Will accidentally firing a .380 ACP round through 9x19 Mm damage the gun?

[sherman123]

Long story short a friend and I were shooting a LCP and Glock 19 over the weekend and I made a very stupid mistake and accidentally put a single round of .380 FMJ through my Glock 19. It fired but failed to eject and I didn't see any(noticeable) damage. I definitely learned a lesson and will no.longer have similar caliber guns and ammo out at the same time when shooting. Is my G19 safe to shoot again or would this need to be inspected further?

 

[FL-NC]

I'm sure its fine- Glocks are very forgiving of such screw-ups. Once upon a time, a 9mm round ended up in one of my Glock 23 (40 S&W) mags at the range. Similar results to what happened to you- that gun is fine.

 

[ATLDave]

You are hardly the first person to have done this. You fired a lower-powered, lower-pressured round that was headspacing on the extractor (not the casemouth). I'd give the chamber a good cleaning, since the chamber/barrel mouth is probably pretty sharp (unlike the forcing cone in a revolver), and it might have collected either some shaved jacket/coating (which could pose chambering problems with 9mm rounds that do reach all the way to the end of the chamber with their cases!). The barrel and chamber may also be slightly dirtier than usual. You might also give a quick look to make sure the extractor didn't get dinged/chipped/bent, but that is very, very unlikely.

Beyond that.... I'm not going to tell you anything is "safe," but I personally wouldn't worry about it. (But not based on it being a Glock - would feel the same about any decently-made 9mm parabellum).

 

[Jack B.]

This is a rule at one of the ranges that I belong to. IMO I would recommend that everyone make this their personal safety habit.
MASTER RANGE SAFETY RULES AND SAFETY POLICIES
1.6 USE THE CORRECT AMMUNTION FOR YOUR FIREARM. 1.6.1 It is the shooter’s responsibility to ensure that only suitable ammunition is used in each firearm. It is recommended that a shooter only bring one firearm and its associated ammunition to the firing line at a time.

 

[George P]

will no.longer have similar caliber guns and ammo out at the same time

There ya go; now go clean the gun and go shooting.

I always make sure to bring very disparate cartridges if I am taking more than one to a range. .22 and 9mm, 38 and .45, etc. - easiest way to avoid what happened.

 

[Jim Watson]

Once upon a time, there was a government agency that issued Beretta 9mms. Part of the training was malfunction clearance. They could induce a malfunction at will by slipping a .380 into a magazine of 9mm. It would feed and fire, but not function, leaving the trainee with a Problem.
I don't recommend it in a personally owned weapon, but it isn't really going to hurt. But there are mismatches that will, so don't mess with it.

 

[ATLDave]

But there are mismatches that will, so don't mess with it.

\

Yep! For instance, a 300 blackout in a 223 is a kaboom about 100% of the time. Or 9mm major (a non-SAAMI loading typically well beyond +P intended for use in certain specialized race guns), which is literally indistinguishable from regular old 9mm in many standard 9mm pistols (one reason never to fire ammo you found on the ground).

 

[Jim Watson]

SAAMI has a long list of unsafe combinations, but some are pretty trivial.
My 9mm Luger (Parabellum) guns shouldn't get 9mm NATO (Military)? Puhleeze.

 

[The Evangelist Cowboy]

There ya go; now go clean the gun and go shooting.

I always make sure to bring very disparate cartridges if I am taking more than one to a range. .22 and 9mm, 38 and .45, etc. - easiest way to avoid what happened.

I once put a .38 into a 1911 magazine... No it didnt chamber but boy did I feel stupid.

 

[George P]

One of the more dangerous scenarios involves shotguns and that is putting a 20 bore shell in a 12 bore gun. It will slip down just enough so a 12 ga shell will chamber and if you pull the trigger, the pressures are stratospheric and inherently very bad. One of the reasons you see 20 is yellow, 16 is typically purple (but not always!).

 

[Tallball]

My FiL did it by mistake once. It bound his pistol up somehow and he waited until he got home to field strip it, or whatever he had to do. His wife asked what he was doing. He gave her some kind of vague answer... but I spilled the beans. I got his very best scowl, but it didn't hurt the pistol any.

I've learned to only have one box of ammo at a time on the firing bench.

 

[Slamfire]

Your pistol is fine. You did not damage your pistol in the slightest. I have a number of 380 cases that were fired in a Kimber 1911 compact in 9mm Lugar. I was at the range and this older man was racking the slide on his Kimber 1911 each and every shot, and being the nosy busybody that I am, chock full of wonderful advice , I had to see what the problem was. I thought he had not lubricated his pistol, because that has happened before, new pistol, dry pistol, not cycling. After lubing his pistol, and some of his ammunition, we got the thing to cycle once in a while, not reliably though. (lubricating ammunition breaks the friction between case and chamber and facilities extraction) It was not until I looked at the ammo box, and saw "380" auto, did I realize that he was shooting 380 ACP in a 9mm pistol. The cases with 380 ACP stamped on the bottom, would have been an obvious tip off had I examined them. Didn't. I made the mistake of assuming that the owner knew the proper ammunition to use in his pistol. Closely examining the cases I determined that the smaller diameter 380 brass had swollen out to the chamber walls and formed a gas seal. The brass was good, because it had not cracked or ripped, which can happen in situations where under size brass is fired in a huge chamber.

One of these day's I am going to take pictures of this brass and post them. A couple of glaciers will probably be gone by the time I do this. Florida might be under water too.

The 380 case is shorter than the 9mm, also it is smaller in diameter. At least around the case head. The 1911 has a claw extractor and that held the case head close enough to the breech to allow the firing pin to ignite the primer. Once the powder ignited, the case was shoved against the breech face, swelled up to form a gas seal. The bullet went out the barrel, may have hit what you were aiming at, and because the 380 ACP is of lesser power than the 9mm, your gun did not cycle.

Now if the case head had ruptured, which could happen, not saying it won't happen, and incidentally, it could happen with crappy 9mm cases, then you would have had a whole different outcome. Like what happened when this awful Amerc ammunition was fired in this nice Glock. The case head blew and the pistol sort of disassembled.









Don't worry about damage to your pistol, there should be none, zippo, nada. But don't make this a practice. Might not be so lucky next time.

 

[edwardware]

Is my G19 safe to shoot again. . .

Yes, it's safe. Yes, inspect the barrel to make sure you cleaned it. Done.

As noted above, loading a .380ACP into a magazine of 9mm is a longstanding method of inducing stoppages in training. Judging by the number of tapered .380ACP brass I find, it's a common mistake; just in front of rebated-rim-.40 brass.

 

[MidRoad]

One of the more dangerous scenarios involves shotguns and that is putting a 20 bore shell in a 12 bore gun. It will slip down just enough so a 12 ga shell will chamber and if you pull the trigger, the pressures are stratospheric and inherently very bad. One of the reasons you see 20 is yellow, 16 is typically purple (but not always!).

A friend of mine dropped a 20 ga shell shell in a 12 ga when we were kids (maybe the other way around,not sure)Anyways his family held a HUGE skeet/trap shoot every new year's day at their home range .My friend grabbed a pocket full of 20 ga shells by accident and he was using a 12ga O/U. (Or visa versa).Never got to see what happened though. Don't remember if it failed to fire or it did something else ( I was 12-13 so this was 15 years ago). But i do remember him having an issue with it and his dad coming over looking at the gun and cuffing him good in the back of the head . Than saying something about not paying attention and you know better than that,or something along those lines

 

[Jim Watson]

A guy here had a more expensive caliber error. It took a cascade of misfortune after his mistake, but stuff happens.
He has a high end switch-top racegun; a .40 upper for USPSA Limited and a complete 9mm upper for Three Gun.
He got a 9mm cartridge partway down the .40 barrel, followed it up with a .40 and demolished the upper.
Mistakes on his part, misfortune that the 9mm did not hang on the extractor or slide all the way out.
About a $600 blunder.

 

[Catpop]

One of the more dangerous scenarios involves shotguns and that is putting a 20 bore shell in a 12 bore gun. It will slip down just enough so a 12 ga shell will chamber and if you pull the trigger, the pressures are stratospheric and inherently very bad. One of the reasons you see 20 is yellow, 16 is typically purple (but not always!).

I’ve seen this happen first hand at a turkey shoot! But fortunately it was caught before it went off!!!!!!

 

[Catpop]

\

Yep! For instance, a 300 blackout in a 223 is a kaboom about 100% of the time. Or 9mm major (a non-SAAMI loading typically well beyond +P intended for use in certain specialized race guns), which is literally indistinguishable from regular old 9mm in many standard 9mm pistols (one reason never to fire ammo you found on the ground).

I have no experience with 300 blackout. So don’t laugh to hard at me!
I don’t see how a ar15 will go to battery with a 30 cal projective in a .224 throat?

 

[ATLDave]

I don’t see how a ar15 will go to battery with a 30 cal projective in a .224 throat?

Here's how:





In words: The 30 cal projectile is not going into the throat, or at least not as far as its full diameter. Instead, the ogive of the .30 cal bullet lands on the shoulder of the chamber - right where a .223 shoulder would land for proper headspacing. Because the brass is shorter, the bolt can still close, and the firing pin can still pop the primer.

 

[22250Rem]

I, too was wondering about that 300 Blackout chambering in a 223.... Thanks for posting that and clearing that up.

 

[sota]

not the first time those pics have made the rounds here. and probably not the last.

 

[edwardware]

Because the brass is shorter, the bolt can still close, and the firing pin can still pop the primer.

And then the swaging begins!



This .308 bullets get looong down .224 bore.

 

[fouled bore]

Here's how:

View attachment 798402

View attachment 798403

In words: The 30 cal projectile is not going into the throat, or at least not as far as its full diameter. Instead, the ogive of the .30 cal bullet lands on the shoulder of the chamber - right where a .223 shoulder would land for proper headspacing. Because the brass is shorter, the bolt can still close, and the firing pin can still pop the primer.

I have imagined that's what it would look like, thanks for the visual.

 

[fouled bore]

And then the swaging begins!

View attachment 798404

This .308 bullets get looong down .224 bore.

So how did that not blow up the chamber?

 

[Jim Watson]

Don't get excited, somebody computed that you can't spin stabilize a projectile with a length to diameter ratio of more than 5 to 1.

 

[edwardware]

So how did that not blow up the chamber?

Because the barrel (chamber) isn't the fuse in a AR, the bolt lugs are. That incident probably blew the bolt (sans lugs) out the back of the barrel extension, like this: