Range story

[Claycogun]

I was working at a gunshop at the retail counter when a customer that was taking a break from shooting was talking about his having trouble sighting in his Ruger Blackhawk 357. He was an older fella with his buddy standing beside him and I told him that he probably just needed to move his target in closer to get his sights course adjusted better. He said that was probably it because he was shooting at 25yds on a full silhouette target. They disappeared back to the range and I forgot about them but a few minutes later they came back and said they were shooting at 10yrds and still couldnt hit the target. I told them that when I got caught up that I would go out and see if I could help. About 10 min later I went out and sure enough they still were standing there at the firing point with the target hanging at 10yrds and the Blackhawk sitting on the bench in front of them. I walked in and said all the stuff you say before trying to help someone sight in their guns and checked the cyl by the laoding gate and noticed that the cyl still had 3 live rounds left. I was convienced that the sights must be really messed up because these guys looked like shooters and with a 7 1/2 in bbl I just couldnt imagine not hitting the full silhouette target. So I sighted along the outside of the bbl, ignoring the sights and pulled the trigger. I hit the switch rolling the target to me because for some reason I couldnt see the hole and with the target right in front of me there still was no hole in it. I thought well thats the craziest thing that has ever happened to me and decided I would run the target to about 10ft in front of me and see why I missed. As I brought the hammer back the cyl stopped with a scrape and it was then I noticed after inspection that they had several rounds earlier had a squib load that left the round about 1.5 inchs short of exiting the bbl and every shot after that had just been stacking up in the bbl. After thanking God for protecting me from all the bad things that could have happened I explained to them what had happened and removed the cyl and told them to send it Back to Ruger and ask them to fix it.

[Sarge]

Sorry, I don't think I believe that.

[Pat Miles]

Sorry, I don't think I believe that.

I don't either.

CYa,

Pat

[Loves2Shoot]

Strange stuff happens.

I saw that in a .300 whisper barrel that a friend of mine who is a Class III manufacturer had a customer send in because he couldn't hit the paper during sight in. Cutting a cross section of the barrel revealed 6 bullets lined up starting about 2" from the end of the barrel. Apparently his sub sonic loads were too sub sonic

[Carlos]

There is a revolver barrel on display at the Sharpshooters Range (previously Gilberts Small Arms Range) that has been cross-sectioned to reveal all 6 bullets stacked up due to a squib.

The range is located in Springfiled Virginia. Many local shooters have seen this barrel & can confirm.

I do not have reason to doubt the OP.

[Ed Deegan]

To reiterate Carlos post... I have never gone to Sharpshooters range, but The Range in Stafford, VA has the same type thing, except theirs has 7 rounds in a model 10 barrel. The barrel has been sectioned and you can see each round (fmj) in the barrel. The only reason the shooter quit shooting was because the last round jammed at the forcing cone not allowing the cylinder to rotate. I was not there during the event, but the barrel lies on the counter.

The story I have been told is that a security company was introducting new employees to firearms and blah, blah.

next time I go by, I will take a picture.

To OP, Good for you that no one was hurt.

[John Z Sr]

Wear your purple helmet next time for safety Ed

[CSEMARTIN]

This is another reason why I don't like shoot other peoples reloads.

I still can't believe there are people out there willing to run the chrono at a USPSA match. It blows my mind. One of these days we're going to hear a story about an RO getting hurt at the chrono.

[calishootr]

I part time RO at our public range, first day on the job, had to stop someone from tryingto pull the trigger on a squibbed .44 mag, it happens, luckily the guns today are made from very good steel. yrs ago the indoor range i used to run, as a 'test' to see what might happen, they squibbed a ruger security six, and put 7 more behind it, only when the barrel split, did they quit, in that case precautions were taken, ie face shields an body armor were worn, if any ofthis was done to a turn of the century era firearm, im think probably pieces it would end up as...

[Tyro Shooter]

I will testify that that could happen to a Ruger.

One of our clients came in to shoot his Guard qualifacation.

Factory Ammo and a Ruger GP100 in good working order.

he came off the line after shooting 25-30 rounds and said the same speech "theres something wrong with my gun"

on the range I picked up the gun off the table and it had three live rounds in the cylinder and one bullet wedged in the forcing cone.

. . .Yep . . . he'd shot 3 rounds, squibed the forth. . . followed up by two more stacking the barrel now with three

bullets. RELOADED. . and fired three more rounds. . . only to stop when he had run out of room in the barrel for any more lead.

now there are some who would say . nope never happen. . . darned thing would blow up in yer hand fer that could be done.

Yes yes yes . . . A few facts . . .

#1 Ruger revolvers are built BrickSh*t house tough.

#2 We wrote the check to Ruger to replace the barrel $350.00

#3 if it were any other manufacturer's gun the barrel would have given way after the second shot with a modest sized ring and all but acuracy would be fine.

#4 that shooter has learned that if it does not feel,sound,look,taste or smell right . . to STOP!!!

[open17]

Sorry, I don't think I believe that.

I don't either.

CYa,

Pat

Saw a shooter stack 5 or 6 in the barrel of I believe a Ruger GP-100 at a local USPSA match.

The front bullet was hanging about half a bullet out the muzzle. No apparent harm to the

gun. Pictures were taken, and there were a LOT of witnesses!

[GrumpyOne]

Perhaps this should go in the Beginners reloading forum, so when they start reloading, if they only reload for a Ruger, then they at least should be safe from blowing up their gun from squibs!

Rugers may not be the most accurate of pistols (at least the ones I had weren't) but, I will admit, they are extremely durable. A while back, there was a true story about 3 guys who lost a Ryger MK II in a bayou (I think it was in Lousiana). It stayed lost for 10 years. When they dredged the bayou, the dredge crew found it, traced the serial #, and gave it back to the guys. They cleaned it up, loaded it and shot it, after 10 years under water in the bayou. I read this in a Ruger catalog a couple of years ago. Rugers are durable, to say the least.

[Claycogun]

I can understand why people would doubt that it happened to me but it did. I really have no proof that it did but it did. I could tell you 100s of other stories that would be hard to believe too but they did happen. I guess when you do things for a while its just a matter of time before something comes along that stands out.

Oh and here's part of the story that I forgot to mention in the orig post. I at the time shot a lot and I mean everything and anything and the round I shot out of that solid barrel didn't feel any different than any other shot I had made. If someone had told me that was about to happen maybe I would have noticed but not knowing what was about to happen and having fired that shot I can tell you if you are ever in that situation where you are following good loads behind a squib from what I experienced you had better catch it the first time because for whatever reason the muzzle jump, the gasses all exiting the barrel cyl gap and the sound of the round going off just felt like any other 357 shot out of a ruger blackhawk.

Edited July 8, 2010 by Claycogun

[iainmcphersn]

Perhaps this should go in the Beginners reloading forum, so when they start reloading, if they only reload for a Ruger, then they at least should be safe from blowing up their gun from squibs!

Rugers may not be the most accurate of pistols (at least the ones I had weren't) but, I will admit, they are extremely durable. A while back, there was a true story about 3 guys who lost a Ryger MK II in a bayou (I think it was in Lousiana). It stayed lost for 10 years. When they dredged the bayou, the dredge crew found it, traced the serial #, and gave it back to the guys. They cleaned it up, loaded it and shot it, after 10 years under water in the bayou. I read this in a Ruger catalog a couple of years ago. Rugers are durable, to say the least.

I've got a Ruger MK-II that was run over by a tractor. Story is the original owner was plowing and the gun fell out and he ran over it. He sent it back to Ruger and they decided not to fix it and sent him a replacement and sent the old gun back with the end of the barrel crushed. The farmer sold it to a friend of mine that cut the crushed end off the barrel and tinkered a bit trying to get it running again. (The tube receiver sustained most of the damage.) He gave up and sold it to me for parts. I cleaned up the burrs inside the receiver and it runs pretty well. Biggest problem I ran into was the barrel is no longer crushed fitted to the receiver and I've had to locktite it into place.

Rugers are tough.

Edited July 8, 2010 by iainmcphersn

[Guy Neill]

Bullets stacking in the barrel is not all that uncommon and happens for different reasons.

The story I had the most problem with some time back was the full auto Single Action Army.

Best I could tell, without witnessing it, or talking to anyone that did witness it, was that it was a true story ...

But sketicism remains.

Guy

[Ed Deegan]

Here is a pic of the barrel.

[Poppa Bear]

I can understand why people would doubt that it happened to me but it did. I really have no proof that it did but it did. I could tell you 100s of other stories that would be hard to believe too but they did happen. I guess when you do things for a while its just a matter of time before something comes along that stands out.

Oh and here's part of the story that I forgot to mention in the orig post. I at the time shot a lot and I mean everything and anything and the round I shot out of that solid barrel didn't feel any different than any other shot I had made. If someone had told me that was about to happen maybe I would have noticed but not knowing what was about to happen and having fired that shot I can tell you if you are ever in that situation where you are following good loads behind a squib from what I experienced you had better catch it the first time because for whatever reason the muzzle jump, the gasses all exiting the barrel cyl gap and the sound of the round going off just felt like any other 357 shot out of a ruger blackhawk.

Being a revolver, and having a gap between the cylinder and the barrel, you have room for some of the gasses to escape. The gun probably did feel much like it normally would but I bet the flash coming out of the cylinder gap was huge.

[Graham Smith]

Being a revolver, and having a gap between the cylinder and the barrel, you have room for some of the gasses to escape. The gun probably did feel much like it normally would but I bet the flash coming out of the cylinder gap was huge.

That was my first thought as well. I had a squib in a snub nose one time and even with the reduced load, the blast out of the cylinder gap was extraordinary. After unloading, I had a closer look and found a bullet sticking about halfway out of the end of the barrel. <shudder>

[steelplates1]

The Range God was with them all!

Edited September 29, 2010 by steelplates1

[bzinbv]

Not that anyone should need more conformation, but I spent the better part of an evening helping a local teenager remover two slugs from a Ruger. I didn't want to scratch the bore, so I turned down some aluminum stock to press them out. Factory loads too. Ruger’s are tough guns, work fine after clearing the bore.