re: #140 William Barnett-Lewis

So for the small handful here who are into guns and things like reloading, let me simply say that today’s lesson is forgetting a powder charge is not quite as bad as a double charge…

It’s been a rough couple of months here & I decided to get a small bit of relaxation in. So I drive 20 miles on out to the range this morning. It’s almost completely snowed in - all but one of the windows is 3/4 covered by snow. The one on the end that everyone likes the most is shoveled out though there is no place to hang a target. There is a snowman out there though with lots of holes already.

To avoid wasting the trip out there completely, I pick up my sporterized Type 99 Arisaka & load 5 rounds of my hand loaded 7.7x58 ammo. Bang. Bang. Bang. Click. #%$@^&@&^!!!! Wait. Wait Wait. Eject. Go to load the last round & it won’t chamber. Huh? Try a different one. Nope. Look at the ejected cases and realize none of the four have a bullet in them. Pull bolt & yep, can’t see sunlight.

Drive home, get the bullet knocked out. about 1/3” ~ 1/2” of rifling marks on it, consistent with a primer pop pushing it out of an otherwise empty case.

I guess I should be really glad that it wasn’t a partial load that left it a few inches further up the barrel… I think I’ll keep the bullet on my bench as a reminder that no matter how much I think I’ve checked, I need to check again.

Were you using a progressive press?