Hangfires and Cook-offs

[Vern Humphrey]

I'ts unnerving to settle the crosshairs on a nice buck, squeeze and hear *click*. Then raise up to see what happened and "BOOM".

The Chief of Police in Eagle, Colorado had that happen to him some years back. He was after black bear with a muzzle loader and got a "click."

While he was trying to think of bear for, "Hey, I was only funnin' ya. I wouldn't really shoot ya," he got the "Boom." The bullet hit the bear in the neck and killed hiim.

 

[LeonCarr]

I had a Mini-14 "cook-off" on me about 15 years ago. I was shooting at a tree stump , had emptied a 40 round magazine at said tree stump, and had reloaded with another 40 round magazine. 10 rounds into that second magazine, it went full auto until the bolt locked back. Mini-14s with their skinny pencil barrels get hot very very fast, and will cook off.

The tree stump never had a chance .

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[Slugless]

Oooh, I had a couple hangfires once. I did not like them.

SIG P226, .357 SIG. I was shooting Remington UMC ammo and I noticed these yellowish flakes in the pistol action. After shooting a while the pistol did not fire after I pulled the trigger.

The drill is to keep the piece pointed downrange for X seconds, right, and after about a second it fired. After it did it a second time I put it away.

When I cleaned it I checked the chamber & there was a bunch of carbon in a few spots. I figure the case wasn't seated quite as far as usual and the firing pin didn't get up to full speed before striking. Dunno. But I've never bought UMC ammo since.

 

[tbtrout]

I have only had cook offs with a Ma Duece. I have had a few hangfires with different rifles though.

 

[Trebor]

I have never had a hangfire. I am aware of the possibility of it happening with my mil-surp rifles firing surplus ammo, so I always keep the gun pointed down range and wait 30 seconds if I get a failure to fire. So far I've had rounds either go off on the second hit after recocking the striker or not go off at all. No hangfires yet though.

As to cook off's, they are more common in full-auto weapons or semi-auto's fired very, very quickly. Never had that happen yet either.

 

[tkkr]

I had a hangfire last week with a federal tactical bonded .45 round. It was a good second and a half before it decided to fire, the primer strike was very shallow.

 

[Deanimator]

A friend in college in the '70s bought a case of surplus FN .30-06 ball. There were every bit of 50% hang filres <click... BANG!>

 

[B yond]

Had my first hang-fires last weekend with my new 1860 Army Cap and Ball revolver.

Didn't have a proper powder flask for it so I loaded up a bunch of paper cartridges at home with my reloading scale. When I got to the range a couple of the cartridges gave me hang-fires. Probably just took a second for the spark from the cap to eat through the paper and get to the powder.

I did have one round that never went off. I stood there with the weapon pointed downrange for a good 5 minutes waiting for it. That was unsettling: I was afraid it would go off as soon as i started to rotate the cylinder and blow the gun apart. I put another cap on it and it shot just fine.

 

[rcmodel]

but my friend had his .22 LR cookoff on Sunday while at the range.

IMO: Your friend pulled the trigger by accident.

No .22 RF can possibly get hot enough to cause a cook-off.

In fact, it would be very difficult to get even a semi-auto .223 or .308 hot enough.

It is common of full auto weapons that fire from a closed bolt however.

Other then that, it enters into the realm of impossible.
Changing mags, reloading, slow rate of semi-auto fire etc. do not allow enough heat build-up to occur to cause cook-offs.


rcmodel

 

[TEDDY]

hang fire

watched a hang fire once when we were shooting a french hotckiss.the round failed to fire and the gunner was told to wait,he didnot and the round was in the air about 6 ft ahead and to right of gun when it went SNAP.the empty came back and cut the gunners right arm and then landed about 25 ft away at my wifes feet was she suprised.no they dont explode.I have been pulling that same ammo and then firing the primers in my bertier.some go off and some go fitz and some dont go off.:banghead:

 

[Intune]

Try having one as the loader of an M60A3 tank. "ON THE WAY" click... "ON THE WAY!" click... Oh, oh. Now the TC has the gunner try the manual charge, kinda like the old dynamite box with the handle you push down except that this is a little red handle that you twist fast. "ON THE WAY!" ZZzzz... Repeat. ZZzzz... O.K., O.K. Breathe. This stuff is not as frickin' fun as it was sixty seconds ago 'cause I know what's coming. What's that knocking sound? Aw, hell. Their knees would be too if they weren't all sitting. Besides, it's MY crotch that's right next to the breech despite my best efforts to expand the steel turret. Bruce Lee & Jackie Chan didn't have squat on me, I was ninja'd ALL up against that turret wall, Spidey senses all atwitter... A FatHead poster has more dimensions than I possessed at that moment. Whatever happened to that cavalier attitude of the baddest mofo in the Valley, 60 tons of Rolling Thunder...? mommy...

Remember when I said I know what's coming? I have to open the breech, remove the 105mm HEAT round (which, to my mind is now a BOMB) push it up through the hatch & toss it away from the tank.

WRONG! This was during peacetime at a Graf range in Germany. We waited 15 min for the EOD guys (keeping the gun downrange. Amazing how safety works, eh?) to show up. We were never in any danger. Wartime, get that sucka outta there & reload. Be careful out there.

Oh, my TC was the Battalion CO. We only broke the rules when he felt like it. This wasn't one of those days!

 

[Hank Zudd]

I had a four course cookoff one day,,,

on a range one day, our company was shooting one of everything we had in the arms room. On the M-60 line, i was in about the 3rd stick to shoot a 100 round belt off a tripod. My weapon jammed, couldn't get it cleared & working so the NCOIC says to use the gun next to me which was still smokin' from use. As soon as I locked & loaded, pulled the trigger & the frist round just went pop with some smoke. Couldn't pull the bolt back on this one, so since I was the last one on the range I just broke off the belt & turned in the unused ammo. The armorer removed the gun from the firing line.
Next day he told me they had to take it to the support maintence shop & have it destroyed, as the bolt, barrel & reciever were welded together. Nice.

 

[Owen]

I don't think its possible for a .22LR to without a belt feed or several dozen large preloaded magazines.

 

[CZ 42]

Good way to teach a new shooter, give him crappy ammo... Maybe stick old 54R surp in a mosin interspersed with empty cases. That'll teach him/her 'gun control'.

 

[4v50 Gary]

I was shooting a flintlock smoothbore muzzleloader today that regularly hangfired. The frizzen spring was too strong and the frizzen wouldn't spring forward. Thus, fewer sparks fell into the pan and the slight pause before ignition. It's too slow for bird hunting but may work for deer (if loaded with buck 'n ball).

Considering that the gun was entirely hand made in Africa (and certainly would not meet the standards of European or English craftsmanship), I wouldn't complain.

 

[rallyhound]

So how can a gun go full auto due to as hot barrel/chamber?
I can see 1 round cooking off after firing has stopped but surely the next round will not cook off in the 1/2 second it is in the chamber.

It must take at least some time for the round to get hot enough to cook off.
some here say their gun went full auto and emptied the mag, I call BS.

Even if the sear distorted enough not to engage they still has a disconnecter.

Will hammer follow reliably fire most rounds?

 

[davepool]

All that have had this(cook off) happen to them, should read the current thread on JPFO's interview with Len Savage, it's quite interesting. You better hope the wrong people aren't near by when this happens to your semi auto

 

[herohog]

I had PLENTY of hang-fires in my .303 P-14 and my 8mm FN-49 and Hakim, all with surplus ammo. Longest was a second or two. Most of the time it was click.bang... a few milliseconds or so, enough to hear and make ya waver off target if ya weren't prepared for it. After a while, ya learn to just hold stady... ya can still hit the 10 ring if yer patient!