1911Tuner
Moderator Emeritus
Will also post this one in Reloading to serve as a heads up for all to be careful when using progressive loaders with some types of powder.
May stick it for a week.
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I saw something happen last Sunday at a pre-match warmup session that I had heard of, but had never actually seen. I often go down on Sundays to the practice sessions to try and address any functional problems that arise before the matches start as a courtesy to the club members who shoot the matches.
A married couple was going through some practice stages with a pair of Abernathy-tuned Wilson pistols when we heard a squib. The bullet exited the barrel and after racking the slide to clear the case, firing resumed. The guy mentioned that he was still in the learning curve with his progressive loader, and that he had had a few of these things occur. That was warning number one.
Warning number two came with his wife's pistol. A repeat of the first one.
On the next magazine, his wife stopped and told us that the gun had jammed, and that she couldn't get the slide to move. The Mr. and I walk forward to see what was up, and sure enough....the slide was frozen forward...slightly out of battery... with what he thought was a live round under the hammer.
I was able to gingerly wedge a screwdriver tip between the slide and the barrel hood and move the slide far enough for the extractor to shear through the rim.
The slide refused to move further, and I could see that the round wasn't live.
It hit me that there was a bullet in the barrel when the second one fired, and likely had bulged the barrel behind the muzzle, and wouldn't allow the bushing to pass over it....but that wasn't the case. The bullet had lodged just forward of the chamber, and the second round had split the barrel lengthwise at 6 and 12 O'Clock
from the chamber shoulder forward.
The squib had fully cycled the slide...or it had driven it rearward far enough for it to
kick the empty clear of the port, strip another round from the magazine and chamber it. The first bullet nose had moved to roughly the mid-point of the barrel when the failure occured, according to the mark on the rod that we checked it with.
Having never actually seen this squib cycle phenomenon...largely due to the fact that neither I, nor any of my old cronies have ever used powder charges reduced more than about 10% and never on progressive loading machines...I was a little puzzled. I'd seen squibs that lobbed bullets downrange so slowly that you could easily see them in flight...but in these instances, the slide not only didn't cycle, it barely moved far enough to let a puff of smoke escape from the breech.
In the cases where the bullet became lodged in the bore, it was due to either a primer-only flash...or a charge so light that it didn't ignite at all. In this one, there was enough powder in the case to drive the slide. The only explanation that I could come up with was that there was enough powder to start the bullet, but not enough to force it through the rifling. The bullet stopped and the powder continued to burn.
Since the bullet was firmly stuck in the barrel, all the force within the chamber was redirected toward the path of least resistance...and the slide cycled far enough to uncover the next round in the magazine.
As noted, I had heard of this, but had never seen it...and had even discounted it as a freakish thing, since if a charge won't drive a bullet hard enough to exit the muzzle, it scarcely has enough oomph to drive a 5-inch slide with a 14-pound recoil spring powering it...but it did just that. The bullet stopped after about one inch of travel, and the slide cycled. She reported that the recoil felt only a bit lighter than normal, and that the empty ejected smartly. The report was different, but that was her only clue that the round was different. Scary...
I explained to Mr. Shooter that while working up a reduced loading for Mrs. Shooter, his loader had evidently experienced a powder bridge on occasion, and a few cases got only a partial charge. He also told me that his charges were
reduced only a little. I can't remember his data, but it was with 231 Olin powder, and the target velocity was in the 700 fps range with a 200-grain SWC. Not hardball, but not exactly a "Lollipop" either. Just enough to allow his small-framed wife better control of the gun. Since it was a pre-match warmup/practice session for the real match that afternoon, there were no power factors to be concerned with. The plates were set to fall from a 9mm/115/1000fps hit.
May stick it for a week.
************************
I saw something happen last Sunday at a pre-match warmup session that I had heard of, but had never actually seen. I often go down on Sundays to the practice sessions to try and address any functional problems that arise before the matches start as a courtesy to the club members who shoot the matches.
A married couple was going through some practice stages with a pair of Abernathy-tuned Wilson pistols when we heard a squib. The bullet exited the barrel and after racking the slide to clear the case, firing resumed. The guy mentioned that he was still in the learning curve with his progressive loader, and that he had had a few of these things occur. That was warning number one.
Warning number two came with his wife's pistol. A repeat of the first one.
On the next magazine, his wife stopped and told us that the gun had jammed, and that she couldn't get the slide to move. The Mr. and I walk forward to see what was up, and sure enough....the slide was frozen forward...slightly out of battery... with what he thought was a live round under the hammer.
I was able to gingerly wedge a screwdriver tip between the slide and the barrel hood and move the slide far enough for the extractor to shear through the rim.
The slide refused to move further, and I could see that the round wasn't live.
It hit me that there was a bullet in the barrel when the second one fired, and likely had bulged the barrel behind the muzzle, and wouldn't allow the bushing to pass over it....but that wasn't the case. The bullet had lodged just forward of the chamber, and the second round had split the barrel lengthwise at 6 and 12 O'Clock
from the chamber shoulder forward.
The squib had fully cycled the slide...or it had driven it rearward far enough for it to
kick the empty clear of the port, strip another round from the magazine and chamber it. The first bullet nose had moved to roughly the mid-point of the barrel when the failure occured, according to the mark on the rod that we checked it with.
Having never actually seen this squib cycle phenomenon...largely due to the fact that neither I, nor any of my old cronies have ever used powder charges reduced more than about 10% and never on progressive loading machines...I was a little puzzled. I'd seen squibs that lobbed bullets downrange so slowly that you could easily see them in flight...but in these instances, the slide not only didn't cycle, it barely moved far enough to let a puff of smoke escape from the breech.
In the cases where the bullet became lodged in the bore, it was due to either a primer-only flash...or a charge so light that it didn't ignite at all. In this one, there was enough powder in the case to drive the slide. The only explanation that I could come up with was that there was enough powder to start the bullet, but not enough to force it through the rifling. The bullet stopped and the powder continued to burn.
Since the bullet was firmly stuck in the barrel, all the force within the chamber was redirected toward the path of least resistance...and the slide cycled far enough to uncover the next round in the magazine.
As noted, I had heard of this, but had never seen it...and had even discounted it as a freakish thing, since if a charge won't drive a bullet hard enough to exit the muzzle, it scarcely has enough oomph to drive a 5-inch slide with a 14-pound recoil spring powering it...but it did just that. The bullet stopped after about one inch of travel, and the slide cycled. She reported that the recoil felt only a bit lighter than normal, and that the empty ejected smartly. The report was different, but that was her only clue that the round was different. Scary...
I explained to Mr. Shooter that while working up a reduced loading for Mrs. Shooter, his loader had evidently experienced a powder bridge on occasion, and a few cases got only a partial charge. He also told me that his charges were
reduced only a little. I can't remember his data, but it was with 231 Olin powder, and the target velocity was in the 700 fps range with a 200-grain SWC. Not hardball, but not exactly a "Lollipop" either. Just enough to allow his small-framed wife better control of the gun. Since it was a pre-match warmup/practice session for the real match that afternoon, there were no power factors to be concerned with. The plates were set to fall from a 9mm/115/1000fps hit.
