Woohoo, I earned my stupid badge today...

Well, two years ago I was busy practicing all summer for an archery antelope hunt. I was shooting before and after work every day out to 100 yards at a 3-d antelope target. I put an arrow into the very top of the front leg one time (really hard plastic and some metal inside) and couldn't get the dang arrow out. Here it comes... I laid the target down on the ground with my foot holding it down while I really pulled with both hands. All of a sudden the arrow came out and I felt a stinging sensation...the nock put a hole right through my ear! So, today I wear my stupid badge in the form of a funny shaped scar on my ear! I knew I never had any business with sticks and strings anyway...
 
I've earned a few of these badges but the most memorable was the first time I loaded for my marlin guide gun. I bought three boxes of shells, two rem green boxes and a box of hornady flex tips. I headed out in the woods with some friends to do some shooting and test out my new gun. After a day of shooting I had 60 pieces of 45-70 brass to load but I of course I wasn't gonna load just some wussy load. I wanted to ramp it up a bit. So I talked to a buddy and got a load that he uses and loaded up 60 405 grn oregon trail cast rounds. This is where I get my badge! The remington brass is to SAMII the hornady brass is about .18" shorter than standard length so the flex tips cycle in a lever action. The first time out I took the rem brass out and it shot great grouped well and running about 1850 fps. I took it out a couple weeks later the first shot with the hornady stuff was violent to say the least lol but I wasn't going to quit because of a.little recoil. It tok two more shot before it wouldn't fire anymore. I ended up cracking the stock and pretty much destroying the action. I started reloading when I was 13 and that was the first time I ever just went balls out on a load like that without measuring and working up to max and it almost cost me very valuable body parts. Moral of the story measure twice and start low.

Merry Christmas
 
I don't recall what I did to earn my first stupity badge.....sewed it on with pride, then couldn't put my arm in the sleeve.
Tater guns rule we built a good one for a trip with a bunch of youngsters, they all recall that trip as the best one ever.
 
I reload gobs of .223 bottleneck brass (I shoot a lot of .223), I'm always practicing for benchrest comp...anyway, A large zip lock bag and Hornady One Shot Case Lube is all you need to avert a stuck case. great stuff.

I've never stuck a case, don't even own a remover (but I believe a small corkscrew with a 'T' handle would do) in a pinch....

Just put in 50 cases... or 100, whatever fits, spray in a couple doses of One Shot, seal the zip lock and make bread for a minute or two and everything is good.

Not sure about One Shot in coffee but it's horrible in pop.....

Best stuff out there. Anyone want a never used lube pad and case lube??:D
 
Sidecar, using a corkscrew for a stuck case will definitely earn you a big badge:D. No, I've not used one, but if the case is jammed enough for the holder to rip the lips off of it, all a corkscrew is going to do is give you a screwy puncture.

My "Stupid" badge has many, many bronze stars on it, with a few silver ones too.
Some of my reloading issues-
-forgot to change the large primer holder to the small, mashing a handful of primers before figuring it out
-putting together a bunch of 45acp and getting into the groove (seating bullets) and forgetting to let go of the bullet before running up the ram.
-set up my case trimmer for a bunch of 9mm and decided to use my screwgun to drive it instead of hand cranking it. I got the length set and went to town. I didn't tighten the set screw enough, and as I was grinding them down, it kept getting just a little shorter. I turned 40 rounds into 9mm shorts:D. I still use the screwgun, but I make sure the set-screw is "set".

-got a used 9mm die set from my Uncle. I decided to try it out on a couple hundred rounds. I punched primers, sized, and charged just fine. When I went to seat bullets, they just fell into the case on top of the powder. I was baffled for a minute, but figured out it was the wrong expander in the sizing die.
 
The corkscrew was a suggestion at best. I have never stuck a case (knock on wood) in thousands (literally) of reloads. I'm a believer in Hornady One Shot aerosol spray case lube and a plastic zip lock baggie.....

I keep wondering if PAM spray on non-stick would work just as well (it's cheaper and I'm inherently frugal) but I'm afraid to try it. I spend a gob of time reworking Mil brass (best therapy for a 30 year marriage is reloading actually...) and I don't own a case remover though I probably can cabbage one up if need be, if I stuck one.

I've often wondered what it feels like to have your fingers become an interference fit between a bullet and case mouth, not that I would know, I use top/front load seater dies. My brother-in-law told me it 'hurts like hell'. I imagine it does. All that mechanical advantage of the press trying to seat your fingers instead of the projectile.......:)

Hand loading is a nice way to build custom loads and tailor ballistics to a particular situation but it's also about being cheap, excuse me, frugal and in my case, great middle age marriage therapy.

besides, I reload in my shop so I can't hear her anyway.....:D
 
A few years back,I loaded up a hundred rounds of pistol ammo- .38.
Took them out to the range and set, lo and behold - forgot to prime the darn things!!lightbulb
 
SidecarFlip said:
I've often wondered what it feels like to have your fingers become an interference fit between a bullet and case mouth, not that I would know, I use top/front load seater dies. My brother-in-law told me it 'hurts like hell'. I imagine it does. All that mechanical advantage of the press trying to seat your fingers instead of the projectile.......:)
Click to expand...
There are no words to describe it. You just have to experience it:D. My fingers were holding the bullet from canting before entering the die, so what happens is your fingers slide down the outside of the case until the shell holder pushes them into the rim of the die.


Funny you should say Mil brass. That particular batch of 45 was mil bras, and part way through decapping, the ram just went "chunk", so what did I do? Ram it harder, wiping out a decap pin. Darn berdan primers.....
 
I have done everything from accidently loading 45 acp blazer brass or should I say blazer aluminum cases that apparently got mixed in with mine..... Turns out they shoot the same as I had shot a handful before I noticed. To trying to run wsm brass threw a 7.62x54r die........Turns out that IS a problem............I have to say I wish I could take comfort in the stories of three ruined cases or two stuck cases but the truth is I have enough drilled and tapped brass to do a long match if they could be loaded. Several stuck case removing devises a 338 rum die that had to have the bottom inch milled of to be usable. I still have my first WSM die complete with permanently installed totally rimless case................ Love hornady one-shot lube and even getting use to the taste of it............. Did you know you gotta let that stuff dry for a minute before cramming the brass into the wrong sizing die? You ask if I have scars........oh ya I have my scars.
 
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