My 1st Squib

[outerlimits]

working on 21 years of this, and had my 1st squib today, in a match. never even heard or felt anything different. thought it was just a bad primer, but after racking 3 rounds and none going into the chamber, it all made sense...something was stopping the bullet from chambering...a squib! luckily with 38 supercomp (or super), a bullet rarely can travel down the barrel very far, stopping the possibility of a loud bang and lots of new parts.

anyway, rest of the match i wondered if there was another case that had that powder in it...since my loads are compressed anyway, there was no way. had me thinking though.

so, the old 550 kicked me in the but...my bad. will put it on my loading bench to remember it by. embarassing...

[Guy Neill]

It's good that the bullet prevented another round from chambering, but no one should count on this if a squib occurs. If any round sounds "different" the gun should be checked.

I've seen a number of bulged barrels from people that did not stop, and I've stopped a couple from firing a second round after experiencing a squib. Better to blow a stage than a gun.

Fortunately, it is very rare for the gun to come apart and injuries are even more rare, but still better not to test things.

Guy

[MikeFoley]

I went to last year's nationals having never had a squib. The day before the match, I went to one of the sight in ranges at PASA and decided to fire five rounds to check my sights. On the first round, hammer down, no slide movement, no noise. I dropped the mag and looked into the chamber, all black. I retrieved the squib rod and sure enough, there it was. Scary part is that it was deep enough to allow another round. In the heat of Nats the next day, I could have racked the slide and fired another round! I put the rest of that 100 round box to the side until Nats was over. I never figured that one out, and all of that recipe are now gone, so I know there was no double. I bought one of the powder check dies from Dillon so that I would have one more defense against this. Can't be too careful on the old reloading bench.

[traxman]

I was scoring the stage outerlimits had the squib load on. I can tell you, I did not hear the squib at all. I did not hear a pop, and thought that I heard the blast.

I have had 3 squib loads in my life, and luckily they occured during load testing and not during string firing or a match.

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outerlimits:

Does the 550 have a spot for a powder checker? If not, just recheck your reloading procedures and be extra aware next time. For the amount of time you've been reloading I'm shocked this is your first squib.

It figures it would happen on your stage. he he.

traxman

[EricW]

One thing that worries me is that people get so hell-bent on tactical jam clearing so that they don't blow a stage that they risk blowing up their guns. To me, an extra 30 seconds on a stage to avoid flushing $2K down the crapper (and a hospital trip) is time well spent.

Safety is more important than winning.

I'm glad you're OK.

[Scooter]

So no one else heard the squib? Last time someone had a squib at a match, a bunch of people in the peanut gallery all yelled stop. It was almost like Pavlov's dog.

[sargenv]

The most interesting Squib I ever saw was in a 625. It had enough punch to get the bullet out of the cylinder, but not quite enough to get out of the forcing cone and into the barrel. So it was stuck between the Cylinder and the barrel. How do you unload and show clear when you can't get the cylinder open? We had the shooter bag it, take it to another empty shooting bay, and someone knocked the bullet back into the cylinder. It was interesting to say the least.

Vince

[XRe]

We had the shooter bag it, take it to another empty shooting bay, and someone knocked the bullet back into the cylinder. It was interesting to say the least.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds like you did the right thing - the gun couldn't be operated like that, anyhow (the cylinder couldn't be moved). Generally, do the most sensible, safest thing you can determine, that keeps everyone safe... No reason to hurry w/ it, either

[Gun Geek]

I had a couple of squibs back when I thought a single stage 'chucker was actually safer than a 650 (single stages are safer than progressives and all that crap). I knew immediately what they were and stopped.

I have seen 5 squibs with wolf ammo. 2 of them left the bullet sticking out the end of the barrel. The others were far enough in the barrel that I yelled stop as an RO. On guy racked in another round and me and 5 or 6 guys hit the deck.