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Powder measure "mistake"


Alamstutz

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I had an interesting "accident" yesterday while loading some 9mm cartridges. I was using a new powder for the first time so I wasn't sure how much volume the desired load would take in the case. I set the powder measure to 5.4 grains and loaded about 30 cartridges. Then I accidentally discovered that my powder measure had been bumped or jarred and the poise moved from 5 grains to 6 grains!  I unseated the bullets and re-measured the powder. BUT, it would have been so simple to grab a bunch and test fire them to check the load. I suspect, if I had not noticed the poise being moved I may very well have had a serious accident. I have been wondering if anyone has ever experienced this type of mistake. In ten years of handloading approximately 20,000 cartridges this is a new and scary experience. 

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I use a Chargemaster for rifle so it would be hard to have a mistake like this occur but that being said I still reweigh every tenth charge just to be sure.  For pistol I use a Lee Auto-Drum where a mistake like this would be more common and I weigh every fifth charge.

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I sat down one day and loaded up 350 rounds of .357 SIG for my M&P FS.  A couple days later I was setting up to do some more reloading.  It was s different time of the day and the lighting was different and I saw that I'd set the scale up at 5 more grains that it should have been.  I'd zeroed the scale, set it, then adjusted the powder measure to get the right amount of powder.

I had to figure out why I'd set the scale up wrong (and of course I wondered it I'd done it wrong before and just not caught it).

It was a lighting issue.  At a certain time of the day, the sun came through the window and the shadow it threw on the bar on the scale made it look like the weight was set in the right place when it was over one notch.

I did two things.  I got out the bullet puller and worked through those loads a box or two each day till I got all the bullets out and the AA#5 powder back in the can and I bought a 2 ft. long double row LED light to hand about 2 ft. over the press, scale and powder measure so there were no more shadows.

I normally don't go any where near max loads but 5 more grains of AA#5 was 2 or 3 grains over max.

It's a learning experience sometimes, and good to pass on to others as sometimes its the simple things that go wrong.

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I have a RCBS balance.  I was loading a new batch of bullets.  Luckily, the same weight as the last.  Poured the powder and  the balance said I was light, added a little more powder and I was still light and the third time too.  No way I thought.  I checked the balance and it looked good, so I looked again.  Sure enough the 0.1 poise was not sitting in the grove. It was hard to see, but there it was.  Maybe 0.1 grains is not much, but it is an error.  If I had been loading a new charge it could have been missed.  One mishap in 20,000 rounds, that you caught, shows you are doing a good job.

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  • 2 months later...

I had my lock n load powder measure get stuck in the middle. I noticed it on the powder cop and if it got by there I'm sure I would have noticed seating the round, but it still startled me a little since I've never had an issue

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1 hour ago, taymag said:

I had my lock n load powder measure get stuck in the middle. I noticed it on the powder cop and if it got by there I'm sure I would have noticed seating the round, but it still startled me a little since I've never had an issue

When mine would get dirty, 10-20k rounds, it would stick up, after i cleaned it the problem went away

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