Little-Known Reloading Phenomena

I discovered this during an extended session of prepping brass and reloading. I had approximately 2500 fired 9mm cartridges and had spent weeks sorting them by headstamp and then resizing, depriming them, neck expanding and then priming. Then I loaded them all. It was a massive undertaking using my old RCBS Rockchucker. I handled each piece of brass at least 7 times during the entire reloading process (and it was 8 or 9 times with some) which adds up to handling at least 17,500 pieces of brass.

Finishing I felt like I had run a marathon! As I cleaned up and reorganized the loading bench I ran across a massive rifle cartridge that I did not recognize. I wracked my brain but could not remember having such a HUGE cartridge in my collection! Wondering what it was and where it came from I picked it up and looked at the headstamp. It read: "WW Winchester .30-30"!!!!
That put my head into a spin for a bit. Then I picked up another huge cartridge that turned out to be a .45 Colt!

I finally figured out that weeks of handling the little bitty 9mm cartridges had gotten my brain into a rut thinking that the small round was "normal" and thus any of the cartridges that I used "normally" looked abnormal.

I told Mic McPherson about it and he shared a story about a similar experience that he had. I am sure it's common but since I don't mess with the little cartridges all that much it had a real impact on me.

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Post reply

265 views

HAS HAPPENED TO ME ALSO!

Post reply

222 views

It's how 'habits' are formed. What's weird is that it usually happens only in one direction.

When I was learning SCUBA diving at Fort Lewis, the instructor told us we would discover this phenomenon after we had done nothing but night dives for several weeks.

You would become so accustomed to it that going back to dive during daylight, everything would feel really 'strange' and to expect it

Same when handling small brass for so long. The mind considers that 'normal' and then, like you noticed, freaks out dealing with big stuff.

--
Esse sine metu in facie inimici tui. Sit fortis et rectus quod Deus ut amo te. Veritatem dico semper etiam si eam ducit ad mortem tuam. Tuendam inops et facere no mali.

Post reply

221 views

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Post reply

190 views

Guy I knew, who was white, lived in Jamaica for several years.

When he came back to the US, he was a little freaked out by all the white people. And by the fact the cars all drove on the wrong side.

Post reply

235 views

and first landed in New York it was overwhelming ... white people everywhere! This black guy was standing there and I must have muttered something .. he looked at me and I said something about being uncomfortable around so many white people. He looked at me as if I was crazy. I thought about trying to explain but gave it up.

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Post reply

231 views

A while back I carried several rifles to the range to test loads and check zero before hunting season. The third rifle of the day was an old 1894 Winchester rifle chambered in 32 WS. Loaded up the first handload and fired - it said pop and recoil was light. Uh-oh, squib! Eased the lever down; brass looked ok, bore was clear, target had a hole in it. Only then did I think to look at the chrono and it displayed the expected velocity.

Fired another with the same reaction, same results. Now I get it. The first rifle that day was an old British 500 Black Powder Express double launching 340gr paper patch bullets over 147grs of Swiss 2f and I fired ten rounds. The second rifle was a Sharps 45-110 launching 560gr bullets over 110grs of Swiss 1.5f; also fired ten rounds through that one. The roar and recoil of those twenty black powder rounds made my brain think the smokeless 32WS was a squib!

Post reply

212 views

I have had that happen but in reverse. I was loading up some .45 colts then went to load some .32 mags. Those little 98gr .314’s felt like I was loading needles! As my brother says, it’s all about perspective…

--
https://facebook.com/M2bKydex/

Post reply

206 views