It's real easy to get a wake up call on one's reloading protocol. I had been reloading since circa '76, and only quit a few years ago when I downsized to a condo, and don't have the space.

Anyway I was shooting some .44 mag our of a Ruger Redhawk, and on the last shot I immediately knew something went wrong. The recoil was so bad that it sent painful shock waves down my arm, into my elbow and the muzzle blast was something to behold. Long story short, I had switched from loading 240 gn. to 300 gn. hard cast for a pig hunt.

Fast forward I found the culprit, when I reset my dies I didn't set the crimp correctly and bullets were backing into the cases from the recoil until the pressure was so great it went Kaboom! I sent it to Ruger to see if the frame and barrel could be salvaged. Even admitted fault to a reloading error. Unbelievably Ruger sent me back a new gun. Could have lost fingers, a hand, an eye or even my life that day.

After all of those years of reloading and I thought that would be the last thing to happen to me.

Thank God you're o.k. That one could have went really bad.

FT