I had almost two hours between finishing a work detail and my Dr. appointment this morning, so I stopped by the range to do a little shooting. Took the .22 AR and a bulk pack of Federal Champion. It's 18 degrees out, so that might be a factor here. I was plinking away at the plate rack, and noticed that this stuff is pretty inconsistent. I had a couple of rounds that sounded a little light, and a few failed to cycle the action, which isn't normal for this gun. It's typically very reliable.

Finally I had one that was just barely a pop and nothing happened downrange. I thought "that's not right", unloaded, and popped the takedown pin out. Sure enough, can't see through the barrel. So that'll be a fun project when I get home. I've never had a squib with factory ammo before...guess there's a first time for everything.

It's not been a good week for ammo. I bought 200 rounds of Turkish manufacture Buffalo Cartridge Company "Adrenaline" 115gr 9mm ammo two weeks ago for what I thought was a great price. I had almost 20% light strikes with it in two different pistols, neither of which have had that problem with any other ammo. I contacted them last week through their website and still haven't heard back. Should have spent the extra $2/box and bought CCI.

Any trouble getting the squib out?

Be sure to keep the bullet and the box. Give federal a call. Maybe you’ll get another free box of the same exact stuff that caused it!

Finally got home and got it cleared. The bullet was about an inch from the muzzle. It popped right out with just a little pressure from a cleaning rod. Honestly, being a .22 I'll bet it would have shot out just fine if I'd followed it up with another round, but I still wouldn't knowingly try it. It left a bunch of unburnt powder in the action, too, so the case was charged. It just didn't ignite the powder for some reason.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Honestly, being a .22 I'll bet it would have shot out just fine if I'd followed it up with another round,

I wouldn't take that bet. I have an inherited Winchester .22 rifle with 6 bullets lodged into the barrel, ruining it. Whoever it was just kept shooting. "Hmmm... why do I keep missing?" lol

quote:

Originally posted by 1KPerDay:

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Honestly, being a .22 I'll bet it would have shot out just fine if I'd followed it up with another round,

I wouldn't take that bet. I have an inherited Winchester .22 rifle with 6 bullets lodged into the barrel, ruining it. Whoever it was just kept shooting. "Hmmm... why do I keep missing?" lol

Exactly.

Many moons ago I read reports of squibs & subsequent shots in 22lr rifle barrels. When lots of rounds were shot at the squib, sometimes the exterior of the barrel showed bulges. With heavier-profile barrels and with only 1 round shot after the squib, the exterior of the barrel measured the same. But in all cases the bore showed expansion -- sometimes a little, sometimes quite a bit. Sometimes the bore expansion required air gauging to detect the bulge. Other times the bore expansion was visible with a bore camera.

Now a small bore bulge might not make much difference in 22lr accuracy, especially if the barrel isn't match-quality and if value-line ammo is used. But any imperfection in a match-grade barrel with match-grade ammo will negatively affect accuracy.

Yes, shooting out a squib does not always (if ever) work.

^ That dude was certainly determined to try, and try, try again! So much so that he reloaded ! And for the record, I'd never try to purposefully shoot out a squib...I was just surprised how little pressure it took to remove this one.

Only squib I ever had a was a S&W scandium framed 357 backup gun, first shot was the squib, so I didn’t notice it was weird. Second round had some “significant” recoil and the barrel was bulged.
I called S&W and had a talk with the repair center. S& W fixed the gun free of charge. And I had sent the ammo in with them, it was Federal IIRC. Since it was my backup gun they sent it back to me in a week (nice)

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Yes, shooting out a squib does not always (if ever) work.

Holy balls.

I've seen that picture before and have used it for some training materials at work. I have to conclude that whoever did that did it on purpose for demonstration purposes...either that or they were incredibly clueless, and extremely lucky to have not grenaded the gun in their hand !

I mean in 22LR. Could you toss in a blank theoretically if you were super lazy and just blast it out with a blank?


I'm sure a cleaning rod or solid dowel would be the smarter way to do it though.

quote:

Originally posted by myrottiety:
I mean in 22LR. Could you toss in a blank theoretically if you were super lazy and just blast it out with a blank?


I'm sure a cleaning rod or solid dowel would be the smarter way to do it though.

This particular one took very little pressure to remove. I probably could have just dropped my cleaning rod from the chamber end of the barrel and the momentum would have knocked it out.

I have had other squibs that were much more difficult to remove. Never with factory ammo, though. I had a heck of a time with .303 Brit over H335, ended up switching powder to something else after sticking a couple of those...but I now have a piece of steel rod with taped spacers on it in my car to use as a .30 cal range rod.

I've had revolvers stick the bullet halfway out of the forcing cone locking the whole gun up. Another time a buddy had two squibs in a row with some of his grandpa's reloads, and getting those out required a punch and a hammer.

quote:

Originally posted by myrottiety:
I mean in 22LR. Could you toss in a blank theoretically if you were super lazy and just blast it out with a blank?

It might not matter with a 22 LR gun, especially a rifle, but using a blank for that purpose has been discussed by gun gurus in the past with dire warnings that it’s very dangerous because of the different burning/pressure characteristics of the powder used in blanks. I.e., don’t use a blank to try to drive a standard bullet.

I had that happen to a Ruger 22/45 once. The bullet was just poking out of the barrel and it was enough to operate the slide, the next round fired and the case exploded on its way out of the gun. There was a distinct POP! The 22/45 was so robust that nothing damaged the gun.

Nope, the bullets won't just get pushed out.

Tony.

I've had several squibs before, but the one I keep going back to (and the one I use as a cautionary tale of what not to do) is the one I caught in the middle of it rapid fire string in my CZ P09.

Squib stuck in the barrel, which is annoying but not the end of the world. The next [full pressure] round, on the other hand... It cleared both bullets and as far as I can tell actually swaged the barrel out the barrel and slide are effectively one unit and nothing short of cutting one or the other is going to change that. The barrel is clear, I know this much. The pressure ruptured the case and I'm able to see light shines from the end of the barrel.

The frame was utterly demolished, but nowhere near as much as my confidence. Took me months to trust myself to be willing to shoot anywhere near quick again. I also pulled like 400 handloaded pieces of 9mm. I blew up using factory Fed, but it shook me enough to go full scorched earth. Good thing, too - I found a few that didn't have powder. I also used it as an excuse to upgrade the progressive - I had loaded everything else on my old Load Master (I fought with the indexing mechanism - like, a [I]lot[/I), but I sold it at a major loss and bought a LnL AP to replace it. I couldn't be happier with that part at least.

Damn. Did you get hurt? And did Federal replace your gun?

I think you'll be very happy with that upgrade to the LNL over the Lee. I love mine. One accessory that I think is absolutely worth the cost is the inline fabrication LED light kit for the LNL. It allows you to see clearly down inside the case and easily inspect the charge in every round as you set the bullet. That combined with using HS6 as my 9mm powder (double charge would over fill the case) gives me huge confidence in my 9mm reloads. I've loaded thousands and thousands of them without issue.

The squibs that I have had prior to the one in my OP were in .303 and .357 mag, loaded on a different press. Both times the case had powder in it, it just didn't ignite for some reason.

Oh, and an update on the Buffalo Cartridge Company ammo I was complaining about in my OP...I filled out the contact form on their website and explained the issue with the light strikes, but never received a response. Not impressed at all...I'd recommend anyone who sees that stuff on the shelf steer clear of it.