Squib round shoots through magazine of competitive shooter's rifle - GIF and video

[Jon]

Shooting competitor gets a squib round (projectile fails to exit the barrel), fails to do a proper check (perhaps because he was competing), and the next shot assumedly causes the squibbed bullet (and/or the subsequent one) to exit through the magazine. Best case scenario, although the lower and other parts are probably trashed.



Good explanation of squibs, with the telltale click and puff caught in action at 1:38:

2:06 video:

Note how frustrated the shooter is. This is when we make stupid mistakes. Also note that this guy, like the top shooter, would likely have fired another round. The difference is that this shooter has observant instructors/mentors nearby, and they carefully talk him down ("there was...there was a click there...there was a puff").

Previously:

Gunpowder residue explosion at indoor shooting range - GIF and video

[NeiljohnUK]

Having seen the results of too light a load in a S&W .38 revolver, when such things were legal for 'target' shooting in the UK, it's not unusual for the shooter to miss the signs. With the revolver the second round didn't go until he pulled the trigger on the third, going down the outside of the barrel, the acting RCO stopped him at that point and they tried to extract the cases, the unfired rounds came out ok, the fired cases had shock deformed the cylinder chambers when the light charges detonated and wouldn't extract, the third rounds bullet was found stuck behind the firsts 2/3rds the way down the barrel by the gunsmith who declared it was scrap!

[Jon]

[Frank S]

A lot of guys who own .357's will buy .38 special ammo to fire through them because it is cheaper has 1/3 the recoil Their problem arises when they go too light like ammo that would be better suited for a short barrel snub nose than a 6 or 7" barrel both likely have the same 1-16 twist rate but the longer barrels can require more pressure than the light load low grain weight bullets could develop Not so much problem with store bought ammo but many hand loaders don't get their powder grain correct all of the time. Guys who load dumb-dumb rounds or rounds that have deeply hollowed out bases often load too hot for the weight remaining in the bullet causing them to over expand and squib.

[Okapi]

For me, it's a "cow boy reloader" accident, in the bad sense of cow-boy, shooting at a time more than 15'000 rounds a year, I've never seen such a problem, but in "Sunday2 shooting at 25 meters i see a 357 exploding near me with a load without powder and after a normal one, the guy buy all reloading material and thinks it was easy as buying a beer, I think it sells all his material after that, it was a Taurus 357, very solid gun at all…
With military ammo, I had with very old 7,5X55 one round which not fire but never seen a multiple load with other ammunitions.

[mbshop]

This is why you shoot slowly and pay attention. When reloading you check, recheck and then recheck the recheck.

[Okapi]

Yes, at each operation when reloading is a check list to be totally observed, no problem in more than 20 years of reloading and muzzleloading…

[NeiljohnUK]

This is why you shoot slowly and pay attention. When reloading you check, recheck and then recheck the recheck.

When my father, long since passed from this mortal coil, was teaching me how to hand-load he always stressed "never rush, always layout and work logically" and if disturbed pour all the power back from any unfinished rounds back into the bulk measure and start again. Check weigh regularly and if your not sure pull the lot and start over.
He was asked by the local Police in the late 1960's, along with several other hand-loaders, to analyse some reloads following a fatal 'accident' involving a toggle cross pin failure on a po8 Luger, the toggle hit the shooter in the forehead killing him, every round was double charged behind a heavier than normal cast bullet. He said it looked like the guy had literally just poured the powder in to leave just enough room to seat the bullet.

[olderdan]

Had a bad experience in my pistol shooting days with a BRNO target revolver,

a superb gun. A club member was handing out some 38 special rounds he had been given, I took six. These were target wad cutter loads that we all used and rolled our own. At the fourth shot my revolver exploded and split the chamber and recoiled more than my Blackhawk 357 magnum, I had a ringing in my ears for a few hours despite using ear defenders but otherwise unharmed. Obviously someone had double charged this round. On closer inspection apart from the split chamber it had bent the top frame upwards and turned the cylinder pin into a mini crankshaft, it still had two live rounds loaded. Our local gunsmith declared it scrap but as I love a challenge I decided to try and repair it. First task to was remove the cylinder, and as it was scrap I managed to hacksaw though the front boss and pin, slide it forward and saw the other end of the pin, with sigh of relief the cylinder was now out and unloaded. Careful use of a fly-press got the frame straight again. I now had to make a new cylinder and the metallurgist at work recommended a chrome moly steel called 552 unhardened. To cut a long story short I managed to make a new cylinder on my lathe after making a faceplate fixture

which I still have,
unfluted as I had no mill and it was proofed and stamped at Birmingham Proof House. The gun performed as well as ever and was sold a few years later as thanks to the IRAs activities we lost access to our military shooting range. Just small bore shooting after that but not so much fun. This was about 45 years ago so no photos as we did not record everything back then. As it is the only one with a plain cylinder it would be amazing to hear of someone who now owns it.

[NeiljohnUK]

As it is the only one with a plain cylinder it would be amazing to hear of someone who now owns it.

Probably cut up and/or melted down like mine were in 1997, I actually saw one of mine (a very distinctive Colt 1911 {yes just 1911 not a later A1}) being cut in a huge hydraulic shear then being thrown into the furnace for casting into manhole covers on our local BBC news.