one lucky idiot, need to undo about 500 rounds..

[bzt]

I made a post earlier in the week about magazine bottoms breaking. People said it was due to me double charging them.. I said no way. I measure carefully and I have never had a round not fire.

Well, My scale rusted so I called brian enos and they sent me a new one almost overnight. ( Great service from BrianEnos.com!)

I got the new scale, and I am playing around with it. It is the same one, but I am making sure its calibrated, etc. I notice it is set on GRAMS by default. I think back about my origanil scale. I cant remember if I have ever changed that. I go look and nope.... It is set on GRAMS and not GRAINS.

I pulled some rounds.. Sure enough. I have 3.9 GRAMS of tightgroup in a 9mm 124 grain bullet. That is over 6 grains. Lyman book says 4.2 is max load. I am amazed I didnt blow up my pistol and my hand. I have shot over 400 rounds of this. And this is after backing down from 4.1 GRAMS.

I was sooo careful. Measuring every 10th round or so. I even got the Uniqetek powder bar thingy for the dillon powder bar.

So, ya..Iam one lucky idiot.

Now I just need to find that post on undoing mass amounts of ammo. I have about 500 rounds made up

Edited July 10, 2010 by bzt

[Pro2AInPA]

WOW. What gun did you shoot those through that didn't kaboom?

[bzt]

WOW. What gun did you shoot those through that didn't kaboom?

Beretta 92 Elite II.

I would have been heart broken if that had blown up..

[wsimpso1]

Actually, one gram is lot bigger than a grain.

7000 troy grains is one pound, one kilogram is about 2.2 pounds, about 15,400 grains, so one gram is about 15.4 grains. 3.9 Grams is about 60 grains, which is above 30-06 zone for charge weights.

So, if this was indeed the source of your problem, you would have been getting a clue from your scale - the decimal point would have been one place to the left. It would have been reading 0.39 grams to give you a 6 grain charge.

Billski

[bzt]

Actually, one gram is lot bigger than a grain.

So, if this was indeed the source of your problem, you would have been getting a clue from your scale - the decimal point would have been one place to the left. It would have been reading 0.39 grams to give you a 6 grain charge.

Billski

Made a mistake. On new scal it reads .39 grams.

[Field]

yeah its good to have your intel before you put in lots of time/effort and money into stuff. it just reminds us of how your life can go however you want it. it can be a good life where you accomplish alot of things and have a good LIFE/FACTOR ((success,experience,enjoyment) divided by (time)or... it can be something else

[DyNo!]

WOW. What gun did you shoot those through that didn't kaboom?

Beretta 92 Elite II.

I would have been heart broken if that had blown up..

You'd break my heart too!

I don't know why Beretta stopped making those.

Once it goes, it's gone. You'd better get two.

Glad to hear that you and your gun are OK.

[GrumpyOne]

Get a kinetic puller and an old oak stump, that's one way to pull them. Someone once said, what doesn't kill us, makes us stronger....You'll be a stronger reloader now, more diligent in your practices. But, I would still be wary of your gun. With those charges you ran through it, I would be amazed if the slide or barrel wasn't cracked. I would take it in to have it looked at, with a magnifying glass. At the very least, change your recoil spring....I'm sure it and the slide have taken quite a battering under those loads.

[edison]

What's your power factor at 6gr.? very curious.

- for pulling, i like a vinyl tile over concrete.

Edited July 10, 2010 by edison

[bzt]

What's your power factor at 6gr.? very curious.

- for pulling, i like a vinyl tile over concrete.

Well, Sadly I was going in a few days to chrono them.. but I dont think I will now.

I actually just ordered Hordandy Collet puller. And a CED Chrono. If I had chronoed them I would have known long ago.

[GrumpyOne]

What's your power factor at 6gr.? very curious.

- for pulling, i like a vinyl tile over concrete.

Well, Sadly I was going in a few days to chrono them.. but I dont think I will now.

I actually just ordered Hordandy Collet puller. And a CED Chrono. If I had chronoed them I would have known long ago.

The primers should have been a MAJOR indication. Look at some of your fired brass, I bet they are flat or even protruding a bit.

Edited July 10, 2010 by GrumpyOne

[bzt]

What's your power factor at 6gr.? very curious.

- for pulling, i like a vinyl tile over concrete.

Well, Sadly I was going in a few days to chrono them.. but I dont think I will now.

I actually just ordered Hordandy Collet puller. And a CED Chrono. If I had chronoed them I would have known long ago.

The primers should have been a MAJOR indication. Look at some of your fired brass, I bet they are flat or even protruding a bit.

Beleive it or not. Today was the first day I picked up brass. Today was also the first day I marked MY brass. All the primers are kinda pushed out. The cases look just fine though.

[G-ManBart]

I'd suggest getting someone who really knows Berettas to take a look at the barrel and locking block, just in case.

I bought a Hornady Cam-Lock bullet puller and haven't used it yet, but it seems like a much easier way to pull large numbers of bullets. R,

[CZinSC]

Same EXACT thing happened to me when I first got my 550 and the Enos scale a few weeks ago. While setting it up, I dialed in the powder to drop 4.0 grains. Measure on the scale, sure enough 4.0. However, I noticed that the case ( 9mm ) was quite full. My analytical brain thought "Hmm, that's weird, the guys on the forum said it was possible to double load a 9mm, that a double charge would fit in the case". When I looked at how full it was, about 3/4, i thought, no way you can double charge it. If you did it would spill out. So I kept dropping charges, and weighing. After about the 5th or 6th one, the lightbuld finally went on over my head and I thought "doesn't this scale also measure in Grams??" sure enough I looked at the "units" button and cycled through from Grams (g) to grains (gr). Luckily I found out my mistake before I blew up my hand or the gun, or both.

Glad to hear no harm came to you. Also very glad there is a place like brianenos.com to come and read what everyone else has to say, otherwise I might have followed through on my mistake.

Thanks everyone!

[Miranda]

I am glad you noticed the mis-read.

I know how I tend to do things.

So, once I quit trying to delude myself...

I knew what I was going to use at the start.

I almost got an electronic scale.

I was thinking I want cheaper

so I looked at the pain in the backside balance type.

and then back at the electronic one I liked.

while reading the features I noticed it said

reads grams or grains at the push of a button.....

uh oh.

ok... will I notice the scale the scale is in?

gulp.... maybe?.... maybe is a little scarey...

I went with the balance and got familar with how reloading powder looked.

that balance is still a pain to use....

I have to explain that I have a digital dial caliper

mm and inch at the push of a button.

I mis-read it a lot and made cuts into turnings based on the wrong scale....

the sad part is that I did it a lot....

it is now to the point that I measure three times and then cut.

miranda

[bzt]

Ok.

So now I have 700 ammos that I need to undo. I have no ammo now that I can use. So..I got the new scale and went to my Dillon 550. As I weighed my powder, a wierd thing happened.

I zero the scale with the little bucket that BrianEnos.com sent with the scale. I emtpy the powder and it reads 4.2..I wait a bit. it reads 4.1 then after more time 4.0..3.9...3.8..after about 5 mins it was down to 2.5. I tested this out 5 times. It did the same thing every time. Is this normal?

This scale is the one Brian Enos sales on his website. I took my other one (same scale, this one was the replacement from Brian Enos) and it did the same thing. I am not very happy with this 'feature'. I dont know if that is correct weight or not.

Thanks for the replies folks. I posted this in the hopes that other newbs at reloading could learn from my massive idiotic boneheaded blunder.

[Bob DuBois]

Might pick up a beam scale as a back up check, if in doubt I'll go back to it on a new set up.

[Hi-Power Jack]

I zero the scale with the little bucket that BrianEnos.com sent with the scale. I emtpy the powder and it reads 4.2..I wait a bit. it reads 4.1 then after more time 4.0..3.9...3.8..after about 5 mins it was down to 2.5. I tested this out 5 times. It did the same thing every time. Is this normal?

As one bonehead to another, I'm glad I stayed with my beam and balance

scale, and just look at the fill in the cartridge case before I start

loading - and then chrono about ten - twenty rounds before I load 100.

Then, I test the 100 for chrono and accuracy - THEN, if I like it, I

load 500.

Kept me out of that one particular problem, anyway - but not other problems

unfortunately:((

Jack

[Field]

I bought a Hornady Cam-Lock bullet puller and haven't used it yet, but it seems like a much easier way to pull large numbers of bullets. R,

yeah it is

[Tom S.]

The way to avoid this and other problems with any scale is to buy or make a weight to check it's calibration before each use, and occasionally during use. There's no need to ask me how I found this out.

[bzt]

The scale calibrates just fine. The problem is it basically counts down. Do all digital scales do this?

also, I would have loved to make 10 and chrono them.. except I didnt have a chrono. But I did order one last night.

I am thinking about getting a different scale. Has anyone else had this issue with the digital scale they use?

[GrumpyOne]

I use an RCBS scale, and it does have grams and grains, but it does not count down. You can leave a charge in it overnight and the next morning, it reads what it did the night before. I would suggest sending Brian a PM and see what he says about it.

Ps. I don't think I would like that scale either....

Edited July 10, 2010 by GrumpyOne

[MARKAVELI]

@ bzt, WOW! Glad to know you and your pistol are okay! You said you got ta dillon scale? Well if this helps I use a Cabela's model xt1500 for about 90 bucks after tax's, it so far works well, very sensitive can't have a fan blowing on it or it will fluctuate the measurement.. WOW!! I'm still shocked to read that you double loaded and your still able to come up with this topic! Gad your okay would have sukd to blow up your gun! I second that taking it to a gun smith and get your weapon checked out! Thanks for your post cause I am a newbee too....

@ you pro's, was mentioned that your primers show signs does any one have any picture's of your primers showing signs of high pressure and or double loads? Also would the crimp add or make this pressure?

[GrumpyOne]

@ bzt, WOW! Glad to know you and your pistol are okay! You said you got ta dillon scale? Well if this helps I use a Cabela's model xt1500 for about 90 bucks after tax's, it so far works well, very sensitive can't have a fan blowing on it or it will fluctuate the measurement.. WOW!! I'm still shocked to read that you double loaded and your still able to come up with this topic! Gad your okay would have sukd to blow up your gun! I second that taking it to a gun smith and get your weapon checked out! Thanks for your post cause I am a newbee too....

@ you pro's, was mentioned that your primers show signs does any one have any picture's of your primers showing signs of high pressure and or double loads? Also would the crimp add or make this pressure?

Marki, there are lots of pics of over pressure primers on the forum, the search function is your friend....

Here is one.... http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42786&hl=overpressure&st=25

http://www.reloadbench.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/001475.html

Edited July 11, 2010 by GrumpyOne

[XD Niner]

Man, you should go to Vegas with that kind of luck! I'm glad you and your pistol are okay. A lesson learned for all of us.