Howdy folks-
I sent a batch of several hundred 9mm I cast and reloaded to my brother, whom gave good praise of their performance...I also shot another couple hundred of that same batch myself. He did tell me, however, that he got a squib! I consider this probably the worst catastrophic failure there is, short of double charging, and find this to be terrifying and unacceptable. He's somewhat new to shooting so he didn't know what happened when it happened to him, he just said it fluffed instead of boomed and thank goodness he had the sense to closely inspect his firearm to find the bullet in the barrel. I have had this happen to me in the past in my Beretta CX4 in 9mm, the bullet lodged in the bore just deep enough for the next round to not chamber, luckily.
So out of, oh I don't know, 6-7k cartridges I've made, two squibs, but I still find that unnerving... I'd like to open discussion on what the causes of squibs are, and how to prevent them, or at least minimize their frequency.
I'd like to add, I think both of these squibs were cartridges I've made on my progressive press (Lee pro 1000)- Not to blame the press, I'd just like to be more specific so I can zero in why these have happened. My first squib, there was powder loose in the chamber so it fired off the primer but the powder did not ignite. I'm unsure if the powder in my brothers squib ignited or not, he didn't specify.
It's one thing if I hurt myself with a folly in loading, but I'd really never forgive myself if I had my brother hurt with cartridges I made for him.