Danger?

[HathcockProtege]

Teaching a couple young ladies the basics of pistol shooting (since that's all I know about pistol shooting) using a NEF R92 D/A revolver. While one of them was shooting, I heard a very weak sounding shot so I quickly had her cease fire and hand me the firearm. The round had fired with only enough power to push the bullet halfway (2 inches) up the barrel before stopping. Quick push with the cleaning rod broke it free and the day went on without event.

Have any of you had this happen and then fired a second shot without clearing the barrel? I'd be curious to see what would happen @ .22 RF pressures...barrel bulge? Blow out? I can't imagine it being nearly as dramatic as a center fire, but I'm curious now. Post pics if available...or maybe everyone that's ever done this is dead.

-The Kid.

BTW, I'm NOT advocating shooting with a plugged barrel! Simply want to know if anyone has had the misfortune of doing so (With a .22 RF) and would like to share.

 

[Josh Smith]

Re: Danger?

Yep, barrel bulge and/or blowout.

You hear a strange sound, you need to stop <span style="font-style: italic">immediately</span> and investigate.

I've worked on guns that simply couldn't be saved (unless the owner wanted to replace the barrel) because of these <span style="font-weight: bold">squib (youtube)</span> loads.

Josh

 

[ORD]

Re: Danger?

Squibs are bad juju unless properly handled before firing another rounds.

Josh is correct. A squib followed by a fully charged load into the plugged barrel will, at a minimum, cause a bulge in the barrel and ruin the firearm. At worst, it will cause a catastropic failure turning the barrel into a peeled bananna (see above) and possibly damaging the receiver and other parts of the firearm which can become shrapnel lodged in the shooter and bystanders. The simple fact is that the pressure/gas has to go somewhere and if it can't do as it was designed and go out the end of the barrel...it will go elsewhere.

 

[Cologgi]

Re: Danger?

I saw them shoot 3 rounds through a springfield 1911 on the American rifleman testing segment a few years ago. It ruined the barrel with a bulge but did not explode. I think that it would be worse with a higher pressured magnum round like the .357's in the above posted pics. On the 92 I dont see it being a catastrophic mishap but I think it is definatley better to not find out.

It seems that most of the time a squib load is fired the ammo is hand loaded. Was this the case?

 

[softcock]

Re: Danger?

..." I'd be curious to see what would happen @ .22 RF pressures...barrel bulge? Blow out ?"
.
On Rimfire You will Not bulge the barrel and blow-up the rifle or pistol in your face like Center-fire rifle or pistol cal. .
The weakest spot for a pressure relief valve on shooting Rim fire cartridge Is the Rim of the Case itself. I have blown a few Rims off .22 Cases . That's where it will blow & good to have glasses on & it will sting the face a little also.
.

 

[HathcockProtege]

Re: Danger?

Thanks for the replies. Very interesting.

No, the ammo was just cheap, unmodified, factory assembled ammo; Federal bulk pack (36g HV HP)ammo I use for practice in my rimfires.

In defense of Federal ammo, I have to say that I've shot over 3k of these rounds in practice and this is the first squib I've encountered. This ammo does what one should expect from cheap ammo; groups about 3/4-1" @ 50 yards out of a good rifle and has a FTF once about every 300 shots (almost always remedied by rotating the shell half a turn and shooting again).

 

[clmayfield]

Re: Danger?

I had a squib on my first box of Eley I ever shot. I have been through a case and a half since then without a repeat. These things happen. It is good you caught it. My squib didn't even ignite. It sounds like the round didn't get charged. The priming compound should be just enough to push that bullet into the barrel (actually, I would think it would get a little farther than that).

 

[Oodin]

Re: Danger?

I was burning up some junk ammo and not really paying any attention and when I took the gun to my gunsmith he said he pulled 3 bullets out of the barrel! It was a 10/22T with the heavy barrel, the gun still shoots great with the same barrel. I threw away the rest of the ammo.

 

[Shortdraw]

Re: Danger?

I have seen a .22 heavy barrel with a small bulge from this. It was hardly noticeable with the naked eye, but was definately there.