My son (13) and I decided to get in some range time yesterday while my daughter was on a date (cringe), and my younger son was having a sleep over with his grandparents. We planned to break in the virgin MP5 clone I purchased about 2 weeks ago, and let him shoot my 1911 in 9mm that he'd never shot. We warmed up with a mag each on the 1911 at 7 yards (our normal warmup distance), but we where both really excited about trying out the MP5. I popped the first 5 rounds out of it, and was EXTREMELY happy with it. I laid it down and gave him the lane while watching over his shoulder. After 2 rounds, he turned around with the biggest smile on his face! I laughed and told him to burn the rest of the mag, which he did more than happily. I reloaded the mag and made it though about 22 of the 30 rounds, and it stopped feeding. I dropped the mag, and saw I had a failure to feed. The round was MOSTLY seated, but the bolt wouldn't go into battery. I tried a few times, and decided I didn't want to waste anymore lane time, and we switched back to the 1911. I loaded up a mag for him and stepped over to the empty lane next to us to have a slightly more detailed look at the MP5. I used my phone to try and look into the chamber, but couldn't see anything. On a whim, I decided to shine the light up the barrel from the muzzle, no light in the chamber with the bolt locked back. About that time he finished his mag, and wanted to know if the MP5 was back in play, sadly I told him no. We each shot another mag from the 1911, and packed all up. While checking out, I asked if the range had a gunsmith on staff, they said yes, but not today. I explained about my squib, and he said the had someone that might be able to look at it, if there was a break in the line (abnormally busy for some reason). We milled around for a bit, and the line maintained it's length, so I just let him know I would bring it by later. The gentleman who was going to look at it over heard and asked if he could just look at it over the counter to cage how bad it was. With his pocket light, we could much clearer see it was just out of the chamber into the barrel. He suggested I could try and tap it back into the chamber with a brass cleaning rod, if I had one. I do and told him I would give it a shot, and if that didn't work, I would bring it back later this week. Once my son and I got home, we unpacked and I dug out my cleaning rods. I wasn't sure how much force it would take, so I put in my handle end with the plastic T-grip and gave it a light tap. It immediately popped back into the chamber, Flipping it over it fell out onto my cleaning pad. The bullet only had rifling marks about 1/4 way up the copper jacket. We where shooting basic white box FMJs, so nothing fancy. I called my son in and tossed him the bullet and proudly proclaimed "There, you've now caught a bullet from an MP5." We both had a laugh, and it's now on his nightstand with this first 22LR round casing, and his first 9mm round casing. I was shooting at the time when I got the squib, but I can't say I ever felt a "misfire". I don't remember having to cycle the bolt, but I was pretty well "in the groove" with it, so I may have done it out of instinct and just don't remember it. No moral to the story at all, just thought I would share it. As for our impressions of the PTR 9CT, worth every penny I paid for it. We still have a pistol brace on it while waiting for my first stamp to come back, then we'll get a can for it. My thanks go out to the guy at Indy Arms, always a pleasant experience dealing with the staff, though not always with some of the other customers.
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Had my first squib yesterday.
- Thread starter Kaneda13
- Start date
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Just some white box ammo from one of the last gun shows.
Absolutely! I keep Critical Duty/Defense in all my carry pistols, and any loaded mags in the safe, but shooting at the range at $1/round isn't realistic. Like I mentioned, it's my first in a couple of years of shooting, so certainly not a common problem, but certainly something to keep in mind. I am thankful it was such a shallow squib that it would't feed/go into battery so we knew something was wrong.
You were fortunate it didn’t go any further down the barrel and it’s position prevented the loading and firing of any subsequent rounds. Could of been ugly. I have seen about 8-10 squibs in my time mostly from handloads but a few from factory premium. If you hear a “Pfffffft” sound instead of “bang” it really means danger.
Nice that it popped out easily as well. I mushroomed a military steel cleaning rod with a hammer and then ended up drilling out a squib from an AR carbine once. Surprisingly it still shot MOA after that abuse. Who would of thought a DPMS would take that abuse and still perform?
Like Winchester White Box, or someone's private label loads sold at the gun show? Just curious. Sounds like possibly no powder at all in it, just a primer that pushed it into the grooves but no further, or wonder if the bullet was not really seated and just lodged itself there when the next round tried to load. Either way, good thing it got caught and no injuries.
Honestly, I don't remember. I normally buy several boxes at a time, and dump them all into 30 cal ammo box loose with a desiccant pack. I have boxes for each caliber I shoot, and one box of "Misc". I do hand load my 223 for when I'm doing my long range shooting (300+yards). The gentleman at the range counter thought it was probably an empty case, or just VERY low, since there was some black residue on the back of the squib. Like I said, I wasn't sure what it would take to knock it loose, so I figured I would start light and work my way up to a point where I wasn't comfortable, then take it in to have someone remove it, but it popped on the first hit.
Sounds like you might have some anger management issues or you are hoping the date doesn't have a squib?
(as a fellow father with a daughter that dates...I can relate.)
Sounds like you might have some anger management issues or you are hoping the date doesn't have a squib?
(as a fellow father with a daughter that dates...I can relate.)
They're rare but they do happen. I recently had a squib on one round while shooting Hornady .450 Bushmaster, black box. Sometimes the .450 BM can be a little hard to find, so when I found it at a Cabela's in the Minneapolis / St Paul area (was working up there at the time) I bought 100 rounds, five 20-round boxes, all with the same lot number.
When I tapped the bullet out it was just as you described yours, just lightly seated into the lands with some faint rifling marks on the bullet, and the bullet came out with a few light taps using a brass rod. It was basically a "non-event" other than the fact that I had to end my range day when it happened and make another trip to the range to finish sighting the rifle in.
I called Hornady and they were very cool about it. I sent the remaining ammo including the spent brass to Hornady, 94 unfired rounds plus the 6 empty brass. They replaced the entire 100 rounds no questions asked. Very stand-up customer service at that outfit!
When I tapped the bullet out it was just as you described yours, just lightly seated into the lands with some faint rifling marks on the bullet, and the bullet came out with a few light taps using a brass rod. It was basically a "non-event" other than the fact that I had to end my range day when it happened and make another trip to the range to finish sighting the rifle in.
I called Hornady and they were very cool about it. I sent the remaining ammo including the spent brass to Hornady, 94 unfired rounds plus the 6 empty brass. They replaced the entire 100 rounds no questions asked. Very stand-up customer service at that outfit!
That is top notch! Always great to hear about customer experiences like that.
Had one years ago in an IDPA match shooting a revolver using unknown reloads. It was a really fast stage and I was pulling the trigger fast.
Ended up with three bullets in the barrel and still had all my fingers! Never again will I shoot anyone elses reloads, that coulda went really sideways.
(The revolver and ammo was provided by the club)
Ended up with three bullets in the barrel and still had all my fingers! Never again will I shoot anyone elses reloads, that coulda went really sideways.
(The revolver and ammo was provided by the club)
