Have you ever had a round go off after a misfire?

[Ruger44mag]

I have had lots of 22lr ammo not fire after the first strike but never one going off by itself after the first shot.

 

[GWARGHOUL]

Not yet, but this thread really woke up my safety precautions. Didn't think it was as commonly possible as it is.

 

[RimfireChris]

I had some PMC .22LR go off about 10 seconds after the trigger pull. Scary, I was reaching for the bolt handle when it did. I get duds with Remmington .22 ammo all the time, really slows down my shooting, but after the lesson the PMC taught me, I wait for 30 seconds now instead of ten.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Have you ever had a round go off after a misfire?

Back to opening post, that sounds to me like a hangfire.

Also could mean a "dud" that will go off if tried again.

Now I did have a batch of .380 with hard primers (maybe small rifle or miltary primers) that took a second strike to fire in a double action auto. Also I have a current batch of military surplus 7.62x25 that has 1 out of 8 or so requiring a second strike. Bad for field use, but good at the range to catch unconscious flinching during practice. Almost as good as having a loader behind me alternating snap caps and live rounds and handing me the gun, if I want to check my follow through.

Even so often, if really bored, I will scoop up a batch of discarded .22 rounds at the range, clean them with cloth and lighter fluid to remove any grit, and give the "one strike" shells a retry in an old .22 rifle: rotated to strike the rim 90 degrees opposite the original strike. 8 or 9 out of 10 will fire on a second strike indicating inconsistent priming, usually the cheap bulk pack ammo. A small percentage have no priming or dead priming.

 

[Jeff F]

Click Bang, yep had my share with some old POF surplus .303. found out if you leave it in the sun for an hour before using it, it would shoot better. Longest hang I ever had with it was about 2 seconds. It was the most crappy ammo I have ever bought. At the time I did not know any better.

 

[longdayjake]

Yup, surplus 8mm. It sucks, happened like every 5 rounds.

Sounds to me like you needed to get a new firing pin spring. Those old ones are really weak and need to be replaced. The same is true with old 1903's and enfields. I have experienced a ton of hangfires until I replaced some old firing pin springs. I don't really know how to explain how a harder primer strike reduces hang fires, but for some reason it really did. I had one 1903 springfield that would hangfire my handloads. So, before you go blaming old surplus ammo, look at the gun you are shooting it from.

 

[WNTFW]

I never had a Hang fire.

I have always heard 30 seconds as the wait time after the click with no bang.

I have had centerfire rounds be duds. That is rare. Always really old ammo that had signs of being bad.

Of course rimfire .22lr duds are common. Be careful rotating them. I had a rim split on one I rotated. Not the most dangerous thing. Definitely not pleasant or something I want to happen again.

 

[red-demon652]

Well i tell ya iv had lots of 22lr hang fire click 1-2 bang and ive had surepluse do it as well, even my own reloads rifle and shotgun. Probably from old powder. Iv often wonderd this same thing about ejecting a mis fire if the fact it was cooking ofter the ejection. Well given weve pretty well all have had a click 1-2-3 bang. My analysas is that yes if the round took three seconds to cook enough to fire then yes it verry well could be ejected before itvreaches enough presure to explode the round.

 

[GBExpat]

For those who may not know ...

If you get a FTF with a "Mauser", you can use a case rim in the arrowed notch to manually recock it for another strike without taking the bolt out of battery.

 

[Nushif]

Very good question!

Never actually had a hangfire ... interesting hearing some stories about them.

 

[rocky branch]

Standard drill in the military was to announce "Misfire! wait 30 seconds!"

A lot of mauser misfires can be cured with a new spring.

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7exg9S_5tQ

This video has some really good examples of hangfires.

 

[Mikee Loxxer]

I have seen it before. A guy at a High Power match a few years ago was competing with an SMLE using some pretty awful Pakistani ammo. It made shooting for score a total waste of time.

 

[1KPerDay]

I had a momentary hangfire with 12 gauge winchester universal shells... one of the many reasons I will never buy them again.

 

[Mightee2]

I wonder what a hangfire would do to a revolver if you pulled the trigger again (bullet not alligned with barrel)? I immagine something very unpleasant.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Once

Out shooting with my son, he took aim, squeezed, and CLICK!

He continued to point the pistol downrange, turned his head to look at me with a kind of "what now?" expression, and it went off.

I congratulated him on having kept the muzzle downrange, and reinforced that with a "so if it ever happens again, just do that," and discussed the "wait 20 seconds, then manually eject cartridge" drill.

Winnie White Box 9mm.

Never had it happen since.

 

[1KPerDay]

Good boy.

 

[Heretic]

Any brand, any caliber, any age. Proper training is the answer.

 

[wally]

I've had only one hang fire. I was shooting steel plates using Remington bulk pack, if I remember correctly, in my Ruger 22/45. I got a click and as I reached up to do tap-rack-bang the darn thing when off. It was pointed safely down range.

When shooting surplus ammo I'm much more aware of the possibility and always wait 30 seconds or more before doing anything except a double strike if the gun is capable.

 

[Owen Sparks]

I can't help but think that a round that fails to fire might become hyper sensitive and the slighteas jar such as opening the action might be enough to set it off. If you have no way to recock the rifle I suggest bumping it hard with the heel of your hand a few times before opening the action. I met a guy who had a .45-70 misfire and when he opened the action it went off costing him an eye.

 

[DougW]

I shoot .303. Hang fires are common with some brands of poorly stored surplus ammo. I had 50 rounds if DAC (Canada, I think) that all had the click.....bang syndrome. Kinda keeps you from flinching!

 

[Radagast]

Plenty of second strike firings with rimfire ammo, none that I can recall with centerfire. Only hang fires I've experienced were with Pakistani .303 (POF marked) click...bang. Maybe a quarter to half second between primer strike and the actual shot. The stuff has a reputation for it and I'll never use it again.

 

[hemiram]

Only once. About 25 years ago, I had a bought a BHP and I bought some dusty looking 9mm off the shelf of an old, and I mean really old gun shop, and I loaded up a mag with it and on the second shot, nothing. I started to rack the slide to dump it and it went off. I was very careful until all the old stuff was gone. I can't remember the brand, but it was in a red box with yellow letters.

 

[k4swb]

I had someone give me a .44 mag handgun and a couple of boxes of factory ammo. After inspecting and cleaning the gun and looking at the ammo I thought all looked excellent so I went ashooting. First round, click.

Now I'm holding a heavy handgun with a fairly heavy load (I think) and wondering how long I need to wait. I've got it pointed at the ground a few feet in front of my feet and my wife is asking me what I'm gonna do. At this point I really don't know. I can't put it down. I can't pull the trigger again since that would put a potentially ignited round out of line with the bore so there I stood, for about 60 seconds when BOOOOM!!!

I swear I did not wet myself but I did need to step out of sight fairly quick after that.

The ammo looked fine but I didn't try any more of that stuff. I later found out that he had kept the cylinder loaded and the gun laying around for quite awhile and I expect it was one of these six rounds that was the problem.

First and I hope last time I've ever had a hang fire in a revolver.

 

[mikerault]

Never had a hang fire, many misfires with surplus 8mm.