Reloading demons

[xerts1911]

:shock: Ever have one of those days when reloading and everything you touch turns to sh!t. Electronic scale was totally possessed :evil: today, overcharge after overcharge, reset speed, reset trickle speed, reset the reset of the reset of the other reset, finally after an hour threw the phukn thing in the box. Went to the old standby battery operated scale, 20 rounds in to it the batteries die, threw that in the phukn box, went to the old beam scale with the old powder scoop and hand trickeler, took for ever so I called it quits at 50rnds. Glad I have enough on hand for the upcoming commie invasion

 

[Suck My Glock]

Well, it could be worse. I've been present when one of those Dillon 650s decide to detonate the primer magazine tube at a buddy's place. That's an attention-getter.

 

[Suck My Glock]

Well, it could be worse. I've been present when one of those Dillon 650s decide to detonate the primer magazine tube at a buddy's place. That's an attention-getter.

KABOOM.jpg

Dillon?

Yes. Not this particular picture, though, which I chose merely for power of the demonstration. I believe this one was from a Hornady progressive. We didn't take any pictures. We were too busy cleaning our underwear.

 

[Suck My Glock]

Glad that you're both okay. Did Dillon make it right for your friend?

Absolutely they did. Dillon has been aware of their mistake with that priming system for years and its why they eventually abandoned it and redesigned the 650 as the 750, which is really nothing more than the 650 with the safe and proven priming system of the 550. But that system is going to be a legacy headache for them as long as the company survives.

 

[xerts1911]

Well, it could be worse. I've been present when one of those Dillon 650s decide to detonate the primer magazine tube at a buddy's place. That's an attention-getter.

KABOOM.jpg

Holy Sh!t!

 

[Bigfoot]

There's a lot of "WOW" in this post. LOL

 

[knockonit]

anyone who has reloaded for any length of time has had those days where one should have gone and had a beer and a burger and forgotten about the ugliness, i for one have not had catastrophic failures other than failing to check some aol,s, which mean i had to relegate almost 1k to a different shooter that would accept my over site. but have heard my share of horror blow ups, by close friends who have had "those " moments, and knock on wood, heres hoping my experience is not enhanced by a future ''horror'
Rj

 

[Flash]

The problem with the Dillon and some other progressive presses is that if one primer goes, they all go since they're stacked vertically in the tubes.

 

[DuneShoot]

I had a RCBS primer tube that was getting hung up. In my wisdom and frustration I decided to smack the handle inward. Whole tube of primers went off. Still have black marks of pride on the ceiling. RCBS replaced it but I bought a hand primer for the caliber I use this press with.

 

[delta6]

The problem with the Dillon and some other progressive presses is that if one primer goes, they all go since they're stacked vertically in the tubes.

Isn't that most of them, even single stage presses?

 

[Hammer 35]

The first hundred rounds I ran off my Hornady Progressive I wasn't 100% sure I didn't double charge a round of 38 since I had to keep going back and forth to get everything set right so I ended up scraping the entire run after I had sat and reflected on my work.

Better safe than sorry, it'd only take one to have slipped through.

 

[Flash]

The problem with the Dillon and some other progressive presses is that if one primer goes, they all go since they're stacked vertically in the tubes.

Isn't that most of them, even single stage presses?

I've seen single stage presses with a vertical primer tube, but only once or twice in a lifetime of reloading. IIRC, those were RCBS. Other than that, never saw one.

On progressives, I know Dillon and Hornady use vertical, Lee doesn't and there's some other one that I forget that doesn't.

 

[Old Jeff H]

As soon as I got my LnL set up, first thing I did was disable the priming system. I hand prime only. No kabooms ever happened (knocks on wood, lol).

I eventually went to 100% hand priming too. Not necessarily because of problems with the LNL itself, but I found that I just prefer the feel and confidence of hand priming. It might be a little bit of extra work, but when all you're doing is dropping powder and seating bullets the rounds really start flying outa there.

Oh and mishaps... I've only had one "serious" one. Decided to force a primer into a pocket that wasn't quite swaged enough. It's REALLY loud when they go off just a couple of feet from your ears. Luckily it was pointed away from my stupid face.

 

[knockonit]

lol, the accidents or ''events'' are mostly relevant pending your amount of reloading, a lot of our ilk, tend to get complacent with their equipment, assuming they are the "'guru'' of reloading and mistakes don't happen, thats when uncle murphy or the "demon'' arrives, out of negligence on the part of reloader, now this is just my opinion, but can say from my own personal experience, mistakes i've made (knock on wood no kabooms) have been due to ego assuming i'm a guru, but eventually i'm put in my place and revert back to the deligent individual i can be when humbled, or one loads a hundy of of the wrong shiat and has to tear down, argh i hate that.
best of luck with the pull of the handle and may your reload fire off
Rj living that dream of dreams

 

[Intel6]

Got my Dillon 650 in 1995 and cant imagine the number of rounds I have loaded on it since then and I have never even set off a primer or detonated the primer magazine. The problem is there are some people who should not be reloading and don't have the mindset for it. If a machine is treated correctly it will function correctly, if it isn't, it will malfunction. There is nothing inherently wrong with the priming system on the 650, it is just too refined for some people. If there was something wrong with it then everyone would have had issues with it. Dillon going backwards and putting the 550 priming system on the 650 is just them dumbing back down the press to keep people who shouldn't be reloading from hurting themselves.

 

[Flash]

And I agree hand priming makes the progressive so much easier & fun to use so long as nothing is rushed and not being complacent.

I'll disagree with it being easier or more fun and will say that it slows things down considerably, an important consideration if you are reloading for 2 or more people and you shoot at least 2 times a week, sometimes 3.

Having said that, I do prime off press with .223/5.56 for the simple reason that you have to trim after resizing with bottleneck cases so I set the turret in my progressive so the sizer die is in the #4 slot and just feed the cases in to resize. I do the whole batch, then trim, prime off the press and then return the turret to where the sizer is in the #1 position, put cases in at station #3 which then charges in 3, seats the bullet in #4 and crimps in #5.

 

[Delfuego]

Electronic scale was totally possessed

Couple things to try.
Ferrite choke or line conditioner
Antistatic spray & dryersheets
Different AC outlets

Your scale could be dying or could have hardware or electrical issues. I would clean it out really good (brush+compressed air). Re-level it in a different location. De-static it. Add a ferite choke or line conditioner keep away from fluorescent lighting. Also make sure this is not happening when your AC/Heater is coming on. Air from AC/Heater can make them wander. The draw from AC/Heater can do the same. All this fails, take it to the desert with your 12ga and finish the job...

 

[xerts1911]

Thanks Del

 

[Pscipio03]

This is why I scratch my head when people buy the extended 200 primer tubes. If your tube is even half full, 50 primers popping off will make you a believer in God. Could not imagine what 150 would do.
I've been lucky in that none of my primer detonations have set off the tube. Just made me stop for a bit, strip down the machine and clean it off.
With SP 45ACP becoming so prevalent, though, I'm bound for at least one or three more mistakes before all is done.

 

[YNOTAZ]

I’ve been very lucky. When my reloading demon showed up he just failed to tighten the screw holding the cover on a Dillon brass polisher. I use a Christmas light timer to time cleaning, so when I shut the door on my reloading room, the light goes off, the timer kicks in, and the polisher runs for 6 hours or however I have it set. At the end of the day, I loaded the polisher with walnut shell media and 5.56 brass, shut the door and left it to do its job.

The next day when I opened the door the timer had shut off, the polisher was done, but the entire room and everything in it was covered in brown dust. I posted pictures which were lost with the old site several years ago, but until today, when I dig something out from the hidden recesses of the back of a shelf, there is still walnut dust.