Here's a good reason to pay attention to detail

Sure glad I use W231 for both calibers that I reload. That must have hurt once the shock and adrenalin wore off.
 
years ago I was at a range,fellow shows up uncases a very nice Marlin 30/30 does his set up bags,targets etc. Fires first shot tries to cycle the action and it won.t budge so he sits on the ground puts his feet on the butt stock and barrel and finally gets the case out.
I politely suggested he might not want to continue shooting "nah I use this load all the time'
so I kept my distance and the next round blew the barrel just ahead of the receiver.
He was not hurt but the rifle was now a very expensive boat anchor. Never saw him again after that.To bad he had to learn the hard way.
 
When you relod for rifle, shotgun and pistol you only take the one you are going to use out of the safe and have it on the bench. I keep my powder away from my bench. It's only a few steps away but it forces me to get up to get a new can. That could hurt.
 
AL-7 instead of RL-7. AL-7 is slow burning shotgun/magnum pistol powder.

Back when I was a young lad of about 15 (about 1969-1970), we had a guy walk into the shop with a Remington 700, and he said he couldn't get the bolt open, even knocked the bolt handle off (they're silver soldered). His buddy was with him, with a big bandage on the left side of his face. He had a Savage 110 LH.

Both rifles were 7mm Rem Mag. They had reloaded the ammo using some "bulk IMR 4831" they had gotten. I pulled the bullet on one of the cartridges and found it had too much powder AND the wrong kind. Seems it was about 3 to 4 grains over the max for 4831, and the powder was AL-5. AL-5 is around the range of Red Dot/700X/Bullseye, and 4831 is magnum rifle powder (too slow for the .308).

The Savage was in 26 pieces, the back half of the bolt coming out into the shooter's face. The Remington was just locked up. Remington actually warranteed the barrel, receiver and bolt, and we still have them at the shop. Smart call on Remington's behalf, as they now had at least 2 lifetime customers.

It's pretty bad when a 15 year old tells you you're too stupid to reload.
 
I use multiple powders but have separate Dillon powder measures for each set up. I use only one powder per caliber.

I learned the hard was as I was trying to save $30 by sharing a powder measure between my .375 and .45 die sets. I loaded up some nice hot .375 using Blue Dot then emptied it out and filled it with Red Dot for my usual 200 gn .45 SWC.

Well it turned out I didn't get all the Blue Dot out and ended up with a .45 load that Chrony'ed out at 1200 FPS. Thank goodness my Colt held together. I spent a lot of time with my bullet puller and have since ordered a separate powder measure for each die set.

Then there is the story of a friend of mine who dumped a try of primers on the floor and used his wife vacuum with the carpet attachment to pick them up and blew up the vacuum.

Then there is the friend of mine who reloaded out side in his shed because he thought it was safer than in side the house. It got cold one Fall so he brought in a space heater and accidentally dumped his can of Red Dot on it..

I like to review 'stupid reloading tricks' from time to time to keep me on my toes. I just wish my friends would understand why I don't let anyone but me shoot my reloads.

Ralph
 
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