Reloading story

[Gil Martin]

A good friend has taken up trap shooting and found a team mate who reloads. Last weekend, they cranked out 400 rounds of 12 gauge ammo on a progressive press and then went to the trap range. Round after round failed to go off properly. Shot and wads trickled out of their gun barrels. I was roused from a nap by a cell phone call to listen to their tale of woe. They were using Red Dot powder, good wads, new primers, once-fired AA cases and everything about the press looked just fine. I told them the problem had to be in the powder drop tube or powder bushing. I was wrong. The problem was in the powder container. Seems the reloader (who is a physician no less) had last reloaded on his press five years ago. The powder had been left in the powder bottle since then and clumped up. The press was dropping only a few or no grains of powder. Why do people do that? They had to tear apart several hundred rounds because all were suspect. All the best...
Gil