Duds anyone???

[C-130 Dude]

Yep, serious component shortage paired with being young and inexperienced led to a pretty stupid call. I have more respect for the potential catastrophes these days. I also didn't realize that the brass was already primed when I annealed them.

You are very lucky you didn't get badly injured or worse. I have witnessed bad injuries suffered by a couple of guys that didnt practice safe reloading procedures. There was a case of a guy about 6-10 months ago on this site that had a primer stack go bang on him while loading primers. Tore up the bench and press and caused him bad finger/hand/arm injuries. Please stay safe. Remember, NEVER TAKE SHORTCUTS! Just curious, why did you need to anneal the brass?

 

[Mogollon Hunter]

You are very lucky you didn't get badly injured or worse. I have witnessed bad injuries suffered by a couple of guys that didnt practice safe reloading procedures. There was a case of a guy about 6-10 months ago on this site that had a primer stack go bang on him while loading primers. Tore up the bench and press and caused him bad finger/hand/arm injuries. Please stay safe. Remember, NEVER TAKE SHORTCUTS! Just curious, why did you need to anneal the brass?

No real need to anneal I just like to anneal every loading of the brass. It takes every piece back to a set level of hardness/spring back. It makes sense to me that doing this will help get consistent neck tension from the first loading to the last loading of a piece of brass. Do you like to anneal?

 

[AGGRO]

No real need to anneal I just like to anneal every loading of the brass. It takes every piece back to a set level of hardness/spring back. It makes sense to me that doing this will help get consistent neck tension from the first loading to the last loading of a piece of brass. Do you like to anneal?

Yes, after I deprime and tumble my brass.

 

[C-130 Dude]

No real need to anneal I just like to anneal every loading of the brass. It takes every piece back to a set level of hardness/spring back. It makes sense to me that doing this will help get consistent neck tension from the first loading to the last loading of a piece of brass. Do you like to anneal?

Every time. Stay safe and have fun. NO SHORTCUTS!

 

[Muddyboots]

How many of you out there can honestly say that, " I've never had a dud that I built myself".

No duds other than Milk Duds.

The main reason, I believe is having a written process that I still tweak based on primarily info I glean here and elsewhere. You tend to be more quality control oriented when you have it written down and clear concise steps.

But I have put powder into case not primed. Really cool to have ball powder run out flash hole. But been lucky I guess rounds go off maybe not in bullseye but go bang.

 

[C-130 Dude]

No duds other than Milk Duds.

The main reason, I believe is having a written process that I still tweak based on primarily info I glean here and elsewhere. You tend to be more quality control oriented when you have it written down and clear concise steps.

But I have put powder into case not primed. Really cool to have ball powder run out flash hole. But been lucky I guess rounds go off maybe not in bullseye but go bang.

Ditto on the written.

 

[PlumberEd]

Forgotten or upside down primers
No powder in a 45 ACP, I had to tap the bullet out with a brass rod.

I like the idea of a written process. Do you have a check list or just the process written out?

 

[Mark37082]

C-130 Dude - This has been a good thread. Bad things can happen even with very experienced loaders. All it takes is a momentary lapse in concentration. The range of consequences can be significant.

 

[highfinblue]

I've done too many stupid things to mention, but I do not remember one not going bang. Put some powder in without primers a time or two, but they never made it to the range before discovery lol. I did just have several .223 factory Lake City rounds that were duds, quite shocked with that one. I was making brass for a left hand CZ I had just bought, and time after time rounds failed to fire. Found some brass I had put away and loaded a couple hundred and so far, not a one has failed to fire, so, I'm reasonably sure it was the ammo and not the gun. I used to take a flashlight and look into charged cases in a loading block to make certain powder was in all of them, but since I installed a light on my press I simply look into the case before I seat the bullet. I now use an electric scale and powder dispenser so I generally seat the bullets as they are charged with powder; used to charge them all, then seat them all.

 

[Teri Anne]

Sunday honesty.

How many of you out there can honestly say that, " I've never had a dud that I built myself".

Gun issues/malfunctions aside.

Come on, fess up.

Duds happen for any variety of reasons. There are several things that one can do during the reloading proess that can mostly eliminate the problem with dud ammunition. Oh, and in answer to your question, yes I have had a few duds over the last 55 or so years reloading. Most of my duds have been primer related. Once probably 20 years ago I had a sleeve of CCI Large Rifle primes that were about 50% duds. Good hits from the firing pin but no ignition. At the time I was loading 308 match rounds that were going to be used for target practice. There were several of us shooters who reloaded most of our ammo. At the time I was using Winchester primers and never had a problem with them. One of the other shooters suggested that I try some CCI primers, so next time I went to my sporting goods store I picked up a sleeve to try out. I loaded the ammo using the primers with the results mentioned above. Fortunately I was able to pull the bullets, dump the powder back into its container and punch out the offending primers. Each had a good hit from the firing pin and when removed looked normal with the exception that the were falling apart due to the firing pin hit then the decapping pin pushing them out. They, along with the rest of the remaining ones went into my jug of oil.


Otherwise I have not had any duds. The primary reason for this is care taken during the reloading process. There are two major steps I take to ensure that everything is done in a logical sequence with quality control checks between steps. Back when I started I used the primer feeds that came with the press. The feed tubes were loaded carefully but there seemed to always be that one primer that somehow turned itself upside down in the tube. Anyway one of the checks I do with each and every round is to turn it over and check the primer seating to make sure that they are seated below the base of the cartridge. This is where I find upside down primers, and primers not seated to the bottom of the primer pocket. It does happen. Another thing I do is use two loading blocks, taking a cartridge from one block, priming or dumping powder then move it to the other block so I know that whatever process I am doing has been completed. One last check that I do is to visually look into each cartridge to ensure that the powder level is even in each and every one of them. Every once in awhile I will find one that is empty, or or even worse that has a double charge. This is what happens when you get distracted during the process of reloading. The double charges are always related to pistol ammo where the chosen charge does not come anywhere close to filling the case. No powder can happen to any cartridge. Without these quality control steps it would be easy to load a dud or double charged cartridge. In closing, have I made errors? Absolutely. But by taking care to carefully check each cartridge these errors were detected and corrected before the cartridge found it's way into the chamber to be fired. Never be in too much of a hurry to eliminate the final checks before closing up the cartridge with a bullet. SAFETY IS NO ACCIDENT.

 

[Hard H2O]

Sunday honesty.

How many of you out there can honestly say that, " I've never had a dud that I built myself".

Gun issues/malfunctions aside.

Come on, fess up.

I can confidently say I have never had a dud or squib in any ammunition I have reloaded.

 

[Tommo64]

Yep, been there, done that. Only happened once with a primed but unfilled case. Must've taken my eye off the ball whilst reloading. Also dumped powder into an unprimed case. Now have a strict routine that I stick to. Visual checks for primers and powder before seating the bullet.

 

[emp1953]

Sunday honesty.

How many of you out there can honestly say that, " I've never had a dud that I built myself".

Gun issues/malfunctions aside.

Come on, fess up.

In the beginning of my reloading,early 70's, I created one dud, either no powder or a very short powder charge. It took an expensive trip to a gunsmith to get the bullet out of the bore, and I was without the rifle during a critical time in hunting season. That lesson learned I established some rules for myself.
I use a single stage press only.
I only deal with 50 rounds at a time.
I use one 50 round loading block.
After cleaning, 50 rounds go into a block
I lube a couple of cases at a time.
I always full-length size which is my de-priming step.
When that case is sized and de-primed it goes back in the block base up, easy to inspect to see that primers are all removed.
After resizing I check case length. I have 5 Forster case trimmers set up for the five calibers that I focus on.
If the case needs trimming, I will trim it and debur it. Case necks get scrutiny at this point for cracks. then it goes back in the loading block. base up.
Before it goes back in the block I put it in through a Lyman MSR case checker to make sure each case should chamber before I complete it. That way if it doesn't work in the chase checker at the end I know which step went off the rails.
Case gets primed then goes back in the block, base up. easy to observe that all cases have new primers.
I then throw charges one case at a time with a uniflow within 1/2 grain or so of my target
Now all the cases are neck up. With a flashlight I observe powder in each case and can easily pick up light charge.
I then dump each charge into my scale then trickle up to my target weight. Now I know each case has a charge and each charge is exact.
Lastly comes bullets. With the bullet seater exactly adjusted I then proceed to inserting the bullets. l do not use cannelured bullets because the OAL that leaves me with is never what I need in a particular rifle. Thus I never have to worry about crimping.
When the bullets are in, they all go through the Lyman Case CHecker block again.
Following these steps religiously I have never had another dud/misfire. It may seem a bit burdensome but once you establish a rhythm it all goes along fine. I never want to have to question my ammo when a miss happens at the range or in the field

 

[DDB TX]

I had a revelation one day, I am very careful about reloading but once after reloading 50 300 WSMs I decided just for the heck of it to weigh each round. Lo and behold one round was 64 grains lighter than the rest of them! Pulled the bullet and yup, no powder. And I check the block with a flashlight, usually.
So I checked all my other reloads and found one more, in a 300 Savage batch. Yikes! Distractions will get ya. I now weigh each loaded round as a last step.
Also had a thing to say about crimping. I was working up a load for a 300 WSM Tikka T3 Lite, a 6 lb gun. Shooting 180 grain Partitions (not the Protected Point). Hot day at the range; and in the middle of a string one round kicked like a mule and the chrony showed it was traveling at 300 Weatherby velocity. I stopped shooting and went home. Went to pull the remaining bullets and found that the recoil had bent the exposed lead tips in those rounds that had been in the (plastic Tikka factory) magazine; and as I did not crimp, had also shoved a couple of rounds into the cases a bit. needless to say that is not good. Thank goodness Tikkas are so strong! I have religiously crimped since then.