Never Shoot Someone Else's Handloads

[Russ-T]

I bought some brass from an ODT member last week and he threw in a bunch of handloads with the deal. 6.5 CM and gave me his recipe.

Instead of pulling the bullets and dumping the powder, I decided to go ahead and shoot them to fireform to my rifle and save a step.
On the 5th shot the cartridge was so far overpreassure that it jammed the cartridge and bolt in the rifle.
I now need a new bolt, extractor and a bit of gunsmith work done to hopefully get the rifle back in working order.

Fortunately, no one was hurt and the rifle should be able to be repaired.

I then pulled all of the bullets to find out what was going on with these handloads.
The recipe I was first told was 41 gr of H4350 and with the 143ELDX bullet.

These are the charges I measured from the cases:

Low charge was 35.9
High charge was 41.7

After I told the User he went back to look at his recipe and changed it to: 42gr of H4350 w/ COAL-2.73

I did a quick water capacity measurement of the brass and work up in GRT: shown below*

This recipe would give about 68K pressure.

I can't imagine how someone could have a powder charge weight variable by almost SIX GRAINS

This guy seemed like a nice guy, was apologetic and offered to contribute to the repairs.

In any case, I will never shoot another handload from someone else.

Good Luck and Stay Safe

Russ

 

[Asbestos]

Sounds like you both handled it like gentlemen. Sorry it happened but good on both of you.

And he should stop reloading.

 

[rtross]

Unfortunate situation handled thoughtfully in a responsible, mature manner by both parties. We can all learn from your example. 😊

 

[N.Ga.Trader]

Was he using a scale or Lee dippers?

 

[41mag]

If his loads varied that much, he needs to either stop loading or take a serious look at his process for charging/throwing powder !!
That much variation is dangerous. I could not trust his loads after all that .

 

[lostchild]

If his loads varied that much, he needs to either stop loading or take a serious look at his process for charging/throwing powder !!
That much variation is dangerous. I could not trust his loads after all that .

I no longer trust ANYONE'S reloads, even from big manufacturers.
Too many problems.... split cases, dead primers, smoke like you're shooting black powder...
YMMV

 

[cskiles]

I bought some brass from an ODT member last week and he threw in a bunch of handloads with the deal. 6.5 CM and gave me his recipe.

Instead of pulling the bullets and dumping the powder, I decided to go ahead and shoot them to fireform to my rifle and save a step.
On the 5th shot the cartridge was so far overpreassure that it jammed the cartridge and bolt in the rifle.
I now need a new bolt, extractor and a bit of gunsmith work done to hopefully get the rifle back in working order.

Fortunately, no one was hurt and the rifle should be able to be repaired.

I then pulled all of the bullets to find out what was going on with these handloads.
The recipe I was first told was 41 gr of H4350 and with the 143ELDX bullet.

These are the charges I measured from the cases:View attachment 9753671

Low charge was 35.9
High charge was 41.7

After I told the User he went back to look at his recipe and changed it to: 42gr of H4350 w/ COAL-2.73

I did a quick water capacity measurement of the brass and work up in GRT: shown below*

This recipe would give about 68K pressure.

I can't imagine how someone could have a powder charge weight variable by almost SIX GRAINS

This guy seemed like a nice guy, was apologetic and offered to contribute to the repairs.

In any case, I will never shoot another handload from someone else.

Good Luck and Stay Safe

Russ

I have an uncle that reloads, he is getting up in years (78-79 yrs old) and has always been overly anal about his reloads. I visited him last year and he gave me about 150 rounds of .45 and 150 rounds of 9mm. As I was walking out the door he said "By the way, you should use those for target practice, I realized after I spent the day reloading rounds that I forgot to put powder in some of them!" LOL. Needless to say, the rounds he gave me are in pristine unfired condition!

 

[41mag]

I no longer trust ANYONE'S reloads, even from big manufacturers.
Too many problems.... split cases, dead primers, smoke like you're shooting black powder...
YMMV

I can’t blame you. I have been hand-loading for as long as I can remember. My father taught me when I was real young. We constantly loaded, when we weren’t shooting, we were loading in order to be able to shoot ! lol.
He taught me to cast also. He left me a good deal of equipment when he died. I already had a fair amount also so we now have a good bit and I only buy ammo I can’t load for. As in .22lr , 12gauge shotgun shells….stuff like that.
As much as ammo cost, it is the only way I can afford to shoot. It gives me a good hobby also. I enjoy it .
I constantly have folks asking me to sell them loads, or load up certain rounds for them…I always turn them down. I load for me, not other folks. I will give my daughter loads when she wants them but that is about it.

 

[wildbill1973z28]

I bought some brass from an ODT member last week and he threw in a bunch of handloads with the deal. 6.5 CM and gave me his recipe.

Instead of pulling the bullets and dumping the powder, I decided to go ahead and shoot them to fireform to my rifle and save a step.
On the 5th shot the cartridge was so far overpreassure that it jammed the cartridge and bolt in the rifle.
I now need a new bolt, extractor and a bit of gunsmith work done to hopefully get the rifle back in working order.

Fortunately, no one was hurt and the rifle should be able to be repaired.

I then pulled all of the bullets to find out what was going on with these handloads.
The recipe I was first told was 41 gr of H4350 and with the 143ELDX bullet.

These are the charges I measured from the cases:View attachment 9753671

Low charge was 35.9
High charge was 41.7

After I told the User he went back to look at his recipe and changed it to: 42gr of H4350 w/ COAL-2.73

I did a quick water capacity measurement of the brass and work up in GRT: shown below*

This recipe would give about 68K pressure.

I can't imagine how someone could have a powder charge weight variable by almost SIX GRAINS

This guy seemed like a nice guy, was apologetic and offered to contribute to the repairs.

In any case, I will never shoot another handload from someone else.

Good Luck and Stay Safe

Russ

Just glad you are ok sir!
Is the loader on the TRADER?
And when you take a picture and you have your shoes in the picture it’s a must that you take your shoes and socks off and only have pictures of feet!

 

[alexs2006]

Was he using a scale or Lee dippers?

I've never seen a scale that inaccurate!