Stupid reloading moments...

[Chieftain428]

My brothers, father and myself all use the same reloading equipment (and have for years with no issues). The biggest fear for me is someone leaving powder in the bottom of the powder measure and nobody notices until it's too late.

 

[reachinOUT]

I am new to reloading and had my first mishap. Stuck the case in the die so bad it pulled the rim off. It did not feel good on the downstroke but being new to the game I kept going instead of figuring out what was going on. The case and die were lubed, I have no clue what happened. Everything was working well until I took the die apart to clean. Put it back together and lubed it. It sized the first piece and commenced to sticking there after. Im stumped!

 

[rscott5028]

Did you clean the new die before using it? There can sometimes be polishing compound left behind.

Have you since used it successfully? Or, do they all try to get stuck?

 

[Reloader222]

I am new to reloading and had my first mishap. Stuck the case in the die so bad it pulled the rim off. It did not feel good on the downstroke but being new to the game I kept going instead of figuring out what was going on. The case and die were lubed, I have no clue what happened. Everything was working well until I took the die apart to clean. Put it back together and lubed it. It sized the first piece and commenced to sticking there after. Im stumped!

I had up to 5 stuck cases in one reloading session by using Lyman Spray Lube. Do not know if it was too old, but it did not work. It takes some time to remove the case from the dies with the case remover. I switched back to RCBS II Lube.

 

[Kevin Thomas]

Rl222

Take the time to read the instructions on the can. Not being facetious here, but several types of spray lube require the cases to be left to sit a bit before resizing. They use alcohol or other solvents as carriers for the lube, and need to evaporate before the lube can do it's job. Using them too early, or without the required evaporation time causes them to behave exactly as you've described. But, as I said, read the label. Not all of them work like this, and some can be used immediately.

Hope that helps.

 

[reachinOUT]

Did you clean the new die before using it? There can sometimes be polishing compound left behind.

Have you since used it successfully? Or, do they all try to get stuck?

I cleaned the dies for the first time after successfully sizeing my first 100 cases. The first case went through after cleaning and lube with no problem then the second case is the one that got me. I have yet to get the case out at this time. This is the perfect excuse for me to upgrade from the lee to a better die. Not sure which just yet, probably Redding.

 

[rscott5028]

I'm not sure which Lee die you are referring to. But, the Lee Collet dies are quite a bit different from all others.

When set up correctly. They are very good and actually don't require case lube. However, they can be very frustrating if not set correctly.

I had mediocre results with mine and ruined a bunch of cases before getting it right. Regardless, it would be difficult to get a case stuck in a collet die. So, perhaps you're talking about the basic ones.

Now, I actually like Lee Collet dies very much right behind my Redding Type-S Bushing dies.

Either way, you probably shouldremove the case and understand what happened before buying another set of dies and meeting with more frustration.

-- richard

 

[bc338mtb]

Just wait till you stick a case in your sizing die. That will ruin a day real quick. Cause up intill you stick that first case you never had a reason to have a stuck case remover around. Then you have to go track one down. Unless you already have a tap, socket, and screw around.

The other one that I did twice was get a primer in upside down. That is just a little glitch though.

I tried a spray lube instead of Imperial, to save time, and had to track down a stuck case remover the next day.
My time saver cost me an extra 20 hours.

 

[gdc]

I reload with a progressive loader, and like to have a look in the case to besure that the powder is in, or up to the level- to do so, i drillled a small hole in the die base over the case, just before the bullet instal, and put an LED lite in it. now theres lite @" the end of the tunnel". i used all stuff on hand to do it. used a 35mm film canister to hold 2 AA bateries, a micro switch to control the lite, and it works great. the hole drilled in the cast base is so small no fear of base degradation. you could mount the lite otherwise on othe brands of loaders, but ya gotta have the lite pretty much down the case neck. lotta good stuf on the web, love to read, learn from it.. thanks jc

 

[CRNA]

I tried a spray lube instead of Imperial, to save time, and had to track down a stuck case remover the next day.
My time saver cost me an extra 20 hours.

See my post
http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f28/what-did-i-do-wrong-sucks-69726/

 

[Gene]

After reading all these posts, I got so depressed, I took up ping pong. Course, I don't want the ball to hit me in the eye.

Just proves that almost all of us have screwed up something while reloading. We learn by our mistakes. Fortunately, most of them are corrected before injury results. Another caveat: When shooting multiple rifles at the range, be certain you are inserting the right ammo for the chamber.

 

[elkaholic]

After reading all these posts, I got so depressed, I took up ping pong. Course, I don't want the ball to hit me in the eye.

Just proves that almost all of us have screwed up something while reloading. We learn by our mistakes. Fortunately, most of them are corrected before injury results. Another caveat: When shooting multiple rifles at the range, be certain you are inserting the right ammo for the chamber.

Ditto....I know of a case where a guy made a BDL out of an ADL Remington by firing a 7mm express round in a 7 mag....Rich