The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Catastrophic Failure of Rifle Due To Double Charge of Blue Dot

Uncle Billy · June 18, 2009, 11:57 AM

I became suspicious that my Redding powder measure was throwing inconsistent weights, so in the process of reloading a batch of 50 I set each primed case on a small portable digital scale I bought and hit the "tare" button; then charged the case and reweighed it. Sure enough, the powder measure was varying by a number of tenths of a grain, sometimes a lot more than that, which required that I dump the charge back in the measure and try again. If the right weight didn't get thrown after a few tries, I readjusted the micrometer on the Redding and went ahead. Since the load was supposed to be 7.5 grains of Unique (to keep the recoil down a little for a new shooter), a few 10ths variance seemed to me to be excessive. I reloaded the whole 50 of them that way, and sought to find a more dependable way to weigh the powder without weighing each case twice. It would be immediately obvious if I had screwed up and double-charged a case. While this process isn't much of a bother for small quantities, doing it this way for a large number of cartridges would get tedious I think. But there's no way a double charged round can wind up in the gun.

I admire ryalred's candor and his efforts to help us avoid such errors. That's a great example of looking out for others and reflects how we all should go about in the world. Obviously he sees his ministry is to everyone.

June 18, 2009, 11:57 AM	#35
Uncle Billy Senior Member Join Date: June 10, 2009 Location: Small city in New York Posts: 482	I became suspicious that my Redding powder measure was throwing inconsistent weights, so in the process of reloading a batch of 50 I set each primed case on a small portable digital scale I bought and hit the "tare" button; then charged the case and reweighed it. Sure enough, the powder measure was varying by a number of tenths of a grain, sometimes a lot more than that, which required that I dump the charge back in the measure and try again. If the right weight didn't get thrown after a few tries, I readjusted the micrometer on the Redding and went ahead. Since the load was supposed to be 7.5 grains of Unique (to keep the recoil down a little for a new shooter), a few 10ths variance seemed to me to be excessive. I reloaded the whole 50 of them that way, and sought to find a more dependable way to weigh the powder without weighing each case twice. It would be immediately obvious if I had screwed up and double-charged a case. While this process isn't much of a bother for small quantities, doing it this way for a large number of cartridges would get tedious I think. But there's no way a double charged round can wind up in the gun. I admire ryalred's candor and his efforts to help us avoid such errors. That's a great example of looking out for others and reflects how we all should go about in the world. Obviously he sees his ministry is to everyone.