Squib procedures?

[george burns]

I had a box of Tul 9mm sitting in my ammo drawer for a couple of yrs. yesterday I test fired the LCP I bought my wife. As long as I was going anyway, I decided to fire a few mags out of my carry gun, a PM9 that I carry for about 6 years now.
I noticed a primer that looked discolored, so I put that round off to the side.
I later forgot about it and loaded it with a mag full of the same 9mm Tul. eedless to say it went Pffffffft, and I waited about a minute with the gun pointed downrange, and finally dropped the mag and ejected it onto the floof.
I went and got the only guy there at the time to infom him of what happened.
He started to tell me what it was called, to which I politely told him, I know what it's called, what do you want to do with the round, it's on the floor. He advised me to leave it there.
That can't be right, can it?
Needless to say I cleaned both weapons today, and the firing pin channel had some green crud on it, same color as that primer was.

 

[jeepnik]

I've had that happen with some off brands of ammo, but never any of my reloads. Kind of gives you an idea on both of our quality control.

As far as clearing the weapon you did fine. But, I usually set them aside and next time I'm reloading I disassemble the round and examine it. Sometime you learn things. Like the two I had that didn't have any powder in the case.

I don't bother notifying the R. O. of any issues unless it is likely to effect others. It's my responsibility as the shooter to deal with my issues.

 

[LiveLife]

Squib procedures?

9mm Tul ... went Pffffffft, and I waited about a minute with the gun pointed downrange, and finally dropped the mag and ejected it onto the floor.

I went and got the only guy there ... He advised me to leave it there.

That can't be right, can it?

With any squib round, I always make sure the barrel is clear (check for lodged bullet inside the barrel).

He was correct but you could have tossed the round in the trash or recycle bin for shooters who reload.

Round going "Pffffft" is likely from bad primer, low/no powder or both and if TulAmmo used steel case, only thing that may be reused is the bullet. If round was brass cased, both case and bullet could be reused but would still go into the recycle bin or shooters who reload would pick up the round.

 

[RecoilRob]

I've always wondered what the longest 'hang-fire' could be? Have seen them about 2 full second between 'click'...and BANG! But no longer. Most hang-fires are pretty close together but noticeably not instantaneous.

Isn't a 'squib' one that actually gets the bullet into the barrel...or at least forcing cone? In that case only the case would be ejected and no longer any issue. If it's a misfire, then keeping the weapon pointed downrange for a bit just in case it hang-fires a good thing. A 5 second count should be enough to ensure safety before ejecting the dud...I think.

My CZ-52 does NOT like some Yugo ammo I've got tons of, and even with an H&R firing pin setup and fresh hammer spring it's about 80% at best getting them to go off. This gets maddening to stand there waiting after the 'click' before ejecting and continuing on to the next attempt. To their credit, that Yugo has never hang-fired in that gun...if it doesn't go BANG instantly...it's not going to until perhaps the next try. So after many, many duds, I rack the slide without waiting the full 5 seconds and have been instructed by others that I'm reckless and dangerous. Well..can't argue that, but in the case of the CZ-52 I'm pretty sure it's OK to treat this way.

 

[hdwhit]

If round was brass cased, both case and bullet could be reused

...so long as the brass was boxer primed.

I've come across so many brass cases that were berdan primed that I have started adding an inspection step of checking the case with a flashlight if I don't know for sure it is boxer primed.

 

[cbnoble]

I've always wondered what the longest 'hang-fire' could be? Have seen them about 2 full second between 'click'...and BANG! But no longer. Most hang-fires are pretty close together but noticeably not instantaneous.

Isn't a 'squib' one that actually gets the bullet into the barrel...or at least forcing cone? In that case only the case would be ejected and no longer any issue. If it's a misfire, then keeping the weapon pointed downrange for a bit just in case it hang-fires a good thing. A 5 second count should be enough to ensure safety before ejecting the dud...I think.

My CZ-52 does NOT like some Yugo ammo I've got tons of, and even with an H&R firing pin setup and fresh hammer spring it's about 80% at best getting them to go off. This gets maddening to stand there waiting after the 'click' before ejecting and continuing on to the next attempt. To their credit, that Yugo has never hang-fired in that gun...if it doesn't go BANG instantly...it's not going to until perhaps the next try. So after many, many duds, I rack the slide without waiting the full 5 seconds and have been instructed by others that I'm reckless and dangerous. Well..can't argue that, but in the case of the CZ-52 I'm pretty sure it's OK to treat this way.

I've always been taught to wait 30 seconds, but that seems like an eternity when you're sitting there waiting.

We were shooting some 7.62x54R over the weekend that was horrible for hang fires. 3-4 seconds was long, but not uncommon. Most of them were in the two second range. We were testing a mixed lot to decide if we wanted to buy. 10% were complete failures to fire and another 10-15% were hang fires. Needless to say, the rest of the lot is all going back.....

 

[Dean1818]

To me a squib has always been a bullet partially down the chamber

A FTF is what I would call your situation. Or.... A "dud"

I would wait 20-30 seconds

I had your situation occur in a few cases with a box or two of old 1950s Yugo 8mm mauser ammo.....

I ended up putting them to the side... not worth the 25% failure rate


I did have my first squib this year on a 40 cal in my Shield

It was 6 year old (plus) carry ammo (HP) that I was getting rid of

The primer fired correctly, but the powder didn't ignite.
(it wasnt one of my reloads, but a factory load)

I believe the culprit was actually a very light oil that I had used on my barrel area for a few years. Over the years, I would go to the range and unload my carry ammo, shoot my reloads, then reload with the carry ammo after I lubed and oiled the gun.

The powder was caked like it had moisture when I took apart the gun

I tapped it out with a wooden dowel rod

 

[george burns]

No it was a squib, the bullet was intact with the case, only the primer partially ignited, it either rotted out or was otherwise damaged as I mentioned, I had put it to the side after visuslly checking it prior to loading. But made the mistake of picking it up later on when shooting. The ejected round was intact.

 

[ilbob]

most ranges that I have shot on have a dud box for rounds that fail to go bang. I never heard of a range that would want a dud left on the floor.

if the round went "pffft" as you stated that would imply to me some kind of ignition that started but failed to complete normally.

I don't know why you felt the need to inform anyone of it.