jashobeam
Member
I work at an indoor gun range. Last Thursday night I had the opportunity to see the effects of a squib load.
A man had rented one of our guns (a Ruger SP101 .357 magnum) and bought some factory ammo which we require with all of our gun rentals. A little while later he came out of the shooting bay and complained that the cylinder was stuck. The employee who rented him the gun went out to look at it and discovered that the shooter had been shooting reloads (reloaded by a third party) through the gun.
One of the cartridges had been a squib load that had managed to lodge the bullet about an inch inside the barrel. AMAZINGLY, another cartridge had experienced some sort of crimp-jump in which the bullet had become unseated and extruded itself from the casing, resulting in the cartridge becoming wedged against the frame and freezing the cylinder.
If this other cartridge had not had a loose crimp that allowed the bullet to extend beyond the cylinder and wedge against the frame, the shooter would most likely have fired off another round AFTER the squib load had lodged a bullet in the barrel! What a fortunate guy he is to have experienced two malfunctions at one time, with one saving him from reaping the consequences of the other.
THIS IS WHY RANGES INSIST THAT GUN-RENTERS PURCHASE FACTORY AMMUNITION WHEN SHOOTING RANGE-OWNED FIREARMS.
A man had rented one of our guns (a Ruger SP101 .357 magnum) and bought some factory ammo which we require with all of our gun rentals. A little while later he came out of the shooting bay and complained that the cylinder was stuck. The employee who rented him the gun went out to look at it and discovered that the shooter had been shooting reloads (reloaded by a third party) through the gun.
One of the cartridges had been a squib load that had managed to lodge the bullet about an inch inside the barrel. AMAZINGLY, another cartridge had experienced some sort of crimp-jump in which the bullet had become unseated and extruded itself from the casing, resulting in the cartridge becoming wedged against the frame and freezing the cylinder.
If this other cartridge had not had a loose crimp that allowed the bullet to extend beyond the cylinder and wedge against the frame, the shooter would most likely have fired off another round AFTER the squib load had lodged a bullet in the barrel! What a fortunate guy he is to have experienced two malfunctions at one time, with one saving him from reaping the consequences of the other.
THIS IS WHY RANGES INSIST THAT GUN-RENTERS PURCHASE FACTORY AMMUNITION WHEN SHOOTING RANGE-OWNED FIREARMS.