Squib

[noylj]

Today, I had a squib.
1) I didn't know it. The slide cycled but the case didn't eject. Since this .38 Super likes HOT loads and this wasn't a hot load. Next round jammed (Thank God). Pulled it out and saw some bullet set-back. Tried another round and it jammed. Light dawned. Look down barrel. No light.
Doing load work-up on a 1050. Station 5 is the Lee PTE acting as a powder funnel with each load weighed on my ChargeMaster. Station 6 is a Lock-Out die. Station 7 is bullet seating and Station 8 is crimp.
I have no idea how I could get an uncharged case, but I obviously did.
Fail safe is not totally safe.

 

[Walkalong]

The slide did not cycle, or it would have ejected the case. It may have been pushed back a bit and then went back into battery, but it didn't cycle.

Hope you find the cause.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=523172

 

[1SOW]

Your squib sounds like a "primer only" event.
Happened to me earlier this year and it went to the end of the bbl. Luckily it sounded different. I froze and didn't fire the next round that chambered fine, and several watchers yelled too.

I suspect I let the primer or powder get 'contaminated' with oil, but never really found out. I've added reloading "rules" to help prevent anything like this--I hope.

 

[kingmt]

I have stuck several intentionally & have never had one cycle the next round in the chamber. Even .1gr under the last one that made it out. My slide stops functioning long before a bullet sticks.

 

[MtnCreek]

Station 6 is a Lock-Out die

Is this the Dillon powder check? IMO, the Dillon powder check design is not consistant with Dillon standards. The plastic arm/lever under the alarm is designed to flex, but it should have been built from a stiffer material. I keep these checks set so that the plastic arm flexes all the way until it make contact with the bottom of the alarm.

 

[noylj]

The Lock-Out die is made by RCBS. Don't want to rely on a battery to alert me. I like the press to just freeze-up and force me to solve the problem.
Except for my problem (and all I can think of is that somehow, someway, I got out of sync but I sure don't remember short stroking or advancing the shell plate other then by a full stroke), After about 2 years of using a Lock-Out die, I have not had one case that hung up be because the charge weight was wrong. It has always been due to case capacity differences from mixed brass. The die is, in my opinion, too sensitive. But better than than too insensitive.
This is why I am so lost. There was no bad battery to explain things.
The slide went back far enough to attempt to load the next round while the "fired" round was stuck in the ejection port.
When I pounded the bullet out, it was stopped at the rifling and there is not a single rifling mark on it. All I can see is the bullet didn't make it out of the case and was trapped at the rifling. When the slide started going back, the "system" may have had enough "stored energy" to actually push the case away from the bullet and that shoved the slide back at least most of the way.
I have NEVER had a squib that did not go into the rifling before and I have never had a squib that didn't sound like a squib. This sounded and felt like a light target load, with a fired case and next round jamming up the works.