Today a coworker and I made a range trip to get out and away from home. Using some reloads supplied by a trusted friend in my 1911 experienced a squib. No damage done to the 1911 fortunately only my pride! LOL. So now I have a real clean up job on my hands. Hay,life happens right.
Good advice, the bullet is stuck just forward of the chamber. Not too far in . Should be able to get it out with what I have here.
Did the projectile leave the barrel? If so, not much cleaning required, beyond the normal routine... If not, remove barrel, and tap the projectile out of the muzzle, with. a Brass punch, and the inspect the barrle carefully, especialy at the point where the projectile stopped... other than that you should be good to Go... Even factory Loads get a squib load on occasion... They are usually spotted during production by a weight difference in final weight...
Squibs happen... I have had loadings that the powder bridged in the feeder (now have a pager vibrator on feeder) and rather than use the inertia bullet puller they went into the XDs .45. Only a few were squibs but wouldn't let any of them into boxes. I use a 1/4 inch aluminum solid rod with a couple of layers of black electrical tape to keep it centered and a chunk of 2X2 pine and tap it out. Little effort required, no damage to barrel at all. YMMV of course...
I like the dowel technique. Wood is good. Three pieces of wood is safest. One to set the barrel on, one near bore diameter dowel and one to whack the dowel with. No chance of damaging rifling, dinging a barrel crown with a metal rod or support, or slipping and hitting the barrel with a hammer. No splinters. Jacketed bullet? There's enough space to drive the bullet back the few thousandths it needs to go to clear the rifling and it'll fall into the chamber. I see this too often at the range. Scariest time was a guy with a .454 Casull. I'd heard the pop. Primer and what little powder burned had managed to move the bullet into the forcing cone far enough that the cylinder would turn. He was lined up for the next shot when I yelled STOP! Powder was rolled in a ball, and scorched, but hadn't ignited. Next round would've had nowhere to go but sideways.
Good catch!!!! I have seen this as well. Turns out the brass was washed before reloading but had not fully dried out overnight. Powder was scorched and balled up but did not ignite.
yeah, squibs can be fun. Had a buddy when he first started loading had a really light load for his revolver. He managed to pile 3 bullets in the barrel before "wondering why nothing was hitting the target". Damn lucky he did have a full load round in the mix. I did a light load for my wife's semi-auto. She said it stopped loading, looks like the cartridge is stuck in the chamber. Nope, had a squib load and the bullet was just barely on the rifling. A few taps with the brass cleaning rod and it fell out. Told her to go buy some rounds and I would inspect the rest of the batch. That was the only one that was under charged, but would rather be safe than sorry.
Have had a few over the years. One I recall vividly was some 50 years ago. Had one in my '03 A3. When it went pop instead of BAM!! I didn't even have time to wonder what happened before an old gentleman next me on the line jumped over and covered the bolt and receiver with his hand and instructing me to lay my rifle down while his buddy cleared the station next to me. Turns out that back in and after WW1 squibs and hangfires were a frequent happening with '06 ammo. I would have done the safety drill myself but these two old vets did it by experience and instinct way faster than my younger brain could process the event.
I reload a lot and shoot USPSA. A squib during a match is really embarrassing. You are shooting double taps against a clock and have hearing protection so you don't always notice that rd. 1 didn't pop as loud. it usually fails to eject, you manually eject and fortunately, the range officer is right behind you and usually catches you before you pop off the next round, not always, but usually. We carry squib rods as SOP. get another in a match will usually DQ you.. Progressive reloaders usually fall onto auto-pilot after a few hundred cranks so remember to stay focused.
Brought the barrel to the shop this morning. A few good wacks with a hammer and punch solved the problem. You can see the groves on the bullet from the rifling. Barrel is none worse for ware. Worst case scenario I'd need a new barrel but being a 1911 they are easy to find.
Around 20 years ago when I started reloading I intentionally squibed guns so I would know what they sounded like, felt like and so I would know how to clear it.
Most interesting one I had was in a .45/70 Gibbs. I'd have to check my book to verify the powder, but it was a mild cast bullet load. Twice in a row it made zero audible pop, but the primer sent flame over the powder and pushed the bullet just into the rifling, dumping scorched powder in the action when it was opened. These loads would work fine if the powder was rear settled before each shot, but that's really impractical for any real world hunting. I finally switched powders to one that wasn't sensitive to rear settling in the big case, and had no further troubles. I'll fill in the blanks on the powders when I get to my loading bench again. Don't want to give anybody bum scoop.
took some kin shooten in Tenn one time and we were shooting wife's snubby with factory loads and got a squib load. Remington .38 and now I only shoot stuff I know will work.
