No Charge - FYE

[mdmp5]

I am writing this for you guys' entertainment. Over the weekend and yesterday, I loaded up 130 rds of 6.5x47. Took 40 with me to the range today expecting to shoot 300, but the damn cops were hogging the range so I had to settle for 100. Sit at the bench, chamber the first rd, squeeze....snap. Nothing. Open the bolt, pull the round, primer is dented. Try again, nothing. Proceed to shoot about 15 rds no problem. When I get home, I pull the bullet from the dud with my kinetic puller. I turn it upside down over my powder container and catch the bullet, but no powder. Bullet is black over the boat tail. Can you believe I loaded an uncharged case??? In 10 years, I have never done this, especially not with bolt action rifle. No idea how I managed that one.

But get this. I am about 100% that I only did that with one case. I loaded 100 rounds and put them in one container in no real order, then 30 in another. I reached into the 100 rd container, grabbed 10, and put them in the case with 30. What are the odds that after all that mixing around, I grab the one round that wasn't charged on the first try?

 

[diverdon]

I would weigh the rest to be sure that was the only one.

 

[mdmp5]

I would weigh the rest to be sure that was the only one.

Yeah I was getting around to that.

 

[lash]

You wouldn't be the first one to do that, nor will you be the last. A few months back, we were practicing at the 1000 tower and one of the guys showed me a round that had a nice FP strike in the primer, but it did not fire. I shook the round and heard no powder movement. I asked him if he loaded compressed loads, to which he answered that he did not. Standard H4350 load using Hornady amax/eldms. But he was mostly sure that he couldn't have forgotten to powder it. Sure enough, later that day when he got home and pulled the bullet, he texted me and asked me how I knew. I told him that I didn't for sure, but the round felt a bit light and there was discernible powder movement when shaken.

I suggested that he adopt something that I have been doing for a long time. Since he's not using a progressive press, he loads in lots of 50/100 in loading blocks like many of us. When powdering, before I remove a full loading block of powdered cases, I shine a flashlight in each and every case to make sure that there is indeed powder in each one. This takes seconds to do and is a quick way to make sure you don't have that dud while on the firing line.

 

[winniedonkey]

@lash do you charge a block of cases then load the rounds? Seems it would be smoother but never tried.

 

[mdmp5]

I’m using a chargemaster so it’s faster for me to seat while I’m charging cases. I wasn’t using the loading block for this last batch so that’s probably how I skipped a case

 

[lash]

@lash do you charge a block of cases then load the rounds? Seems it would be smoother but never tried.

Yes. Two reasons. One has to do with my very limited space available, meaning I don't have room to do the charging where my press is set up. Secondly, by doing batch runs for every step, I ensure that everything is done exactly the same for every round.

I don't pretend that this is the only way to do it, nor even necessarily the best way to do it. It just works for me.

 

[JMcBurn]

I load progressive, but drop charges with a chargemaster. I had a few of these when I first started doing it, but I just started shaking every round after it comes out of the press before putting in ammo box.

 

[mcfred]

I have some dummy rounds I use for practicing bolt manipulation and mag-swaps. The dummy rounds without powder would ring like empty cases when struck or when ejected onto a hard surface. OP, in your case you're lucky you didn't lodge a bullet partially in the bore and chamber another full power round behind it. It's a quick way to disassemble your gun and get some facial surgery.

Personally, I use a loading block and visually verify level powder charges before I seat bullets. Never had a squib in 25+ years.

 

[mdmp5]

I have some dummy rounds I use for practicing bolt manipulation and mag-swaps. The dummy rounds without powder would ring like empty cases when struck or when ejected onto a hard surface. OP, in your case you're lucky you didn't lodge a bullet partially in the bore and chamber another full power round behind it. It's a quick way to disassemble your gun and get some facial surgery.

Personally, I use a loading block and visually verify level powder charges before I seat bullets. Never had a squib in 25+ years.

If it squibbed, there’s no way I would’ve not checked the chamber. There was nothing but a snap of the firing pin. Also, if it did squib, I wouldn’t have been able to chamber a new round because it would barely make it into the rifling. Bullet didn’t even move one bit.

 

[mcfred]

There are instances where you can put a bullet down the bore, with a primer alone, far enough to chamber another round. Not everyone will stop, break cheek-weld, and investigate a 'dud' or whatever anomaly before racking another round and firing.

Be that as it may. Progressive reloading or otherwise not checking for powder from one op to the next is an recipe for unpleasantness. You are lucky. Stay safe.

 

[XLR308]

In 25 years of reloading I have done it once, it was with a moly coated 168AMAX in neck sized brass 308win.

Due to low neck tension and moly coating adding a low coefficient of friction the bullet actually left the case and was sitting in the lead in of the rifling and just knocked it out with a cleaning rod.

Only In a rem700 with enough free bore to parralel park a car in would this be possible I would think.

CHIT HAPPENS

 

[mdmp5]

There are instances where you can put a bullet down the bore, with a primer alone, far enough to chamber another round. Not everyone will stop, break cheek-weld, and investigate a 'dud' or whatever anomaly before racking another round and firing.

Be that as it may. Progressive reloading or otherwise not checking for powder from one op to the next is an recipe for unpleasantness. You are lucky. Stay safe.

The point of this thread was to say that in 10 years, I’ve never loaded a dud and not caught it immediately. I do check and I am not loading precision rifle on a Dillon. I was marveling at the statistical probability of not only loading an uncharged round, but chambering that round first shot.

 

[mcfred]

ok.

 

[Bradu]

You wouldn't be the first one to do that, nor will you be the last. A few months back, we were practicing at the 1000 tower and one of the guys showed me a round that had a nice FP strike in the primer, but it did not fire. I shook the round and heard no powder movement. I asked him if he loaded compressed loads, to which he answered that he did not. Standard H4350 load using Hornady amax/eldms. But he was mostly sure that he couldn't have forgotten to powder it. Sure enough, later that day when he got home and pulled the bullet, he texted me and asked me how I knew. I told him that I didn't for sure, but the round felt a bit light and there was discernible powder movement when shaken.

I suggested that he adopt something that I have been doing for a long time. Since he's not using a progressive press, he loads in lots of 50/100 in loading blocks like many of us. When powdering, before I remove a full loading block of powdered cases, I shine a flashlight in each and every case to make sure that there is indeed powder in each one. This takes seconds to do and is a quick way to make sure you don't have that dud while on the firing line.

This is the way I do it, I've caught a couple that got skipped over the years. My dumbass has managed to forget to put a primer in the case twice in the last year. I don't know how I've managed to pull that off but when the bolt is real hard to calm over, it's because the powder is between the bolt face and the case lol

 

[JustBC]

You wouldn't be the first one to do that, nor will you be the last. A few months back, we were practicing at the 1000 tower and one of the guys showed me a round that had a nice FP strike in the primer, but it did not fire. I shook the round and heard no powder movement. I asked him if he loaded compressed loads, to which he answered that he did not. Standard H4350 load using Hornady amax/eldms. But he was mostly sure that he couldn't have forgotten to powder it. Sure enough, later that day when he got home and pulled the bullet, he texted me and asked me how I knew. I told him that I didn't for sure, but the round felt a bit light and there was discernible powder movement when shaken.

I suggested that he adopt something that I have been doing for a long time. Since he's not using a progressive press, he loads in lots of 50/100 in loading blocks like many of us. When powdering, before I remove a full loading block of powdered cases, I shine a flashlight in each and every case to make sure that there is indeed powder in each one. This takes seconds to do and is a quick way to make sure you don't have that dud while on the firing line.

This^^^^^^
Many of us have been reloading for years. Even so, one tiny distraction and it is easy to miss one case. I did the same thing ONCE. Ever since then I either visually inspect each case before I seat a bullet OR weigh the cartridge at the end of the process. A dud at the range is annoying. A squib load that lodges a bullet in the barrel is downright dangerous.

 

[gunsnjeeps]

I did it once with 5.56 and 77 grain SMKs for a match. I got lucky and "fired" it during slow prone.

 

[gunsnjeeps]

PS: Same result, dirty boat tail and didn't move.

 

[lash]

The point of this thread was to say that in 10 years, I’ve never loaded a dud and not caught it immediately. I do check and I am not loading precision rifle on a Dillon. I was marveling at the statistical probability of not only loading an uncharged round, but chambering that round first shot.

Somehow, I missed this post. The neat thing about statistical probability is that when things are done in quantities of thousands over time, and given the potential variables involved with a person and hand loading, chances are that this will occur in a shooters lifetime. Take a look sometime at the allowable defect rate in even some of the higher end industries and realize that even highly controlled and automated industries measure defects in ppm (parts per million).

"But wait", you say, "I haven't shot a million times." And that's true, too. But neither do you have automated processes, process controls and poke yoke in place to mitigate the chances of a defect reaching the end user.

It would not surprise me too much if I someday have this same issue. I'd like to think I have this under control and that it will never happen to me, but statistically speaking, life's a bitch.

 

[RyanM]

I did this exact same thing at a match this weekend. Bullet didn't even move at all. I feel pretty dumb but this is what you get when rushing.