coorsdrifter1

Made my 1st big reloading mistake over the weekend.Went to the range and was shooting just fine and then...the dreaded pop instead of bang.After checking things out it seems I didn't put any powder in the cartridge.Decided to call it a day after that to go home and check the rest of my relds(that was the only one),but we were getting decent groups until then.

Pawildman

For heaven's sake please check the bore before you go shooting again. Sometimes the bullet will lodge in the bore from just the primer charge only. I assume you can imagine the consequenses...........

Pavomesa

Coors, I had this happen to me in the middle of a deer hunt once upon a time. Bullet lodged about 6 inches into the barrel and I was royally screwed. Then we got a bright idea. We hiked back to the truck, got another loaded round and wedged the bullet in the barrel so we could hold it and wiggle it out of the case. Then we held the rifle upright, inserted and chambered the case with the powder and no bullet and fired the lodged bullet out of the gun. We didn't know what would happen but THOUGHT it would work.

Turns out it worked fine. With all that extra room between the powder and the projectile, it was actually very LOW pressure. Since that fateful day I've used this trick with a couple of other guys who fired a powderless round in their guns. It works fine.

Keep this in mind if you ever get bitten by this snake again. It will get you back in action.

You can take a cleaning rod to knock the bullet out. HOWEVER..........if the bullet is very far up the barrel and all you've got is the usual little aluminum cleaning rod....chances are all you'll do is ruin a good cleaning rod. It takes a LOT of force to drive a jacketed bullet through a barrel. Shooting it out is probably much better than beating the bullet out with what it may take to do it. No harm to the rifle if you blast it out with a case charged with powder.

coorsdrifter1

Luckily there was another guy at the range that had a ramrod in his truck.Didn't take much force to get the bullet out it was just barely into the bore.But that's a learning experience,I was talking on the phone and rldng at the same time.All the other rounds checked out OK.

johnny2

Why would you have to hike back to the truck..Were you hunting
with only one bullets?

claydee

Great solution Pavo....I'll file that one away for later.... Coors don't feel bad I once doubled loaded my muzzle loader at the public range. Someone asked me a question about a scope, I went to help, came back and couldn't figure out why my range rod stopped short. I always mark my range rod where it should stop when you push a load down. I knew what I did instantly. No more shooting for that day. Had to pack up,drive 30miles back home,pound out the loads with a brass rod I hadlaying around.

HEAD0001

Every person has there own system or "Cadence" for reloading. If I could I would like to suggest a good safety precaution. I never put a case into the loading block unless it has a primer in it. And when I put powder in the case I always put the case in every other slot(the old timers will know why I do that). I always put powder into all the cases in the block first, before I seat any bullet's. Before I seat any bulets I take my flashlight and check all the cases for powder. It is very easy to see if you have powder in the case, and by checking the level you can make sure your powder charges are consistent. I also put the seated round back into the block for one final visual inspection.

Do not get in a hurry. If you are rushing yourself then you are screwing up to start with. If you have to rush your reloading then buy factory ammo. You are too busy to reload.

Yes I realize I am very anal about these things. But all my ammo shoots well, and I really really really do enjoy doing it. There really is something to a job well done. Tom.

Pawildman

I think most of us are pretty "anal" about our loading procedures...particularly those who are accuracy nuts to begin with. Speed has no place at the loading bench, unless you are using a progressive loader, and even then you are probably loading more for volume produced.
Tom gave some good points. The skipped spaces in the loading block is one of the best. Set up an order of assembly, review what you are doing periodically and check yourself. Just take your time.........

eldeguello

Once upon a time in Alaska, I let an acquaintance use my reloading setup to prepare some ammo for his upcoming black bear hunt. He was using a .308 with 180-grain Nosler Partition bullets. I watched him assmble the first few rounds using his once-fired brass, and he did it correctly. So I stopped "supervising" and went to do some other chores.

A couple of weeks later, he came in all shook up and announced "I'll never use another damned handloaded round of ammo!!", or words to that effect! Said he'd tried to fire at a bear three times, and all he got was a "click". On the fourth try, the rifle fired, and the bear bit the dust. (He claimedhe'd killed it at point blank range as the bear was about to do him harm!! Not so sureI believed that part of the drama!)

Anyway, he'd brought back several rounds of that "bad handloaded" ammo. I thought perhaps the primers had been bad, or some such, so I pulled the bullets to see if I could figure out what happened. The bases of the bullets were blaaaack as could be from the coating of soot on them from the primers, which had fired quite well, thank you!! The dufus had leftthe powder charges out ofabout half the box of ammo he'd loaded. Well, ammo doesn't function too well without propellant! However, he was one "velly rucky boy"!! The bullets had enough neck tension that NONE of them had escaped the case and lodged in his rifle's bore; plus,the last round in his magazine DID have powder in it. Dead bear!! Moral: always look into your charged cases before seating the bullets to make sure powder is there in each one of them, and the level is about the same in each case. (This helps avoid double-charging, when it is possible to do so.)

IF you hear a pop when shooting, like you did, remove the bolt right now and make sure you can see all the way through the bore before shooting again! Good luck!

CalNewbie

LOL! That reminds me of the Simpson's episode where Fat Tony was after Homer, shot three times and missed each time. One of the hit man complained that he knew they should've brought more than three bullets.