Firing 9x19 in 40 S&W

[Willbird]

I did not do this, but somebody did.

I found these while sorting brass from a firing range today. According to my micrometer they actually sealed on the 40 chamber probably. Two different head stamps too. The one on the left is a 40, the one on the right is a 9x19, the middle two are 9x19 fired in a 40 chamber.

Bill

[billyb]

I confess to doing this one time only. Had both the glock 17 9mm and the glock 22 in 40 S&W at the range. Picked the wrong clip. shooting steel plates funny report and light hit on the steel plate ,fired 9mm looked like a funnel. Bill

[dk17hmr]

Wonder if that would cycle the action.

[ept000]

This is what it looks like when you are dumb enough to fire 9mm in a 357 sig.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2626986256_3027fcaab4.jpg

[AZ-Stew]

My brother-in-law shot some of my .41 Mag. midrange loads through my .44 magnum once. Same bulge, but I was able to run them through the carbide sizer and re-use them. They're still going strong. No splits.

Regards,

Stew

[Shiloh]

I confess to doing this one time only. Had both the glock 17 9mm and the glock 22 in 40 S&W at the range. Picked the wrong clip. shooting steel plates funny report and light hit on the steel plate ,fired 9mm looked like a funnel. Bill

Been there done that. Twice. Pure carelessness on my part. :roll: Cases ruptured both times.

Shiloh

[Shiloh]

Wonder if that would cycle the action.

Nope.

Shiloh

[azrednek]

My brother-in-law shot some of my .41 Mag. midrange loads through my .44 magnum once. Same bulge, but I was able to run them through the carbide sizer and re-use them. They're still going strong. No splits.

Regards,

Stew

I had a similar incident. My fault, the plastic cartridge box was marked 44 and I put a piece of masking tape over it marked 41 Mag. The tape fell off and my son's friend put the 41's in my S&W Model 29. He managed to fire two cylinders before he said something to me about having trouble extracting the empties. The mild loaded 41's were loaded with a 175 gr Lee button nosed wad cutter and 4 or 5 grs of Bullseye. The brass was all on it's 4th or 5th use. Two cases split and the rest just bulged. Surprisingly he shot all 12 rounds into about an 8 inch circle at about 20 yards. I ran a bronze brush down the bore and there was just a tiny bit of leading near the muzzle.

[Mohillbilly]

I fired 2 .30 carbine cartridges in my 9mm mag upper. The cases were swelled up, one was starting to split. point of aim moved about a foot to the left at 25 ft. The action did function once, and balked on the second.Both uppers use the same magazines and I traded uppers out and picked up the wrong mag/ammo. There was no apperent damage.....I gotta pay attention!!!

[pstew]

I get those ocassionally in the range brass I buy locally. I also see the 380 auto in 9mm that is a miniture version of the same thing. Into the scrap pile they go

[Boerrancher]

I got a 44-40 mixed up in my 45 LC. When it went off it made it about half way to the target frame with a little popcorn pop. I thought I had an undercharged round until I went to resize my cases later that eve.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[JW6108]

Here are some things I picked up over the years at a nearby firing range.

I guess the strangest was the .303 Savage in the .303 British. As hard as it is to find .303 Savage locally, somebody managed to scratch up a few and then fired them in the wrong gun.:roll:

I guess those markings they put on the case head mean something after all.:mrgreen:

[mike in co]

glad you posted those pic's
maybe some will learn that most semi auto pistols, while from the drawing they head space on the chamber mouth, in real life they are held close to the breech face by the EXTRACTOR.

and they fire from the position.

probably not real accurate.

i have a small pile collected from my brass biz.

the best was a guy with a 38 super and a bbl never intended for 38super( probably a 38 auto).

every case had a very distinct expansion mirroring the ramp. started at the top of the rim and went forward maybe 3/16 of an inch.....right thru the thickest part of the case......one hot load.

mike in co

[mtgrs737]

357 sig in a 40S&W

[JW6108]

Mike, you are right about the extractor holding the case against the breech face closely enough to allow firing, even with some of the odd combos in the pics.

When the agency I retired from transitioned to Glocks from S&W 686's (an aesthetic step downward, I might add), one of the instructors used .40 S&W routinely in his 10mm Glock. It worked perfectly and, being an instructor with virtually unlimited access to ammunition for "training", had done so for thousands of rounds.

[Shiloh]

Great pics JW6108 !! ;)

Shiloh

[Boerrancher]

The best one I ever saw was a 308 fired out of a Mod 70 Winchester chambered for a 270 win. The owner brought it to the gunshop I was working in because he couldn't get the bolt open. When I ask what happened he said there was a coyote out in his field, and he grabbed the rifle along with a hand full of shells out of a basket that he kept a few rounds in for easy access.

That eve I managed to get the bolt beat open and removed. Immagine my surprise when I punched out the case with a brass rod and in very faint letters read 308 win on the head stamp. The case head had swelled enough and flowed back far enough that it had locked up the bolt. The primer pocket was about twice as big as it should have been.

After a careful inspection of the locking lugs, receiver, and barrel, I determined that a Mod 70 was tough enough to have a 308 fired out of a 270 and cause no damage. That being said I don't recomend anyone make a habbit out of shooting this rifle, and ammo combination. I am afraid that repetitive shooting my cause excessive chamber wear and possible set back of the locking lugs.

Best wishes form the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[Tom Herman]

I got a 44-40 mixed up in my 45 LC. When it went off it made it about half way to the target frame with a little popcorn pop. I thought I had an undercharged round until I went to resize my cases later that eve.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

Hi Joe!

I occasionally have similar experiences... The two big bore calibers I use the most are .44 Special and .45 LC... The rounds are similar in size, and once in a while a .44 SPL or two get mixed in with the .45's.
When fired, the .44's have much reduced recoil and sound different.
They do a good job of filling out the chamber to .45 size!

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[HABCAN]

Years ago, a newb shooter friend bought a partial box of 6.5x55 ammo at a show to add to his scanty supply for his '96 Swede. Later on, we were firing at a dimly-lit firing point on an indoor range. He loaded up and had to hammer the bolt closed on one round. It fired satisfactorily. Extraction was easy. He asked me why the cartridge case looked different than the others. T'was a 6.5x53 Carcano. We had a little talk.

[Tom W.]

.32 S&W from a .32-20... split cases.....

[snuffy]

Here's an example of the wrong ammo in another chamber. This one is a .308 fired in a .280 chamber. It was a Rem. 7400 280. It tied up the action, but with a cleaning rod and some pulling on the bolt handle, the shell was extracted. No damage to the rifle, it went on to work just fine with the correct ammo. This was my lame brained nephew. His wife's rifle was a M-100 .308, the shells got mixed up, he was distracted when loading.

http://photos.imageevent.com/jptowns/terrysoops/websize/image4.jpg

[Salmon-boy]

My wife and I were out at a local major manufacturer one weekend trying out a potential purchase. She wanted to buy a 9mm, so we tried it out on the range.

After 3 shots of the gun not cycling on her, and seeing one of the cartridges, I checked the stamp on the barrel to see that they had handed her a .40 with 9mm ammo.

They were very nice about it, and seeing the reaction of the brass and how well the gun held up I'd have NO problem purchasing either of the guns. Actually she came home that day with a 9mm. I'd have no question on picking up a .40 at some later point.

[paul edward]

A friend, knowing I reload 7x57, recently gave me a box of empty 7mm Mauser brass. When I looked at them, I realized his rifle was actually chambered for 8x57. When he inherited the rifle, he was told it was a 7mm. I ended up with several boxes of free ammo. Felt so bad for him I loaded up a batch of 8x57 for him. These, he reports, are much more accurate than the 7mm he had been using.

PD

[yodar]

I was amused seeing the pics of the .40 bullets coming out'a 9x19 brass

I have a CZ52 I reload for and it has a 9mm bbl and the 7.62 x 25 bbl.

I learned to shoot with the 9mm bbl and when I started reloading 7.62 x 25 to try it out in the CZ 52 I was puzzled to see all my bullets arrived at the paper SIDEWAYS

Looking at my feet I saw the 7.62 x 25 brass had transmogrified into 9x19 mm brass.

Say WHAT?

I forgot to replace the 9mm bbl. with the 7.62 x 25 bbl

DOH!

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1229/6309647/12253703/356768626.jpg

yodar

[klcarroll]

Boerrancher;

I saw something similar about twenty years ago. I was working at a retail gun shop, and one of the counter guys called me up front to look over an incoming trade.

The weapon in question was a .30 caliber Broomhandle; ….which I looked over, checked the bore, and field stripped, ...looking for any obvious problems.

I saw nothing unusual with the weapon, and told the counter guy that it looked OK.

The counter guy then asked me; "What caliber is that anyway???"

I told him; "...Just standard .30 caliber Mauser."

At this point, the customer chimed in; "OH NO!!! .....It's 9mm Luger!!!"

With a little further questioning, the customer adamantly stated that "....I HAVE ALWAYS SHOT 9MM LUGER OUT OF THAT GUN!"

The man was completely serious!

To this day, I marvel at the fact that that poor old Broomhandle put up with that nonsense!

Kent

[lead slead]

look at the 308 in a 30-06....now that is some case forming LOL

[sheepdog]

This is what it looks like when you are dumb enough to fire 9mm in a 357 sig.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2626986256_3027fcaab4.jpg

Is 357 is basically a 9mmm projectile neck down in a 40 cal case?

Back in my younger days of not knowing any better I fired one 9x19 out of a 9x18 makarov. It has some how got in the bag of surplus I was shooting. Fired fine but didn't cycle. After tugging on it a bit it came open and the slightly longer, slightly tapped case of the 9x19 had a slight bottleneck.... from being partly wedged inside the first millimeter of barrel. I count my lucky stars on that one. Could have been nasty.

[pjh421]

That blown-out .308 case has interesting potential. It could probably stand some annealing at this point.

Paul

[armyrat1970]

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to handload but there are many areas that if not watched carefully can cause problems for your weapon and your own personal health. I have never gone as far as the pics you guys have shown but by accident I did try to seat a large pistol primer in a 357 case once. Just grabbed the wrong box of primers and started to seat them. Still haven't got that primer out of the primer guide.

[edlmann]

My brother-in-law shot some of my .41 Mag. midrange loads through my .44 magnum once. Same bulge, but I was able to run them through the carbide sizer and re-use them. They're still going strong. No splits.

Friend of my Dad's fired a full-house .44 Mag load in his Ruger .45 BH, maybe with the ACP cylinder installed. Case split full length; friend decided to call it a day.

[AlaskaMike]

Friend of my Dad's fired a full-house .44 Mag load in his Ruger .45 BH, maybe with the ACP cylinder installed. Case split full length; friend decided to call it a day.

I did something very similar. I was playing with Blue Dot in both .44 mag and .45 Colt, and had both loads out on the bench. The load was the same for both--15.5 grains of Blue Dot, under a SWC (240 grain for the .44, and 255 grain for the .45).

I fired a cylinder full through my .45 Redhawk, and only the 6th split on me. The other 5 actually sounded normal, but I noticed that they didn't group worth a darn. :mrgreen: I learned a valuable lesson in paying attention that day.

Mike

[BigBlack]

found at range 7mm-08 fired in 7 WSM

http://www.treeclimber.com/reloads/7mm08.jpg

[35remington]

"maybe some will learn that most semi auto pistols, while from the drawing they head space on the chamber mouth, in real life they are held close to the breech face by the EXTRACTOR."

Mike, the semiauto pistol rounds when fired in the proper chamber do headspace on the case mouth.

However, they may be fired in the wrong chamber when the extractor holds them by the breechface.

Don't assume since they can be fired the wrong way by the extractor headspacing the incorrect round that they headspace by the extractor when in the right chamber.

They do not. This "extractor headspacing the round" idea with proper ammo in the proper chamber has been killed off as a notion for quite awhile. FWIW.

[Echo]

+1 for 35Rem...

[troy_mclure]

i came across a guy at the range firing 9x18 from a beretta 92. it seemed to function fine.
the guy he bought it from gave him a bag of 500 9x18 that "goes with it".

[sheepdog]

After posting the above I thought I wouldnt be visited by this topic again. But this weekend my buddy, a long long time shooter shot his "new" Colt series 80 at the range with me. This guy is normally very careful but in his haste of grabbing a partial box of 45 mix from the bargain bin he didn't check all the rounds. If he had he would have noticed the 40 S&W mixed in. Sure enough it popped in the chamber and expanded like in the pictures with three nice parallel rips in the brass like tiger scratches. Scary stuff. You could tell he was embarrassed but all I could do was compliment from on his new dual caliber automatic.