INTENTIONALLY reloading for malfunctions

[IndyGunworks]

I have bee thinking about making a seperate batch of ammo w/ a very minimal amount of powder. these will be used in my g19 9mm. i am thinking about loading a few hundred rounds that are powerful enough to get the round out of the barrel but not enough to cycle the slide. i would take these rounds and mix them in with some good ammo whenever i want to intentionally work on malfunctions.

has anyone ever tried this. and besides the worry about a squib which i would test the crap out of the ammo to be sure it will kick the round all the way out, what would the downfalls be IF ANY?

i think this would be a great alternative to dummy rounds because you will still feel some recoil still have some smoke and some noise so it will be as close to replicating a real world malfunction as possible. if i could load it so it would stove pipe more than 50 percent of the malfunction rounds that would be great.

 

[shibumiseeker]

The caveat other than the one you mentioned, is that I would use a wadding between the bullet and charge to keep the powder against the flash hole to prevent incomplete ignition or overpressure from flash ignition and partial detonation.

You could lightly load them, then play with recoil spring weight to ensure FTE while not getting too low powder charge.

 

[singlestacksig]

not a good idea..
a real risk of getting one stuck in barrel , followed by a full charge..
you could just make no powder & primer rounds, and seat the bullet long or short, causing feed jams..
I think feed jams are more likely to happen in real life than light charge loads..

 

[bigcraig]

not a good idea..
a real risk of getting one stuck in barrel , followed by a full charge..
you could just make no powder & primer rounds, and seat the bullet long or short, causing feed jams..
I think feed jams are more likely to happen in real life than light charge loads..

This.

And to add, buy some plastic dummy rounds and have some one else load your mags. (This is the method used in most classes.)

 

[edsinger]

not a good idea..
a real risk of getting one stuck in barrel , followed by a full charge..

^^^ This ^^^

I am not knowledgeable but this alone would make me not do it.

 

[ckcollins2003]

I have bee thinking about making a seperate batch of ammo w/ a very minimal amount of powder. these will be used in my g19 9mm. i am thinking about loading a few hundred rounds that are powerful enough to get the round out of the barrel but not enough to cycle the slide. i would take these rounds and mix them in with some good ammo whenever i want to intentionally work on malfunctions.

has anyone ever tried this. and besides the worry about a squib which i would test the crap out of the ammo to be sure it will kick the round all the way out, what would the downfalls be IF ANY?

i think this would be a great alternative to dummy rounds because you will still feel some recoil still have some smoke and some noise so it will be as close to replicating a real world malfunction as possible. if i could load it so it would stove pipe more than 50 percent of the malfunction rounds that would be great.

A real world malfunction would not give you such a load that the bullet would not come out of your barrel. A real world malfunction is most commonly a failure to fire, failure to extract, or in quite a lot of .22's cases a bad primer strike. In no way have I ever experienced any type of recoil in a real life malfunction situation, nor any "noise" other than the firing pin hitting and the round not going off.

When loading extremely light rounds you have to be extremely careful. If you want to practice your malfunctions do it safely with dummy rounds. If you want a "pop" with a malfunction, prime the cases and don't charge or put a bullet in them. You'll still hear the primer pop but there is no danger of chamber pressure or projectile getting stuck in your barrel.

Just my

 

[beau.brandt]

I would not recommend this either it sounds and smells like a bad idea to me. I typically will load several rounds per batch of training ammo with only a bullet (NO powder OR primer) it gets the same effect but quite a bit less possibility for a terrible ending (for both gun and shooter).

 

[shootinghoosier]

If this was a good idea, I'm thinking someone would already have manufactured a round for this specific purpose.

 

[kludge]

These do the same thing without the risk of blowing yourself up...

Program Materials Center - Product Details

 

[noylj]

You will need to ensure that the velocity is over 450fps to ensure no bullets being stuck in the barrel. However, you will get some slide motion and you will probably end up with a jam from the extracting case and the incoming round meeting in the middle.
I have mixed in inert dummy rounds so I can "show" any trigger jerking and perform slide clearing practice.

 

[CountryBoy19]

The caveat other than the one you mentioned, is that I would use a wadding between the bullet and charge to keep the powder against the flash hole to prevent incomplete ignition or overpressure from flash ignition and partial detonation.

You could lightly load them, then play with recoil spring weight to ensure FTE while not getting too low powder charge.

This, with proper testing of the load you shouldn't have a problem. Wadding may not be necessary depending on powder selection though.

I think you're smart enough to figure this out safely. As long at the bullet isn't lodging in the barrel you should be fine.

 

[SSGSAD]

I have bee thinking about making a seperate batch of ammo w/ a very minimal amount of powder. these will be used in my g19 9mm. i am thinking about loading a few hundred rounds that are powerful enough to get the round out of the barrel but not enough to cycle the slide. i would take these rounds and mix them in with some good ammo whenever i want to intentionally work on malfunctions.

has anyone ever tried this. and besides the worry about a squib which i would test the crap out of the ammo to be sure it will kick the round all the way out, what would the downfalls be IF ANY?

i think this would be a great alternative to dummy rounds because you will still feel some recoil still have some smoke and some noise so it will be as close to replicating a real world malfunction as possible. if i could load it so it would stove pipe more than 50 percent of the malfunction rounds that would be great.

I have stuck, one bullet, in one barrell, one time, and I don't ever want to do that, again, a REAL PITA, just use dummy rounds, wheather, you load them, or not, if YOU load them, be SURE, to MARK them, so you don't mix them up, in live ammo..... that is why, IMHO, snap caps, are the better choice .....

 

[IndyGunworks]

let me say that the idea came because i am RIGHT on the verge of this anyways. my loads for my g19 are just enough to cycle the slide reliably. if my wife shoots my gun w/ reloads it jams everytime which gave me the idea of dropping the charge from 4.6 grains of hp38 to around 3-3.5 grains. i cannot see how a bullet would get stuck in the barrel but of course i would test several hundred rounds to make sure of it.

i am a very experienced reloader and i think this can be done. i often train by myself so loading dummy rounds is not much of an option because they no longer suprise me.

 

[shibumiseeker]

i am a very experienced reloader and i think this can be done. i often train by myself so loading dummy rounds is not much of an option because they no longer suprise me.

*laughs* it's a typical internet experience, one or two people give you constructive feedback and everyone else just says "you'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

 

[rimfire_crazed]

let me say that the idea came because i am RIGHT on the verge of this anyways. my loads for my g19 are just enough to cycle the slide reliably. if my wife shoots my gun w/ reloads it jams everytime which gave me the idea of dropping the charge from 4.6 grains of hp38 to around 3-3.5 grains. i cannot see how a bullet would get stuck in the barrel but of course i would test several hundred rounds to make sure of it.

i am a very experienced reloader and i think this can be done. i often train by myself so loading dummy rounds is not much of an option because they no longer suprise me.

While I wouldn't recommend it in practice for 99% of the people reading this forum, I'm well aware that you're an experienced shooter, an accomplished reloader - and overall, not a dumb guy. I stayed out of the conversation but my thoughts were from the start "You? Go for it. Everyone else? Pretend this thread doesn't exist."

 

[redpitbull44]

sometimes I put spent shell casings in with my live ammo when I load my magazines. Makes for nice jams.

 

[bstewrat3]

Your best approach with this is to talk with the techs at Hodgdon. They have already done this work in a lab environment and can tell you about the potential issues involved with whatever powders you plan to use.

If you do go ahead with it I would recommend that you swap out your barrel for a Lone Wolf and try it with lead because you will probably continue to drop the charge until you do stick one in the barrel. Getting lead out is much easier than than a jacketed round.

 

[CountryBoy19]

let me say that the idea came because i am RIGHT on the verge of this anyways. my loads for my g19 are just enough to cycle the slide reliably. if my wife shoots my gun w/ reloads it jams everytime which gave me the idea of dropping the charge from 4.6 grains of hp38 to around 3-3.5 grains. i cannot see how a bullet would get stuck in the barrel but of course i would test several hundred rounds to make sure of it.

i am a very experienced reloader and i think this can be done. i often train by myself so loading dummy rounds is not much of an option because they no longer suprise me.

I don't know that I would take that big of a jump down. I would do like most people trying to load subsonic centerfire rifle ammo. Start with a known load and work your way down until you reach the desired result. That is how they avoid sticking bullets. If you just take a big jump down you risk a stuck bullet. By working your way down you can get close to that fine line of "desired result" and "oops, too far" without actually going too far.

*laughs* it's a typical internet experience, one or two people give you constructive feedback and everyone else just says "you'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

That was my thought too... I was actually kind of dumbfounded by all the negativity regarding this. Some even recommended only using a primer instead. That's a sure way to stick a bullet IMHO.

 

[96firephoenix]

dude. its a glock. it won't malfunction in the real world, so why practice making it malfunction. get a high-point if you want to practice with malfunctions.


should that be in purple?

 

[EPD1102]

We used to use .380 ammo in our 9mms to cause malfunctions. They would shoot but would not cycle the slide completely, therefore causing malfunctions and no working up reloads.