It happened to me

[DavidA]

I did the same thing with my custom 284 win. I was doing loads with R-17 and R-26. Somehow I did it I placed a starting charge of what I though was R-26. Can't remember right now but it was loaded 2 grains over what I believed was the max charge for the 185 gr RDF's I was loading. I custom throated a McGowen Precision 28" barrel. The rounds at .0015 off lands were approx 3.493" . Any hoot first round out of the ladder fired and nothing unusual until I looked at the Chrono 2,934 fps. Talk about a heavy bolt. I had to wack the bolt handle to get it to bring the bolt up to pull it back the same. When the bolt came out of battery the bottom of the case was so expanded the casing would not come off the bolt face. I extracted the bolt from the action and had to physically pry the case out of the bolt face. I disassemble and inspected the bolt and lugs. It was a REM 700 long action. Scarry event for me. So now I never place more than one powder on the work bench.

 

[arch408]

Not exactly sure what happened here. 190 grain bullet, 75 grains imr7828ssc. 300 WM. I think the case split from FL resizing too many times? Separation let the gases push in the shoulder area as the bullet went down the pipe.? Bought me a collet die neck sizer, and, probably try a lighter load for a while.

looks like excessive headspace or a too tight reloading die. Either way, it looks like the case stretched until you had a case head separation.

 

[nicholasjohn]

After a serious over pressure situation I had to analyze every element of my reloading process and every component. I found many things that were causing errors, big or small. The final check of my powder I discovered Varget kernels mixed into a pound of another slower powder. I share a reloading bench and it could have been either of us. I own everything so it's on me.
My guess is after a reloading session, the Varget was tossed into the H4831. I found it by laying out a sample on a paper plate. Grey shade is different and stick diameter/ length is too.
Using that pound of powder for fertilizer.
It happens to us all in some form. Murphy visits every now and then.

Murphy works overtime every day. Good thing you found that one and outsmarted him. Another thing that keeps that sinister old Murphy at bay is using checklists, just like we always used in the airplane. I write myself a checklist for lots of things I do - my weight-training workout, stock trading, etc. It's great for reloading rifle cartridges. It's how I remember little steps in the process like shining the flashlight down into the cartridge case mouths in the loading block to see if they all have the same volume of powder in them. ( That's how I found a chunk of walnut shell stuck in a flash hole a while back - that case looked like it had too much powder in it.) Outlining all the steps in the process and writing them down is good ensurance against leaving out something important.

 

[Oldschool280]

Nomenclature is quite important, specifically where mistakes can be lethal.
To that end I have noticed on this forum the tendency by many to use their "pet names" or abbreviations or acronyms and assume everyone understands.
I assume you were loading for a 257 Weatherby or WBY.
I bought my 257 Weatherby in 1975 and have shot it enough that I had to re-barrel it. In all that time I never heard it referred to as 257 bee until your post.
When dealing with firearms, ammunition and especially reloading, attention to detail and correct identification is crucial.

I get it, although i have seen bee used in quite a few places over the years. Just a quick google .257 bee and you get nothing but weatherby info. I have leArned a boatload from this sight using google due to tje fact that many terms were new to me in the beginning , much like my mom used to say when i asked "whats that mean" she'd say " use a dictionary ". Well those have gone the way of a roadmap so search engines are it now!
Enjoy your bee

 

[arch408]

I had a friend who asked me shoot some old ammo he had so he could reload it. His gun, his ammo. A pre-64 a Win Model 70. I wasn't shooting at a target and was loading a single cartridge at a time. One cartridge had more resistance to close the bolt. I removed the cartridge and inspected it. Yes, Stanley, you can chamber an 8x57 in a 30-06. I've always wondered what would have happened if I had fired it.

 

[zb338]

I have a friend that has a good idea. He fills the powder in his powder
thrower and writes the powder number on a little piece of paper and
throws it on top of the powder. If he leaves it there and comes back
there is the note on top of the powder.
Zeke

 

[SteveBurton]

You are lucky. My big mistake when I started reloading was using the wrong powder. I wanted to load up some rounds for my .270 WSM real quick one night. I was using 4350 for it and mistakenly grabbed the 4198 for my 45/70. Loaded up 20 rounds and then next morning went to the range. First shot and BOOM! Literally split the receiver, blew the barrel off, broke the stock in half, broke the scope in half and shut down the range. I was VERY lucky and the only thing that happened to me was a splinter in my finger from the fiberglass stock.
That was 20 years ago and to this day I still get butterflies when I reload. Triple and quadruple check that I have the right powder. It was a hard and scary lesson to learn and I thank God that I'm still here in one piece.
And just for the people that will have something dumb to say I added a picture of the two powder cans which I have kept. The color on the label is very close.

 

[Gibbshooter43]

nicholasjohn says Murphy works overtime everyday. I used to like Murphy's Law until I became acquainted with McGregors Law which states that Murphy was an optimist. I now go by McGregors Law cause it's extra careful

 

[Timnterra]

Something that helps me is I have 4 different powder dispensers. I use them for different powder burn rates. The dispenser on the left is an old Lyman that works great for flake pistol powder so that's all it ever gets. When I pour powder in it I wrap it with 2" wide masking tape and write on it what powder is in there. Then I set the powder can behind it. The next dispenser holds powder for the small rifle calibers like 223 and 308. Same story the can sits behind the dispenser and it wears a big visible label. The next dispenser is for h4350 almost exclusively but still has a label and can behind. The last dispenser is h1000 almost exclusively. The cans always sit behind and the labels are always set up before powder is poured in the dispenser. I make sure to pour the powder back out of the trickler every time I step out of the loading room. I have started doing that because I didn't use to and a couple times I forgot what powder was in the trickler and had to toss it.

 

[nicholasjohn]

Must be a family trait....i was at my home bench with one of my 257 Bob A.I.s and one of my 6.5/257 Bob A.I.s.....shoot one group allow to cool while shooting the other.....good group, good group, ......wth .....cant see the hole.....wth....chrony is waaay off.........oops rattled a .257 down the .264....never hit the target....never shot that pairing again either....luckily it wasn't the other way around, although the 6.5 Bob will not chamber in the 257 Bob.

A couple of guys I grew up with once shot a handful of 243 Winchester cartridges through a 308. They thought they had some bad ammo, because of the few that hit the target, none of the holes were round. The cases came out of the gun looking just like fired 308's, so looking at the case heads was how their father figured out what his young sons had been doing. These were the same two yokels who used to take a pair of dikes and snip the points off 7.62 ball ammunition, and then shoot the woodchucks in Granny's vegetable garden with them. They said the bullets split the 'chucks wide open at the seams. Jeez Louise ………………..

 

[gator378]

So After thousands of rounds, i made a mistake and somehow grabbed the reloader 15 instead of reloader 25 for my 257 bee. Fired one round at minimum charge ( thank goodness) and the bolt was locked up something fierce. The rifle appears to be ok. Always look at your bottle twice I know I will for now on!

I always double check type and charge. Only one bottle of powder at a time on the bench. Learned that being a chemist for 40 years. Put the wrong stuff in the beaker and the show begins. Over the years I am paranoid about the right stuff out.

 

[Old Rooster]

I really appreciate your honesty as some folks may not like to talk about that mistake.
You may have saved someone's eyes or rifle or someone nearby.
I have seen pictures of blown up actions and hope I remember your experience and not make that mistake.
Thanks again Oldschool280
Old Rooster

 

[DoctorPMN]

Posts are similar to tragic event that happened to my nephew. Hunting pheasant in the midwest with a .20 ga. autoloader. Decided to try another hunter's .12 ga. Still had .20 ga. shells in coat. In the excitement he loaded a .20 ga. shell into the shotgun ahead of a .12 ga. shell. - barrel and forearm exploded, amputated his left thumb.

Moral - NEVER have more than one cartridge on your person at any one time!

 

[TXAoudadKlr]

This is a growing concern of mine as start loading for more and more rifles.

I keep my powders separated and only allow one canister at the bench at any time.