For those who don't weigh powder charges !

I've been reloading shotgun shells starting as a teenager. My father was a trap shooter and growing up I worked in his filling station in a small town. The gas customers were somewhat infrequent so there was plenty of vacant time to fill. One of my duties included reloading 12 ga paper Winchester hulls for his shooting habit. (That might tell you how long ago that was).

Fast forward to today. I'm reloading all five gauges including the 16 ga. It had been a few weeks since my last reloading session. As a matter of practice I box each 25, mark the contents with a handwritten sticker, and during each 25 I routinely weigh the powder drop. (I load on a variety of MEC reloaders - from MEC 9000's to MEC Juniors)

I reload both 1 oz and 7/8th of 12 ga. As I finished my first 25 of 1 oz loads I pulled one shell and weighed the powder drop. MUCH to my surprise I found the shell, and the entire box, contained 30.5 +/- grains of Titegeoup ! ! ! To this day I can't figure what compelled me to put a #34 bushing in the charge bar. As mentioned I box every 25 shells and mark them with load data and the date of reloading. This did enable me to determine how many possible "over loaded" shells I might have messed up. I spent quite awhile dismantling the shells I was certain were bad and then even checked more boxes from previous loading sessions.

One possible explanation for my screw up is that I have multiple powders for all the gauges I reload. For 12 gauge I have 700X, Titegroup, Red Dot, and Perfect Pattern. That's not an excuse for my error - but it's the only thing that possibly explain what I did (although I'm not sure I know of any recipe for 12 gauge that specifies 30 grains of powder.

The point. . . . . ? Check your reload recipes and weights on a very regular basis. Had I not checked those shells it could easily have resulted in, at best a blown up gun, and the worst, severe injury to myself and others.

We see posts with pics like this from time to time. Thankfully I don't have any of my own to add.

 

30 years ago when I started reloading, I was advised to weigh a powder drop every time I filled the primer tray.(every 100 loads)
Its a pain to do, but I have never had a problem.

 

Reloading has come a long way since I started reloading. My first Mec loader had 700X -11/8 shot solid bar..Thats What you loaded. Green Dot you got another bar. That was it. Now with the wide selection of powders, Wads, Primmers and hulls. a scale is a must. --- {I still use a powder dipper for my Black powder muzzle loader shotgun! }

 

sometimes , the shot or powder falls slow in a progressive. either by a short stroke or weak spring on the bar.
i always look in my hull after it was filled and caught many 1/2 full.
doesnt happen with a 600jr, but a 762? all the time.
yes weighing powder is a pain, but its scientifically correct procedure.

 

I weigh a few on my initial box and confirm I have what I want. Then I check the last one in every box. I use the adjustable charge bars for my Mec loaders, they drive me nuts to get the charge right but once set are pretty reliable. The other thing I do is set the wad pressure with a specific powder charge and wad combo…so I know if the pressure reading is the same the charge is very close and I also know over or under charges. Looking at the gauge every pull can be challenging.