Reloaded Ammo Fiasco

[I luv herfrds]

My son is ticked off big time and I do not blame him.

For some stupid reason I have yet to understand my husband asked this guy we know to reload his ammo and our son's .243 ammo.
I had used some of this guys reloads before and I could see the slug as it left the end of my barrel, I'm not kidding. The drop on it was terrible.
Told my son use it for practice don't use it in the field. You all know how that is, Mom knows nothing.

Well tonight son missed getting a really nice buck. Had the cross hairs right on him and the round hit to the right of him. (Son had sighted in his rifle before the season.)
re sighted to try to get the buck and it hit to the left in front of the buck. We could hear the bullet whistling.

Told him to put that stuff to the side and I am going to go in and buy him a box of ammo.
Called a good friend I trust really well who re-loads and asked him to take a look at this other stuff. Waiting to hear back from him.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Reloading is science and not to be taken lightly a squib can kill you just like an overcharge.

 

[3waycross]

My son is ticked off big time and I do not blame him.

For some stupid reason I have yet to understand my husband asked this guy we know to reload his ammo and our son's .243 ammo.
I had used some of this guys reloads before and I could see the slug as it left the end of my barrel, I'm not kidding. The drop on it was terrible.
Told my son use it for practice don't use it in the field. You all know how that is, Mom knows nothing.

Well tonight son missed getting a really nice buck. Had the cross hairs right on him and the round hit to the right of him. (Son had sighted in his rifle before the season.)
re sighted to try to get the buck and it hit to the left in front of the buck. We could hear the bullet whistling.

Told him to put that stuff to the side and I am going to go in and buy him a box of ammo.
Called a good friend I trust really well who re-loads and asked him to take a look at this other stuff. Waiting to hear back from him.

Custice is correct it's a science and a huge responsibility. I handload for myself my kids and a few very close friends and the pressure to be perfect is pretty strong. I usually won't do it unless I can get the rifle in my posession for at least a week to do measurements for seating depth and to chronograph the loads in order to monitor the pressures.
My advice would be to find someone else who is really good at it and have him teach your husband and son how to handload for themselves.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Talked to our other friend who does reloading and he is coming out this weekend and bringing his tools with him. Going to see if he can figure out what is wrong.
He asked me to check son's scope again. I did and it is tight. Nothing moved. Yes I tried to tighten the screws and I couldn't move them at all.

 

[HOSS]

I agree with 3way and Caustic on this. I roll my own and I am VERY carefull about taking every precaution which includes measurements on each rifle chamber, seating depth, head spacing etc. I keep detailed records in my reloading record book. I rarely exceed the max load in the manual and if I do it is no more than 1/2 grain. I would check the zero again on the rifle just to make sure as it is pretty hard to make a handload that inconsistant from a windage standpoint. That part sounds like something mechanical. If the factory stuff sprays around it will confirm a mechanical problem. Keep us posted. Now I am curious.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I am religous on my reloading recipe's. You can get some smokin loads, I won't give them away cause you never know the condition of the firearm someone will use them in. I reload a lot of pistol/rifle you can get the 44 Special to screaming, would scare me to death for someone to put that in an old Charter Bulldog.

 

[dun]

I have a very tight chamber in my old 308, factory stuff always way exceeds the expected velocity. I shot some of my standard reloads in a friend of mines 308 and they clocked around 400 fps slower then they do in mine. For my particular rifle they are borderline hot even though they are barely above the suggested starting loads in any of the manuals. That all said, there are too many idiots that reload that have no idea what they're doing but usually they load way too hot (if a little is good a lot must be better).

 

[3waycross]

I have a very tight chamber in my old 308, factory stuff always way exceeds the expected velocity. I shot some of my standard reloads in a friend of mines 308 and they clocked around 400 fps slower then they do in mine. For my particular rifle they are borderline hot even though they are barely above the suggested starting loads in any of the manuals. That all said, there are too many idiots that reload that have no idea what they're doing but usually they load way too hot (if a little is good a lot must be better).

Sounds like a rifle my friend bought that had been rebarreled by an amateur and the idiot didn't use a finish reamer to throat it. It was so short throated that everything came up too much pressure. They had to cut off a 1/2 in of the breech and rechamber it.(BTW it was a straight 1 in tube not a sporter barrel)

 

[dun]

I have a very tight chamber in my old 308, factory stuff always way exceeds the expected velocity. I shot some of my standard reloads in a friend of mines 308 and they clocked around 400 fps slower then they do in mine. For my particular rifle they are borderline hot even though they are barely above the suggested starting loads in any of the manuals. That all said, there are too many idiots that reload that have no idea what they're doing but usually they load way too hot (if a little is good a lot must be better).

Sounds like a rifle my friend bought that had been rebarreled by an amateur and the idiot didn't use a finish reamer to throat it. It was so short throated that everything came up too much pressure. They had to cut off a 1/2 in of the breech and rechamber it.(BTW it was a straight 1 in tube not a sporter barrel)

It's a factory Remington 700, from early on. I figured the chamber was cut with a worn out reamer and the the other guys was cut with a new reamer. I haven;t shot it in 20 years but it sure was an acurate devil.
On the subject of idiots and reloading, I had a cutomer that used reloading data for a 357 mag with 125 gr bullets in a 38 special with 158 gr SWC. He also used the data for Bullseeye instead of unique. He shot a couple and said they seemed really hot. I pulled on and checked it and told him he needed to pull the rest and reload them correctly. A week later he came in with his SP101 with the top strap and a chuylinder missing. I figured rugers were so strong he could get away with it, and he did for about 30 rounds. I shipped it back to ruger without the amplifying information and they replaced it with no questions asked.

 

[3waycross]

Worst mistake I see made is getting fast and slow powders mixed up. The fella who taught me always insisted on only one powder on the bench at a time.

I saw my buddy(who had a brain tumor at the time) mix up some powder that way and destroy a .223 WSSM. Did a little number on his hand and face also.

 

[dun]

Worst mistake I see made is getting fast and slow powders mixed up. The fella who taught me always insisted on only one powder on the bench at a time.

I saw my buddy(who had a brain tumor at the time) mix up some powder that way and destroy a .223 WSSM. Did a little number on his hand and face also.

That is still the second rule of reloading. The first is isolate yourself and don;t allow any interuptions.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Worst mistake I see made is getting fast and slow powders mixed up. The fella who taught me always insisted on only one powder on the bench at a time.

I saw my buddy(who had a brain tumor at the time) mix up some powder that way and destroy a .223 WSSM. Did a little number on his hand and face also.

That is still the second rule of reloading. The first is isolate yourself and don;t allow any interuptions.

I agree I have started over more than once for being interupted.
Sometimes I lock myself in the man cave so no one can.
When you are loading 44 mag's that are running 2400 fps out of a rifle there is no room for an O Shyt.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Well our friend came out. He pulled 4 random rounds and lined them up.
We could see that the bullets were not all even, but the casings were.
He wants to shoot some of these rounds, but will have to do it another day because the wind is howling like crazy.
After that he said the next step is pulling these rounds apart to get the weights on them to see if it matches what the guy wrote on the slip.

I'm not happy.

He also said if the bullet is seated wrong it will be off.

 

[3waycross]

I'd worry a whole lot more about the charge weights. The only way the seating depth hurts you is if the bullets are jammed into the lands causing pressure problems.

or if they won't fit into the magazine.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I'd worry a whole lot more about the charge weights. The only way the seating depth hurts you is if the bullets are jammed into the lands causing pressure problems.

or if they won't fit into the magazine.

I am with you, I would pull out the eraser(bullet puller) and be checking powder loads.

 

[dun]

I'd worry a whole lot more about the charge weights. The only way the seating depth hurts you is if the bullets are jammed into the lands causing pressure problems.

or if they won't fit into the magazine.

Too deep also causes interesting pressure problems.

 

[3waycross]

I'd worry a whole lot more about the charge weights. The only way the seating depth hurts you is if the bullets are jammed into the lands causing pressure problems.

or if they won't fit into the magazine.

Too deep also causes interesting pressure problems.

Depends on how much freebore that creates. If they have some room to roam then it's not that bad. If they are jammed that's another problem. I loaded some 300 win mag the other day and at SAMMI specs there was a butload of bullet shoved down into that case!

 

[dun]

I'd worry a whole lot more about the charge weights. The only way the seating depth hurts you is if the bullets are jammed into the lands causing pressure problems.

or if they won't fit into the magazine.

Too deep also causes interesting pressure problems.

Depends on how much freebore that creates. If they have some room to roam then it's not that bad. If they are jammed that's another problem. I loaded some 300 win mag the other day and at SAMMI specs there was a butload of bullet shoved down into that case!

Freebore doesn;t make as much difference as case space. Years ago I had an Oehler PBL and developed a loading data for a family of wildcats based on 30-30 brass. My concern was uniform velocitys AND pressures. With deep seated bullets the pressures where really eratic and everyonce in a while scarey. For consistency I found that 10-15 thousands off the lands was about the right amount of spacing for optimum velocity and pressure that provided acceptable accuracy. None of the barrels were free bored like weatherbys so that may throw a turd in the punchbowl.
I used a dozen powders for each caliber and bullet weight, 6mm/6mm Imp, 25/25Imp, 6.5mm/6.5mm Imp. Started as fun, ended up as a real painfull job, shooting for a couple of hours every day then reloading for 6-8 hours a day, took almost a year.

 

[3waycross]

Dun
That sounds like an an epic project. I used to shoot that much(several thousand rounds a year) but I kinda burned out and my shootin buddy moved away.
I would love to see that data some day. I am a huge fan of the Ackley cartridge. I currently own a 22-250imp, 25-05 imp, 280 imp and a 6mm-2in that has been improved to a 30 degree shoulder.
My gunsmith who is about 72 studied with Ackley in the beginning and I had an uncle who did a lot of stuff with him during his early days in Trinidad.

 

[Fly-guy]

My son is ticked off big time and I do not blame him.

For some stupid reason I have yet to understand my husband asked this guy we know to reload his ammo and our son's .243 ammo.
I had used some of this guys reloads before and I could see the slug as it left the end of my barrel, I'm not kidding. The drop on it was terrible.
Told my son use it for practice don't use it in the field. You all know how that is, Mom knows nothing.

Well tonight son missed getting a really nice buck. Had the cross hairs right on him and the round hit to the right of him. (Son had sighted in his rifle before the season.)
re sighted to try to get the buck and it hit to the left in front of the buck. We could hear the bullet whistling.

Told him to put that stuff to the side and I am going to go in and buy him a box of ammo.
Called a good friend I trust really well who re-loads and asked him to take a look at this other stuff. Waiting to hear back from him.

If the bullet was actually whistling, it sounds to me like the bullet might be too heavy for the twist which can cause the bullet to key hole. If the bullet is tumbling instead of flying straight, you could run an elephant through a hale of bullets and not even put a dent on him. JMO.

Oh yea, there are a lot of ideas and opinions out there!

f-g