Tell me about your funny or crazy gun malfunctions. I'll tell you some of mine.

[Biggredchev]

When i built my first AR15 i took it out to the range. First couple shots felt fine, then on the third trigger pull it dumps 4 rounds before i can drop the mag. Not sure how many it would’ve fired but needless to say i wasnt about to find out. Took it home, tore it down and found out i had incorrectly installed the trigger spring and a trigger pin was halfway falling out. No problems since though.

 

[ditcherman]

I'm wondering about the mag. Armalite pattern mag in a DPMS pattern lower maybe? Or would that even mate up? I don't really know the differences, but I do know there are differences. Dumping live rounds just sounds like it would be mag related and might also explain the bolt not cycling properly if it was hanging up on the mag lips. Totally WAG here though.

I bet you’re right.

 

[confused89]

Had a squib in a BFR in 454 Casul. It was sitting on 28 grains of H110. When I got the bullet unstuck the powder went everywhere. I had to completely disassemble the gun to clean it.

 

[JGalt]

Sort of a malfunction, but not entirely. Eons ago, purchased a Charter Arms Bulldog. (Not a good purchase, but more on that another day.) Was trying to get some good, controllable reloads, with some 240 gr. jacketed soft point bullets. Trying various light loads in order to get best combination of accuracy and recovery time. I was noticing that some of the holes in the target were less than round, and a bit ragged. Walking to the target, I saw that something shiny was lying on the ground. So, picking them up, more than a bit surprised to see that they were bullet jackets! I contacted the manufacturer about this, and found out that the velocity of the reloads was so low that friction was stripping the jackets right off of the lead core! There was a real surprise. Needless to say, I switched over to lead semi-wadcutters, before I finally moved the revolver on to someone who wanted to put up with the gun's faults more than I did.

FWIW...................

 

[Elementbilly]

First time I took my new to me SKS to the range and it fired all 10 rounds with a single trigger pull. Firing pin stuck and it slam fired away. Thankfully I was able to mostly control it. Took it home and gave it a good cleaning and have not had issues with it since.

 

[russc2542]

Helped with a firearms and SD basics class this weekend. 30 students, 6 ROs. I could go on all day... holsters , belts , mags won't fully load, no ammo, wrong ammo (.380 in a 9 is good for malfunction drills though), half a dozen hadn't shot before, more had never loaded a mag. couple guns never lubed. nothing surprising in the gun selection. At least half carried in, all carried FMJ, several carried on an open chamber.

But they all came to the class to learn and oh what learning there was!

Had a squib in a BFR in 454 Casul. It was sitting on 28 grains of H110. When I got the bullet unstuck the powder went everywhere. I had to completely disassemble the gun to clean it.

I have a Bond Arms Bullpup (Boberg XR-9). I've run a few different ammo brands as well as my reloads through it, the bad ones are obvious because cycling pulls the bullets. (When it fires, the action yanks the next round rearward... too little crimp/neck tension and it pulls the brass off the bullet)

 

[Brad69]

When I was a Drill Sergeant
A Private about 6’5 300 pounds was on the line during familiarization fire raised his hand signaling a malfunction he cannot clear. He had shoved the magazine in backwards and attempted to chamber the round he had hit the forward assist so hard he had smashed the round into the chamber. I told him a strong back and weak mind will achieve greatness in the Army.

 

[Ruger_Ronin]

One that always struck me as odd was an undercharged load out of a Sig 2022. We were cleaning up at EOD and walking from target to line my friend spots an irregularity in the grass. Turns out to be a bullet that shat itself out and landed about 10 feet in front of us. Barely scratched the dirt.

 

[DadSmith]

One that always struck me as odd was an undercharged load out of a Sig 2022. We were cleaning up at EOD and walking from target to line my friend spots an irregularity in the grass. Turns out to be a bullet that shat itself out and landed about 10 feet in front of us. Barely scratched the dirt.

keep it. It's reloadable.

 

[Nazgul]

Shooting a 44 Special Ruger with my reloads. Got a squib, first I've had in 40 years. Found the bullet sticking halfway out of he barrel. Didn't have phone/ camera, thought of quitting to get a picture, didn't do it. Knocked it out and continued.

Don

 

[Plinker556]

Several years ago bought a Shield 9mm when they first came out and was on about my third trip to the range with it still getting it broken in. I ran low on ammo and went up to the range counter to see if they had some 9mm, he handed me a box and said "this is pretty good stuff". um, OK..I never heard of it but whatever. About 2 or 3 mags into the box everything jams up, I clear the mag, cycle the slide and take a look.

I see a casing lodged in the chamber.


I messed with it for a minute and then walked up to the counter and asked if they remember the box of 9mm they just sold me..."yea, i remember" he says. I hold up the barrel and show it to him, here is one of the rounds out of that box.
They played around for a couple minutes before I kinda asked them to stop when I realized they didn't know how to deal with it. Owner came out, apologized and offered to cover repair costs, to just let him know how much. I sent the whole gun to S&W and they replaced the barrel, test fire, and cleaned it and covered it as a "warranty" repair. Nice!
Talking to the owner of the range later he said they had that issue two more times with that batch of ammo and sent the remaining back, said he will never buy it again.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Shooting a 44 Special Ruger with my reloads. Got a squib, first I've had in 40 years. Found the bullet sticking halfway out of he barrel. Didn't have phone/ camera, thought of quitting to get a picture, didn't do it. Knocked it out and continued.

Don

I had a Colt Police Positive one time that for some reason I thought I should load "light" 38 special loads for. Apparently I loaded them too light. Was firing slowly and one round sounded a little odd but I didn't think much about it. Fired the next round and saw a flash from the sides of the cylinder and stopped to investigate. Sure enough, squib round. Couldn't get it out myself, so I took it to a gunsmith. He got it cleared... TWO bullets stuck in the barrel! I was damn lucky I didn't blow up the gun, but it didn't even so much as bulge the barrel (probably because I had loaded them so light). It did convince me that there was no need to load light for it though. Wound up pulling the bullets from the rest of the light rounds and reloading them to full power.

 

[thelefthand]

Used to be part of a gun club in college and most of our members were new shooters and also new reloaders which required a lot of extra attention on big shooting days. We had a lot of issues with sqib loads, but the funniest involved one of the range owners Sig's. It was a 40. Someone managed to fire a squib then proceeded to chamber a full, loaded 9mm cartridge which must have went all the way into the barrel. The next 40 round fired with no problems which bulged the barrel significantly. The owner ended up putting the barrel in a vice and used a torch, 5/16 punch, and a small sledge hammer to clear the barrel. The live 9mm came out in tact. The sig not only works fine afterwards, but it's noticeably more accurate than it was before hand.

My own funniest snafu was on my first trip to the range with my new Grendel upper. I wanted to hunt with it, and I didn't get it until mid summer which is a lot later than I preferred, so I went a head and purchased 5 boxes of factory ammo to use for break in, getting everything set up, and to get a supply of brass started. This was the first rifle I've ever shot factory ammo out of. My thinking was that if I want out of time to develop a good hand load, I could just use the factory ammo for the first hunting season. I had slapped an old Leupold 6-20 on it a few evenings before. First group was around 1-1/2"@100 yds. Next couple of group's were around 1". Then things got weird. Groups started opening up. If I left the gun sit still, it would shoot around 2". If I picked it up or moved it, my poi would shift several inches. Turns out, I had mounted the scope while my wife was cooking dinner. She had asked me to help with something,.
I was installing a 1/2" riser at the time, so I got it finger tight so it wouldn't fall off, then stopped to help her. When I returned I forgot to go back and tighten anything. Eventually it got so loose that when I picked the gun up, the scope and mounts started to fall off. I'd been getting 2" groups with the scope and mount just laying on top of the rifle. Once everything was tightened up it was back to 3/4" groups or better, and the rifle typically shoots hand loads under 1/2". Not super funny, but I had a good chuckle out of it once I realized my mistake.

 

[1nderbeard]

Had a weird malfunction with an AR 15 once. BCG wouldn't go in to full battery. I also couldn't pull the charging handle hard enough to bring the bolt back and eject the round. I was at a public range so monkeying with the rifle and putting a lot of force on the charging handle wasn't really an option. I wound up being able to mash in the forward assist and fully chamber the round, and break open the upper/lower pin and pulling the BCG out without the buffer spring resisting. Have no idea what caused it. Never had that before, or since.

 

[1nderbeard]

My own funniest snafu was on my first trip to the range with my new Grendel upper. I wanted to hunt with it, and I didn't get it until mid summer which is a lot later than I preferred, so I went a head and purchased 5 boxes of factory ammo to use for break in, getting everything set up, and to get a supply of brass started. This was the first rifle I've ever shot factory ammo out of. My thinking was that if I want out of time to develop a good hand load, I could just use the factory ammo for the first hunting season. I had slapped an old Leupold 6-20 on it a few evenings before. First group was around 1-1/2"@100 yds. Next couple of group's were around 1". Then things got weird. Groups started opening up. If I left the gun sit still, it would shoot around 2". If I picked it up or moved it, my poi would shift several inches. Turns out, I had mounted the scope while my wife was cooking dinner. She had asked me to help with something,.
I was installing a 1/2" riser at the time, so I got it finger tight so it wouldn't fall off, then stopped to help her. When I returned I forgot to go back and tighten anything. Eventually it got so loose that when I picked the gun up, the scope and mounts started to fall off. I'd been getting 2" groups with the scope and mount just laying on top of the rifle. Once everything was tightened up it was back to 3/4" groups or better, and the rifle typically shoots hand loads under 1/2". Not super funny, but I had a good chuckle out of it once I realized my mistake.

For about a year I thought a new rifle (mini 30) was just inherently inaccurate. I could shoot one group within 2-3 inches at 100 yds, and the point of aim would shift to be off the paper after. I realize it's not a MOA rifle, but I thought it should at least be on paper....
After several months I realized the scope was moving in the rights terribly; like 2-3 inches from the start of the range session to the end. After lapping the rings I realized the scope was just a piece of junk. Internally it wouldn't hold zero. Sent it back to the factory and the gun will now shoot minute of deer accurately.
I realize I could have sold the rifle and purchased something else that is inherently more accurate, but I'm nothing if not stubborn and determined to make my stuff work.

 

[MrSmitty]

I bought an FN-49 years ago, great gun, wish I hadn't got rid of it. So after firing it for a while, the firing pin broke. My dad had a TIG welder, so he welded it together and I went to the range, as I was firing it I noticed it kicked harder than usual, so I held it down to shoot from the hip, when I saw two empty shells eject, the firing pin had stuck forward and slam fired a few times til it broke again, traded it off at a loss, and a week later saw firing pins in Shotgun news for $6....aaarrrggghhhh!

 

[AmmoManAaron]

I had a Colt Police Positive one time that for some reason I thought I should load "light" 38 special loads for. Apparently I loaded them too light. Was firing slowly and one round sounded a little odd but I didn't think much about it. Fired the next round and saw a flash from the sides of the cylinder and stopped to investigate. Sure enough, squib round. Couldn't get it out myself, so I took it to a gunsmith. He got it cleared... TWO bullets stuck in the barrel! I was damn lucky I didn't blow up the gun, but it didn't even so much as bulge the barrel (probably because I had loaded them so light). It did convince me that there was no need to load light for it though. Wound up pulling the bullets from the rest of the light rounds and reloading them to full power.

I had a similar experience with a bad batch of Fiocchi factory 8mm Lebel when firing my first French M-1892, one of the most pristine ones I have ever seen before or since (and dated 1914). Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.

 

[88E30M50]

The oddest malfunction I had was back in 2008, I was shooting the first 1911 I had bought. I think I was on my 2nd range trip with it down at Atterbury when after firing a round, I felt something hit my chest. The firing pin had hung in a dirty channel which let the FPS drop free. Then, on chambering the next round, the firing pin popped out and the spring ejected it into my chest. Until that moment, I did not realize how important it was to clean a firearm before shooting it. I had bought that one used and apparently, the PO had no idea that it needed cleaning either. It was my first lesson in maintaining the 1911 platform

 

[paintman]

I spent a day at the range with my wife a few years ago. Went to shoot my glock 26 and it would not stop jamming. Every couple of rounds. I took it apart, cleaned it and tried new mags. Finally my wife picked up a casing and asked if it was supposed to say 380.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I spent a day at the range with my wife a few years ago. Went to shoot my glock 26 and it would not stop jamming. Every couple of rounds. I took it apart, cleaned it and tried new mags. Finally my wife picked up a casing and asked if it was supposed to say 380.

Had a similar experience. I bought what was allegedly a CZ-27 (32 acp) off gunbroker. Took it to the range and it wouldn't cycle at all and I kept getting hot gases and tiny particles of unburned powder in my face. Turned out that it was actually a CZ-24 (.380 acp).