jblomenberg16
Grandmaster
This weekend I took my wife's Colt 1911 9mm Defender to a private range to get some time with it. I was shooting some of my own reloads, known to be a light load. I had tailored that load to be strong enough to cycle my G19 reliably, but to also remain as economical as possible.
I had a few stove pipes, and wasn't too dissapointed, again knowing I was running a light load. The gun has run without issue with factory ammo, and really lilkes the carry load (Hornady Critical Defense) that my wife carries.
4 or 5 mags in I had a fail to cycle after the first round. I remember a "pop" so in my head I had not yet considered it a fail to actually fire a round. The fact I didn't hit the target was also not sounding an alarm, since I was shooting at a 75yd 12" gong to see how the gun peformed a longer range (had been hitting it the mag before every 3rd shot or so). The action was just out of battery, but there was no visible stove pipe or other problem indicating the cause of the problem. Thinking I might have had a light load that didn't quite cycle the action, I tapped the mag to make sure it was seated, racked the slide and ejected an empty casing (Should have been my first clue something was up). The next round in the mag picked up and did not fully chamber, leaving the action still slightly out of battery, so the "bang" part was not possible. I repeated the tap-rack-bang and ejected the live round. Next round picks up from the mag and and does the same thing.
So, I was a bit puzzled by that point, and decide after being un successful, I needed to investigate in more detail. This time I dropped the mag (keeping the gun pointed down range), then ejected the round that did not feed. It fell out through the mag well as expected. I locked the slide back, and looked in the chamber to confirm it was clear. There I could see very clearly the back end of a 115gr Montana gold bullet!!!
Apparently I had missed charging, or significantly under charged that round in my progressive for whatever reason. So the primer pop was enough to make me think I had an actual fire (although I don't recall anything odd on the recoil that would have gone with that, which would have been clue #2).
Had the bullet been able to go a bit further down the barrel, there is a very good chance I could have blown up my wife's carry gun, and hurt myself. I count myself lucky (think the Man upstairs was looking out for me) that the next 2 rounds got hung up when it hit the other bullet.
So, reloaders (especially relatively new ones like me), when you have a malfunction with your reloaded rounds, make sure you are confident the barrel is not obstructed by a squibb!!! I know I learned a lesson and will try to be more observant to the sounds and feels. Looking back on it, I'm sure that there was a difference in sound and recoil with the squibb (not sure if the sound would have been noticed with my earpro on), but at the time it didn't register, and the fact that I'd had a few other malfunctions desenstized me a bit.
This also reaffirmed to myself the reason my wife and I personally use factory ammo for our carry ammo. Not that reloads cannot be trusted or that factory ammo is always perfect, but I know that I've made just enough mistakes like this that I don't yet have full confidence in my loads. Out of the 5 or 6 thousand rounds I've loaded for myself, I probably know of 10 or so that I have made a mistake on I didn't catch during final inspection. So, that puts me at 99.8% "Right first time," but glad that .2% hasn't hurt me or another.
I had a few stove pipes, and wasn't too dissapointed, again knowing I was running a light load. The gun has run without issue with factory ammo, and really lilkes the carry load (Hornady Critical Defense) that my wife carries.
4 or 5 mags in I had a fail to cycle after the first round. I remember a "pop" so in my head I had not yet considered it a fail to actually fire a round. The fact I didn't hit the target was also not sounding an alarm, since I was shooting at a 75yd 12" gong to see how the gun peformed a longer range (had been hitting it the mag before every 3rd shot or so). The action was just out of battery, but there was no visible stove pipe or other problem indicating the cause of the problem. Thinking I might have had a light load that didn't quite cycle the action, I tapped the mag to make sure it was seated, racked the slide and ejected an empty casing (Should have been my first clue something was up). The next round in the mag picked up and did not fully chamber, leaving the action still slightly out of battery, so the "bang" part was not possible. I repeated the tap-rack-bang and ejected the live round. Next round picks up from the mag and and does the same thing.
So, I was a bit puzzled by that point, and decide after being un successful, I needed to investigate in more detail. This time I dropped the mag (keeping the gun pointed down range), then ejected the round that did not feed. It fell out through the mag well as expected. I locked the slide back, and looked in the chamber to confirm it was clear. There I could see very clearly the back end of a 115gr Montana gold bullet!!!
Apparently I had missed charging, or significantly under charged that round in my progressive for whatever reason. So the primer pop was enough to make me think I had an actual fire (although I don't recall anything odd on the recoil that would have gone with that, which would have been clue #2).
Had the bullet been able to go a bit further down the barrel, there is a very good chance I could have blown up my wife's carry gun, and hurt myself. I count myself lucky (think the Man upstairs was looking out for me) that the next 2 rounds got hung up when it hit the other bullet.
So, reloaders (especially relatively new ones like me), when you have a malfunction with your reloaded rounds, make sure you are confident the barrel is not obstructed by a squibb!!! I know I learned a lesson and will try to be more observant to the sounds and feels. Looking back on it, I'm sure that there was a difference in sound and recoil with the squibb (not sure if the sound would have been noticed with my earpro on), but at the time it didn't register, and the fact that I'd had a few other malfunctions desenstized me a bit.
This also reaffirmed to myself the reason my wife and I personally use factory ammo for our carry ammo. Not that reloads cannot be trusted or that factory ammo is always perfect, but I know that I've made just enough mistakes like this that I don't yet have full confidence in my loads. Out of the 5 or 6 thousand rounds I've loaded for myself, I probably know of 10 or so that I have made a mistake on I didn't catch during final inspection. So, that puts me at 99.8% "Right first time," but glad that .2% hasn't hurt me or another.
had this happen to him and he made a wise investment by purchasing the powder charge checker for his reloader. From what I hear, it hasn't happened since. Safe shooting!
