Poll on Reload disaster

Have you ever broke / blown up a gun from your reloads

  • Yes

    Votes: 7 5.0%

  • No

    Votes: 134 95.0%
  • Total voters
    141
  • Poll closed .
Status
Not open for further replies.
I worked with a guy that had a squib he loaded in his 10mm Glock. He shot a round after the squib and put a bulge in his Glock barrel. He continued to use the Glock after that and showed the bulge to me the one and only time I went shooting with him.

So far I have been fortunate to not have a squib. I give a lot of credit for that to my Dillon 650XL press making it hard to produce a squib.
 
I have had one squib, in a .5.56mm vz-58, knew right away from sound and feel that I'd squibbed, and immediately stopped shooting. Brass rod and hammer at the house drove it out. Since then I triple check all charged cases with a flashlight - I load on a single stage, so there is REALLY no excuse for that one. A buddy blew apart a bolt on a 30-06 Savage decades ago with an overcharge, but he was careless, and I never shot his reloads, nor did I "learn" from him, except what NOT to do.
Edited for clarity
 
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So far so good. No damage in over 52 years that I have been reloading, and I want it to stay that way. I had to punch a few empty cases out of my first 9mm when I started loading for it.
That's when I was introduced to the Glock smile. And punched a couple of bullets out of my revolver barrels along the way.
 
Only two squibs.... both were FACTORY loads. One was Winchester 185gr 45acp, other was a 38sp,I think it was Remington.

ETA; since starting to load in early 70's
 
I’ve stuck bullets in the forcing cones of revolvers before. Mostly HBWC with too much pressure or seated too deeply (.32S&W and .38S&W). I stuck a couple of poorly fitted gas checks and jammed the cylinder before, too. No damage just a few skipped heartbeats. And some forehead smacking. 🙄
 
I destroyed a Glock 30 once, not a good / pleasant experience to say the least. I put it in my reloading room as a reminder. Two years later I sent it to Glock, Glock replaced the gun for $300.00 delivered to my door. Glock also told me I can get any gun they make for $300.00, I got another G30.
BTW it will put the fear of God in ya! The first thing I did was look to see if I still had a hand. I wasn't hurt luckily.
 
Mark_Mark said:
but not you, your brother did. I’m trying to bust the notation of “I’ll only shoot reloads from 1-2 people and they taught Layne Simpson to reload”

does he still reload? your brother
Click to expand...

I'm one that does not shoot any ones elses reloads in my guns. I will shoot theirs in their gun. That way if something goes wrong none of my guns are destroyed or damaged. I've never had one that I trusted enough to even think about shooting their reloads. My neighbors come to me for their reloading help. They do shoot my reloads from time to time. But I never shoot theirs.
 
I did a few years ago, wasn’t mine or my components, was working up a load for a MFG in Dallas using new Starline brass they had supplied. Was still on the low side and this case blew out and ejected the extractor, from the supplied FN.

C26FA4EB-76B0-4BBA-B4A5-5EE6A9215BDD.jpeg
I was loading one at a time as I wasn’t near my (quite reasonable) target velocity and wasn’t sure about what looked like a crack all around the inside of the base of the case.

I cut the next one in The box in half and took a closer look to see the blow out propagated from a flaw In the case.

9CD103DC-2F63-4FDD-8AD6-2CEE1EBF8108.jpeg
So, I switched over to once fired brass I had on hand and finished my work, without further issue. There’s lots of ways for problems to occur…one with the same issue that was close to coming apart.

367C4FEB-EDFB-4903-8928-4A8BEC37D5B7.jpeg
 
jmorris said:
I did a few years ago, wasn’t mine or my components, was working up a load for a MFG in Dallas using new Starline brass they had supplied. Was still on the low side and this case blew out and ejected the extractor, from the supplied FN.

View attachment 1169144
I was loading one at a time as I wasn’t near my (quite reasonable) target velocity and wasn’t sure about what looked like a crack all around the inside of the base of the case.

I cut the next one in The box in half and took a closer look to see the blow out propagated from a flaw In the case.

View attachment 1169145
So, I switched over to once fired brass I had on hand and finished my work, without further issue. There’s lots of ways for problems to occur…one with the same issue that was close to coming apart.

View attachment 1169147
Click to expand...
WOW! even New factory Starline brass falled. Was you & Gun ok? well their gun but must have scared the living daylights out of you
 
I double charged my S&W 610 revolver back when I was learning to load on a progressive press using a friend's Dillion Square Deal. If you are familiar with Dillon that is not easy to do. Never did figure out exactly how we managed it but it did result in me pulling 400+ rounds and reworking them. I also got my own Dillion XL 650 shortly there after.

So all the evidence points to the idea that I ended up putting 9.0 gr of Titegroup under a 180gr Montana Gold CMJ. Recoil was stout and the steel went down for sure. The cylinder was locked up tight. I had to put the cylinder on the edge of a table and while holding the cylinder release, pound on the barrel/frame to get the cylinder out of the frame. When I finally got it open the case in question came out in two, nearly three pieces and had to be driven out with a squib rod and hammer. The case head had extruded out between the cylinder and recoil face and mangled the moonclip and adjacent cases. The case had burned completely through at the top of the web leave the front half of the case in the cylinder. The case head had also ruptured at the extractor grove an that split had propagated about 2/3 of the way round the case in the extractor groove. The recoil shield had some nasty scratches from the mangled moonclip and the chamber that experience the double charge was stretch very slightly at the back of the cylinder. The stretch is about .010 in the direction of a diameter of the cylinder, almost no measurable stretch tangent to the OD. This stretch get smaller the deeper you go and is unmeasurable by the time you get .100 inches deep into the cylinder. Otherwise the revolver looked fine and dry fired properly after it was cleaned up.

Out of an abundance of caution I sent it to S&W for their safety check service. I was completely honest with them and in a letter included with the revolver explained exactly what happened and that I was shooting my reloads. The letter included pictures of the revolver after I pounded it open and the exploded case. S&W went through the revolver, replaced the cylinder stop and cylinder stop spring (unrelated to double charge, as best I could tell, the revolver was well used.) and returned it to me in 7-days door to door and did not change me a penny. I was out only the cost to ship it to them.

That happened back in late 2005 and I still own that revolver, shot it for another ~8+ years in USPSA competition after the double charge and I have taken two deer with it. I have little doubt if that round had made it into my XD-40 rather than my S&W 610 this story would be very different. I think the little 10mm chambers in a big old N-frame cylinder along with the cylinder gap is why the gun survived. I think that round would have grenade'ed my XD-40. Quickloads predicted 9 gr of Titegroup under a 180gr bullet should have develop pressures approaching 90,000 psi, The brass flowing into the gap between cylinder a recoil shield would indicated we at least got to 75-80 ksi but the cylinder gap no doubt tempered the pressure spike just enough that the over built cylinder survived the experience.

That was a valuable lesson and made me a very deliberate reloader from the point on. I have thankfully never had another double charge and only 2-3 squibs since then. Be safe!

If I can I will see if I still have the pictures, that was 2005 so they are pretty crude digital photos, but I might still have them on an old backup.
 
I've learned 2 lessons the hard way, that has made my process better. 1. I shot a gun show round through a jap 7.7 arisaka. The case came apart and the overpressure shot small frags of brass into my forhead. Bloodied and pissed at 19 I learned that lesson loud and clear. NO GUN SHOW AMMO. 2. My dad loaded me a big pile of 9mm while on chemotherapy and a ton of them were squibs. I shot these after he had passed and now I weigh every charge, and install the bullet before moving to the next round. No bridging, no half or double charges possible.
 
Haven’t blown anything up. I have had “squibs” from testing low velocity loads and testing “powder back” in revolver loads. I keep a brass rod in the range bag.

I’ve blown 3/4 primers over the decades. One I believe was bullet setback, one was pushing a 5.56 load too hard, one was experimenting with Blue Dot in .22 Hornet.

Y’all be careful out there.
 
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Walkalong said:
Haven’t blown anything up. I have had “squibs” from testing low velocity loads and testing “powder back” in revolver loads. I keep a brass rod in the range bag.

I’ve blown 3/4 primers over the decades. One I believe was bullet setback, one was pushing a 5.56 load too hard, one was experimenting with Blue Dot in .22 Hornet.

Y’all be careful out there.
Click to expand...
I have had some squib rounds when experimenting with below book revolver charges. Trying to see if I could "just stick" a bullet in a double cardboard thickness target. Never was able to get the results I wanted though. Either a squib or through both layers. The things I tried when I first started reloading LOL.
No other problem using my reloads though---- so far!
 
Suppressing results from the Poll.

I never thought it would be 5% fail. Dang this is a dangerous hobby

3ABEC082-FE09-4766-B070-E782EB6C1AE3.jpeg
 
mcb said:
I double charged my S&W 610 revolver back when I was learning to load on a progressive press using a friend's Dillion Square Deal. If you are familiar with Dillon that is not easy to do. Never did figure out exactly how we managed it but it did result in me pulling 400+ rounds and reworking them. I also got my own Dillion XL 650 shortly there after.

So all the evidence points to the idea that I ended up putting 9.0 gr of Titegroup under a 180gr Montana Gold CMJ. Recoil was stout and the steel went down for sure. The cylinder was locked up tight. I had to put the cylinder on the edge of a table and while holding the cylinder release, pound on the barrel/frame to get the cylinder out of the frame. When I finally got it open the case in question came out in two, nearly three pieces and had to be driven out with a squib rod and hammer. The case head had extruded out between the cylinder and recoil face and mangled the moonclip and adjacent cases. The case had burned completely through at the top of the web leave the front half of the case in the cylinder. The case head had also ruptured at the extractor grove an that split had propagated about 2/3 of the way round the case in the extractor groove. The recoil shield had some nasty scratches from the mangled moonclip and the chamber that experience the double charge was stretch very slightly at the back of the cylinder. The stretch is about .010 in the direction of a diameter of the cylinder, almost no measurable stretch tangent to the OD. This stretch get smaller the deeper you go and is unmeasurable by the time you get .100 inches deep into the cylinder. Otherwise the revolver looked fine and dry fired properly after it was cleaned up.

Out of an abundance of caution I sent it to S&W for their safety check service. I was completely honest with them and in a letter included with the revolver explained exactly what happened and that I was shooting my reloads. The letter included pictures of the revolver after I pounded it open and the exploded case. S&W went through the revolver, replaced the cylinder stop and cylinder stop spring (unrelated to double charge, as best I could tell, the revolver was well used.) and returned it to me in 7-days door to door and did not change me a penny. I was out only the cost to ship it to them.

That happened back in late 2005 and I still own that revolver, shot it for another ~8+ years in USPSA competition after the double charge and I have taken two deer with it. I have little doubt if that round had made it into my XD-40 rather than my S&W 610 this story would be very different. I think the little 10mm chambers in a big old N-frame cylinder along with the cylinder gap is why the gun survived. I think that round would have grenade'ed my XD-40. Quickloads predicted 9 gr of Titegroup under a 180gr bullet should have develop pressures approaching 90,000 psi, The brass flowing into the gap between cylinder a recoil shield would indicated we at least got to 75-80 ksi but the cylinder gap no doubt tempered the pressure spike just enough that the over built cylinder survived the experience.

That was a valuable lesson and made me a very deliberate reloader from the point on. I have thankfully never had another double charge and only 2-3 squibs since then. Be safe!

If I can I will see if I still have the pictures, that was 2005 so they are pretty crude digital photos, but I might still have them on an old backup.
Click to expand...
I use a Dillion SBD and worry about my charge. hard to look into the case. I’m going to make a drop in gauge to check powder.
 
I haven't been reloading as long as a lot of you. I've only been reloading for about 10 years. It that time I have had one squib. Pretty sure it was an uncharged round with only the primer.
I hardly ever load near max if I can get something else that works. I voted no. I hope to keep it that way :)

-Jeff
 
AJC1 said:
I've learned 2 lessons the hard way, that has made my process better. 1. I shot a gun show round through a jap 7.7 arisaka. The case came apart and the overpressure shot small frags of brass into my forhead. Bloodied and pissed at 19 I learned that lesson loud and clear. NO GUN SHOW AMMO. 2. My dad loaded me a big pile of 9mm while on chemotherapy and a ton of them were squibs. I shot these after he had passed and now I weigh every charge, and install the bullet before moving to the next round. No bridging, no half or double charges possible.
Click to expand...
I have a few Gun Show Reloads I’m going to pull. Glade I never shot them
 
I answered NO, but with a caveat. Back Home, Years Ago, my brother and I wore out his S&W 57 .41MAG with our handloads. No, we never blew it up, but we quite literally beat it nearly to death... it's completely out of time, the red ramp insert departed at one time, and neither of us want to shoot it anymore until it takes a trip back to the Mothership. We were convinced that the harder we pushed the loads, the more accurate the pistol became... which may or may not have been true. By the time we stopped, we were seriously into No Mans Land...
 
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