Squib load

[joe4711]

Dont your blood just run cold when you hear poof... instead of BANG:shock:
Joe M.

[303Guy]

Yup. It's not so much fun. Especially if someone was watching!

But there is a more worserer sound, that being 'click'. The 'poof' is tricky 'cause at a noisy range you might not hear it so you don't know if it was a 'click' or a 'poof'. Make the wrong assumption and it was a 'click' and unexpected things can happen. Mostly when the next round is fired!:roll:

I did have 'click' once and duly waited then opened the bolt. I had put a fresh primer in and I had put some powder in and it did ignite. Only the boolit didn't leave the barrel and the pressure didn't leak out .... :violin:

[Dale53]

That's not something any of us is proud to admit. It does happen. I work very hard to see that it doesn't happen but I have had two in the past three years. It can be disheartening.

The most dangerous time is when you first set your machine up (if you are using a progressive press) for a new load. I have learned that running a single cartridge through at a time minimizes this happening. After you have run a couple through singly, then you can, with some degree of confidence, proceed to full speed.

By the way, having a dowel of the correct size to remove a stuck bullet is handy...

Just a thought or two...

Dale53

[jblee10]

Only the boolit didn't leave the barrel and the pressure didn't leak out ....


***!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[303Guy]

Well, it 'leaked out' when I opened the bolt! Weird feeling when the bolt handle jerks back violently while you're holding it! There's a bit of a bang involved too. Certain words or expressions spontaneously roll off the tongue too!

It would be taking the squib load to extremes.

[41 mag fan]

Well, it 'leaked out' when I opened the bolt! Weird feeling when the bolt handle jerks back violently while you're holding it! There's a bit of a bang involved too. Certain words or expressions spontaneously roll off the tongue too!

It would be taking the squib load to extremes.


You're lucky with pressure build up like there is, it didn't create a "leak out" place.

[Lizard333]

I had one happen to me a few months back. I had fowled my powder with a glob of lube on the back of a boolet I missed. Had just enough push to lodge the boolet in my cylinder and barrel on my 44 Redhawk. Haven't had anything happen since, but I still carry a dowl rod, just case...... Come in handy helping other people, not me, so far.......

[jblee10]

303Guy. Wow, that is amazing! Was the bolt hard to lift at all? What kind of rifle were you using? I'll bet that was startling. I would have been thinking I had a hangfire and would need a change of clothes, ha, ha.

[popper]

I've had 2 - just a click. CB didn't even move. Decide it was the distraction of dumping powder back in the hopper when cranking the handle (uniflow) gave a crunch sound. Now I have a separate 'dump' pan so I don't get confused (anymore than I normally am).

[303Guy]

The bolt opened slick as. It was my pig gun - a Lee Enfield. There wasn't enough powder to cause any issues with pressure. It was a fire-lapping slug that was too big with the grit on and it didn't make it past the throat. Not with the powder charge I used. It was startling, yes.

[felix]

Ah! Same result as not enough neck clearance! Lucky that wasn't a legit charge!!!! ... felix

[autopilotmp]

yeah the only thing worse is when it happens to someone else while shooting your reloads.

It happened a long time ago at a uspsa match, a guy I used to work with and I went to a monthly match he was running low on ammo and I gave him some of my loads to use in his glock 22 (I was shooting a G22 also). The good thing is the RO was paying attention, the round went off but it did not cycle the gun completly. RO yelled "STOP!" and he was cleared off the stage and one of the other local guys took him to the safety area and pushed the round out. Talk about a rolling stomach, felt like I was gonna puke. I was also the next shooter up and was really questioning my reloading skills. We both finished the match w/o incident although probably neither of us shot worth a darn.

Learned a few things that day:
1. Don't let anyone else shoot your reloads.
2. only takes a second to look in the case and check powder level.
3. keep a rod handy for the unfortunate event that you have a squib.
4. have extra ammo that was loaded in a different session in case you want to finish the match.
5. Squibs suck, and can lead to very ill feelings.

[SlippShodd]

Back in the beginning days of my progressive reloading career, the Dillon 450 powder delivery system was the weak link in a very busy reloading system. I missed 2 powder charges that weren't caught at the bench. Both of them showed up in the middle of USPSA matches, rather than during practice or plinking. The drill of course was "Click! Tap, Rack, Bang!" with no regard to checking the bore before proceeding. Bang would have resulted in KaBoom both of those times had an alert RO not got me stopped before I had a chance to pull the trigger on the new live round (same RO both times). With the adrenaline running, the GOGOGO mentality and double ear protection, I had no idea there had been a "piff" instead of just a failure to feed.
Recipe for disaster. Thankfully avoided.

mike

[DrCaveman]

Oh man those squibs can ruin a shooting day for me. I've had 4 so far. Two were because of my pushing target loads to the extreme low end. Each time I had used a plated berrys bullet, and one made it so far that the tip of the bullet was sticking out of the muzzle. I used some help from a friend with a brass rod. The next was using a hollow base wadcutter and that was a royal pain to remove, despite being only about an inch past the forcing cone.

The other two happened the same day, in two different revolvers. I was attempting to develop a 38 +p load using titegroup. Frankly I'm still not sure what went so drastically wrong, but I was using 140 gr jacketed hp. I tell ya, after that second squib of the day (fortunately I was able to remove one of the stuck boolits in the field), i think I missed paper as much as I hit it.

I felt like an 80 year old heavy drinker, what with the way my barrel was shaking. Of course, had my best friend with me, "showing off my hand loads." Embarassing, humbling, frightening, are a few words that came to mind.

I learned well that tell-tale sound of a boolit not leaving the barrel. At a noisy range, it would be much more difficult indeed. I say, if you seem to have missed paper at a reasonable distance, check your barrel! Please be safe, these mistakes can harm more than just us.