Waiting after a mis-fire

[DragonFire]

I was shooting at our local IDPA match yesterday and met a new shooter, who was shooting a S&W 610 revolver.

On one stage he had a misfire, for some reason the round didn't fire. He immediately stopped shooting, waiting a few seconds and then he told the RO that he was done shooting.

Talking to him afterwards, he said he did this because he knew someone who lost part of his finger when a misfired round suddenly went off as the shooter continued to pull the trigger. He didn't go into details, but I assume he meant the round fire when it wasn't lined up to the barrel and struck the frame and the shooter's hand.

At first I just shrugged it off as someone being a bit too careful, but after thinking about it for a while, I guess there is a chance of it happening. But what about autos? If you eject the misfire, isn't there some small chance that the round will "fire" while it's laying on the ground?

Has anyone seen a round go off after a misfire (not counting trying to fire them a second time)? Is it something that's likely to happen?

 

[gtee03]

yeah, it's called a hangfire. On the rare occasion this happens (I had an auto that would occasionaly have a light primer strike with PMC ammo) wait for a minimum ten second before clearing the weapon. After 30 it's extremely unlikely you'll have a round "go off"

I, personally have never seen or experienced a hangfire, but i'm sure others here have.

 

[Sheldon]

It is especially bad in a revolver. If you were to ignore the fact the round did not do off and then cycle the trigger again, that round would no longer be aligned with the barrel and if it went off then.....Kaboom. I would think the cylinder would explode. I'm pretty catious too when that happens to me with the lightened trigger on my revolver. It will shoot Federal primers fine, but misfires every now and then with the Winchester primers. I will stop and wait and then pop the offending round off as I'm paraniod the recoil from the other rounds might set it off. I pretty much have decided to stick with the Federal primers for that revolver.....too stressful otherwise and let's face it, I'm trying to relax when I'm at the range.

 

[jondar]

Some years ago I bought an Astra 400 (Modelo 1921). On removing the grips noticed small amounts of rust on the mainspring. Disassembled the pistol, cleaned the rust, lubed it, reassembled it. . I took my four year old son and drove outside town, aimed the pistol in a safe direction and pulled the trigger. I "felt" the internal hammer drop, but no click and no discharge. I was sure the hammer had only dropped part way so held the pistol pointed in a safe direction and 10-15 seconds later the pistol fired. I believe I had re-installed the mainspring and housing backward. After stripping and reassembling I had no further problems. This may not have been the problem but it is all I can figure it was.

 

[EddieCoyle]

I had a hangfire with a BDA .380 that I used to have. I was using some WWB, had it click instead of bang, and then fire after a couple of seconds (or so) as I was reaching to rack the slide. I'm a big fan of keeping the gun pointed in a safe direction so no harm, no foul - that time. I've had occaisional misfires since. Now I wait longer.

 

[johnny blaze]

While in the airborne infantry, we were under heavy fire. We had several M60's firing. One of them jammed up. the person firing the M60 tried to eject the stuck round. The round went off in his fingers, and blew two of them off and did some other damage also.
We were taught to let the round set for at least a minute before trying to eject it, keeping it pointed away from anything you do not want to shoot. In combat however, one minute is forever.
I have had primers that malfunctioned and never went off. You just never know.
In case you do not know, a M60 is a machine gun.

 

[1911Tuner]

Hang Ten

I had an old lot of '42 headstamp '06 ball that I was burnin' up once. Had several misfires...and then I had a hangfire. I waited for 30 seconds on each misfire before lifting the bolt on the '03A3...but got overconfident, and started
ASS-U-MING...that all were misfires...and started waiting only about 5 seconds. I reached for the bolt handle and had just started to lift it when the hangfire lit off. From that day to this, I wait 60 seconds...no exceptions.

 

[Waitone]

60 seconds is my practice.

 

[mbs357]

20 minutes just to make sure.
Make sure you keep proper stance and grip on pistol.
You never know when it could just...go off.

 

[JohnKSa]

IIRC, 30 seconds is recommended by NRA. Longer for blackpowder--maybe a couple of minutes.

In a true self-defense situation I'd take my chances and eject the round.

 

[Any Cal.]

I was shooting with some friends one day, going through some commercial reloads in .44 mag. Bang. Bang. Bang. Click. The friend kept the qun pointed downrange and looked back at me, because it was my gun. I did not know why it had happened so I started to walk toward him. sssst.Blam. Was really glad he had kept it pointed downrange. Took about 5 seconds to go off. It was the only time it has happened around me, but I will not forget it.