Herlaaifoute/ Reloading mistakes

[Treeman]

Not checking that the dies in my progressive were snugged down properly before cranking out an afternoon's worth of 9mm. Had to run the whole the lot through a single stage with correctly set bullet seating die. This went on well after I had planned to be stuck into a beer or three. 

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luckily it seems it was not because of a beer or 3

[janfred]

Using a Dillon decaping die in my Lee Loadmaster because Dillon is "better" than Lee.

That was a lot of money I could have spent on bullets or beer...

[Shotofrank]

Been away for a while, business spoke loudly.
I recall receiving a bag of 9 mm cases and with them being cleaned already I set about reloading them without wasting time. The first battle was depriming pin seemed to be off centre a lot of the time and the case holder was a loose fit.
I being early days reloading and as always in a hurry, just ploughed on.

They were 9 mm short cases and I was too lazy to check everything, besides, the seller said they were 9 mm.

[oafpatroll]

Not checking that the dies in my progressive were snugged down properly before cranking out an afternoon's worth of 9mm. Had to run the whole the lot through a single stage with correctly set bullet seating die. This went on well after I had planned to be stuck into a beer or three. 

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luckily it seems it was not because of a beer or 3

To date, I have never done anything reloading related except decapping with booze in me. Mates of mine that i have given crash course intros to reloading over the years have found it funny as hell because pretty much everything else I do is accompanied by beer.   

[Treeman]

I do not reload if I have drank in that day. I do not handle my weapons at home at all if I have drank.
I will hunt day after nights drinking, but while not drinking.
I honestly do not handle, work, reload or even clean weapons(weapon, as in a whole) if I have drank in that day. A way around this if I wish to have a beer when handling firearms is to do so in dissembled form, work on a stock or blue a barrel etc, I strip weapon before and may sit in front of TV cleaning a part or sanding with a beer present.
I allow myself to decap cases, tumble sort etc with a beer at hand, but never the actual assembling of cartridges.

Another quirk is, anything of the above will not be done at reloading station or even in reloading room if I am having a beer, only at a household table.

Although I drink a lot, I am scared of the stuff and treat alcohol almost with the same cautions as I do weapons.

[janfred]

LMBTA

Q What is the difference between reloading and driving a car?

A The potential to kill people are higher when you screw up driving a car than if you screw up reloading.

It is quite fascinating to listen to people telling you how they don't touch alcohol when reloading while nursing a few pints in the club house. Then they get into their cars and drive home...

[Treeman]

LMBTA

Q What is the difference between reloading and driving a car?

A The potential to kill people are higher when you screw up driving a car than if you screw up reloading.

It is quite fascinating to listen to people telling you how they don't touch alcohol when reloading while nursing a few pints in the club house. Then they get into their cars and drive home...

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I do not find the 2 comparable. Alcohol is dangerous I know, but so is being alive.
I on the other hand believe there is nothing wrong with my body weight having 3 small beers and driving - but here in lies the problem, if I have 4 beers I know my judgement is affected. Problem is who draws the line for you and who decides what is "affected by" and how does it present itself as.
The alcohol laws are generic and that is not fair, the result of alcohol caused road carnage is also not fair.
I still do not think driving from the local home is comparable to reloading or tight rope walking.

[Ds J]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M_S9VHB9Sb8



Germans testing the influence of alcohol on driving abilities.

A man of 80kg has 0.3promille alkohol after 500ml beer.

A woman of 60kg has 0.4promille alkohol after 500ml beer.

[Tripodmvr]

Who of you have adjusted your seating dies to the sizing dies specification i.e. turned down to touch the shellholder. I did that whilst seating 375 ammo. This allows the die to crimp the case mouth excessively and I ended up with a concertina shaped case - ruined of course.

[Treeman]

Who of you have adjusted your seating dies to the sizing dies specification i.e. turned down to touch the shellholder. I did that whilst seating 375 ammo. This allows the die to crimp the case mouth excessively and I ended up with a concertina shaped case - ruined of course.

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Costly mistake.

[janfred]

Probably not that costly. You would pretty much see the results after the first case.

I use a .32 ACP sizing die to neck-size my 303 brass. Turns out that if you put too much force on the handle, the diameter of the shoulder increases. I learnt that the hard way on the 300m firing point in the WP Bisley competition. Of the 200 rounds loaded, around 25 was impossible to close the bolt.

Thankfully, if you can get the bolt closed, firing the round resizes it back to normal. I'm glad I loaded 50 extra rounds to be able to finish the competition.

[Treeman]

Probably not that costly. You would pretty much see the results after the first case.

I use a .32 ACP sizing die to neck-size my 303 brass. Turns out that if you put too much force on the handle, the diameter of the shoulder increases. I learnt that the hard way on the 300m firing point in the WP Bisley competition. Of the 200 rounds loaded, around 25 was impossible to close the bolt.

Thankfully, if you can get the bolt closed, firing the round resizes it back to normal. I'm glad I loaded 50 extra rounds to be able to finish the competition.

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Tell us the reasons for using the 32ACP die, sounds interesting

[janfred]

The short story. I needed a neck-sizing die, but none was available in SA at the time. I had a 32ACP sizing die available and it is almost the right size. It worked.

The long story. My SMLE circa 1918 had a very oversize chamber. So much so that the head-space was still out-of-spec even when using the largest bolt-head (no 4). Not just the head-space, but diameter of the body as well. Those with SMLE's know what I mean. I would get head-case seperation on the third use of whichever brand of cases I used.

I traced the problem to the first stretch of the case on the first firing. Also, any full lenght die would work the body above the web A LOT, weakening the case there.

First solution was to get a neck-sizing die, except none could be found. I did have a 32ACP die set as I was planning to reload for the wife's pistol. The diameter of a 32ACP bullet is .312; close enough to 303Brit. It sized the neck a little to small. So I used a normal FL die and just run the expander in and out of the case to do a final sizing. This worked satisfactorily.

Since then I have been using a Lee Loader decapping rod, then the 32ACP die to neck-size and then the 303 lee sizing die to expand the neck again to optimal size. Only down side is the extra work and the risk of expanding the case shoulder.

To reduce the stretch on first firing, some have been using solder wire or weedeater cord. That sounded like too much work. I just used 14mm O-rings. I think I was the first person to use it in SA for that purpose. Since then I have never had a case separation again.

[Ds J]

Waar kry ek 14mm o-rings?

[Treeman]

A blob of Prit seems to work 
I had no O-Rings so I put a bit of Prestic on each rim, then the case only goes as far as the bolt face touch's it - the Prestic keeps the case from moving forward and against the b/face.
When fired the case is against bolt face and only expands forwards.