Quote from: Heavies on August 05, 2011, 04:32:52 AM

I'd becareful with reloading range pick-up rifle brass...

higher pressures in those rifle loads can be dangerous.

Agreed. Start at the minimum and work your way up.

+1 on that, but I was thinking more along the lines of you don't know what kind of stress that brass has been through, what kind of huge chamber semi-auto has cycled it, if its throw away brass that someone had reloaded it 10X, etc.

I like to either use known once fired, from my rifle, or brand new.  Watch Federal rifle cases as well, it is reported to be soft brass only good for a very few reloads.  I avoid those all together.
 
Rifle brass can only be reloaded a certain number of times before neck needs to be annealed, or you will get neck splits, and case head seperaton is always a fear, espeacially with brass from unknown origins.

My hunting rifle gets fed Winchester, or LC match Mil Sup. (LC match doesn't have crimped primers and are very carefully inspected and annealed before use), and my target rifle only eats Lapua.  Lapua is very pricey, but can be reloaded many, many times before they are toast.

Quote from: vooduchikn on August 05, 2011, 08:44:16 AM

Quote from: Heavies on August 05, 2011, 04:32:52 AM

I'd becareful with reloading range pick-up rifle brass...

higher pressures in those rifle loads can be dangerous.

Agreed. Start at the minimum and work your way up.

+1 on that, but I was thinking more along the lines of you don't know what kind of stress that brass has been through, what kind of huge chamber semi-auto has cycled it, if its throw away brass that someone had reloaded it 10X, etc.

I like to either use known once fired, from my rifle, or brand new.  Watch Federal rifle cases as well, it is reported to be soft brass only good for a very few reloads.  I avoid those all together.
 
Rifle brass can only be reloaded a certain number of times before neck needs to be annealed, or you will get neck splits, and case head seperaton is always a fear, espeacially with brass from unknown origins.

My hunting rifle gets fed Winchester, or LC match Mil Sup. (LC match doesn't have crimped primers and are very carefully inspected and annealed before use), and my target rifle only eats Lapua.  Lapua is very pricey, but can be reloaded many, many times before they are toast.

Thanks for all the great tips and pointers Hves. This is once fired military brass. I do agree on range freebies. Gotta really take a look at those.

How does one overcharge reloaded ammo?

How does one overcharge reloaded ammo?

The easiest way, if you do batch reloading like Pa taught me, is to charge a case, then have the wife come down and start in on you, or the kid fall down the stairs, or the dog crap on the rug.  You set down the freshly-charged case to go take care of whatever, then come back, pick up the case, charge it, (AGAIN!  ) and put it in the charged case rack.  Have fun at the range, things may get real exciting for you and all your friends!  Lots of guys (most?) do use progressive presses that do everything automatically without the loader having to handle brass between steps, and I'm not familiar with the progressives, so I don't know how likely it is to overcharge a case with one. 

Correction: an even easier way to overcharge than the one I mentioned is to get load data from a friend or the internet, vice a real reloading manual.  Or, use powder other than what's called for in your manual's load data.  Different powders have different burn rates, so 6 grains of one powder might be in the middle of the range, and 6 grains of another will cause a dangerous overpressure situation. 

See also: Vooduchikn; he reloads lots and lots of ammo, and on a progressive press, so maybe he can shed light on the black magic involved with them! 

I reload on a Dillon 550B (progressive with a manual indexed shellplate).  A double charge occurs when the handle is pulled twice without indexing the shellplate.  I've come close before when I first started but luckily caught my mistake before actually doubling.  It seems that most of the problems are likely to occur when an issue arises during the loading process, i.e, primer slide bar doesn't pickup a primer, primer goes in sidewards, spent primer gets stuck under the shellplate instead of getting dropped in the cup, etc..  Somehow, something interrups the normal rhythmn/flow and forces you to pull a shell out of one of the stations.  Trying to figure out where that casing goes after correcting the problem should seem to be easy enough, however this is normally where mistakes are made.  I've learned that for me, its easier to just pull that one case, continue to finish loading the remaining cases on the plate until I have an empty shellplate, then start from sta. 1 all over.  Along the same lines, if you continually pull cases from the plate to check and recheck OAL, crimp, etc. while loading, this tends to produce the same problem.  I check powder charge before I start, then after every 100 complete cartridges (primer mag only holds 100 so I have to stop to refill anyway).  Likewise, I spot check OAL/setback after every 100 also. 
I really like my 550, it can produce a lot of ammo in a relatively short amount of time.  Just have to be careful and pay attention. 

What type of powder you use helps too.  If you choose a powder that fills over 1/2 the case volume it will be easy to spot a double charge since the powder will overflow the case.  I worry more about a partial charge leading to a squib or ignition issues that accompany a partial charge.  Removing the problem case or cases as was stated above is the best practice when using a progressive.  You'll make up the problem case, don't interupt the loading cycle.

What type of powder you use helps too.  If you choose a powder that fills over 1/2 the case volume it will be easy to spot a double charge since the powder will overflow the case.  I worry more about a partial charge leading to a squib or ignition issues that accompany a partial charge.  Removing the problem case or cases as was stated above is the best practice when using a progressive.  You'll make up the problem case, don't interupt the loading cycle.

Speaking of squibs, would it be possible to have a squib load that has enough oomph to cycle the action on an autoloader but still leaves the round lodged in the barrel? 

Hope to never find out firsthand. 

Me, too.The reason I asked is because what happens if you're on the action side where you can shoot a little faster, and you pull the trigger on round #2 before it registers in your brain that the last round didn't sound/feel right?  Kaboom, I guess, except that it seems reasonably logical to me that if a round didn't have enough charge to push the bullet out of the barrel, it shouldn't have enough to cycle the action fully and chamber the next round.  OTOH, maybe it takes a lot more force to push the bullet down the barrel than I realize, so I don't know.

I agree completely with what was said regarding powder choice.  That's one of the main reasons I switched from TiteGroup to Vit N320 for 9mm.  When loading to make minimum PF, you can pull the handle 3 times before the TG will completely fill the case.  Pretty scary if you're not careful.  Its a really cheap  powder though, and works well for jacketed bullets, but I'd prefer the way the Vit fills the case.  Like was posted, easier to see a double, or a missed charge.

Agree also on the dangers of a squib when shooting USPSA.  I don't know if I'd realize that I'd had a squib before I fired the second shot.  I've read about KBs happening because of this, but I don't have any first hand experience with it.

I would like to add one more possible way of over charging as I was recently guilty of it.  I'd been reloading .45acp using 230grn. CMJ from MG.  I recently decided to switch to 200grn. LSWC to save some money.  Despite knowing better, I failed to check load data for the different bullet, and proceeded to load about 500 or so rounds using roughly the same powder charge I had been using for the 230grn jacketed bullets.  Lucky for me I Ioad just enough to make major PF.  When I finally realized my mistake, the 500 rounds had all been shot, luckily without any mishap.  If I had been loading hot, or loading to approximate SD rounds, I probably would have been well over the max recommended loads.  Lesson learned, I can only imagine the oh s%#! look I must've had on my face when I checked my loading manual and realized what could've happened. 

Quote from: Mr. Farknkocker on August 11, 2011, 09:41:21 PM

How does one overcharge reloaded ammo?

The easiest way, if you do batch reloading like Pa taught me, is to charge a case, then have the wife come down and start in on you, or the kid fall down the stairs, or the dog crap on the rug.  You set down the freshly-charged case to go take care of whatever, then come back, pick up the case, charge it, (AGAIN!  ) and put it in the charged case rack.  Have fun at the range, things may get real exciting for you and all your friends!  Lots of guys (most?) do use progressive presses that do everything automatically without the loader having to handle brass between steps, and I'm not familiar with the progressives, so I don't know how likely it is to overcharge a case with one. 

Correction: an even easier way to overcharge than the one I mentioned is to get load data from a friend or the internet, vice a real reloading manual.  Or, use powder other than what's called for in your manual's load data.  Different powders have different burn rates, so 6 grains of one powder might be in the middle of the range, and 6 grains of another will cause a dangerous overpressure situation. 

See also: Vooduchikn; he reloads lots and lots of ammo, and on a progressive press, so maybe he can shed light on the black magic involved with them! 

Progressive makes it easy not to screw up and overcharge.  Best bet is to HAVE A METHOD AND PAY ATTENTION.   I cannot stress this enough.

 I use Winchester powders  for .40 .45 and 9mm. On the .40, the case is 1/2 full at the current recipe.  Learn what powders have what burn rates. 
OAL and how short the round is matters as well.  On the progressive it the only way to double charge a case (that I could see) is to take a charged case and put it back in station 2 (bellmouth/powedercharge) and charge it again.

All the .40 I shot last week were reloads. They seem to shoot rather well with relatively low recoil. Havent had an issue with any of them thus far.

Quote from: Dreaded8s on August 12, 2011, 09:07:02 AM

What type of powder you use helps too.  If you choose a powder that fills over 1/2 the case volume it will be easy to spot a double charge since the powder will overflow the case.  I worry more about a partial charge leading to a squib or ignition issues that accompany a partial charge.  Removing the problem case or cases as was stated above is the best practice when using a progressive.  You'll make up the problem case, don't interupt the loading cycle.

Speaking of squibs, would it be possible to have a squib load that has enough oomph to cycle the action on an autoloader but still leaves the round lodged in the barrel? 

I don't think the squib will have enough energy to cycle the action. However, during the heat of a match, one may not realize the squib has occured. That's when the problem would start. Tap, Rack, Kaboom. Ouch.

Progressive makes it easy not to screw up and overcharge.  Best bet is to HAVE A METHOD AND PAY ATTENTION.   I cannot stress this enough.

 I use Winchester powders  for .40 .45 and 9mm. On the .40, the case is 1/2 full at the current recipe.  Learn what powders have what burn rates. 
OAL and how short the round is matters as well.  On the progressive it the only way to double charge a case (that I could see) is to take a charged case and put it back in station 2 (bellmouth/powedercharge) and charge it again.

All the .40 I shot last week were reloads. They seem to shoot rather well with relatively low recoil. Havent had an issue with any of them thus far.

That was the old man's advice as well.  If you do batches, you have to make sure everything's taken care of so that you can run the entire lot through the step you're doing without stopping.  The other thing was to use two trays, empty on the right, charged on the left, and do it that way every single time you charge a case.  That way you're not going to get confused about whether you've done that particular row, or round, or whatever.  I think Dad would have refused to leave the house, even if it was on fire, until he was done with whatever step he was on. 

This is a retarded question coming from a newbie who knows nothing about reloading but can reloaded ammo accidentally go off during the reloading process and if so, how likely is it to occur and frequently does it occur?

This is a retarded question coming from a newbie who knows nothing about reloading but can reloaded ammo accidentally go off during the reloading process and if so, how likely is it to occur and frequently does it occur?

Not a retarded question. I have never seen it. Not sure how it could. I have heard of primers going off during seating.

As voodu said, I think the only way something like that could happen is if a primer goes off because of improper seating.

You prime your cases before you put in gun powder so it should be a minimal injury if any should that happen.

I've reloaded and been around reloaders for over 20 years and have never seen it happen yet, so it is a rarity.

Same here.  Between me, my dad, uncle, cousins, etc, we've loaded probably a couple hundred thousand rounds, with nary an exploded primer.  I have removed the shot, wad, and powder from a shotgun shell and then fired it to see what it sounded like; pretty disappointing; somewhere between a standard firecracker and one of those little paper doo-dads that you throw on the sidewalk.  Meh.  Pa fired a primed, empty case in his revolver with much the same results.  It'll no doubt scare the everloving dog poo out of you, but it's not going to blow your hands off or anything.  The primer's the only thing that's really that reactive, if you light smokeless powder on fire without it being in a container that will allow pressure to build it'll just burn with a crazy high flame, but there is NO explosion.  (Like if you took a little bit in an ashtray and lit it on fire...  )  Mythbusters (hardly scientific, I know) did a thing where they cooked off ammo in an oven, and unless they chambered the round and cooked the whole gun, it wouldn't fire with enough oomph to break the front glass on the oven door.  Of course, if you substituted your hide for the door, you'd probably be bleeding, but I don't think it would kill you unless you were really unlucky.