought was the same powder. As I was dumping the powder in I noticed it was an extruded powder, what the heck, I Looked again at the label it said 4064 (light blue label). I just got through loading some test loads for the 7mm-08 and left the bottle out. Lesson learned.

[dkyser]

I am glad to see others mention they also made or almost made a similar mistake. Just makes it clear how easy it can happen.

Reloading is so fun and rewarding. This post is not to discourage you, just keep the experience fun and one you can pass on to your kids.

Just share my experience so they remember what can happen.

[ingEneer22]

Awe man. Glad you are okay. I've only been reloading for a few months now and it was valuable for me to see this, thank you for sharing. I'll be sure to go slow and double and triple check loads and such.

[McCarthy]

Damn! I hope your finger will be back to normal eventually.

I know how you feel. I broke my wrist in a motorcycle crash a year ago and couldn't ride or do much of anything else for 8 month.

Good luck and thank you for sharing. This story will help me keeping my eyes peeled when starting to reload soon.

[Wreck-n-Crew]

My vote we make a permanent thread from this one. Less it be buried and not reminding people like it seems to be doing. Nothing like those pics to get the point across aye?

[gunrunner1]

I've been reloading since 1983 and always kept all of my powders stored together on a shelf on my reloading bench. Never had a problem until a few years ago I decided to reload some .223 Rem. I loaded 100 rounds and when I went to put what I thought was the left over W748 back in the container, I saw that it was a container of W296. I was kind of confused for a minute, and then I realized that I had grabbed W296 instead of W748. Both powders were together on the shelf and I grabbed the wrong one.

After that, I took all of the powders off of my reloading bench and put them in another room. Now the only powder in my reloading room is the one I am using at that time. I also make sure that different powders that have similar looking labels are not stored next to each other.

[pathdoc]

+1 to this becoming a sticky post.

[hooligan1]

Gunrunner good for you, I only pull one pound at a time from my powder cabinet too...it seems to keep me from mixing two different powders also..
My two oldest sons load also, so Dads rule #1 is one powder, one loader and no shenanigans, they fully understand this because I made them read Dkyser's first posts and lookvthose pictures over, we take loading very seriously..

[stevesmith]

first im glad your ok...i am new to reloading and i picked a tough one to reload to start with.. but i made my mnd that i was only goin to load one caliber until i had it mastered..over 700 rounds later im no where close to having it mastered..i use only 1 kind of powder 1 kind of primer..i did this for obvious reasons of i had enough to worry about so i didnt want to throw in the mix of different powders and primers etc. and im just as scared today as i was 700 rounds ago..not sure if the fear will ever go away..probably a good thing if it dont..i hate to hear anytime somebody gets hurt and i know your tired of hearing it could have been worse..ill say this im just glad your still ablr to talk walk and still shoot..
hope you a speedy recovery..hpe the pain subsides for you along with the aggrivation of slow healing..

[9mmSkeeter]

Oh my lordy! That must have been what, 30 or 40 grains of titegroup?

And that powder is FAST! Thank God you are okay. Thank you for sharing.

[kutz]

I'm taking this lesson to heart.

[Brotherbadger]

Wow. Thanks for sharing. Glad to see you are ok.

[Kframe]

Thanks for posting this, OP.
Good reminder for me, and timely.

Have reloaded many many thousands of rounds for handgun (38/357, 45acp and 9x19) but it's been a few years since I had a bench set up (I have a 3.5 year old, 'nuff said) but am now at a point where I'm getting back into it and just got all the stuff to load .30-'06, which is a whole new ballgame.

I often phase in and out of hobbies and usually it's like getting back on a bicycle, so the risk of being complacent with reloading is high - until I read this thread!

You, dkyser, have probably prevented at least one of us from having a similar accident, thank you!

__

Regarding emptying hoppers at the end of a session, I don't like to and think it's more risky to make a screw-up the more you transfer a powder.
Like my old chemistry teacher told me, you never pour a working solution back into the stock container.

Of course people need to tailor their practices to their setup and equipment; I reload handgun on a pair of Dillon SDB's with powder hoppers.

When I add powder to one I write the name of the powder on a scrap of paper and toss it in before I tape on the lid with masking tape that I also label with the powder name and date and my initials.

It stays in there until the hopper runs dry; if I decide to switch powders or calibers and there is a little left I'll either load up the remaining or discard it, it does NOT go back in the stock container.

[Sevens]

K-frame, leaving powder in the hopper will eventually cloud, etch, and ruin the hopper. Depends on the hopper, depends more on the powder, but it's well known and often shared and for many of us (myself also)... personally experienced. It sounds like you have a chance yet to only experience it second hand, but I would imagine if you continue... you'll experience it first hand.

I like the chemistry reference and our hobby certainly involves chemistry, but the warning simply doesn't apply. Load manuals confirm this.

Not a "must do" of course, but advice passed along from a position of experience.

[Ironworker]

In a M1-A1 I mistaken Re#12 for Re#15. Didn't notice my mistake till I got back from the range. I was shooting light bullets so I was dang lucky.

[dkyser]

Close to 100% recovery now but still a memory I will never forget.
Still to this day can't believe I was that careless, no other way to put it.

[dieselbeef]

is there any apprehension when pulling the trigger now....some people crash motorcycles never ride again if ya know what I mean