Stupid Mistakes We All Make -- Wrong Bullets

[Shooter13]

Just earlier today i dumped a charge in a case and forgot to move the funnel, thus dumping the next charge in the same spot.

I did the same thing earlier today. EDIT: Even the V3 with auto trickle won't fix this!

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Outside of reloading I think a dumb mistake any gunsmith or gun tinkerer has made is when taking a Remington 700 trigger with top safety off the receiver. I remember thinking, “man this pin is coming out hard”. So I hit it a little harder and PING!!! If you’ve done it, you know what that horrific sound means. Lol

 

[mac86951]

Welcome to the modern world of manufacturing engineering. Making a hand-operated process mistake proofed requires a special way of thinking. Pay yourself less, and set up your process and storage to reduce / eliminate this issue. Sharpie, labels, dividers, storage solutions all are relatively low cost.

Balance your attentiveness with putting in a form of controls to prevent mistakes. I alternate berger and sierra to separate the colors; and we all know the dangers of grabbing the wrong powder, but extend that careful checking to every component in the set-up and keep the bench clear.

Complacency is dangerous, so watch out!

-Mac

 

[joshb]

Outside of reloading I think a dumb mistake any gunsmith or gun tinkerer has made is when taking a Remington 700 trigger with top safety off the receiver. I remember thinking, “man this pin is coming out hard”. So I hit it a little harder and PING!!! If you’ve done it, you know what that horrific sound means. Lol

Yup! I did one! NOW I know!

 

[NZ_Fclass]

Fiddle sticks!! About a month ago I started to load cases without primers!!

Primers are hard to find. Found a yard of canon fuse in the shed yesterday.

 

[ebb]

How many have changed powders on the chargemaster and left the drain plug open and dumped a whole bunch of powder on the bench????

 

[jelenko]

Tuesday I couldn't figure out why I couldn't hit my target at 200 yards. Went bake to my 100 again and everything was still good, 220 Swift is not going to drop 8" for that extra 100 yards. Finally got in target
and moved over to my 300 yard target, got to looking at it with spotting scope and low and behold we
got holes to start with, been shooting at the wrong target, but at least i hit it.

There you go. My kind of action.

 

[rjtfroggy]

Nick at 85 I give you a lot of CREDIT just for reloading.
also for coming on here and stating your screw up. Big B---ls, must have been a cop.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

How many have changed powders on the chargemaster and left the drain plug open and dumped a whole bunch of powder on the bench????

Yep! What a mess. Lol

 

[Coonman300]

My latest mistake kind of shook me up and made me realize how important it is to be fully focused. I was loading and the powder charge was supposed to be 40.4 grains...I set my beam scale to 44 grains. Did several charges and it hit me what I had done. That could have been a problem! Lesson learned.

 

[ckaberna]

Thanks for the honest reports. I don’t feel so bad now.
I too double/triple check my components. Then that’s ALL that’s on the table until done.

 

[BlueWater]

My latest mistake kind of shook me up and made me realize how important it is to be fully focused. I was loading and the powder charge was supposed to be 40.4 grains...I set my beam scale to 44 grains. Did several charges and it hit me what I had done. That could have been a problem! Lesson learned.

Did much the same, on misreading the calipers measurement for seating depth. Had the seater already set, and had triple-checked the thing. Then, upon seating the first several I measured the resulting cartridges' seating depths with the calipers, misreading the value. So, altered the seating depth a few hundredths. Re-measured, but then read it correctly ... catching the error. Oops. Good thing it was only after a couple of cartridges. Re-set the seater, triple-checked everything ... had two people validate the readings. And re-did the messed-up rounds. All was well. And a good lesson learned. Don't go dyslexic during a reloading session. Don't do that.

 

[CarlGeorge]

My latest mistake kind of shook me up and made me realize how important it is to be fully focused. I was loading and the powder charge was supposed to be 40.4 grains...I set my beam scale to 44 grains. Did several charges and it hit me what I had done. That could have been a problem! Lesson learned.

I did something very similar: Mis-set the scale. Had charged probably 25 cases. Fortunately 1/ I caught it before I started seating bullets and 2/ the mistake was on the lite side of what I wanted. I very much realized that part was pure luck.....it could have easily been on the + side of what I wanted.

One of my self-imposed rules is I write down the load to be assembled on a piece of paper before I even go down to my bench. One night I was loading some rounds and decided while at the bench I would seat at some different depths to do some jump testing. About 4 days after that loading session, but before I shot them, I woke up in the middle of the night and realized I'd loaded them LONG......not short.....like I was trying for. Fortunately they weren't long enough to be beyond the lands, but it really shook me. Reinforced to me to never break my rule of writing down the load......don't be making changes on the fly while at the bench.

 

[Bojo]

My 243 and 6xc micrometer seaters were on the same T7 turret and right next to each other at one time.
2.5 hours from home when i found that mistake.
243win is in a different turret now and dies are color coded with a paint stick.
Similar looking dies on the same turret are a problem for me.
22-250, 243 , 6xc , 308.

 

[Nick Caprinolo]

Yup, Nick! Stay frisky and pay attention! I’m surprised they were that far off point of aim for the 80s. We’re they hitting the target sideways?

Most were round holes, but several were horizontally sideways.

 

[Tommie]

I’ve probably made more mistakes as a “seasoned” reloader than when I was in the rookie years. It’s just too easy to go into autopilot mode. Thanks for the reminder to stay focused.

 

[TheOtherZilla]

Most were round holes, but several were horizontally sideways.

Have you been shooting my targets again?

 

[Acyr]

How many have changed powders on the chargemaster and left the drain plug open and dumped a whole bunch of powder on the bench????

Yup been there done that, and recently on my V3. Picked up the hopper with it still in the open position Huge mess...

 

[SEM]

Yesterday I went to the range to shoot my 223 rifle. It is beautiful rifle on a benchrest stock That I built several years ago. This rifle is extremely accurate. I place my target at the 1`00 yard line as usual and then commence to start shooting.

After shooting my first fouling shoot holding off target, I then shoot at the target and I miss the target, with no idea where the bullet is going. After shooting several more rounds, I start holding the point of aim higher and lower. Still can't find the target until I ask a buddy to stand behind me and look at the back stop and try to determine where the bullet is kicking up the clay background. Bullet is going about 16 inches to the right and about 13 inches low.

I go down range and move my target to the 25 yard line and try again. At this point I am able to adjust the scope so that it hits my point of aim. Move it back to the 100 yard line and am able to finally hit my point of aim, but the groups are erratic. Not pleased with how the rifle is shooting I start thinking I have a bad scope. I put the rifle away and start shooting my 6PPC.

When I get home, I clean the brass and start to reload it. I still have the dies set up and the powder and bullets I used on the bench, thank goodness. As I start reloading, while seating the bullets, something doesn't feel right. I decide to recheck everything to make sure I am following my normal procedures. I load this rifle with 80 grain Berger bullets and the results are usually outstanding. So here is where I discover that I have picked up the wrong bullets. Instead of the 80gr bullets, I loaded 90gr bullets!

I also had 30 loaded rounds left with the 90gr bullets. I had to pull the bullets and reform the necks of those cases and then put the 80gr in them. So after spending the morning cursing the expensive scope, I spent all evening cursing the stupid re-loader.

End of story, except I will now have to zero the scope again.

You are not alone, Small batch testing very reduced load to full tilt, Get up and leave the reloading bench got distracted for a few hours come back and finish up. Go to the range and find out I had made all the exact same, I wanted to see the POI change had note pad and pen already, Was a pleasant day no recoil to mention even on the full tilt loads .... head scratch

 

[SEM]

Tuesday I couldn't figure out why I couldn't hit my target at 200 yards. Went bake to my 100 again and everything was still good, 220 Swift is not going to drop 8" for that extra 100 yards. Finally got in target
and moved over to my 300 yard target, got to looking at it with spotting scope and low and behold we
got holes to start with, been shooting at the wrong target, but at least i hit it.

I have had others shoot my target I get so frustrated with my crappy shooting... go to retrieve the target and realize that the wild flyers are a different caliber..... Remind me not to shoot with you LOL