Deer season starts for us Saturday! Time to sight in a rifle or two! I have a red dot sight on a revolver that the battery died. The sight must be removed to replace the battery. Two screws and two posts so it is positively returns to true. I like to check it anyway. Three shot were excellent. Nothing happened when the hammer dropped on number 4! It would have been very easy to cock the hammer on #5 but I stopped to check. Ejecting the offending case I was greeted with a wad of 296 and not bullet in the case! Somehow the powder did not ignite! The small rifle primer pushed the bullet passed the force cone in to the rifling! Had I shot #5 a max charge of 296 for a 250 grain bullet would have been pushing 500 grains! IF IT DOES NOT SOUND, LOOK, ACT, or FEEL RIGHT, stop and check it!

Damned good advice, Live Oak! May you live longer than your namesake.

Only eternal vigilance will save us from the second situation but selection of sights that don't need batteries will fortify against the first.

That will bulge the barrel on a 44 Ruger; I have fixed them for that same thing. I have one that I sectioned with 13 bullets in it. I asked the guy if he noticed that the target didn't have any holes in it (he reloaded twice), and he said he wasn't hitting it anyway. Just stopped shooting when the cylinder quit turning.
Yeah, I know.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
That will bulge the barrel on a 44 Ruger; I have fixed them for that same thing. I have one that I sectioned with 13 bullets in it. I asked the guy if he noticed that the target didn't have any holes in it (he reloaded twice), and he said he wasn't hitting it anyway. Just stopped shooting when the cylinder quit turning.
Yeah, I know.

These people are allowed to vote too.

A little over 20 years ago I was experimenting with H-110 in a .357 Mag. and lead bullets. Big flash bang ( indoor range ) but no hole in target. Did it again same reaction. Had 2 bullets stuck in the barrel. The flash and bang was the burning powder escaping through the gap between the barrel and the cylinder.The temperature and pressure never got high enough to properly ignite the powder before the bullet entered the barrel. roger

Several years ago, I was shooting handguns with my grandson who was then around 10 years old. It was our (my son, grandson and me) third or fourth time at the range together.

I had instructed Sam extensively in my version of “ground school” before our first session and hammered points between sessions. Among other things I told him that if ANYTHING didn’t seem right about his shot, he should put the gun (a .22 RF S&W 617) down and tell me what his concern was.

On the fateful day, my son was, from behind Sam, keeping an eagle’s eye on him to verify he was adhering to basic safety protocals. I was one or two stations to Sam's left.

After several shots, Sam placed the Smith on the bench and called me over. He said the gun report and recoil didn’t seem right.

Turns out a bullet had lodged in the barrel. I think that particular cartridge lacked a full amount of powder. (I’ve shot many, many thousands of .22s and never had that happen.)

The 617 is a beast of a gun and logic tells me that it could have stacked a bunch of bullets one after the other and survived.

But every time I think of this, I pause and remind myself of how important situational awareness is.

Well done, BL, may your wisdom be passed down many generations.

My fright was hot rodding a S&W 642 with plus P loads. The gun rags said it was OK, right? This was also about 20 years ago, and the first shot of a double tap felt wrong. Close inspection showed a cracked frame. I wonder what would have happened with the next shot? Called S&W to ask about repair, and told them the truth. They said send it in, and they sent me A BRAND NEW 642. Wow, talk about customer service. Most recent purchase from S&W was an M&P 15, I guess I will always try and buy their products, they made a loyal customer.

Once at the M3 Grease Gun range (tank crew weapon was the M3A1 45 cal Sub Machine Gun) we had a soldier fire a full magazine, and none of the bullets came out the barrel. The barrel was stacked from muzzle to breech with bullets. Nothing abnormal noticed. The soldier did not notice the dud and applied immediate action and continued firing. I did not get to keep that barrel. The M3 has one moving part; the bolt. Maybe two. Firing pin part of the bolt face.

I recently bought a pair of Vaqueros. Upon receipt, I noticed that one of them had a ringed barrel. Seems the Previous owner had lodged a bullet, then fired another causing the ring. I replaced the barrel and the first shot I took with it stuck the bullet midway down the barrel. Unlike the PO, I did notice something was not right and quit firing. Turns out the mainsprings had been replaced with lighter ones. I ordered up a new set from Ruger and all is well.

quote:

Originally posted by Live Oak:...Ejecting the offending case I was greeted with a wad of 296 and not bullet in the case! Somehow the powder did not ignite! The small rifle primer pushed the bullet passed the force cone in to the rifling!...

A similar thing happened to my a few years ago in South Africa. One of the animals that I wanted to hunt was a Caracal. I had loaded 168 grain TTSX bullets for the larger animals on my "list", and also a box of 150 grain FMJ bullets for the Caracal.

After I had shot all of the larger animals that I wanted, I re-zeroed my .300 Weatherby for the FMJ bullets. The first animal that we saw that night was an African Civet, and the FMJ bullet worked perfectly on him.

A little later a Caracal came in, and when my PH turned on his light, I squeezed the trigger and just heard a loud CLICK. I cycled the bolt and an "empty" case came out. My first thought was that I hadn't reloaded a new cartridge after I shot the Civet, but I was sure that I had. So I tried to chamber a new cartridge, but it wouldn't fully chamber.

We then found that the ejected case was still half full of powder, and that when the primer went off it did not ignite the powder, but had forced the bullet into the throat of the barrel.

When I got home, I shot all of the rest of the cartridges in that box, and every one of them fired perfectly.