What would happen...

[SilentStalker]

Just out of curiosity, "What would happen if someone managed to load a semi-auto magazine with the bullets backwards and try to fire it?" I know that would be difficult to do and I have never seen anyone do it but I am curious as to what would happen if the bullet popped up in the chamber backwards and then someone tried to fire it.

J

 

[goalie]

The bullets would not fit in the chamber backwards.

 

[Bruce333]

While you can load a mag with the rounds backwards
,
a round won't fit into the chamber backwards...I doubt if it would even strip the first round out of the mag...

 

[DMK]

Even if the round could fit in the chamber backwards(if it was a smaller caliber maybe), the primer would be facing the bore. The round could not go off.

 

[mustanger98]

Not only would the round not fire, the bullet could be jammed deeper into the case by the force of the spring (op-rod or mainspring depending on the rifle). If that round were then turned around and chambered, the pressure would likely be higher... possibly dangerously high, causing the weapon to be over-pressurized and possibly explode. This is assuming the bolt did strip the round from the mag as somebody already said it wouldn't.

 

[SHOOT1SAM]

I guess I read the original post backwards!

What came to my mind was cartridges in the magazine, with the bullets loaded backwards, ala Karamojo Bell & the way he shot elephants with his 7mm Mauser.

Sam

 

[Andras]

I had to help out the guy next to me at an indoor range once. He couldn't get his new .40 to fire.

Yup, cartridges loaded backwards. I told him to throw away the top round in case the bullet was pushed into the case, and how to load the cartridges correctly.

 

[mete]

A fellow brought in a brand new P38 saying it wouldn't work. We checked it out carefully and everything was ok. When he came to pick it up we asked him exactly how he operated it.He loaded the cartridges backward !!!

 

[mustanger98]

What came to my mind was cartridges in the magazine, with the bullets loaded backwards, ala Karamojo Bell & the way he shot elephants with his 7mm Mauser.

IIRC, Bill Jordan (the Border Patrolman) handloaded hollow-based wadcutters base forward when regulations said he couldn't have hollowpoints. I think that was Jim Wilson that re-counted that detail.

But for the 7mm Mauser, I'm wondering how that would work with the pressures generated because that's turning a spitzer bullet backwards.

 

[Jim Watson]

Why would W.D.M. Bell shoot elephants with backwards bullets?
The early .275 Rigby was loaded with then-standard 7x57 175 gr RN FMJ that would be right for the job as is. (I saw a Rigby rifle at a gun show with a letter from Bell, concerned that Rigby had gone to a 145 grain bullet and might have slowed the rifling to where it would not handle the 175.)

The NRA did some tests with reversed .30-06 FMJs and found them bad to fragment like a weak softpoint. Not what I would want on elephant.

 

[grizz]

shamefully, I've done this

With a Ruger 22/45. It jams up real good. I wasn't quite all there, if you get my drift.

 

[mole]

I sometimes shoot a S&W model 52. This is an autoloader chambered in ".38 special" (your average .38 special ammo will not fit). I cast semi-wadcutters and then load them backwards into the brass until the base of the bullet is flush with the mouth of the brass. It has worked fine for years, but it's a light load target pistol with low pressures.