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They say it happens to us all eventually. Friday was my turn.

I was brushing up for my renewal class with the poodle-poppin' 9mm, and wanted to cleanse my palette with my way-too-fun-to-shoot 1911. So, I loaded up and started shooting.

Rounds 1-7 fired as normal. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. Round 8 simply went *CLICK*. I looked down to see that the hammer had fallen. I thought that was odd, as I had never had a light primer strike before.

The slide was still fully forward, in battery, so I recocked the hammer and pressed again. *CLICK*. I truly heard nothing more that the click of the hammer falling both times, but I usually wear muffs and puffs, so that might have covered the sound of the primer popping on the first trigger press. Plus, it was a bit breezy Friday with the wind blowing sound away from me.

I dropped the magazine and tried to rack the slide. No go. I tried again, and still no go. On the third try I did the old "push with both hands in opposite directions close to your body" trick and out popped the case. I think the nick in the lip came when the slide jumped forward again, since my hand was covering the ejection port and the case was still in the port when I let the slide go.

Apparently, it was a primer-only load, as the bullet didn't even clear the case. The case wasn't 'clean' like they usually are after firing, but coated inside with a thick gray soot, which you can see in the case on the right.




Here's what the case looks like in the barrel with the case pressed in to where it touches the base of the bullet. The primer backed out a bit, too.




The bullet was still in the case, I think up to the brighter band here. The bullet engaged the rifling into that brighter band, but no farther.




So what happened? Much of this batch was loaded single-stage, so I could learn the process. The last 500 or so were "progressively" loaded on my Lee Turret. This one had to have been one of those rounds, as I use a loading block for any single-stage rounds I load, and check them carefully before moving to the next stage.

Once I (finally) get another batch of bullets, I'm going to move upscale to the Hornady LNL A.P. Loader I got with Christmas money, and I'm going to install some of the LED lighting made for presses to make sure I can see what's going on at all times.

Any hints on how to make sure it doesn't happen again, or is this just a fact of life - that one in every 3000 or so rounds might have an issue?

The best way to make sure it does not happen again is to visually verity the powder level in each round before the bullet gets put in place for seating. The way I do this so that I do not have to crane my neck around on every round is that I purchased a cheap endoscope camera on ebay. I attached the camera to the press so I can see the iinside the case after it comes off of the charging station. The camera connects to a usb port and has a built-in light. I put a laptop computer on the bench behind the press and I display the output of the camera on the screen and I can see down inside the case and check the powder level by looking at the screen on the laptop before the bullet get placed.

UpTheIrons ,

I'm awed by the great photography.

Count me as the third person that visually verifies the powder level in every round I load.

UpTheIrons wrote:The last 500 or so were "progressively" loaded on my Lee Turret. This one had to have been one of those rounds, as I use a loading block for any single-stage rounds I load, and check them carefully before moving to the next stage.

With a true self-indexing progressive press, there are very few ways to skip the powder. The two main possibilities are:
1. Running the powder measure dry, or using a bad-metering powder that bridges.
2. Having something out of the ordinary interrupt the reloading cycle. For example, removing a round to examine it and putting it back out of the proper sequence. Or having one round with a primer problem, and getting the next round out of sequence. Short-stroking the press.

I'm slow. I use a loading block, a funnel, then a flashlight with visual check on every piece of brass. I don't mind slow.

Thanks for all the tips, guys. I started on .45 since it is a huge case that is easy to see into to check for a powder charge. Ironically, the 9mm seems to be better for seeing an accurate charge (and will not physically hold a double-charge).

Of your suggestions, I think the most likely is a short-stroke on the press, or something gumming up the works. But with HP-38, that shouldn't be an issue.

Should I entertain the idea of pulling bullets on the rest of this batch to see if there are any others, or (God forbid) a double-charge in the mix?

I tend to think it's an anomaly, since it is the only one I've had. But I don't want to proceed carelessly, either.

I've given some thought to bench setup and loading procedures, and I think I've figured out how to trim some effort but increase safety. Better light and adjusting how the press is mounted on the bench are the first steps. Once that's done, I think I'll be able to monitor more easily and more carefully what I've been doing. Not that I haven't been paying attention, but I could be better at it.

Abraham wrote:UpTheIrons ,

I'm awed by the great photography.

Thanks, but it was just my iPhone camera and a little cropping in iPhoto.

UpTheIrons wrote:Should I entertain the idea of pulling bullets on the rest of this batch to see if there are any others, or (God forbid) a double-charge in the mix?

How much does your powder charge weigh?

You can always weigh all the cartridges first and only break down the ones that seem light.

They are a little easier to spot if you are using a heavier powder charge. For example, compare a load with 185 gr bullets with 9.5 gr of HS-6, versus a 230 gr LRN using 2.8 gr of Titewad.

If a round is missing powder, it is a lot easier to detect a 9.5 gr variance versus a 2.8 gr variance. You could have 2-3 gr difference just in case weight and bullet weight variations.

My 45 primer only load lodged the bullet in the rifiling hard enough to require a cleaning rod and a hammer to remove! Needless to say, my reloading practice now includes a visual double check of powder.