A good friend has taken up trap shooting and found a team mate who reloads. Last weekend, they cranked out 400 rounds of 12 gauge ammo on a progressive press and then went to the trap range. Round after round failed to go off properly. Shot and wads trickled out of their gun barrels. I was roused from a nap by a cell phone call to listen to their tale of woe. They were using Red Dot powder, good wads, new primers, once-fired AA cases and everything about the press looked just fine. I told them the problem had to be in the powder drop tube or powder bushing. I was wrong. The problem was in the powder container. Seems the reloader (who is a physician no less) had last reloaded on his press five years ago. The powder had been left in the powder bottle since then and clumped up. The press was dropping only a few or no grains of powder. Why do people do that? They had to tear apart several hundred rounds because all were suspect. All the best...
Gil

Spend enough time at the trap and skeet fields and it will surprise you how many times somthing like this happens !!!

Thanks for the story !!

Just happened to me a few months ago on my Whisper

Never happened to me....I'm too careful.

I just leave my bolts at home when I go hunting.

Seriously though...I never leave powder in my powder hopper. I found out the hard way that the powder will soften and eat into some plastics...like the stuff that Redding use on their Powder Throw.

Cheers, Vince

Vince wrote:

[size=34]I just leave my bolts at home when I go hunting.[/size]

Psss Vince quite reminding us I think most of us forgot already!

Big thing is you learned from it and did not do it again.

Dimitri

Yeah...I think you are right mate, although while everyone is laughin' at me, they are leaving everyone else alone.

Cheers, Vince

Pssst...Dimitri...I haven't forgotten...

The first question I'd have after all the obvious ones were asked.
Did your friend there notice that after 400 rds. he has used such little amounts of powder ?
If he actually left powder in the hopper long enough to clump it is obvious he had no idea what powder it was.
Not to mention how much should have been dispensed.
Some people are better off just buying ammo at Walmart whilst making sure the rest of us are much safer in the process.
This is DA on so many different levels I can't even wrap my mind around it.

skb2706 wrote:

The first question I'd have after all the obvious ones were asked. Did your friend there notice that after 400 rds. he has used such little amounts of powder ? If he actually left powder in the hopper long enough to clump it is obvious he had no idea what powder it was. Not to mention how much should have been dispensed. Some people are better off just buying ammo at Walmart whilst making sure the rest of us are much safer in the process. This is DA on so many different levels I can't even wrap my mind around it.

I gotta agree. How did he know what powder was in the hopper after all that time. He's damn stupid and bordering on a moron if you ask me and should not be reloading at all!!!!!!!!! Sorry but I tell it like it is..............

Failure to follow the basic rules of reloading, in that there was no checking done throughout.
They were lucky the error was a low charge, rather than a high one & that it was shotgun rather than rifle or pistol..

skb2706 wrote:

The first question I'd have after all the obvious ones were asked. Did your friend there notice that after 400 rds. he has used such little amounts of powder ? If he actually left powder in the hopper long enough to clump it is obvious he had no idea what powder it was. Not to mention how much should have been dispensed. Some people are better off just buying ammo at Walmart whilst making sure the rest of us are much safer in the process. This is DA on so many different levels I can't even wrap my mind around it.

Great post - loved the common sense and the syntax:
1. A superb use of "whilst" - that old word is a real gem.
2. DA - a contemporary moniker particular to hunting forums.

In DAs defence, it is possible that our friend only has one shotshell powder in his loading supplies.

However, being a DA, he did not realize the pow would deteriorate if left in the hopper, nor did he notice that anything was remiss when the powder level did not drop as he charged 400 cases.

You folks make a lot of great points. That is exactly why I am very selective who's reloads I use. I generally will not use reloads unless I reloaded them. All the best...
Gil

Earlier this pm there was a post - gone now & made by a gentleman whose handle I do not remember - that challenged my assertion that great handloads do not turn a hunting rifle into a benchrest rifle.

This gentleman also implied that the above assertion, based upon information read from reputable sources (rather than my first-hand experience), is in error.

It was further implied that this man's experience was otherwise.

Perhaps the gentleman will return and tutor us on how to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

NOT GUILTY Yer 'Onour

Cheers, Vince

LOL.

I made an error by posting here what should have been posted over here, in the weighing .243 cases thread:
www.huntingnut.com/ind...pic&t=5259

My bad, this thread has to do with shotgun loads.