I'd say it was an isolated incident. A certain number of weird things happen in gun school, simply because there are so many people putting so many rounds downrange in gun school every year. Louis Awerbuck tells of a rifled slug glancing off the plastic brim of a baseball cap 'worn' by one of his 3D targets during a class once upon a time, for example. It doesn't mean you can't depend on slugs to penetrate, just that you always need to be ready to shoot again if you have to without waiting for the instructor to say "Run the bolt!".
If there were a steady stream of reports about Federal shells leaking grex, I'd consider shifting to a different brand of ammo. But with only one third/fourth/fifth hand report, I'm not worrying about it.
WARNING, RANT FOLLOWS:
And anyway, what if your magazine DOES get tied up somehow and won't feed? Say the magazine spring gets some coils overlapped, the follower hangs up or whatever Murphy has in store for you happens and your magazine goes down?
How many times have I said here that many of the problems that arise with tubular magazine shotguns happen in the magazine?
If your magazine goes down for whatever reason and the gun will still run, THEN USE IT AS A SINGLE SHOT! Evaluate the condition of the gun (press check the magazine through the loading port- if you feel an empty hole and not a shell head or the follower, you have a magazine problem), decide on a solution (go to single shot mode or transition to sidearm?) and ACT. GET BACK IN THE FIGHT! No matter what it takes- don't just curl up and die because your shotty gun bwoke. GET BACK IN THE FIGHT!
Have you practiced loading single rounds through the ejection port until you can do it without thinking? Well, maybe you should. Fire, open the action, load a single round into the ejection port using the support hand (cup the round on the two middle fingers of the support hand, oriented with brass toward the little finger and crimp toward the index finger, lightly pinched between little finger and index finger), close the bolt and fire again. Repeat as necessary.
If you feel the magazine clear itself and/or feel/hear a round feed onto the lifter when you open the bolt, then don't single-load. Keep running the gun and prepare to change modes again if the magazine acts up again. But be attuned to the shotgun enough to know what it's doing, and be prepared to press check both chamber and magazine to BE SURE what's going on.
How do you press check a chamber? Crack the bolt back an inch or so, and feel the ejection port with the little finger of the support hand if right handed, or whatever finger gets you there depending on your handedness and the gun you're using- just slide your hand back on the forearm till you can get to it. With a semi, use the bolt handle to crack the bolt and whatever finger will reach to check the hole. If you feel a hole and not a shell head, your chamber is empty. If you feel a shell head, close the bolt briskly after you get the finger out of the way and carry on.
A certain number of people here get tired of hearing me hark on training- get training, get training, get more training. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a thread running out on general right now- 'are big name shooting schools worth it?'
And the usual crowd of people are saying, no they aren't worth it. Maybe that's true, for those who plan on dying of old age in their recliner in front of the teevee without a care in the world. I don't know, maybe they figure Murphy won't ever screw them over. Maybe they'd rather play the odds than worry about the stakes. I don't know what allows people to think that way. I just can't do it. I don't know what it is that makes me that way, maybe early years as a volunteer fireman, working for a few years as an EMT, riding reserve for a couple of years with my small town PD. But I'm just not wired that way. I want the edge, I want the advantage, and if I ever do get into a gunfight, I want to win it.
Training teaches you what to do in a pinch, when to do it, how to do it. Practice makes sure you remember what you learned in training without having to stop, think, look at the gun and fumble around getting shot in the process. It's a package deal, and it's a package worth having IMHO.
Of course, ymmv...
RANT OFF
lpl
