One bottle of powder on the bench
- Thread starter MGYSGT
- Start date
Yep been there done that
Take some solace - the bigger the mistake - the less likely you are to repeat it!
Several years ago, a rifle slipped out of my hands and crashed on the basement concrete floor. I shattered a Leupold 4 x 12 VX-2 Scope. It was my favorite varmint rifle at the time, a 222 Rem Model 700.
Now, living on a fixed income, it's two hands on the rifle. I can't afford to be stupid these days.
Several years ago, a rifle slipped out of my hands and crashed on the basement concrete floor. I shattered a Leupold 4 x 12 VX-2 Scope. It was my favorite varmint rifle at the time, a 222 Rem Model 700.
Now, living on a fixed income, it's two hands on the rifle. I can't afford to be stupid these days.
Steve K
Silver $$ Contributor
Thanks for sharing this with us. It's a god reminder to keep powders separated. On a similar note, I recently took a box of Winchester Small Rifle primers out of the closet thinking there were Small Pistol primers. They have boxes that look the same only difference is "Rifle" as opposed to "Pistol". I loaded about 50 9MM rounds with them. I shot them with no problems.
Your Drill Instructor would have you doing squat thrusts until he got tired
With the price of it today ,he'd have you in the dying cockroach position for eternity !.
Just a little reminder. Only keep 1 bottle of powder on the bench at a time. I always do, except yesterday. Some how, I left a new bottle of VARGET on the bench while loading 4895 for the .308. When it came time to empty the powder hopper, I poured the left over 4895 into the new bottle of VARGET. What a tragedy
How much did You pour back into the Varget container and did You use a funnel ?.
You could salvage a large portion of the Varget ,provided you DIDN'T shake or move the bottle too much .
I've become accustom to laying out Primed cases , bullets ,powder and am generally very close at total consumption . On occasions I've emptied the powder dispenser but learned to put it into one of My chemical bottles ,label it . Then set it inside My powder cabinet ,I then simply add that powder with New powder for the same caliber loading next time around .
The reason I do that is ,I generally have # 3 progressive presses with various calibers ,I.E. different powders .
I also ALWAYS put a piece of masking tape ON top of my powder dispensers ,listing powder and Lot # along with load . So when I break for the day or 5 ,I can go back see exactly WHERE I'm at , throw a couple of charges ensure metering is correct and set down crank out XXXX # of rounds .
IF one is doing precision BR loading ; Then it's generally a One powder One caliber deal ,so NOT a problem .
A one bottle out per load session on single presses does simplify and minimizes mistakes .
I can't do that because of necessity of various calibers , Pistols , Rifles, Shotguns and their powders DON'T mix .
Surprisingly I only have two chemical bottles currently with small amounts of powder and My powder cabinet has ,lets just say I could open a retail store for a few weeks .
When I start using a bottle of a certain type of powder out of the cabinet, I mark OPEN on it wth a Sharpie so I know which bottle I’m currently using.
I just have one bottle per powder. Razor off a can label, and stick it to the bottle.
Yea, I couldn't believe it! I fully expected to pay for my stupidity and explained to them that this was my fault when I called their service center to get an estimate of the repair to see if it was worth it since the objective lens was shattered. But they said they would repair it and I'd only have to pay for a shipping and handling charge.
Don't their policy is now, but that was about 25 years ago if my memory is correct.
Rick300
Gold $$ Contributor
I did the same thing a couple of years ago during the height of the shortage with H4895 and HP38. I don't know what I was thinking but I dumped 1/4 pound of the HP38 into an 8lb jug of H4895. As there was zero chance of getting any new powder, I spent a few hours picking out the HP38 and ended up with a "special" blend that I only used for squirrels. It definitely had a faster burn rate but I started low and found an acceptable load. I saved about 6lbs of powder but I'm glad that episode is over! Lesson learned!
6MMsteve
Gold $$ Contributor
I dumped 4166 in a brand new bottle of 4831sc, I used it for fireforming with cotton balls, was not going to waste it, I figured with no bullet it was safe, but I also tore the label off and wrote danger on a white label so I knew what it was. didn't use much of it so I made a pyro fire, I really don't remember how I got a brand new can of 4831sc involved with 4166, I still have the can bottle sitting under my load bench with all kinds of stuff written on it like dumbass, mixed powder, donotuse, fireforming powder, I went up and found it yesterday for the memories
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Albany Mountain
Silver $$ Contributor
I started using that rule several years back after mixups.
ballisticdaddy
Silver $$ Contributor
Finally got these printable magnetic sheets so now when I change powder I just change the magnetic tag.
bozo699
Gold $$ Contributor
I feel your pain!…. We all have rules in our loading rooms and on the firing line!….. many of them stems from things like happened to you!..Just a little reminder. Only keep 1 bottle of powder on the bench at a time. I always do, except yesterday. Some how, I left a new bottle of VARGET on the bench while loading 4895 for the .308. When it came time to empty the powder hopper, I poured the left over 4895 into the new bottle of VARGET. What a tragedy
Years ago I had been working on a 22-250 been shooting it for several days after work had multiple bottles of powder on the bench. One day I decided to stop working in the 22-250 and load some for my .222 so I put some H 4198 in the powder drop had been using H4895 in the 22-250 , shot the triple deuce a little bit….. a few days went by and I came home grabbed the 22-250 and put 34.5 grains of powder in three cases and stepped out of loading room sat on my bench and pulled the trigger!.. after I cleaned the burned powder off my glasses and face I beat my bolt open!… wtf?….well it seems the 22-250 couldn’t handle that much 4198 I got lucky that time so for the last 25 years my rule is one powder on the bench at a time!… sorry you lost some powder in these tough times to replace it
Wayne
New reloader came over Saturday. We went at it loading multiple calibers. Every time we changed I put everything back up, cleared the bench and reset. He ask why! I told him every time I setup to load a different rifle I clear the bench of everything, check my load data, then check it agian. Only have out what I need for the rifle I am loading for.
Been there done what you have, got the shirt, worn it and washed it. Cheap but hard lesson learned. In these times not want you want to learn. Safety is the first and only thing you need to be concerned about here.
Been there done what you have, got the shirt, worn it and washed it. Cheap but hard lesson learned. In these times not want you want to learn. Safety is the first and only thing you need to be concerned about here.
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