Be careful I had an ammo mix up!

Status
Not open for further replies.
Deltaboy1984

Deltaboy1984

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2008
Messages
7,032
Location
Johnson County Texas
I almost messed up big time. I had been to the range shooting 9x18mm and 40 cal. Some how I got a 40 cal S&W clip loaded with 9X18 mm!!!!!:banghead:

How I did it I am not sure but I am glad I found out when I chambered a round and checked it it fell out. Whew that could have been a real mess if I had mixxed the 40's with the 9X18's. I have gotten rid of the 9X18 for a 38 and checked all my loaded 40 cal Mags to be sure.

Be careful guys I have been shooting for over 35 years and this is the first time I came close to blowing up a gun.
 
I'm glad you noticed before anything went seriously wrong. It's very big you to actually come out and admit something like that. We can all learn something from this.
 
It's highly unlikely that you would have been caused personal injury, but it's a good reminder of the lesson to double check.
 
I saw a coupe of guys with a new Glock .40 at our club complaining about how in accurate it was and how that "crap Blazer ammo" was splitting every case, when they realized they'd been shooting 9mm Blazer. They soon packed up and left pretty embarrassed.

While clearly shooting the wrong ammo is a bad idea, 9mm in a .40 is not a disaster if it fires, although the potential is there if a round slips off the extractor, "mis-fires", and the lack of ejection after tap-rack-bang is not noticed.

--wally.
 
I got a 9mm round in the middle of a magazine full of .40 S&W in my glock 23. A few rounds into the mag it had an unusually weak report and no recoil. ***? Squib? I opened it up and found a 9x19 case fire-formed to a .40 chamber! Sort of a .357 sig in reverse. The bullet exited the barrel, but didn't hit the target at about 10 yards. Since then I became a little more anal about keeping different calibers of ammo on the bench at the same time if they are similar in size.
 
I'll share my experience - Even though it wasn't my fault! :) Happened when I was a kid, somewhere between 6 and 8, but I still remember it. My dad and I were out at the range, and we had several .38 Special guns with us, trying out some handloads. We had two batches of ammo, some +P stuff that we were firing out of revolvers, and some light loads we were shooting from a converted 1911. Good bit goes by, and I'm chewing paper through the 1911, no problems, but you can probably see where this is going. My dad is loading up mags for me as I'm firing, critiquing my shots and grouping (We start young in my family... At this point I had already been shooting for a couple years, I started at about 5)

Slide in a fresh mag, drop the slide, aim, take the shot, and kB! Massive detonation. 1911 falls to the ground, and I'm screaming. Sure enough, a simple mistake, and the +P stuff had been loaded into the 1911. The tiny exposed portion of the cartridge couldn't handle the high pressure loads. It detonated in the chamber and exploded down into the grips, blowing the custom wood grips in two, sending splinters, burning powder, and hot gas back into my face. There was gunpowder embedded in my hands and face, slivers of shrapnel everywhere. And a very traumatized little boy who would "trigger-lock" on the line for a good 6 months, year, not sure how long it was before I could overcome the fear and fire a gun again, but it took a while. I wasn't scared handling them and had no apprehension getting ready to fire one, but my brain just flat out refused to tell my finger to pull the trigger for quite some time after that.

When the cartridge was retrieved, it was impressive, to say the least. There was maybe a 2 or 3mm semi-circle blown out just above the butt of the case, and I mean this thing was perfect. You couldn't have machined a cleaner edge out of this thing. No bulging, no ragged edges, it looked like it had been sawed half-through by the best machining tools known to man.

Worst of all - The damn bullet didn't even hit paper! Years of psychological trauma, and no bullseye to show for it! ;)

I still say the thing eeked out of the barrel with just enough velocity to clear and fell short on the ground somewhere, though, damnit.
 
I was messing around(swaping parts and stuff) with a pair of HK P9s, must have been a 45 and a 9mm, I kinda really forget what I had done, think I was swaping slides or something

But as I inserted a mag, racked the slide....for the life of me I could not figure out why a round would fall out the end of the barrel....again....again.......OH...thats a 9mm and the WHOLE round will slide right down a 45acp barrel........DOH! :uhoh:
 
Yea Wally that was my concern the 9X18 Mak rounds can stick in the 40 cal barrel and could cause a Ka-Boom. if not caught. Well that is the main reason I don't own a 20 gauge shotgun along with my 12 because I have seen what happens when you load a 20 in a 12 and it is not pretty. Loved that Mak but it was too big for pocket carry so I went to an old bedstand queen 38. I now shoot one cal at a time but that gun and ammo up then get the other cal out.

So becareful and enjoy your shooting safely!
 
I almost did the same thing with 9mm Browning and 9x19. Probably wouldn't have been a big deal, but I caught it before shooting.
 
Kindrox said:
What did your mom do to your dad? :neener:
Click to expand...
She wasn't happy, I remember that! :) But neither of my parents were the super-over-protective freak-out types, they know that kids will get hurt. They were of the school of thought that unless I was imminent danger of death, it was better to let me do it and figure it out on my own.

"Is the stove hot?" - "I don't know. Touch it and find out." - "Owww!!!!" - "Learn anything?" :)
 
A buddy of mine put several rounds of 9mm through his 40S&W Glock by accident. Accuracy was pretty bad, and the brass looked a little goofy afterwards (like a Taco Bell cup), but no harm was done.
 
Couple years ago, I took my old S&W M39 (9mm semi) to the range, along with my PPK/S (.380).

Somehow, I loaded the M39 magazine with seven or so .380's.

The first round fired - held in place by the ejector, but then it failed to eject.

That's when I noticed....

The case was split, but no gas leaked, and no other problems.

Pretty much can't get .380's now anyway, fortunately.... :)

Regards,
 
You guys shooting rifles at the range be extra carefull if you have an old mauser 8mm and a 1903 30.06 springfield The 8mm X57 will chamber very easy in the 30.06 But it will blow the thing up when you touch it off! Lots of guys got hurt just after WW-II shooting bring backs and surplus Ammo mix ups...
 
Here is an interesting scenario and reading about ka-booms, I wonder if it could explain some of them.

Shooter with a .40 caliber accidentally loads a 9mm as the top round in the magazine and racks the slide, keeping the gun pointed down range. The 9mm round goes into the chamber and slips down the barrel just far enough not to be seen. Shooter pulls trigger and gets a click. Thinking the first round failed to chamber, he racks the slilde again, putting a .40 into the chamber behind the 9mm, and fires. The .40 bullet, happily strolling down the barrel, encounters the 9mm round which is not stuck, but has just enough inertia to cause the .40 bullet to give up a big part of its energy; the result is unpleasant.

The same thing will happen with .40 and .45.

Could this explain at least some of the Glock ka-booms with police guns and departments or officers using both .40 and 9mm?

Jim
 
My grandfather figured he knew everything. He ruined every gun he owned by the way he cleaned them and so he took a ruined 22 lr single shot and drilled out the chamber to fit a 25 rimfire. He only shot it once.
 
On my honeymoon I took a CZ-RAMI in .40S&W and a 1911 in .45ACP with me. Everywhere we went (sans New York State) honored my MI carry permit.

Sure enough, grabbed the 1911 one day, topped of the mag with a .40S&W round, chambered it, and watched the whole round slide down the barrel and hit the floor.

Took me a second to realize what I'd just done.
 
A friend of mine and I were out in shooting hand thrown clays, he had a rem 1187 in 12 gauage, I had a rem 1100 in 16 gauge.

As mentioned a 16 gauge feeds into a 12 easily :(

blissfully it did not fire, but it did need to be knocked out with a rod.

Same friend was shooting a mauser and a M1 garand, put an 8mm into the garand, that one did fire and it extracted the head of the case, but the rest of the empty was trapped in the chamber.

Hammered out fine and was none the worse for wear, but still stupid and avoidable :(
 
Years ago I bought some "generic" 44 mag shells at a gun show. It was for my 629 Smith. One box I fired felt and sounded different. Brass was harder to get out of the cylinder and was ballooned out. Looking at the shells, I found out it was 41 mag shells in a 44 mag box.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

H
  • Locked
Are ammo prices going up at your local Walmart?
2 3
Replies
52
Views
3K
mnrivrat
mnrivrat
D
  • Locked
I have a sneaking suspicion I just got ripped
Replies
18
Views
2K
ducktapehero
D
T
  • Locked
Anyone ever blow up a gun with *factory* ammo?
Replies
22
Views
4K
Malamute
M
J
  • Locked
I picked up a few guns from a relative.
2
Replies
33
Views
2K
Jrdolall7
J
B
  • Locked
Ammo Shortage?
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
mrvco
M
Back
Top