A close call and a lesson learned (just not sure what it is)

[Autumn Daze]

Jay,All I can say is Whew!!! That was a close one.The gods were smilling on ya brother. In all seriousness I have gotten in the habit of looking down the barrels alot and I am sure you will now also.

When I started loading spreaders I talked to Jay Menefee at poly wad about using the inserts and he told me to use 20 ga. inserts in my 16ga. hulls and I have been doing that ever since. They work fine and if you have a situation as you just had the insert will fall out and so will the shot. But you will still have the wad to contend with.

And yes I would let them know.I am sure they would want to.

[Smoothebore]

Jay, I had the same thing happen with a reload about a year ago. I too was lucky to notice the obstruction before loading another shell. Bill Murphy said it sounded like a tumbled wad. It came out with a rod and considerable effort. The wad was all twisted and mangled and stuck tight. Since that experience I've made it a habit to at least look down the barrels after each shot. Another good habit to get into is the old black powder trick of blowing down each barrel after shooting. The black powder guys would do this to soften the powder residue and extend the number of shots before having to swab the barrel. Of course that is not necessary with smokeless, but its a good habit anyway to blow the residual smoke out and glance down the tubes for obstructions.

Dave

[Harry Collins]

Jay,

Sometimes I think of "close calls". You know, the ones that wake you up at night and you can't get back to sleep. Wow, what a night mare that could have turned out to be. I too look down the barrels, but not always. Guess we all need to be more concious of what we are doing. Thanks for sharing.

Harry