Did Something Stupid and Dangerous On My Bench Today

[Calcoyote]

Okay, before you start with the hate let me say that I know I screwed up. I have reloaded for 14 years and spent many hours reading and watching videos made by expert reloaders. I reload for 222, 22-250, 243, 257 Roy, 260 Rem, 270, 308, and 300 Win Mag. I do not consider myself to be an expert, but I would have NEVER thought I could do something so stupid. I try to be as careful as I can on my bench. I only allow 1 powder at a time to be on my bench. Only one box of bullets at a time. Only one kind of brass. Only set of dies at a time.

Today I was seating some 100g Barnes TTSX for my 257 Weatherby. I finished charging the cases with powder and weighed every single load. I then put my seating die in my Redding press and backed off the seating stem a full turn just to make sure that I dont seat them too deeply. I put a case in the shell holder and inserted a bullet and then slowly started raising the ram. I felt contact sooner than I was expecting and the resistance was greater than expected so I backed off and lowered the ram. The bullet was seated too deep and the case neck had a scuff mark on it. I back off the seating stem way back and tried another and the same result. There was also a ring on the bullet. See photo of scuffed case neck and bullet below:


I sat there confused for twenty minutes looking at my seating die and making sure that it was set up correctly. I was dumbfounded. It had worked perfect just last week.

THEN I FOUND MY FATAL MISTAKE: I looked at the label on the box of bullets and instead of saying Barnes 100g TTSX .257 it said Barnes 100g TTSX .264. I had grabbed the WRONG caliber of bullets and seated two of the 100g .264 bullets in my .257 brass!!!!! To answer your question: NO. I had not had any alcohol.

I had the boxes beside each other on the shelf and just grabbed the wrong one. See photo below:


I pulled the bullets and they look fine. Just a ring around the ogive. I will not use them for hunting or load development, but I will probably use them to run through the chrono to get FPS.

I took the brass and ran them through the FL sizing die with no expander ball to shrink the neck back down, and then expanded the neck to .254 with an expander mandrel. The brass looks fine (other than the scuff mark). Can I still use them or should I toss them??? I realize it is only two pieces of brass but this Norma brass is EXPENSIVE these days. Can I keep the brass or toss them?

 

[Steve300xcw]

That would be an easy one to do. Glad ya caught it.

I wouldnt worry about the brass

 

[Rob5589]

Close call. As long as you can resize the brass, I wouldn't sweat using it or the bullets.

 

[willfrye027]

Nice catch. Shouldn’t be an issue to reuse both case and bullet

 

[Rich M]

Glad you caught that. You’re paying attention!!!

 

[PlumberED]

I’m glad you’re ok, good catch. I’d toss the brass.

 

[PlumberED]

Reloading mistakes are easy to make, especially if you are tired, stressed or distracted

 

[wind gypsy]

I’d think you could reuse the brass. Might have slightly different grip on the bullet than brass that hasn’t had that extra work done to it but might not have any notable results. If you anneal that should get things squared away enough.

I’d think you’d have hit some resistance with bullet in the freebore and maybe tight neck before getting the bolt closed that would have saved you from a kaboom but definitely something to keep an eye on.

 

[Calcoyote]

I’d think you could reuse the brass. Might have slightly different grip on the bullet than brass that hasn’t had that extra work done to it but might not have any notable results. If you anneal that should get things squared away enough.

I’d think you’d have hit some resistance with bullet in the freebore and maybe tight neck before getting the bolt closed that would have saved you from a kaboom but definitely something to keep an eye on.

That is what I was wondering. As you said, Weatherby rifles all have a free-bore. I was wondering if the free-bore would have allowed me to chamber the cartridge. I would then have pulled the trigger and tried to cram a .264 bullet down a .257 bore. Which could have gotten ugly. Now in thinking back I could have tried to see if one of those bullets would have chambered, but it is too late for that now. I have pulled the bullets and resized the brass.

 

[Pickettpuncher]

Brass ain’t hurt. People neck up and down all the time. Nothing new there.

 

[wind gypsy]

That is what I was wondering. As you said, Weatherby rifles all have a free-bore. I was wondering if the free-bore would have allowed me to chamber the cartridge. I would then have pulled the trigger and tried to cram a .264 bullet down a .257 bore. Which could have gotten ugly. Now in thinking back I could have tried to see if one of those bullets would have chambered, but it is too late for that now. I have pulled the bullets and resized the brass.

SAAMI freebore diameter is 0.2574” so unless your chamber is really sloppy or the bearing surface was seated very deep into the neck (which wouldnt make sense with that cartridge), the bullet would have jammed in the freebore before you got your bolt closed. That’s not to say you couldn’t have beat the bolt closed and pushed the bullet deeper into the case (if neck diameter let you) but it would have been another sign to make you think about things.

 

[Calcoyote]

SAAMI freebore diameter is 0.2574” so unless your chamber is really sloppy or the bearing surface was seated very deep into the neck (which wouldnt make sense with that cartridge), the bullet would have stuck in the freebore before you got your bolt closed.

Okay. Got it. So, I was never in any danger of accidentally chambering a round and pulling the trigger.

 

[wind gypsy]

Okay. Got it. So, I was never in any danger of accidentally chambering a round and pulling the trigger.

Probably not but not every chamber is cut perfect so hard to say definitively. I bet you would have had enough resistance trying to chamber a round that you woulda stopped if not physically prevented.

 

[rayporter]

i know a guy that did that and a witness said it loaded ok. rifle spit flame and kicked hard.

"boy i touched one off that time" said he.

loaded another and locked up the bolt on a 700. they pounded it open with a 2x4 and he still shoots it.

 

[swavescatter]

Congratulations on becoming a wildcatter!

 

[mtnwrunner]

Thanks for the reminder.
We all need a wake up call every once in awhile.

Randy

 

[B23]

I don't shoot many of them anymore but that is one of the nice things about some of the different Nosler bullets, they use a different color plastic tip for different calibers.

Wind Gypsy is pretty much spot on, the larger diameter bullet most likely would have prevented the cartridge from chambering far enough to close the bolt normally without quite a bit of resistance which at the least would have given you a WTF is going on here moment which would have caused you to investigate why there was so much resistance closing the bolt.

As they say, making mistakes is part of life. It's the learning from our mistakes so we don't repeat them that truly matters. My guess is, you'll likely never make this mistake again.

 

[Yaremkiv]

Happens. The important thing is you were paying attention and caught it.

 

[Axlrod]

Had an friend of a friend had his gun blow up, using reloads from a guy that used to offer reloads in the local classifieds. They asked me to check out some of the reloads to see what was wrong. Gun was a factory Win M70 chambered in 270 Weatherby. When I pulled the bullets and measured them they were .284", also barnes. Gun was totally destroyed, shooter suffered facial cuts an eye/ear damage. So in that case a larger bullet did chamber.

 

[Vern400]

300 blackout chambers in 223. BOOM!in