General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Our country is sick! Massive ammo shortages in gun shops! [View all]spin
(17,493 posts)Run the flashlight up and down each row both left and right, then examine adjacent cases.
Only takes a minute.
Never leave powder in your powder measure. I knew a very experienced reloader who blew up a S&W .357 magnum revolver. The cylinder was spit in half and the top strap was gone. Fortunately he only got a cut on his forehead but his spotting scope on his NRA gun box was ruined.
He suspected that because he left powder in his measure, moisture caused it to clump and he dropped a double magnum load and his loads were hot to begin with. He had over 40 years of reloading experience and had been a competitive shooter who had won a lot of pistol tournaments.
I'm not certain but I think he used a progressive press.
Another thing that I did was to segregate my brass so that all the cases had been fired the same number of times. When I examined them after shooting, I would discard the brass when I had more than one case split. (That's one of the main reasons I like to shoot revolvers as you can recover all your brass.) If I was reloading .38 caliber target loads, I could reload a box between 25 and 30 times before I threw the cases out. For magnum loads, I would only reload five times and then use the cases for target loads. I feel this also increased the accuracy of my loads.
Obviously it is a bad idea to drop powder while smoking but I also suggest avoiding alcohol or watching football on TV.
If you do a lo of shooting you can save money by reloading and you may find you can tailor loads to your individual firearms that are more accurate than factory ammo.