Another First - A potential KaBoom avoided

[alfsauve]

Okay, I've been reloading since 1970.   Not a lot of volume, I grant you, but I'm not a newbie at it.   And I thought I was overly cautious compared to other peoples technique.    The worst two things I've done is I have put  a couple of primers in backwards that I didn't catch and I forgot to crimp some .38spls.    Other than that, I'm smugly thinking,  "I'm good.   I'm good."

So today at the range, with about 50 rounds down range.   Working on doubles and on Bill Drill (6 rounds real fast)

"CLICK".   

They say that's the loudest sound in a gun fight.  Well let me tell you it seemed to reverberate at the range too.  Not that anybody else noticed.    I figure, rats another primer backwards.    Pulled the slide back and the round didn't EXTRACT.   I could see the primer was dented, but what stopped me was the round wasn't engaged in the EXTRACTOR.   Hmmmm.

WARNING   STOP  STOP

Had this been a match I probably would have dropped the slide, to pick up the round in the chamber cycled it again, loaded a new round from the mag and continued firing.   (or would that be "continued to fire" as only one more time?)

However it wasn't a match and I stopped.   THANK GOODNESS.   Dropped  the mag, extracted the empty shell casing.   It was awful dirty.  I then stripped the gun and examined the barrel.   Sure enough.  Just past the chamber was the bullet.   

Packed up and went back to work.

Just got home and haven't unpacked the shooting bag.   I'll post a postmortem and possibly pictures later.   I'm thinking of trying a "no-powder" round on purpose to see if it duplicates the results.

I'm always so careful to examine the cases (or I thought I was so careful) before I put the bullets on top.  (I don't have progressive, just a turret, and the "load powder" step is done separate from the press.)    I am going to weight all remaining rounds to look for any others that might be without powder and I'm going to rethink my procedures.   

More later.
Stay safe out there.   Double check all your ammo.

[tt11758]

I had a similar experience a few years ago with some ammo a buddy of mine had loaded.  The only difference was, mine ejected the empty case, but only partially loaded the next round.  You got it.......failed to put it into the chamber only because the projectile from the previous round hadn't traveled far enough down the barrel to allow the next round to chamber completely.  Had that bad round gone another 1/2 an inch down the barrel I'd have never realized there was a problem until the pieces of gun started hitting me.  Scared the crap out of me later when I had time to think about it.

[ellis4538]

I was at an indoor match one evening and there was a shooter about 15+ feet from me.  I had on electronic ear muffs and heard a poof!  I don't remember anything but starting to move.  Next thing you know I was next to him with my hand on his shoulder warning him not to shoot another round because he had had a squib.  Lucky for him it was the last shot of the string or he might have had a KABOOM!

Richard

[twyacht]

Glad you slowed down alf, realized somethings wrong, and took the time to examine and avoid a "bad thing".

Had a factory round squib in my Sig556 rifle, 2 months after I got it. but it ejected, sounded normal, and the following round only cracked the muzzle, thankfully the muzzle brake kept it all together. Sig replaced the barrel.

Hope it comes out easily.

[GASPASSERDELUXE]

Having had the same thing happen to me over the years I bought a set of brass rods from brownells. There are  4 different sizes for  9, 40,44 and 45 caliber. take the barrel out, insert rod and beat the hell out of it with a hammer till the bullet comes out. i shoot mostly cast bullets and they are eaiser to get out than jacket bullets.

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

Another horror story, (Me getting the horrors    )
Dad gave me a can of .38's his buddy reloaded, heard a "pop" instead of a" bang",
Bullet sticking half it's length out of the barrel.
Brass rod and hammer time, just like Ratcatcher says.
Welcome to the club  

[MAUSERMAN]

Good to here that no one was hurt. The same happend to me with my super redhawk. I was testing a few new loads for a hog hunt when all i heard was click. The primer didnt fully ignite the charge and the round was just past the forcing cone. I was able to tap the bullet out clean the gun and continue.

[alfsauve]

Got to bench last night and analyzed the problem.

The bullet was stuck just inside the barrel.  it measure 0.83" from the face of the barrel to the base of the bullet.   Not far enough to allow a new round to be chambered.   As an experiment, I reassembled the gun and tried to rack the slide and chamber another round.  I was curious as to whether the force from a new round would move the bullet.   It did not move and the slide did not close all the way.  So for this one time at least I could not have fired another round.   The new bullet however was driven back into its case by 0.01" from the impact.

A hardwood dowel and a hammer and the bullet was out in two taps.  Fully engaged in the groove and make a nice souvenir.    

I then loaded a squib  (primer and bullet, no powder) and fired it on purpose.   The softest of "pops", no recoil and of course the slide did not move since there was no muzzle blast to unlock it.   This time, however, the bullet went deeper into the barrel, 1.6", and this would have allowed a new round to have been chambered and fired.  (YIKES!)    I don't know why this one went further....variation in bullet diameter?  Cold barrel?   It too came out rather easily with the rod and hammer.

So, today, I'll weight all my loaded 9mm rounds to insure they have powder.  And I'll sit down and go over my procedures.   I may post my reloading procedures in the "reloading" group so you can all comment.   I have always been a little "hesitant" to use true progressive presses because I was afraid of this problem.  But now I've done it to my self with my own manual procedures.  

For those interested in some details:  The bullet is hard lead cast, 125gr round nose.  Cases vary, but mostly R&P, PMC and Winchester.  Primer CCI 500 over 5gr of Power Pistol.    COAL is 1.130"   Velocity averages 1,045fps (just over 125 power factor required for IPSC minor.)  All rounds are run through a final Lee sizing die after bullet seating and crimping.

Here is the bullet, case and a fully loaded round for comparison.

[TAB]

did you use the same primers for your test?  some primers are pretty hot.

I'd clean the case and look at it very closely.   its pretty black, normally prime only loads don't put out that much black junk.  You could have very well had some bad powder or had a cracked case that let the powder get wet.  Now granted thats a very, very long shot, but the 2 mins it takes to do that is well worth it.


I'd also pull a few loaded rounds and take them apart just to be safe.

[Pathfinder]

Glad you caught it before things got ugly.

And it's not just reloads, I had a commercial load go squib on me. I had a Navy Arms Schofield, .45 Colt. I was firing it on the ranch, and heard one round kinda go POOF insteand of BANG. This was before I even knew about squibs, but it just didn't sound right.

So I flipped open the Schofield, caught the rest of the live rounds, and looked down the barrel. Yup, blocked.

So Alf, it can happen to anyone, even the commercial guys.