Im scared of blowing myself up with reloads

[49ereric]

Im going to shoot one tomorrow.

I think to give myself some extra confidence my shooting through the chronograph to verify it roughly matches the predicted velocities. I'm sure I'll find that it's so conservative that the bullet barely makes it out the barrel.

I've also heard that reloading rifle rounds is much safer than pistol rounds, especially stuff like .45 colt where you could basically triple charge a case of really fast powder.

Pistol one at a time for me with the 38 special for sure.
the 357 mag using 300MP can’t over pressure it. Went by the recipe and case was full with enough room for the bullet.
308 I went to h4831 cuz same situation can’t over pressure with a slow burning powder.

 

[Tahoe1305]

Don’t smoke and drink a beer while reloading, there is nothing to scare and just enjoy reloading and shooting.

This is funny but actually really good advice.

I reloaded after a few drinks once and some how ended up overfilling the case with powder (I lost track of which cases I had filled already). That will get your attention and make you think a bit.

 

[Choupique]

Update:

Went to the camp to shoot. Forgot to even bring the .35, so I guess I've successfully put this off for another few weeks.

 

[sdupontjr]

Tahoe1305, thanks bud. That makes me feel better. I'm an engineer by trade and I probably sign off on a dozen things in a day that are many orders of magnitude more dangerous than lighting off one of these reloads.​

I'll pop one off on Saturday morning. If yall don't hear from the new guy coonass on Sunday, I blew myself up.

I do have a 338 win mag that has proven to be a great shooter and likes to be stretched out, and an M1 garand that I would love to shoot more but hate paying to feed it. Haven't worked up the nuts to make a load for either one yet. I've decided to start with the 35 because I only have 5 rounds left.

As another resident "coonass" and engineer I too just started reloading and I was very scared at the first round pop off. I'm about as anal as they get to details and follewed the book and folks info on the site. After about 5 range sessions, its nothing to it. The only thing that I have noticed is different book or websites will give you different starting points and different max's. I was getting close to a max load workup on my tikka 308 and noticed a scar mark on my brass. To the Novice eye, I thought is was pressure signs. It was actually some brass I had that was softer than some of the others (Federal is softer than the Remington I have). My close friend mentioned how was bolt lift. Said perfectly fine. Then he mentioned that you have nothing to worry about, I have had to beat my bolt open with a rubber mallet to extract a round. So i felt better about my situation. I still check my brass after every round regardless if bolt lift is fine and also make a note of Temp's I'm shooting at to see if it affects anything.

 

[Harvey_NW]

I've had worse experiences with factory Hornady rounds than I've ever had reloading..

 

[Choupique]

I've had worse experiences with factory Hornady rounds than I've ever had reloading..
View attachment 465358

Yikes. Any backstory to go with that? What'd hornady say about it?

 

[MuleyFever]

This is funny but actually really good advice.

I reloaded after a few drinks once and some how ended up overfilling the case with powder (I lost track of which cases I had filled already). That will get your attention and make you think a bit.

Is this a pistol thing? I have reloaded for 3 cartridges now and there is no way I am getting 2 charges in a case. I have forgot to move my funnel to the next case numerous times but it is always obvious because the 2nd charge doesnt fit.

 

[Terrapin]

I’ve tied lots of rifles down to a bench and pulled the trigger with a string (I do a lot of R&D… the D sometimes stands for Destructive testing). Standard book loads I don’t worry about too much, but I’ve seen a few rifles that would over pressure below book max. Plenty of people blow up perfectly good rifles every year.

 

[Harvey_NW]

Yikes. Any backstory to go with that? What'd hornady say about it?

Just testing some factory loads and that came out of a box of Precision Hunter, they said if I sent them the rest of the box and they could determine there was an issue they would send me a new box. I told them they could go fornicate themselves.

 

[wind gypsy]

What I wonder is how is factory ammo universally safe in every rifle,

It isn't universally safe in every rifle, they eff up too. There is usually enough safety factor in firearms that really bad things dont happen often.

There are too many variables between different barrels, chamber variance, brass capacity variance, bullet variance, powder lot variance, etc for data to be universal. I've come across published book values that are garbage for the most common use cases out there today but not so bad to where somone is going to get hurt with a starting load.

 

[Fitzwho]

I blew up a Nosler M48 Patriot in 280 AI a couple years ago. The casing failed, luckily the bolt stayed in place and didn't lodge itself in my face. Still got super lucky because the extractor did shear off, blew backwards and blew the bottom metal off of the rifle and lodge itself in my rear sand bag. If I had been shooting off of a lead sled or any other way, I don't know what else would have happened.

It knocked a lens out of my safety glasses and the frames and hat off of my head. Had some small spots that I was bleeding on my face and my left arm.

Crazy shit happens. I'm much more careful about starting on the low end of stuff and working my way up.

 

[Harvey_NW]

There are too many variables between different barrels, chamber variance, brass capacity variance, bullet variance, powder lot variance, etc for data to be universal. I've come across published book values that are garbage for the most common use cases out there today but not so bad to where somone is going to get hurt with a starting load.

This is why I cringe a little bit reading all the beginners "thanks so much, this will save me a lot of time!" comments in the painless load development thread. The author is shooting high quality and often custom rifles and a lot of the viewers aren't. I wish there was a little more emphasis on a quick pressure ladder before just grabbing max charge and tossing it into a Mossberg because a popular WKR said it will be fine..

 

[49ereric]

Is this a pistol thing? I have reloaded for 3 cartridges now and there is no way I am getting 2 charges in a case. I have forgot to move my funnel to the next case numerous times but it is always obvious because the 2nd charge doesnt fit.

Easy to get a double charge with pistol loading by hand.
I use a Lee loader for 38-357 and using bullseye is a worst case scenario as I use 3 grains or less in either case.
loading the 357 with a slow powder 300MP and no worries at all.

 

[Choupique]

The painless load development thing gives me the rickets. I'd be terrified to pull the trigger on a book max load as the first one.

 

[49ereric]

The painless load development thing gives me the rickets. I'd be terrified to pull the trigger on a book max load as the first one.

Find a K98 or Arisaka action & build then and no worries

 

[sdupontjr]

Well I can tell you that if I would have done the painless method, I would have saved some ammo. Tried some 130 ttsx for my Tikka 308 using TAC. Book was 46 - 51.2.

Loaded up 3 at each just to see. 48, 48.5, 49, 49.5, 50, 50.5, 51

50 was the best 3 shot group at .25 MOA, 50.5 at .425" & 51 at .58"

So they started to open back up. So Hine sight, the painless method would have worked in my case. But just starting out reloading and I would have had a stomachache thinking about it.

 

[WoodBow]

I have made gross errors in reloading rifle rounds and nothing bad has happened yet. I once loaded up 20 test rounds for .243 and used the same max load as I had in the past with .308. (they are the exact same case. 308 is just necked up to larger caliber). I didn't take into consideration the higher pressure caused by the smaller exit diameter of the 243. Cases were very hard to extract and the rear of the case was pancake flat. No shoulder to the primer at all. Just flat. Clearly I was/am dumb. Use appropriate load data. If you are concerned, back off the max load by 10 grains and then work your way up. Or heck, put the gun in a vise and pull the trigger with a string to confirm the gun does not explode.

 

[mlgc20]

I understand. I bought all the reloading gear during the first Covid lockdowns. I read the Nosler and Lyman manuals cover to cover. I watched a million Youtube videos. But, I was very hesitant to do it "for real". I finally started making rounds a month or so ago. I made them for my daughter and her 308. But, I made sure I shot the first few rounds to make sure they didn't blow the bench and me to pieces. Of course, nothing bad happened. They really do shoot better than factory ammo. Noticeably better. And there's an added sense of satisfaction that you make the ammo. And not to mention, I find the actually reloading process to be relaxing and fun. Really wish I had started a long time ago.

 

[Tahoe1305]

Is this a pistol thing? I have reloaded for 3 cartridges now and there is no way I am getting 2 charges in a case. I have forgot to move my funnel to the next case numerous times but it is always obvious because the 2nd charge doesnt fit.

No. A rifle thing. And just not paying attention. Don’t get me wrong two charges didn’t fit. The point was when I started pouring the second charge (over the first) and it overflowed it made me realize I need to pay more attention (aka probably drink less!)

 

[49ereric]

No. A rifle thing. And just not paying attention. Don’t get me wrong two charges didn’t fit. The point was when I started pouring the second charge (over the first) and it overflowed it made me realize I need to pay more attention (aka probably drink less!)

Rifle thing if using blue dot for reduced velocity loads.