A Near Revolver Blow Up

[MichiganShootist]

I teach the classes in Michigan required to receive a concealed pistol license. At my CPL classes yesterday. A 68 year old neighbor of mine was taking the class. He was shooting a beautiful old Colt Trooper 38 special revolver. (adjustable factory sights and bluing to die for). He collects vintage Colts....

When we started doing the shooting exercises I happened to be standing right beside his right shoulder. He fired two rounds out of the cylinder and on the third round the gun made a bang.... but not as loud as usual. I screamed cease fire... and he had already started to lower the gun and look toward me... 'cause he must have heard the gun sound weird too.

I took the pistol in my hand and opened the cylinder. Sure enough his reloads had generated a squib..... but the worst kind..... 'cause the bullet was stuck over one inch past the back edge of the forcing cone IN THE BARREL. So the cylinder would turn freely and if he had pulled the trigger again..... there would have been a blow up. The bullets were partially jacketed hollow points.

He has been reloading since the 60s and uses a single stage system... so I don't know how he got a low volume of powder... but I doubt that a primer alone would have forced the bullet that far into the grooves.

The next exercise was double taps.... which would have been a disaster.

The newest rule in my classes is.........

No Reloads Allowed.

[aerosigns]

Michigan,

First I know how that Squib thing goes. Really sucks, especially if your at the Nationals when you decide to have one (or two).

Among other things I train shooters (and looters) for a living. Don't be lulled into thinking that it is a reload specific issue.

We discussed it in another link, but while using factory Remington ammo one of my shooters had a squib one night. Cleared it OK, all went well and we proceeded. The next night we had another squib, but the shooter didn't notice and packed 4 more bullets in behind number 1. While the gun (Model 65 4" HB) didn't blow up, it was damaged enough to total it out.

The greater good in you classes, if you don't already is to brief every class about squibs. I have a briefing for every group, every time on the range. One item I always cover is what a squib sounds, feels, and looks like. Now I have a nice training prop to demonstrate with.

Glad to hear that your case ended with the best possible outcome.

[jasond]

A guy at my club last week had one go "poof", left an empty in the chamber of an auto because it didn't cycle, but the bullet made it out. CCI blazer alu. case. I'm not sure what kind of gun, some sort of plastic bottomfeeder.

do no powder squibs generally tie the gun up? I keep a squib rod in my bag to ward them off, it's worked so far.

[ihatepickles]

One item I always cover is what a squib sounds, feels, and looks like.

This is good mojo, I loaded up 2 squibs not long ago and went to the range with a squib rod. It's an easy lesson for anyone that reloads.

[MichiganShootist]

Jasond - -

In semi autos a no powder squib "generally" won't cycle the gun and/or the bullet is not forced far enough into the cylinder to allow the next round to chamber.

A no powder load in a revolver "generally" doesn't push the bullet past the back of the forcing cone... so the cylinder won't revolve and the next round can't be fired.

No powder loads are generally much less dangerous. for those reasons..... A light powder charge however can leave the barrel "plugged" creating a potentially dangerous problem.

The scary thing about my little "event" was that they guy was shooting pretty hot loads in an antique 38 spl. revolver....... rather than light 38 loads in a modern .357.

Oh Yes - - - squibs are covered in the pre-shooting briefing... but in rapid fire it's damn hard if not impossible to react quick enough to not pull the trigger at least once more after the "pop".

[David Sinko]

I was competing in an IDPA match in the days of 125 PF in the 625 and heard what I thought was a click. The SO heard what he said was the primer pop but could not stop me in time. I remember firing the next round normally and the bullet (or possibly two of them) going into the head exactly where I had aimed. I never heard the "pop" and thought I had a misfire. So either the bullet was stuck somewhere in the barrel and was shot out with the next one or else it had just barely made it out of the muzzle. There was no way for me to know. I would expect that if there were barely enough powder in the case to get the bullet out of the barrel, then I would've heard at least some kind of report.

Does anybody remember the "official" version of the death of Brandon Lee? I believe the story is that a primer alone generated the force to lodge a jacketed bullet in the barrel deep enough to clear the cylinder gap, which was followed with a blank that subsequently launched the squib bullet that killed him. Sorry if this has already been discussed at length or if this is not the proper place, but it is relevant and important.

Dave Sinko

[aerosigns]

Brandon Lee - The gun hostler decided to make his own blanks, and props. So he went out and bought a box of factory ammo to make the needed materials.

First he made the props by taking the powder out and replacing the bullet. This is so that when the camera looks in at the end of the gun, you see bullets in the chambers. They had fired at least one during filming. (Hostler didn't remove the primer).

Later they were filming with full power blanks. When fired the full power blank had enough pressure to actually fire the bullet that was lodged in the barrel.

Again, proof positive that stupid people shouldn't play with guns.

Edited February 27, 2007 by aerosigns