I was a teen at the time. I'll call him ted, cause that was his name, and he's long gone.
anyway, ted was a reloader 1st class physically, not necessarily mentally. I was a time shortly after the korean war, 30.06 ammo was a dime a dozen (literally) but it was all corrosive stuff. Ted being a somewhat careful handloader, broke the ammo availabe apart and popped out the corrosive primers, replaced them with new ones and off he went. One day he was in to gopher shooters talking to old C.E. and mention that he had a gallon jar full of old primers sitting in his window at home. C.E. took a deep breath and described the explosion that could result from that gallon jar sitting in the window if the sun got to it hot enough. Well ted decided old CE was right and he should get rid of them. At the time there was an old gravel pit on the edge of town, that the city called a burning ground. People could take their underbrush etc,. there & it would be burned off. Now ted not really being totally at home with a full deck of cards, and thus unable to obtain a drivers license rode his bike with the jar of primers out to the burning grounds. On the edge there was an old tree about a foot or so in diameter. The current fire was not to far from the tree. Ted being of sound body and not really mind threw the gallon jar in the fire and rode off. He had gotten just about to the main road the there was a boom. A really big boom, followed by a sort of a mushroom cloud appearing in the blue sky. Wondering if that could have been his primers, he rode his bike back to the scene. The old tree was nothing but toothpicks and there was big hole in the ground where the jar had landed.
Now i told you this story to tell you another. Ted always traveled with this short barreled 44 in a shoulder holster. Johnny was his friend ( he didn't have many but more on johnny later) He rang the door bell one night. Johnny opened the door and out ran his daughters pet crat. Ted took one look and the crat and out popped the 44. Blam blam, right between his legs, Don't shoot john ny hollered, thats my daughters crat. Right, blam blam. Under the truck, blam blam, chit out of ammo. Time to go inside and shoot the bull awhile..
Now that you understand teds thought process, or lack thereof, you may understand this. One day ted got his hands on some powder. Unknow type, unknown anything, but this stuff was bright pink and square flakes. So ted loads about a thousand rounds up for his m1 carbine. Carbine ammo was harder to get ahold of than 06, and tus quite valuable. Ted, not having any knowledge of the type of powder, the origin, the burning rate or anything else, proceeded to load up the ammo. First time he took it out, the first shot blew the primer out. not to be detoured, he just cambered another round. Blam - he just blew up his favorite carbine. Well this is not something to be tolerated, so he loaded up his other carbine, and guess what? blam he blew up the second one. Well chit, now that he didn't have any more carbines, he had to do something with the ammo, Thus he gave the whole lot, absolutely free to johnny. Now free ammo is nothing to be sneezed at. Johnny promptly loaded up a clip, jammed it in his carbine, and blam, blew the chit of his his too. Being only slightly ,more intelligent than ted, he asked ted what the hell happened. Don't know ted replied, the same thing happened to me. Now for normal people this would have been enough, but johnny and ted reason that the fault was that of the carbines. Johnny had an old ruger blackhawk in 30 carbine, so they loaded that up. Blam, end of round 3, cylinder blew right out the side.
Now being fairly reasonable people, they now tried to give the ammo to anybody who would take it. But, the news had spread, and nobody would even listen to them about taking on this ammo. Ended up that they threw it in the lake, with a outpouring of tears of course . after all it was free ammo. The previous stories are true. Ted was actually a living being, and johnny is still alive, practicing with loads unheard of in another carbine.

You should write a book.....great story!

I thought it was going to end this way!

quote:

Ted was actually a living being, and johnny is still alive, practicing with loads unheard of in another carbine. posting here as Hot Core!

There's more than a few Ted and Johnnys out there. I know a couple or few of them myself. They can be entertaining , all right.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
You should write a book.....great story!

I thought it was going to end this way!

quote:

Ted was actually a living being, and johnny is still alive, practicing with loads unheard of in another carbine. posting here as Hot Core!

LMAO!!That is HUGE!!!

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog and agreed with by DMB:
...I thought it was going to end this way!

quote:

Ted was actually a living being, and johnny is still alive, practicing with loads unheard of in another carbine. posting here as Hot Core!

Hey Pilgrims, Is that SUPPOSED TO BE funny???
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Great story Butch. Lots of times the first story doesn't have a chance, but that will be hard to top.

Ya just got to have a little fun....... if ya can't stop the assholes in Washington from stealing your pockets, at least you can laugh a bit!

Hey Butch, I sure thought you would get more stories. Maybe this will get them going.

Anybody have any "snuck a 3 Mag shell into a buddys shotgun when he was not looking" stories? I have so many it is not fair.
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When I first started reloading, it was shotgun shells. The Elders would keep an eye on us youngsters and we would crank out copious amounts of 12ga shells. Always the same load, so no need to change anything. Everybody shot the same Load.

As we got older, the Elders traded us components for assembly labor. That worked well until they figured out how much we were shooting Starlings, Black Birds(Grackles, Crows, etc.) and clay pigeons.

Then we had to begin buying our own components. We controlled it by using a coffee can as our bank. We were loading a box of 12ga for just under $1 back then and we would put $1 in the can whenever we reached for a box of shells. That only got abused once and peer pressure on that guy prevented it from happening again.

Generally 4-5 of us were doing the loading and shooting. Two of the guys were brothers, Skip(my age) and Bill(a couple of years younger). Lots of fun times back then when you could go just about anywhere and you were welcome to shoot and hunt.

A good many of the Elders were Wildcatters, so we learned about them as we became interested in rifles. Good groups back then were 2x-3x what a good group is today. Everything about rifles and the components is so much better today that it just isn’t fair to make a comparison.
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Time passed and I was going to college. One of my part-time jobs was at a sporting goods store. One afternoon Bill showed up and wanted to buy a 16ga MEC 650, Bushings, Primers, Wads and Lead. He had decided to begin loading for his Father's Browning Sweet 16 and a Double Barrel 16ga they had.

We were getting the stuff together and Bill said he needed a specific Powder Bushing. I looked at him and he said he had looked it up in a MEC catalog at home and also wanted a 1 1/16oz Shot Bushing to go with it. So I got that stuff and off he went.

Later that night his brother Skip called to tell me he was organizing a shoot. I asked if he and Bill had the 16ga stuff ready to go, but he didn’t know Bill had purchased that stuff. Then Skip asked, "What is he planning on loading them up to?" Huuuummm, I did not know, because he asked for a specific Powder Bushing. Then it got real quiet and Skip said, "I better go see what he is up to." NOTE: Bill is the kind of guy who can tear-up an anvil with a Rubber Hammer.

Well, Skip could not find Bill that night, apparently he was catting around. The next day I tried my best to remember the Powder Bushing, but when I would look it up, there was too much Powder for a 16ga each time.

That night Skip called and said Bill had managed to break their Fathers Sweet16. The innards would no longer move after only one of Bills Blasters. However the old Double Barrel seemed to be handling the Blasters, which surprised everyone except Bill. He continued to use them in the Double.

Bill got the old Sweet 16 repaired and eventually got a different Powder Bushing for it. Don’t know what ever happened to the Double, but I imagine Bill eventually warped the frame. He refuses to talk about it.
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The "Warning" in some Rossi Owner's Manuals that says, "DO NOT USE +P LOADS!", has been proven to be an accurate statement - by Bill. Likewise, the Taurus and Ruger revolvers have proven to be waaaaaaay stronger than even Bill loads.

A friend of mine Ted bought a new Ruger Black 44mag and a box of factory ammo. All went fine untill he ran out and decided to buy some of his other friends reloads. First shot the revolver rolled back and cut the chit out of the web of his hand. The second shot blew out the cylinder and top strap. He was lucky to have survived the ordeal.