Woohoo, I earned my stupid badge today...

[winmag]

Yep, just like the title says....
So its like 13* out in my garage, & I needed some alone time, so what better time to work on my once fired brass, prep. Too cold for mamma & the kids to interfere, this was gonna be great, grabbed a cup of coffee, & a jacket, & headed out to my man cave.....
Then it happened.

I completely crush/dimpled the shoulder of my very first 300 Wby brass of the day
Ok, pulled my Redding die apart, cleaned er up real good, re-set, & pushed another piece of brass into the shell holder, pulled the handle, & $#!+ whats goin on here? I fubared another one! Now I'm out $6 in brass & Im cold & getting agrevated.
Now I had a simmilar issue last winter when it was like -6* below out there. So what I did was use mammas blow dryer to hear up the die, press, & sizing wax, & use the absolute bare minimum wax. Just enough to keep the case from getting stuck......
So I go get the blow dryer without mamma seeing me, & snuck past the kids (thank you Phinneus, & Ferb!...& Perry the platapuss) & sneak back out to my man cave to find my coffee was frozen. &@##!+. But hey I got a blowdryer.... So I'm taking turns between the die, the press, the wax, & my coffee cup with the blowdryer..... Grrrrrrrrr!!! & I give er another go.... $on of @ b!+( h!!! I oil canned ANOTHER ONE!!!!
OK, so I must still have too much wax,, I'm thinkin, so ill just run another naked one up there &....... !#$&*?*%%$$&$$5&$#"@&&*?/%6&*%67&&$%8%%&& AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
YEP, I earned my stupid badge! That sucker was sooooo stuck that I ruined a pair of Kleins, & a shell holder when I whacked the pliers with my framing hammer!!!! Ooooohhh now I'm having a come apart..... I'm out 3 pieces of 300 Wby brass, & my Redding sizing die is outa commission untill I go get a stuck case remover...
Then I remember where I went wrong. Last winter I also had to heat each brass before I ran it into the die.... So I go to the store, hanging my head in shame, & got my very first stuck case remover to add to my loading bench, & since I was there.... Ya I came back with more bullets, & new decapping pins (my 6 yr old broke my last one when he was helping me a few weeks ago) sooooo, There went most of the $ I've been saving up for getting my Muscle brake!

On a better note, Hornady OneShot case lube works great in my freezing cold garage, but you definately wanna make sure your coffee cup is FAR enough away so you forget about it till its frozen, or else it tastes like case lube.....
I can't wait for summer when I can use my sizing wax again...

Hope you guys learn from my stupidity
Oh, & if you haven't been this stupid yet, give it time. I used to wonder why they made a "worm" for black powder guns too, cause only a dumb @$$ would...... Yep I got one of them too.

So if you've ever been a DUMB @$$ & earned your stupid badge, feel free to post it here, so others may learn from your mistakes, & not have Hornady flavored coffee...

 

[Buffalobob]

I did much the same thing about two weeks ago but avoided the stuck case.

 

[bamadawg2009]

I earned mine a couple months ago when I used the wrong shellholder for my 30-06 brass and rolled the entire rim off the case in my brand new 280 rem die. You guessed it had to wait 1 week for midway to send me the case removal kit.

 

[bigngreen]

Really, it took you this long to earn that ?!?! I can make a case pulling tool from items located in my wifes kitchen, if not caught I'm a repeat offender

 

[winmag]

Really, it took you this long to earn that ?!?! I can make a case pulling tool from items located in my wifes kitchen, if not caught I'm a repeat offender

I'm notoriously overcautious, & an absolute perfectionist when I'm at my bench. Not so much anywhere else, but ya, at my bench its my O.C.D. thing kickin in. So for me today was somewhat tramattic.

Plus I broke both of my taps that would fit, on my last job while doing door hardware...... That's the reason for the caveman attempt with my framing hammer, & kleins- that led to a broken shell holder, & everything snowballed from there. I don't think I could handle the repeat offender thing without the superior "wingin' it skills like you've got" (man you sound like Roy).
At least I've got you guys who understand. My wife just called me a dumb @$$ and rolled her eyes.... She's kinda like a sexy female version of RED FOREMAN sometimes.... Hahahahaha. Oh, what a day

 

[Loner]

If I may, here is where you went wrong. 13* Is ice fishing weather, and my wife only
bothered to go once, that cured her.

 

[Dr. Vette]

Now you know why I had my garage insulated in the walls and ceilings. It rarely drops below 40 no matter what it's like outside, and a small heater helps if I need to bump it up a bit.

 

[fasthorse]

sorry about your day !! but then again at 13* im NOT gonna go out in my garage to do anything, unless its to get in a car. nope sorry not happning...the only time the cold doesnt kick my a%% is when im hunting. other than that this southern boy is stayin where its warm

 

[dig]

I will never complain about my 48 degree loading room again. Are you guys nuts? 13 degrees? That is Vodka drinking weather. Ok I stuck a 300 Weatherby when I was given some stupid nickle brass but it was like 82 degrees. Remindes me I need to order a new Redding stuck case kit, just in case. My advise stay inside for goodness sake!

 

[theflyonthewall]

Ohhh stupid badge stories huh? I have my share of those!

First one that comes to mind:

I was taking the heads off an old Chevy C-10 that I had once so that I could put a new cam in it, and head gaskets on it. It was winter then too. No garage, so I'm out in the cold. Well all seemed to be going well until I got to one that was seized. I didn't have sh^t for tools, just the basics, so I couldn't really heat it up. So what does a redneck mechanic do when he doesn't have proper tools? He gets a longer pipe! So here I go.....I put the pipe on the ratchet and realized that the angle is all wrong. So I climb up on the bumper.....still wrong. So I climb into the engine compartment and get my feet planted. I PUSHED on the pipe a couple of times and no go. So then I earned my stupid badge by getting ****ed and reeeeeeally pushing on it. And that, my friends, is where I learned what a bug feels like when he splatters allover the windshield! The socket slipped and I hit the windshield so hard that I literally just rolled off of it and fell on the rocks in the driveway. That was stupid.

Story number two:

The very first stock that I ever bedded was a lesson in getting the right supplies on hand BEFORE starting. I prepped the stock, checked everything over, then started looking around for a "release agent". Yeah, that pretty-much tells the story right there...lol. I tried......get this.....vegetable oil. Needless to say, it didn't work. Fortunately I had the thought about 30 minutes later to make sure I could still get the barreled action out of the stock. I thought "if nothing else, I'll screw up the bedding, but at least I'll know that the vege oil worked. Well........ little did I know, but had I waited another 15 minutes or so, I would have had a total glue in. It took A LOT of pressure, wiggling, praying, hoping,and prying to get that thing out. Stupid badge number 129 EARNED!...lol

 

[Loner]

I'm pretty sure I'm in the triple digits too.

 

[Nimrod]

I did the exact same thing except I was ruining Lapua 6.5-.284 cases trying to neck them to 6MM. I pulled the rim off the 4th. case trying to get it back out of the die. I sure will be glad to get my new loading bench up and running, INSIDE!

Bob

 

[bowhunthard88]

13* and you're RELOADING? LOL. My reloading room doesn't get below 40 or so most of the time, and I usually complain how cold it is in the winter lol. I've earned my share of stupid badges, although I've never had to use a stuck case remover (whoops, probably just jinxed myself, better buy one ahead of time lol). The last time I got a stupid badge was reloading...

So I prepped all my cases and primed them, then decided to put the powder in my scale (I have a RCBS Chargemaster Combo) and go get my reloading manual (which of course was in my room and not on the bench). Well, I opened the powder and up-ended it in my scale hopper, and since I was thinking about the reloading manual (my reflexes were slowed down, good excuse huh?) I didn't close the powder drain until about half the pound of powder was on my bench . The last time I used the scale and drained the powder, I didn't close the drain... You can bet I pay extra close attention now when I'm done lol.

This wasn't my first badge, and hate to say it..., but it sure won't be my last .

 

[Tikkamike]

I have yet to stick a case in a die but I have thought about buying a removal tool just in case.... as far as the stupidest thing I have done at my reloading bench.... I forgot to put powder in a couple 22-250 shells one time, luckily they didnt leave the case and get stuck in my barrel. I know there have been others but none that come to mind at the moment. I do hate when I ruin brass though. I have to have a full box of brass/ammo partial boxes drive me nuts so when i loose or ruin some it bugs me to no end. I usually have extras but not always.