Silly Human Tricks part 1

[Guage Rod]

I am not sure this is the correct place to post this but for those of you who reload shells, I go a real pointer for you.
 

I got a vibrator tumbler that I polish brass on after firing and before reloading, I kind of like the way they shine and it keeps my pinkies, clean and my belt and holster from being black

Two days ago, I get home with a bunch of spent shells, and think, hey I just put new tumbling media in the tumbler bowl, I just throw the stuff in there and have her cleaned up.  Just threw 3 different calibers in there and switched her on.  Let her run for a bout 4 hours and turned her off.

I got home from the possie shoot this after noon, (Got rained out but I had about 2 hundred rounds to burn and 3 weapons back from the gun smith with action jobs I had been dieing to shoot.)  What can I say about fair weather shooters, there was a 15 mph, east wind, 58 degree weather with rain and mist comming down.  I shoot up my shells and am as happy as a clam

Drive back home, haul all my stuff back to the house and garage where appropriate, and go to the tumbler to empty and reload with the spent brass.  You would not believe the mess I had.  I should have Known something was up when I dummped all the brass out in the pail I sort out of.  There seems to be something very wrong here.

I start by grabbing the 38 specials I use for pocket pistol and 66 winnie, and notice I am about 50 or more cases short.  What the heck is going on here?  I them dig out the 44 special rounds and notice a a bunch of the 38 caliber shells are stuck into the openings of the 44 special brass, no big deal I just sort of seperate them and let the ground corn cobs go into the pail and account for about 15 of the missing casses .

I then dig out the last and definately not least cases from the pail.  I now know where the remaining 45 missing 38 special cases are.  Would you believe they have empregnated them selves inside the 45-70 casses I threw into the tumbler.  Yup you guessed it!!  The big ole 45-70 casses are (75 in the tumbler, 25 come out with out the baby cartiges inside) plub full of small brass.  They are wedged in there with the grit packed around them.  the casses are rim first and lip first, and some are at the far end and some are at the mouth of the 45-70 casses.    

Now what the heck do I Do  Well it were one heck of a mess.  I proceded to tap them and try and pull the lip first ones out with little or no success.  About 1/3 of them had the lip at the bottom and I was able to pull them out with a pair of tweezers.  The other 25 or so shells were quite a conundrum.  

I finally fell upon a plan.  Get out the trusty bullet puller and start banging.  That finaly did the trick but what a mess

So after about 1 hour of dealing with stubborn brass, I figured I learned my lesson.  Tumble that brass, in like calibers or be a candidate for funniest home vidio.

Don't try this at home folks, This stunt was performed by a trained professional

Anything else happen to my pards that they want to share, so's we can prevent the same thing from happening to us?

Vaya Con Dios      

[El Peludo]

 

I ain't gonna tell.  But, I'm sittin' here chuckling at your misfortune.  A feller I used to work with had a very droll sense of humor, and he was always sayin':  "All humor is predicated on someone elses misfortune." 

[Happy Trails]

GR,
That used to happen to me too.    
I finally bought some of the Lyman Brass Baggies and never have the problem again.   
Just bag your different calibers and tie a knot in the end and chuck all the bags in together.  You can tumble all your calibers together but separate at the same time.  Use them over and over.
Available at MidwayUSA.com  (http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=618687)
Hap

[Sagebrush Burns]

I have found that the best solution for this problem is the "slacker system".  If you only shoot and load one caliber you seldom have problems with mixed brass.

[Delmonico]

IF you do 45-70's, 38 Special and 22 Hornet together you can stack three together.

[Guage Rod]

Del, I hope that you are not speaking from the voice of experience  

I have learned a lot about reloading in the last few years of this hobbie, and thank goodness, I been blessed with the sense to know my limitations.  I don' at this time load anything with a shoulder, or neck, just straight cartriges. 

One thing about posting here is you can often learn from other peoples failures and success. 

I like the cowboy way of sharring advice, weapons and adventures with other Pards on the range and on these posts .

Vaya Con Dios 


   

[Delmonico]

If I can ever help hollor, there was a Peanut Farmer in the White House when I started doing this.

Yes I did that one day with out thinking.  If you can stand the noise take all the media out of the tumbler and put the stuck together cases back in, often they will seperate.

BTW when you get to bottleneck rounds and you do the partial size to make sure rounds chamber well but are not over worked, make sure you use the same shellholer each time and check the gap between it and the die every time with a feeler gauge.  You did write that down in the load information didn't you?

Yep, had a Savage 99 in 243 toss out not one but two 45 ACP Extra Short cases one day.  in a semi-formal benchrest match for all to see.   Take about blowing yer concintration in a 20 rounds plus sighters in 30 minutes match.   Yes I got the problem fixed both times and got all the rounds on target on time.

[Guage Rod]

Del, that kind of things are only supposed to happen to me.  Thanks goodness that you only suffered a little hurt pride and ego.  I would be kind of scared worse things could happen. 

Thanks for sharring.  I always get a kick out of your posts.  I hope we both don't get castor oil from our Grand Mothers over this one. 

I can remember all to well, when I was only 4 or 5 years old, that my GM would chase my brother and I all over the house and yard with caster and Cod liver oil for everything from a cough to constipation. 

We also ate our share of vicks vapor rub, and endured more that one bar of soap in our mouths for language that was not "appropriate in the house"  What are Grand Mothers for but to pass on the old ways.

Its a wonder my kids were not born naked and crying after that kind of abuse at such a tender young age  

[Delmonico]

I've had many a "you wouldn't belive what I dids," but very few and none serious with firearms.  Now tractors are different, I got one stuck in a tree one time, but it wasn't really my fault, I told my brother he needed to fix that clutch pedal.   But he did afterward.

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

Yeah I got a tractor stuck between 2 trees one time....wedged the bushog between 'em.
Flipped a tractor draggin logs.......

[Delmonico]

I had it stuck in one tree, had to get a big tractor with a front end loader to get it out.  Got pictures, when I went to get help my brother ran to my truck and grabbed my camera.

Didn't have a camera handy when we were draggin' a tractor out of the pond  because of him or when he wedged the Bob Cat in the gully. 

Used the same borrowed Case on those two also.