What kind of outcome

A

Andy Cross

Guest
I went to a friends house for dinner last night and he was finishing up reloading some .243 win cartridges. I noticed he was using reloader 7 powder. I thought that is a pretty fast burning powder for a 243. So I commented. Then he said Oh S*&^. I thought I had been using reloader 17. Very similar colored canister. 40gn of it behind a 85gn bullet.

What do you guys think the outcome might have been. I am prediciting a head separation on the first shot and possible injury. Did my intervention save his butt ?

Andy.
 
If he used the proper charge for RL-17 but used RL-7 I think the result of pulling the trigger on one would be catastrophic failure. RL-7 is around the burn rate of H4198 and RL-17 is around H4350. I would pull the bullets and start over if 'twere me.
 
andy ,
without an oal i can only est..
but 40 gr of rl7 with a sierra 85 at max oal 0 2.71 is about 85,000 psi...est
max is 60,000 normal and proof is around 25/30%...so is quite a bit over those numbers...
yep ya did good.
mike in co
 
The outcome is all pure speculation, let us just say nothing good would have happened. I think your friend needs to be more careful, reloading is serious business, obviously he is lucky you noticed.
 
You would think after this close call that he would put large stick on numbered labels on all his powder canisters.

You could print them out in different colours but probably a large black 17 on white would be best.


Glenn
 
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He did pull them

Thanks for everyones response. To reply to several posts at once. He did pull the bullets and start over. He did relable the two canisters in question and after realizing that although it seemed to shoot on the load he was using case live was short. He has reduced the charge and still seems to shoot well.

He also realised that my query about why are you using RE7 probably helped him stay healthy.

Andy.
 
Should be at least worth a case of good beer. That is the first and only time I have heard being disturbed while reloading turned out to be a positive thing and I think he has a pretty connection with his maker to have him send you there to save his bacon. It would be interesting to me to know why you went there during that point in time in the first place.

J.Louis
 
I'm with you, Dick. That's why I have one neck die with the primer pin cut short. I wasn't going to push out 200 unfired primers so I could size the necks. Fortunately, I use a universal die to deprime all my cases to keep the grit isolated so that's no real issue.

I lie. I actually have two calibres set up that way. I'm a slow learner, or maybe a quick forgetter.

John
 
If he had been using an unaltered remington 700 he'd have probably gotten away with it. I had one come in the shop a while back with the bolt frozen shut. Turns out someone fired a .308 round in it. Rifle was chambered for a .270 WIN! Once I got it apart a new extractor and new ejector spring and we were good to go. I also had to take a light cut on the O.D. in front of the lugs where the bolt nose had swollen up inside the barrel recess. This was why the bolt would not move!
 
I assume a good strong bolt action rifle, (and a Ruger #1 ?) the shooter wouldn't get hurt very serious with an improper load like Andy's friend had loaded. If a load like this would be fired in a pump, auto or lever action gun, how would the shooter make out? Would a pump, auto or lever gun handle the pressure, or cause possibly deadly harm if it was fired? Just wondering.
 
Jeepers Skeet...... I can't understand your outlook a'tall!

In my world it's just an endless succession of discoveries of new ways to screw the pooch.

And I'm CAREFUL!! And work with CAREFUL people..... but still I get to spend tomorrow cutting out concrete with one of my guys.

People here on this board know people who're DEAD from mixing up powders.

Serious bi'dness

al
 
After some experience (dumping half a measure of powder back into the wrong 8#er of ball powder, a long time ago)and thought, I only get out one container of powder at a time. I never have two different powders on my bench at the same time. When I am finished with one, I put it away, and take out the next one that I will be using.

The other thing that keeps me out of trouble, when I am loading quantities of ammunition, is charging all the cases in a loading block, and then peering down inside of all of them (with a flashlight if needed), to see that their powder levels all look even with each other. If it can go wrong, you are better off to have taken that into account in your planning. Even smart fellers can have cranial flatulence once in a great while. It's like that old truism. Benchrest shooters can be divided into two groups, those that have cross fired, and those that will.
 
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Some more info

Dick Grosbier said:
Someday you too will do something really stupid and wonder how you could do it.
It happens.

Dick

PS as I get older it happens to me a lot more often.
Click to expand...

To answer a couple of questions at once. The rifle was a factory Rem 700 V BDL with a hart barrel replacing the original. So may be he would have lived to tell the tail.

The reason I was there before he finished loading is because he received a phone call from his accountant about tax return issues. He didn't use the 243 much and as a result the powder for it was way back in the cupboard. Without looking at each canister as he placed them back into the cupboard he inadvertently puts the the 17 canister with the faded lable back in the cupboard. Then the phone call comes in. Returning he then stuffs them full of 7. I arrive before he finishes. I knock on the door he says it's open and I am back here. That's when I make mention that 7 is a fast powder for a 243 don't you think.
Andy.
Ps Oh by the way he is 70 years of age and I was there to have a couple of beers and dinner with him on his birthday.
 
QuickLOAD calculates this 40 g RL-7 load in the 243 Win to be 96,400# and about 3500 fps. Not bad for an 85 grain bullet in the older 243!!
 
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