i check all loads two times for powder what will the bullet do if only the primer is fired with out any powder in the shell
thanks Bill

I can tell you a shotgun load with no powder goes "POUP" and the shot goes about 20 feet .

Worst case and most likely, is a stuck bullet in the bore.

I will tell you what will happen.

You will be paying some gunsmith a few bucks to take the lodged bullet out of your barrel, as he stands there with a straight as face as possible and be thinking " what a dumbass" to himself.

Not many will admit it, but it has happened to more than a few handloaders in here.

seafire

I did it once when I first started reloading and the bullet didn't even leave the case! I think I was lucky though, and would suspect a good possibility of it getting stuck in the barrel.

All depends on the cartridge and bullet. Over 30 years of reloading I have done it 3 times. 458 Win Mag with 500 gr FMJ the bullet didn't leave the case. Same gun with 405 gr cast, bullet lodged about 6" up barrel. 444 Marlin with 300 gr cast , bullet barely left case. I would say if the case is large and the bullet heavy there is a better chance it will not move.

The most important thing is if it doesn't go bang. STOP. Look in the bore before firing again.

I done it more times than I care to admit in the last forty years of loading. Lots of times in rifles the bullets stay in the case to much volume to drive it out.

One time when I first had my progresive pistol loader I ran a whole coffee can full not knowing when the power ran out I sit then aside and shot them up with a hand brass rod around. Some times I would get a whole mag to shoot other times I would be pulling the barrel off and driving the bullet out or 3 times a mag full.

Worste then no power is just a little that drives the bullet into the barrel farther making harder to drive back out.

Removing a bullet isn't hard You just need a brass rod of proper size and remember to drive it towards the chamber.

The most important thing to do is DO NOT SHOOT AGAIN. CANT SAY THAT ENOUGH DO NOT SHOOT AGAIN. I seen some nice guns ruined because some dummy did not realize what a pop ment. I saw a very nice browning surpose blow a barrel because a new shooter had a wad lodge in the barrel.

Just as with hand loads over the years after seeing hundreds of thousands of factory ammo go down range I have seen a few duds there also.

I have done it several times, I hate it...lol
Should you have an Auto be very careful.

quote:

Originally posted by bill r:
i check all loads two times for powder what will the bullet do if only the primer is fired with out any powder in the shell
thanks Bill

IF you are fortunate, you will NOT be aiming at an agitated bear, as a friend of mine once was with some ammo he'd loaded (on my equipment)!!

He was very fortunate - he HAD put powder in some of the rounds, and none of the empty ones resulted in a bullet in the bore as he frantically worked the action, aimed, and "fired"!! Finally, one went off as it should, and the bear, now about 20 yards away, obliged by dropping dead..... HAR HAR!!

Swearing "I'll never use another reload", imagine his chagrin as we pulled the bullets, and discovered that those poor, faulty, "dud" primers had all blackened the bases of the bullets! But the cases were empty......

I advised him "NEVER use any of YOUR OWN reloads" again.....

quote:

Originally posted by naja302:
I did it once when I first started reloading and the bullet didn't even leave the case! I think I was lucky though, and would suspect a good possibility of it getting stuck in the barrel.

This has happened to me as well....the bullet didn't even leave the case.

While this has never happened to me I have seen it happen a few times. The first time a friend of mine did this he lodged the bullet of his 7BR a couple of inches into the barrel. An aluminum cleaning rod and a hammer was used to knock it back out. The second time he did it all the pounding in the world wouldn't budge the bullet. What he ended up doing was pulling a bullet from another round, load the case and fire the stuck bullet out. It was very entertaining to watch him hide under the shooting bench while holding the XP 100 above and fire it off with the aid of a welders glove. Don't try this at home kids.

quote:

Originally posted by bill r:
i check all loads two times for powder what will the bullet do if only the primer is fired with out any powder in the shell
thanks Bill

Bill, your method is one surefire way to have surefire. Another is to weigh each charge and seat a bullet on the case immediately after pouring the weighed charge into it. The other is to never assume that ones method is fool proof. Check everything and check it again.

I was loading up a bunch of 300 Rum (40) and I
had a feeling, that the last one didn't get
any powder. After weighing every one of the
loaded cases, I was glad they all weighed the same
I know that "shit happens" but one shoud have
undivided attention when he/she are putting
powder in cases.

Within the last few months there was a great picture in one of the handgun magazines of a barrel that had been sliced in half showing 5 or 6 slugs stuck in a barrel from a guy shooting at an Old West Single Action shooting match. They don't require minimum loads for their competition and some guy had loaded his six gun so light that he actually stuck multiple slugs in the barrel

quote:

Originally posted by Bigdog2:
Within the last few months there was a great picture in one of the handgun magazines of a barrel that had been sliced in half showing 5 or 6 slugs stuck in a barrel from a guy shooting at an Old West Single Action shooting match. They don't require minimum loads for their competition and some guy had loaded his six gun so light that he actually stuck multiple slugs in the barrel

Aww, Heck! After getting the first one to stick, the rest are EASY!

I had a 45LC that the bullet moved just far enough out of the case that it was half way in the forceing cone but still halfway in the cylinder. Had to push the bullet back in the case with a cleaning rod. My shooting partner hes in his 70's calls them a "reloader's speacial"

I just had one last fall. It was a .223 with a 75 grain Hornady. I was lucky that it was a sighter and not during my rapid fire string. Anyway, the bullet never came out of the case. When I loaded that batch of 200 rounds, I had a funny feeling that I may have missed the powder in one of them, but I weighed them and couldn't find it. I found it during a match instead.

If I learn from my mistakes, then I guess I won't be making that one again. There are still plenty more I haven't made yet to learn from, though.

Fast Ed

One thing I have noticed that MIGHT help...if you don't use compredssed loads, especially in rifle cartridges, if your hearing is decent and the room is quiet you can shake the cartridge and hear the powder swishing inside.

happend to a buddy of mine with his 44 mag shooting 44 spl.

the bullet went the whole length of the barrel so that the tip was sticking out of the muzzle. another 1/2" and it would have dropped out of the barrel to the floor.

not sure if it had any powder at all but he sure got a ribbing from us about his quality loads.

Light loads have more draw backs as well....I once loaded a .45 L Colt so light that the bullet bounced off a bowling pin and came back and struck me in the leg.....it stung like hell.....but didn't break the skin. Since them I try to load them a lot stronger.

As a pistolsmith that has had to look at customers with a straight face, I can say that too much is worse than not enough.

I had a Colts Trooper come in with 6, yes 6 bullets in the bore. The first was a squib that the shooter didn't notice and he just followed up with the rest.

Another brought his 1911 in about a week after I had finished it. He was kind of shook. Firing the third to the last round it went off asplitting the case at the rim cooking off the last two rounds in the magazine. The mag. spring was collapsed flat with the follower blowing the mag. out the bottom. This bulged the new grips thank goodness with steel inserts. The chamber was welded to the slide and had to be cut apart.
His buddy had done the reloading and after looking I found that they were for the bullet max.+ 50%.
It took my customer about two weeks for the feeling to get back in his hands and a bit longer for his friend to recover.

Hi to all,

Don

A friend of mine had a rather interesting thing happen with his .454 Casul. It had powder, but not all of it ignited.

Gun went "Pop", and we spent some time with a rod trying to get the bullet out.

quote:

Originally posted by seafire/B17G:
I will tell you what will happen.

You will be paying some gunsmith a few bucks to take the lodged bullet out of your barrel, as he stands there with a straight as face as possible and be thinking " what a dumbass" to himself.

Not many will admit it, but it has happened to more than a few handloaders in here.

seafire

A friend of mine I take that back a X Friend of mine had a Colt Government with 6 stuck bullets in the barrel. He was extremely lucky that it did not blow up in his face.

To answer your question I keep a Brass rod with me to knock any stuck bullets out. I have had powder that would not burn a few times. I don't follow the rapid Bang, Bang, Bang that a lot of the idiots at the outdoor range do. I always listen and feel for recoil. It has not failed me yet.

In my 30+ years of restuffing, I've done this 4 times. The first was with a S&W M1917 .45ACP. The bullet did leave the case and lodged in the forcing cone of the barrel. The other 3 times (just last month) was with a .223 WSSM. None of the 3 bullets came out of the case mouth. I had been having some problems with medication side effects, and the end result was primer, case, and bullet, but no powder. Even though my usual routine includes tipping the reloading tray in the light to check for a similar-looking charge in every cartridge, these slipped through.