Why checking calibers is important BEFORE pulling the trigger...

"What have we learned here?"


That ONE of us needs glasses.

A couple years ago, a guy at the range wanted to shoot my Rock Island .45. I was out of ammo, so I told him if he could scrounge some up, he could shoot it. A buddy of his said "I've got some," and started digging through his truck. He found a mag, pulled a couple rounds out of the mag, and handed them to his buddy. He had the devil of a time getting the ammo into my magazine, then getting the action to cycle (by hand) and load a round in the chamber. Meanwhile, he's cussing my "damn imported piece o' crap pig iron 1911." Finally gets a round chambered. Raises gun. Squeezes trigger. There's a light "dink" and the WHOLE cartridge gracefully arcs out of the barrel and lands about 15 inches downrange.

The truck-digging buddy had handed him a 9mm. No one caught it - not the guy finding the ammo, not the guys standing around watching, not the guy loading the gun.

A few minutes later, someone else found a box of .45ACP, the guy shot my "damn imported piece o'crap pig iron 1911" and - impressed with it's quality - offered me more than I paid. My daddy didn't raise no fool, but this fool and his money were soon parted, and I left with a $50 profit in my wallet.

Q

I once had heart siezure when I fired a .41 Magnum round in a lever rifle chambered in .44-40. I do not know how the .41 round wound up in a brand new store-bought box of Remmington .44-40. I only discovered what I'd done when policing the brass and found the .41 casing bulging out in a manner not dissimilar to the above -- but not ripped in any way.
A gunsmith friend of mine determined no damage had been done to the gun ... but, geeez, it DID give me a start.

He's lucky that he didn't do more damage to himself and your gun. I just sorted out a bag of 9mm, 40, and 45, that my wife threw into baggies when we moved. It's easy to make a mistake if you aren't paying attention. I use a big magnifying glass just to make sure.

Yep, we had the same confusion at the range after christmas. Son tried to shoot a 32 acp out of the 9mm. Luckily, it did not fire and he realized something not right.

Airman - Don't worry about that one commenter. Someone's always gotta say something.

Thanks for the pics, and the reminder. I've brought a few noobs to the range before, but never had an incident like this. However, it's good to remember to be on your toes around others who might not be as attentive or aware of the dangers inherent in the shooting sports.

Yeah, I've split a couple of .357 mag cases that found their way into a .41 mag revolver. No damage, except to the cases (and my pride).

I seem to remember hearing a story on a forum where a guy was doing some sort of range qualification, or maybe a IDPA match using a Sig. He mistakenly loaded all his mags with .357 sig while he had the .40 cal barrel in the gun. If I remember the story correctly he completed the course but was baffled by how suddenly inaccurate his gun had become, and only realized his mistake afterward.

Loading in undersized ammo, you can see that there is actually plenty of room for gas to escape around the bullet down the bore, so there is little or no chance of developing any real pressure here, especially with a .355 bullet in a very oversized .45 bore... squib-like behavior would certainly be my expectation.

Always best to pay attention to what you are doing though, of course...

That ONE of us needs glasses.

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Airman - Don't worry about that one commenter. Someone's always gotta say something.

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Don't qoute me on this, but I took it to mean that someone needs the glasses to make sure they're shooting the correct ammo, not anything to do with your camera skills. Again, i may be wrong. If I am, don't pay any attention to him.

Thanks for the reminder. I've almost done it a couple of times. Once a .30-06 got mixed in with some suplus 8x57. Thank God it's too long. After the second try I knew something wasn't right and took a better look at it.

Another time, I had a whole mag loaded with 7.5x54 French. Problem was I was loading my K31 (7.5x55 Swiss). Don't know if anything bad would've happened (as close as they are in size and power). I noticed what I'd done when I moved the box out of my way on the shooting bench.

Wyman

My dad was duck hunting with a buddy using a side by side 12ga. The guy loaded it with 20ga shells which slide down the barrel (which he somehow didn't notice). Later he loaded it up with 12 ga shells and proceeded to launch the side of the barrel right in front of my dad's face when he shot it. Needless to say, he was very strict about keeping 20 ga and 12 ga shells separate when we were growing up.

How in Gods name do you confuse a 357 Sig bottleneck with a 45acp? I can understand maybe doing this with cartridges that appear similar. But these two are distinctly different. If your friend is intent on continuing his irresponsible relationship with firearms, you may want to consider seeking friendship at a safer location.

I got to experience teaching multiple new shooters about a month ago. I took my sister, niece and nephew shooting my Sig mosquito and Beretta 92FS. We had the obligatory saftey chat going over the rules, including those specific to the range we were shooting at. To avoid any "accidents" We only used 1 firearm at a time. I watched closely while they loaded their own mags(after I showed them how of course) First time firing each gun was with 1 round in mag, then 5, then full magazines. It worked well, and was a great shooting session with no scary moment. IMO it is never a good idea to turn your back on a novice shooter with a gun if you can avoid it.

------->>> I'm guilty of loading some 380ACP's into a 9mm mag. The rounds fired well, they hit the steel plate, but wouldn't cycle.

I appreciated the OP's comments and thought his photos were just fine, they got the point across. Not very HighRoad to be ragging on him.

Here's the results of me taking my .30-30 Marlin and my .303 Enfield to the range at the same time. Serious case of cerebral rectitis. Funny thing, the report sounded the same, the recoil felt the same, the cartridges ejected just fine, no hint of anything being wrong except I was hitting about 3 feet low at 200 meters. :banghead:

Airman, your camera's probably fine, just back off a little. It looks like you were inside the minimum focal distance. Also if it has a macro setting (usually an icon of a tulip with MF underneath), you can use that to take the closeups.

Thanks for a timely warning

Thanks for the heads up Airman. I have a friend that wants to learn shooting. After looking at your pix I think I'll have 1 box and 1 pistol out at a time.

You're not alone. I remember a story about a guy in the Sherrif's academy who took his .40 to another range and couldn't hit the backstop with it when it shot at all. When the gunshop owner looked at the gun and the ammo he said it just wouldn't work with 9mm. No matter what.

Safety glasses?

Anyway, the worst one I saw was a 270 fired in a 7mm mag. It throws little bits of brass out quote forcefully. The worst ones I've heard of (not seen) are when a cartridge is short enough to get a larger diameter bullet fired in a longer chamber.

Put a G17 mag into a G22 before and ballooned the brass. Taught me to always be careful with my ammo.

Kinda easier nowadays since I mostly shoot .45ACP & .22lr.

Isn't just us, I once remember reading a magazine column review of a pistol where the author had a friend who had a similar gun with a very different caliber (380 and 40 I think) he was shooting it for the review when he started having difficulty with the magazine, he pushed hard and it finally went home. It wasn't until he had a few FTE that he pulled back and saw the smaller case sitting bolt face only being held on by the extractor. Moral of his story is that you can shoot the wrong ammo, and it will go bang, but so might your gun.

Here's the results of me taking my .30-30 Marlin and my .303 Enfield to the range at the same time. Serious case of cerebral rectitis. Funny thing, the report sounded the same, the recoil felt the same, the cartridges ejected just fine, no hint of anything being wrong except I was hitting about 3 feet low at 200 meters

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Wow.... now that's what I call fire-formed brass.

wrong combination

I count myself amongst those who have lived in spite of their ignorance. About 30+ years ago I worked in a sporting goods store. The gun dept guy was trading in a used rifle and told me to go test fire it (we had a bullet trap in the basement and tested everything). I don't recall what make & model but do remember it had a mauser action.

I descended into the basement and glanced at the bbl and saw 308. So far so good. I grabbed a few rounds and fed them into the magazine. First round went off and ejected. Second round just refused to go off. Then I looked at the fired case. One side was bulged out in a very non typical fashion. Decided to take a second look, turned out to be a 308 NORMA MAGNUM. Even back then I knew that wasn't the right combination of ammo and rifle.

I still have the case as a reminder, and have used it in every Hunter Education class I've taught over the last 21 years.

FWIW