Pay attention at the Loading Bench!!!

[Guest]

During a recent visit to my Gun Smith last week he directed me back to his work area, knowing I reload, he wanted to show me a 270 in a Remington 700 that a customer brought in.

The customer supposedly is an experienced reloader and couldn't understand why he could not get the bolt to lift after he fired it at the range.

The Gun Smith could't get the bolt to lift either, he removed the barrel with a vise and a pipe wrench with great difficulty. I saw a 270 casing that became part of the bolt face almost like it was welded in place.

This guy had three different powders out on his bench while putting loads together and happened to put 43 grains of HS-6 Pistol Powder in his 270 loads instead of Varget.

While the gun is ruined it is amazing it never blew apart ! :shock: He is lucky to be alive!

Please pay attention at the bench everyone you are to valuable to your Family and the extended Family on this Nosler Forum.

Don

 

[DrMike]

It is always good practise to have only one powder, one primer type, one bullet on the bench when loading. Modern actions will withstand about 160 K psi, which is pretty amazing in its own right. Nevertheless, it is not so cool to pop a primer, much less weld a case to the bolt face.

 

[RiverRider]

Wow. If someone was to ask me what I thought would happen in a case like that, I'd have to say I think the rifle would become a grenade. I guess this demonstrates the fact that the 700 is a pretty strong action. According to QuickLOAD this load would yield about 130,000 psi!

 

[gerry]

Good thing he was shooting a Rem 700, other actions may not have protected him so well. Pretty scary stuff.

 

[Guest]

I've gotten to the point where I take extra precaution, after popping a primer due to a gross overcharge error on my own part a number of years ago. That rifle held together, too, but the load was only about 90kpsi, and well below the load they used to get the proof mark on the rifle.

What I now do is limit myself to the following on the bench:
One single powder
One single primer package (not a brick, a pack of 100 - because spilling part of a pack stinks, but dumping a brick and having the packs spill a few here and there is a real pain)
One set of dies (since I once took a very expensive piece of Norma brass and began forming it into a much smaller diameter case before I even felt much resistance)
One shellholder (having nearly gotten a case stuck in the shellholder when I put a piece of brass into a smaller than needed shellholder. Just slightly smaller, but enough)
One type of cartridge brass (goes along with the die story above)
One bullet type

I also use a post-it pad and write down the cartridge, powder, charge weight, and bullet. I stick that on the facing edge of my shelf just above the bench. If I'm doing a workup, I literally have multiple post-its in a row, numbered, to correspond to rows in my loading block. I check it before I measure each charge. Sometimes I check it twice.

I've also come to the conclusion that if I get interrupted for any reason, I have to re-zero the scale, and start over. That's how I screwed up the first time, so I don't do that anymore. And I don't answer the phone, or listen to the radio, or anything else. Just calm, quiet, and safe.

 

[Guest]

My wife gets upset with me at times when I tell her I'm going to the Loading Bench and not to come out while I'm loading to talk with me.

Don

 

[kraky]

Friend of mine read that re7 was a great powder for his new 4570. Went to the gun shop and picked up a pound of aa7 pistol powder. He blew the gun apart along with alot of hand damage. He's back reloading again but I avoid shooting with him.

 

[Wincheringen]

I haven't done anything that bad, but I've come back to the bench and checked my powder measure to find some unknown powder in there. For the most part I use some painter's tape on each of my measures labeled with exactly what is in there. Sometimes one slips by and I have some fertilizer.

 

[Oldtrader3]

I never leave anything on the loading bench when I convert to another cartridge. Not brass, bullets, or especially powder. I have ringed a barrel once in my life but it was not a loading bench issue. It was a cartridge bench clearance issue at the range. This was 40 years ago and ever since I do a shooting bench or loading bench total clearance between cartridges. My memory will kill me but only if I let it with sloppy loading bench clearance practices.

 

[OU812]

My wife gets upset with me at times when I tell her I'm going to the Loading Bench and not to come out while I'm loading to talk with me.

Don

Don I do the exact same thing as you and dubyam does. I feel when I'm reloading I can not be safe enough.

Bill

 

[DrMike]

Since I'll be pulling the trigger and it is my eyes behind the sights, I want to control what goes on around me when I'm loading. I can always quit if there are distractions.

 

[Mud]

Words to live by. I always make it a point to work on one thing at a time. Also, I never leave anything on my bench or leave loads half way finished.

 

[Charlie-NY]

Equally important is to not get distracted at the firing line. The worst rifle explosion incidents that I'm aware of were the result of firing a rifle with something that was carelessly left in the bore ie: cleaning rod, bore sighter, etc.

Not a bad idea to have only one box of cartridges on the bench at a time when firing several rifles in a single session.

 

[Guest]

Not a bad idea to have only one box of cartridges on the bench at a time when firing several rifles in a single session.

That's another rule of mine. I once put a 300Wby round in a 270Wby rifle and tried to close the bolt. Thankfully it would not close. I never have more than a single box of ammo open, and I read the head stamp before I load every time.

 

[Oldtrader3]

I just have one box of ammo on the bench at any given time. My one mistake was chambering the wrong bullet because some one was talking to me while I was loading.

 

[big rifle man]

charlie-ny, we had a fellow shooting his muzzleloader at our 200 yard sighting in range when he became distracted by a couple of shooters on the next bench. His next shot sent the ramrod about 50 yards downrange. As luck would have it no damage occured to his rifle.

 

[BeeTee]

This guy had three different powders out on his bench while putting loads together and happened to put 43 grains of HS-6 Pistol Powder in his 270 loads instead of Varget.
Don

I wonder what the velocity was?

I stopped using fast powder in my handgun reloading because I'm not comfortable throwing just 3-5 grains of powder. The potential for double charges scares me just a little. I don't load for my 45ACP, but I do for my 357. For that, it's 10-12 grains of 2400, which measures well, and the chance of a double charge is practically eliminated. BT

 

[Charlie-NY]

Here's the craziest story I ever WITNESSED.

A guy shows up at the range with muzzleloader which I think was a T/C Omega. It was his first trip to the range in a year. He puts a full charge of powder down the tube and follows it with a full diameter slug of some sort. The guy takes aim and fires but is totally shocked by the loud blast, excessive smoke and extreme recoil. He said nothing like this has ever happened before. No one really knows what went wrong.

He builds up the courage to give it another try and immediately realizes that the powder and projectile seat much deeper in the barrel this time. After a brief conversation with him, a light goes on and he realizes that he had left the gun loaded following his last hunting trip which was over 6 months prior.

What's even more amazing is that there appeared to be no damage after firing 200gr of BP substitute and two full size slugs at one time! Kodoos to Thompson Center for designing an idiot proof muzzleloader.

 

[Oldtrader3]

Moron!

 

[DrMike]

I would not have been surprised if friends had to visit him in hospital--in room 301, 302,303 ...