Oops...squib load

juliansk

juliansk

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Had my first reloading mishap today..
Shooting Dan Wesson .357/.38 at the range. Loaded the first 6 .38 sp handloads. 158gr SWLC over 3.5 gr titegroup, same as I've used dozens of times.
First 3 rounds bang bang bang ...then pop on number 4 and no recoil...
Open the cylinder and lo and behold there's the bullet lodged and inch down the barrel.
I'm thinking this will be one short range trip, then remember I have some stuff in the car. Used a dowel down the barrel and knocked it against the bench until it came free. Phew.
Glad I was paying attention and didn't just get on the trigger again.

Needless to say will be improving garage lighting when reloading and double checking.
Alls well that ends well.
Rest of the trip was a blast.. hammering steel for an hour šŸ˜
 
What are you using for a powder measure? Small loads of Titegroup bridge using a LEE autodisk, which also creates squibs (and shot in my Dan Wesson). ;)
 
A primer not seated properly can do the same thing and just fizzles and not light off the powder.

In this case you would have yellow/white powder spilling out of the case and a bullet stuck in the bore.
 
I had no powder in a 223 shell before and had the bullet wedge down the barrel. I didnā€™t have anything to get the bullet out so I took my leatherman and pulled the bullet out of another case, carefully loaded it with the barrel tilted up, lowed the rifle slowly and shot a dirt berm.
I dunno if this is taboo or not but it worked like a dream.
 
I'm using an old Lyman powder dispenser that came with the Spartan press kit. Has been very consistent for hundreds of rounds so far. I'll dial it to throw +/- .1 grain and check every ten and be in range.
I'm pretty sure I just got sloppy and missed charging one.
Better than a double charge though!
 
Magmalis said:
I had no powder in a 223 shell before and had the bullet wedge down the barrel. I didnā€™t have anything to get the bullet out so I took my leatherman and pulled the bullet out of another case, carefully loaded it with the barrel tilted up, lowed the rifle slowly and shot a dirt berm.
I dunno if this is taboo or not but it worked like a dream.
Click to expand...

Yes,Julian Hatcher has written quite a bit about this in "Hatchers Notebook".
 
Magmalis said:
I had no powder in a 223 shell before and had the bullet wedge down the barrel. I didnā€™t have anything to get the bullet out so I took my leatherman and pulled the bullet out of another case, carefully loaded it with the barrel tilted up, lowed the rifle slowly and shot a dirt berm.
I dunno if this is taboo or not but it worked like a dream.
Click to expand...

I have done this many times. But I dump out about half the powder before loading and firing.
 
juliansk said:
I'm using an old Lyman powder dispenser that came with the Spartan press kit. Has been very consistent for hundreds of rounds so far. I'll dial it to throw +/- .1 grain and check every ten and be in range.
I'm pretty sure I just got sloppy and missed charging one.
Better than a double charge though!
Click to expand...

I use two reloading trays to make sure that I don't forget a step - move it to the other tray after I have primed/powder/seated bullet and then repeat back to the other tray after the next step. Anyways, mistakes happen and luckily you heard it didn't send another bullet down the pipe
 
I have a little goose neck flash light I zipped tied to one of the supports on my press, so it shines into the case. I modified one of my lee auto disks to give me 3.8 grns and been pretty consistent. I lean forward to check for powder before I plop on a bullet.

3000rds I only had 2 duds ( accidentally put in a used primer and un known the 2nd ) and failed to resize ( I reused a case after I pulled the bullet, w/o resizing )
 
OkayShooter said:
I have a little goose neck flash light I zipped tied to one of the supports on my press, so it shines into the case. I modified one of my lee auto disks to give me 3.8 grns and been pretty consistent. I lean forward to check for powder before I plop on a bullet.

3000rds I only had 2 duds ( accidentally put in a used primer and un known the 2nd ) and failed to resize ( I reused a case after I pulled the bullet, w/o resizing )
Click to expand...

I also have a light pointed towards the 3rd station so I can peek before I put a bullet on. But my squib story is the bullet lodged towards the front of the barrel, so that it wouldn't let me chamber another round. I was shooting a stage and the SO said he didn't hear the squib and neither did I. I didn't know at first it was a squib, just thought it was a 'malfunction' and had to DNF the stage. Went to the safe table after to take my gun apart is when we noticed the squib. Myself or anyone else never thought it was a squib. Luckily for me it wouldn't let me chamber a round after the squib though. So I cleared my gun and shot the rest of the match with some factory ammo I always bring as back up.
 
rayzorloo said:
I also have a light pointed towards the 3rd station so I can peek before I put a bullet on. But my squib story is the bullet lodged towards the front of the barrel, so that it wouldn't let me chamber another round. I was shooting a stage and the SO said he didn't hear the squib and neither did I. I didn't know at first it was a squib, just thought it was a 'malfunction' and had to DNF the stage. Went to the safe table after to take my gun apart is when we noticed the squib. Myself or anyone else never thought it was a squib. Luckily for me it wouldn't let me chamber a round after the squib though. So I cleared my gun and shot the rest of the match with some factory ammo I always bring as back up.
Click to expand...

We had a guy switch out his powder measure. I assume that he forgot to turn it on. Had a squib and ended up having to replace the barrel, Get it back with the new barrel and squbbed it twice. Lucky he runs light loads I mean 3grns maybe.

Since than, I inspect every round.
 
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