I screwed up and had an Oops.....

[Infrequent Shooter]

good reminder to wear shooting glasses. PIA but a good idea.

 

[243winxb]

That single round somehow got overcharged.

What was your powder charge/weight? Case fill %?

Was there room in the case for an over charge, compressed load? Did the AutoTrickler add extra powder?

A loading block needs to be used to look at and compare the level of powder in each & every case.
A 2nd check is right before seating a bullet.

Amount of bullet hold, neck tension? .002" or more? Bullets that move to soon, with *magnum primers*, may cause a secondary pressure spikes. More so when the powder contains *nitroglycerine*

 

[jackieschmidt]

Yessir. Goes without saying. I screwed up and somehow overcharged one single case. There was a clue I missed somehow when it happened. I just need to be more vigilant.

^^^^^^^

 

[Rocketvapor]

Looking in the case is good for gross over/under charge. If trying to get good E.S./S.D. I don't think you will see variations that matter.

Having a reloading process that allows a single point failure, Murphy will bite.

I use an old Lyman Gen5 almost good to 0.1 grain, sometimes, followed by a good scale to fine adjust little granules of ball powder.

In the past I've had to dump cases when I bumped it when putting one in the loading block.
Powder spillage into open cases will likely be noticed and only be time consuming to correct.
So now it's two steps to weight, charge, look in the case because it's right there, then bullet in the neck, straight to the die.

 

[bsekf]

I've had stick power bridge in the measure, one of the reasons I like ball powder. I have very good lighting over my loading bench and religiously check the cases after I charge them. Knock on wood, I've never had a slightly over charged case. I have found a few empty ones and have double charged or had a bridge and made a mess in the loading block. Reloading is a simple but dangerous procedure demanding your undivided attention. If I get company, I stop reloading.

 

[jpjulian]

What was your powder charge/weight? Case fill %?

Was there room in the case for an over charge, compressed load? Did the AutoTrickler add extra powder?

A loading block needs to be used to look at and compare the level of powder in each & every case.
A 2nd check is right before seating a bullet.

Amount of bullet hold, neck tension? .002" or more? Bullets that move to soon, with *magnum primers*, may cause a secondary pressure spikes. More so when the powder contains *nitroglycerine*

View attachment 1485704

The powder charge was 42.5 grains +- .02 grains on the AutoTrickler V4. With N555 that is within a single kernel. Every other charge loaded that session was spot-on with that one single exception.

 

[itchyTF]

What about the possibility of a bullet being a little larger in diameter, not the next caliber, but something like .01 larger. Don’t know how the manufacturing process would do that or if “a little larger” would cause that much over pressure. Just a thought

 

[6MMsteve]

555 should not cause pressure unless it's a super light charge in 6 creedmere, most of the time a max charge will not even fit in the case from my findings, but I could be wrong also

 

[6MMsteve]

you didn't get hurt is the good thing

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

I have some pretty good eye protection, but I want to get better wraparound now.

 

[jpjulian]

555 should not cause pressure unless it's a super light charge in 6 creedmere, most of the time a max charge will not even fit in the case from my findings, but I could be wrong also

My 555 charge was 42.5 grains and filled the Lapua case to approximately the bottom of the shoulder.

 

[jpjulian]

good reminder to wear shooting glasses. PIA but a good idea.

Glasses are full time for me.

 

[243winxb]

Was there room in the case for an over charge, compressed load? Did the AutoTrickler add extra powder?

A loading block needs to be used to look at and compare the level of powder in each & every case.
A 2nd check is right before seating a bullet.

Amount of bullet hold, neck tension? .002" or more? Bullets that move to soon, with *magnum primers*, may cause a secondary pressure spikes. More so when the powder contains *nitroglycerine*

I guess we will never know the cause. KABOOM photos

 

[Homerange]

I guess we will never know the cause. KABOOM photos

We already do.
Loading methodology that doesn't eliminate the chance of error.

Remember, we are dealing with explosives.........