Woohoo, I earned my stupid badge today...

[gcamp54]

Two weeks ago I grabbed the 215M primers instead of the 210M primers for my .284 and didn't realized it until I had about 20 primed.

When I lived in Minot, ND I installed a natural gas heater that hung from the ceiling. Kept it nice and warm. If I needed to work in the garage I just cranked it up to 70 and it warmed up in about 5 min. Best investment I made with that house. I barely noticed any change in my gas bill. The whole unit and installation was about 1K. That was 14 years ago though.

Gordon

 

[Nimrod]

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.

Me too!
If I don't have a full box of 50 I will fill up a couple of 20 round slip tops. If I trash more than 10 cases I need to take up another hobby!

Bob

 

[Wile E Coyote]

Someone once told me, "If yer gonna be stupid, make sure everyone knows it." So with that in mind, here is my latest Stupid Badge entry.

Two nights ago, I finished loading 20 rounds of 7mm RM. A few nights earlier, the brass was cleaned, sized, trimmed etc. This night, I prime the cases and lay everything out on the bench for assembly. Then my wife called me for dinner as expected.

Later on, after seating the last bullet and checking runout, I labeled the box and recorded the load info in my notebook and put everything away. I went upstairs to relax for the remainder of the evening.

I was sitting there congratulating myself on producing a box of ammo where all 20 rounds were concentric to less than .001", shoulder bumps were all exactly .002", the seating depth was exactly .030". Everything was perfect! not one was even slightly off spec. I almost put my shoulder out patting myself on the back!

About 11pm, as I'm starting to nod off, it hit me. I never charged the cases with powder! I have 20 perfect duds!

I'm sure after I pull the bullets and reassemble them correctly this time, they won't be so perfect for some reason.

 

[winmag]

Someone once told me, "If yer gonna be stupid, make sure everyone knows it." So with that in mind, here is my latest Stupid Badge entry.

Two nights ago, I finished loading 20 rounds of 7mm RM. A few nights earlier, the brass was cleaned, sized, trimmed etc. This night, I prime the cases and lay everything out on the bench for assembly. Then my wife called me for dinner as expected.

Later on, after seating the last bullet and checking runout, I labeled the box and recorded the load info in my notebook and put everything away. I went upstairs to relax for the remainder of the evening.

I was sitting there congratulating myself on producing a box of ammo where all 20 rounds were concentric to less than .001", shoulder bumps were all exactly .002", the seating depth was exactly .030". Everything was perfect! not one was even slightly off spec. I almost put my shoulder out patting myself on the back!

About 11pm, as I'm starting to nod off, it hit me. I never charged the cases with powder! I have 20 perfect duds!

I'm sure after I pull the bullets and reassemble them correctly this time, they won't be so perfect for some reason.

Ooooohhh that's gotta suck.
Just goes to show ya, we ALL make mistakes, but with a little humility, we can all learn from others.
This is good, guys. I no longer feel like I'm the dumbest one here.... I have company
Pretty esteemed company at that. We've all been there if we've been at it long enough....

 

[Wile E Coyote]

I couldn't stand it any longer. When I got home from work this afternoon, I pulled the bullets. Weighed powder and reassembled.


They're still straight but I did have to replace a couple of bullets. I most likely squashed them a bit when pulling them because they didn't re-seat straight.

Now I'll go sit in the corner for a while.

 

[tigguy]

Stupid Badge #???

I was inventing the wheel one night and thought that a black permanent marker would work a whole lot better than smoking a case for checking shoulder bump. We all know that you can't lube a case and expect marker to stick to it, right? Well I also found out that a case without lube and a shoulder covered in marker sticks excellent in a die! There must be several of us geniuses in my area because our local shooting store had a well stocked supply of stuck case removers. My wife gave me the "dumb ***" treatment too, but she's the kinda gal that'll sit down in the library and check the toilet paper roll AFTER she's done her business. lightbulb

 

[CRNA]

Well, one of my many stupid stories that comes to mind dates back about 8 or 10 years or so. A childhood buddy of mine was over visiting one day when the two of us, who have a propensity to do stupid **** when we're together, decided that the juvenile delinquent in both of us had to come out and play. It was cold and raining and we decide we are going to build a tater gun. So, we load up and go to the local hardware store, buy all the necessary equipment, and go back to my garage to play..ahem work.
We were thinking the the gas grill ignitor that we were using was somewhat inconsistent and possibly trying to just go kaput on us, but we kept right on glueing all the parts together.
Now for the ******* moment: My buddy says to me, "Hey Steve, you think that ignitor is still working?" I say, after grabbing the barrel and putting my eye up to it, "Hit it a few times and if it strikes I can see it spark."
Well, I saw it alright. I never knew how flammable the vapors off of PVC glue was, but let me tell you, it made one helluva fireball coming out the end of that barrel right into my open eye. I truly believe it was just the grace of a loving God looking down on one of His dumber creations that had mercy on my eye. I singed all my eyelashes and eye brows partially off. My face was red (like sunburned red), and I could hardly open my eye. If you have never singed your eyelashes down to the eyelids, let me tell you, they leave little balls of hard black and very irritating gunk.
So, there it is. My stupid story. One of many, but that one came to mind first.

BTW, you just don't realize how long it takes eyelashes to grow back from nothing.

 

[codyjoe1128]

Tater guns tend to earn stupidity badges.....one of my machinist friends and I decided an all aluminum tater gun would be cool so we went to work, used a 36" long piece of 2.5" aluminum thick walled pipe, threaded and sealed that, made an adaptor n threaded a 10" piece of 5" for the "pressure chamber" made a solid end cap n drilled two holes, one for the "propellant" and the other for a brand new igniter from his moms grill....after burning our hands we decided it needed mounted on a tripod....long story short we earned our stupid badges after (successfully?) Launching taters way farther than we thought we could and knocking holes in the siding, wall, roof, and windows at the neighbors house a half mile over the hill....Oops....

 

[codyjoe1128]

Also found out with that " tater cannon" a Styrofoam sabot and golf ball are very entertaining...just don't get the Styrofoam wet with hairspray.....

 

[CRNA]

Tater guns tend to earn stupidity badges.....one of my machinist friends and I decided an all aluminum tater gun would be cool so we went to work, used a 36" long piece of 2.5" aluminum thick walled pipe, threaded and sealed that, made an adaptor n threaded a 10" piece of 5" for the "pressure chamber" made a solid end cap n drilled two holes, one for the "propellant" and the other for a brand new igniter from his moms grill....after burning our hands we decided it needed mounted on a tripod....long story short we earned our stupid badges after (successfully?) Launching taters way farther than we thought we could and knocking holes in the siding, wall, roof, and windows at the neighbors house a half mile over the hill....Oops....

Half a mile!!!! Awesome!! I feel the delinquent coming out in me again. I may need the specs on that thing!!!

 

[Wile E Coyote]

1/2 mile tater cannon, foam sabots, golfballs, holes in houses, ALL irresponsible behavior! + 2500 acres of swamp across the street.

This could be hard to resist!

 

[codyjoe1128]

36" of 2.5" thick wall aluminum pipe, 10" of 4-6" aluminum pipe, 2 flat peices of 1" aluminum plate, it can be welded or threaded and sealed together....one hole for the igniter and one to spray the propellant( john deere 80% either, hair spray or other ignitables) make sure not to get the igniter wet when spraying....sharpen the muzzle so the taters fit tight, use a broom handle for a RAM rod, loadin the tater a couple inches from the chamber works best...

 

[CRNA]

36" of 2.5" thick wall aluminum pipe, 10" of 4-6" aluminum pipe, 2 flat peices of 1" aluminum plate, it can be welded or threaded and sealed together....one hole for the igniter and one to spray the propellant( john deere 80% either, hair spray or other ignitables) make sure not to get the igniter wet when spraying....sharpen the muzzle so the taters fit tight, use a broom handle for a RAM rod, loadin the tater a couple inches from the chamber works best...

Two and a half inches thick? WOW!!!

 

[codyjoe1128]

2.5" id , I think its 1/2" wall thickness....