The_Shootist
Member
So there I am, shooting on the firing line of my range today, half way thru about 150 rds in my 642 when it happened.
I pulled the trigger and instead of getting a nice bang! and decent recoil, it sounds like the gun sneezes and no recoil at all. Now in 12 years of pistol shooting with no problems but the same amount of time cruising various gunboards I had an idea of what a squib sounds like. I backed off, made sure my finger was well clear of the trigger and popped the cylinder, dumping the rounds. At no point was I even close to firing another round - the gun just sounded so....OFF!
Sure enough - just inside the barrel past the forcing cone was the dud round. So I took it to the range gunsmith who then spent about 40 minutes clearing it. Said it was one of the most difficult he had seen. Didn't appear to be any damage to the gun, even in clearing the round, but it kind of spoiled my day and I packed my stuff and went home kinda depressed.
But I figure I will be back there this Sunday - when an event like this happens, I figure its best to get back to the range soon to get back in the groove, rather than brooding about it.
What kind of annoys me was the ammo was Monarch Brass and I'm not exaggerating to say I've shot thousands of rounds in Monarch, either, 38/357/9mm/.45 with no problems - then this happens.
Even worse - I was having a good day. I was well on my way to hollowing out the center of a target at 7 yrds with my 642 (I was using a high choke grip on it that seemed to give pretty good control), more accuracy than I had achieved to date (ie about a year of ownership). Then the squib happened.
I guess I have to roll with it - it could have been worse and I'll see if anything happened to the 642 to affect its accuracy. But I will sure look at my range time with alot more scrutiny now.
I pulled the trigger and instead of getting a nice bang! and decent recoil, it sounds like the gun sneezes and no recoil at all. Now in 12 years of pistol shooting with no problems but the same amount of time cruising various gunboards I had an idea of what a squib sounds like. I backed off, made sure my finger was well clear of the trigger and popped the cylinder, dumping the rounds. At no point was I even close to firing another round - the gun just sounded so....OFF!
Sure enough - just inside the barrel past the forcing cone was the dud round. So I took it to the range gunsmith who then spent about 40 minutes clearing it. Said it was one of the most difficult he had seen. Didn't appear to be any damage to the gun, even in clearing the round, but it kind of spoiled my day and I packed my stuff and went home kinda depressed.
But I figure I will be back there this Sunday - when an event like this happens, I figure its best to get back to the range soon to get back in the groove, rather than brooding about it.
What kind of annoys me was the ammo was Monarch Brass and I'm not exaggerating to say I've shot thousands of rounds in Monarch, either, 38/357/9mm/.45 with no problems - then this happens.
Even worse - I was having a good day. I was well on my way to hollowing out the center of a target at 7 yrds with my 642 (I was using a high choke grip on it that seemed to give pretty good control), more accuracy than I had achieved to date (ie about a year of ownership). Then the squib happened.
I guess I have to roll with it - it could have been worse and I'll see if anything happened to the 642 to affect its accuracy. But I will sure look at my range time with alot more scrutiny now.
