Inspect your ammunition

[Jake Di Vita]

5 stage match, was smoking through the first four, probably one of the better shooting experiences I've had.  Get to the last stage, step up to the line, load and make ready, buzzer...  Beautiful draw, good sight picture, and a nasty click.  So I tap rack and bang, only to be followed by another click.  Turns out I had brought dummy rounds with me I use to practice reloads, got mixed in with the box and yeah it hurt(my pride that is).  I meticulously check each round now before I load into the mag.

[Bigbadaboom]

  At the Florida state match I was shooting with a Master class Limited shooter who was staying at the top of the Master pack. On our last stage of the match I watched in agony as he fired a "POP NO KICK" or a squib as most shooters call it. He zeroed the stage and ended up finishing 16th overall Limited.

  OH!! By the way! He had let someone else load his ammo for him.

[Ron Ankeny]

Ya ever notice how a round can get turned around backwards in a .40 STI mag when it hits the ground? Well, I picked a mag up and topped it off without even noticing the round was backwards. Half way through the next stage the pistol cycled and tried to chamber the round primer end first. I wasn't amused.

[Bigbadaboom]

 Ron,

 I did the same thing and when I tried to correct the malfunction the hollow point got jammed into the ejector and I thought my gun had somehow welded itself and NOTHING would move. Took me 20 min. to fix it. Thank goodness it happened during practice.

[grassy knoll]

first squib load

i just weighed all of the ammo i had and i guess i was just lucky (unlucky?) that the only round that had no powder in it was the first round that got chambered into my gun this morning

i remembered as i was sitting at the loading bench what happened last night while i was loading the batch, at one point the shoulder screw which goes through the powder measure roller and holds the powder measure bell crank had loosened off and fell out, i am thinking that at that point i must have passed the round which had no powder on that stroke onto the next stage and seated in a bullet, - this being the round that i chambered this morning -

lesson learned about reloading my own ammo - check- check and double check