Oops...Important to keep your eye on the ball!

Here's a big oops, I'll tell on myself in the hopes that others may benefit. I also want to thank Charlie-NY for taking the time to ask the right questions.

I had to wait a bit to get started loading for my .44Mag. I bought the components over a period of several weeks and had to wait several more weeks for the right shell holder.

I sat down this morning and decided to crank out some loads and found the middle of the Hornady data... 23.5gr of H110. Or so I thought.

Turns out, 23.5gr would be dead in the middle for the 240gr bullets I thought I bought. The bullets I thought I bought back in September.

After reading Charlie's post, I decided to go back and double check it all again. Turns out I bought 200gr bullets, not 240s and I needed 27.5gr for the starting charge and with H110, and reducing charges isn't recommended with H110.

I have no idea how I came to have 200gr instead of 240s. I had no intention of using a 200gr back when I bought them in September and would have sworn they were 240s. I do know I should have caught it long before I had 100 of them stuck in cases.

To confuse matters even more....Hodgdon data varies considerably from the data in Hornady 10th. and even in Hornady's book...there is separate data for pistol and rifle. The charge I used looks OK for the rifle, but undercharged for the pistol in the manual. Did I give myself a quick sanity check and look at the rifle data but thought it was pistol data? Who knows. It never occurred to me that the manual would have both and they're just 200pgs apart. If a guy isn't paying attention, you just scan the header as you flip pages and you could very easily hit the rifle data before the pistol data.

I do know that the charges I thought were good.. do check out as rifle data but are way too under for H110 in a revolver.

Bottom line- now I get to pull all the bullets and try it again.

I would encourage everyone to be extra diligent before putting together loads and make sure you're mentally focused on what you're doing. I've had an off week- bad week at work, bad case of the flu and my son totaled a car (he's sore but fine) and when I sat down at the bench very early this morning I simply wasn't mentally focused on reloading.

I'm very thankful that Charlie questioned my load and I'm very thankful I didn't go out and drop the hammer on one of them.

I've played with H110 slightly undercharged for silhouette loads in my .41 mag.

I think the worst results you might get from your below start loads would be dirty burning and lackluster performance if you use them up for some practice shooting.

Excellent reminder that even the most experienced among us must check our work on an ongoing basis. Fortunately, I've caught most of my mistakes before they were a problem. I make it a habit to go over my work carefully before loading and again after all the rounds are loaded. I've certainly pulled my fair share of bullets after the cases were loaded. Glad you caught it.

Thank you for the reminder to be careful.

In addition to reloading, my professional work required detailed and precise work. I have found that anyone, at any time, can have a bad day, be interrupted, lose their train of thought, misread something, transpose numbers and on and on. The list of things that can go wrong are infinite. It is good practice to check and recheck one's work - especially when reloading where the consequences of a mistake can be very bad.

Glad you caught it before there was a catastrophe.
I have several manuals that have separate rifle and pistol sections for pistol ammo and that can get confusing if looking at the rifle section and see the pistol caliber/ cartridge you want to load which is another reason to keep a loading diary.
Some times a squib load happens when reloading pistol ammo and I have seen my fair share but was lucky enough to catch them before they reached the chamber in my hand guns. My Dillon presses are pretty good at dropping powder but then I'm the one who has to set the charge bar and I double check it and re check every so many rounds to make sure nothing has changed.