I was on another reloading-related site and saw that two members had posted about having squibs in handloaded ammunition this week.
I then did a search here and found no fewer than six reports of squibs in ammunition members had loaded themselves over the past 90 days (rimfire problems, "almost a squib", "loads so light they might cause a squib", and malfunctioning factory ammunition were omitted from the count and I only counted a report of multiple squibs during a range session as a single squib).
That works out to about two squibs per month.
That struck me as kind of high; especially in view of how catastrophic a squib can be if not immediately recognized.
I then did a search here and found no fewer than six reports of squibs in ammunition members had loaded themselves over the past 90 days (rimfire problems, "almost a squib", "loads so light they might cause a squib", and malfunctioning factory ammunition were omitted from the count and I only counted a report of multiple squibs during a range session as a single squib).
That works out to about two squibs per month.
That struck me as kind of high; especially in view of how catastrophic a squib can be if not immediately recognized.
- Is this an aberration?
- Seasonal fluctuation (i.e. at the end of summer/early fall people take to the range so more shooting means more squibs)?
- Reporting bias (i.e. people are likely to report squibs while those who don't have them, don't report)?
- Or are reloading practices so poor that handloaders/reloaders as a group are routinely producing cartridges with no powder (or essentially no powder) in them?