Hang Fire - What do you do?

[TallPine]

It's not a "hangfire" until it goes off. Until then it's just a dud.

Strange, I've never had a cartridge hangfire, just duds - mostly 22s but at least one 7.62*39. And I think one of 38/357 handloads didn't go off (must have been a bad primer).

Black powder is a different story: lot's of hangfires with that. Most likely because there is some moisture in the powder. Actually, the way that flintlocks work, they are almost a hangfire at every shot - spark/flash/boom!

 

[Deanimator]

Strange, I've never had a cartridge hangfire, just duds - mostly 22s but at least one 7.62*39. And I think one of 38/357 handloads didn't go off (must have been a bad primer).

The ONLY time I remember having a problem with hangfires was in college. A friend had purchased a case of surplus Belgian .30-06 ball. I'd bet at least 50% of the rounds were hangfires, "click... bang!" And this was out of an '03-A3 Springfield. No problems with light hits in THAT.

 

[Mk VII]

I'd be surprised to hear of anybody having hangfires with metallic cartridges that weren't very old - and then it's usually momentary ones. Certainly not in recently loaded stuff.

 

[IA_farmboy]

I just look down the barrel to see what went wrong. Doesn't everybody? </sarcasm>

This guy did...

http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1994-08.html

As you can probably tell from the URL the guy wound up dead.

 

[tasco 74]

what's the idea behind banging or slapping the magazine of your weapon to clear a hangfire?? i've only had a hangfire or missfire when shooting rimfires........ usually just keep the muzzle pointed down range and wait at least 30 secs then eject it and go..............

 

[MErl]

standard failure drill, you don't know if there was a round in the chamber or not. maybe the mag isn't fully seated and needs help.

at the range I'll do a slow 10 count then clear & continue. never had an actual hangfire yet, just duds.

 

[1911 guy]

Clear the action.

The bulk of my shooting is handgun shooting and defensively oriented. That said, I run an immediate action drill and keep on going. The only danger is having a hangfire (which I've never seen with modern ammo) with the breech partially open. Solution: Stop lollygagging and get the gun operational again. And to dispell a common myth, a round going off outside a firearm isn't akin to a grenade. It's more akin to a damp firecracker. The pressure pops the case from the bullet at the crimp (sorry, no brass shrapnel) and the case will go a foot or two if you've got a doozy. Less if you've got anything .45acp or smaller. The pictures you see of split brass, hands with brass in them, etc. are from people ejecting live rounds (usually intentionally clearing, not action drills) and the primer hits the ejector.