First Bad Reload in 30 years

[Tiogariverrat]

Well it happened to me last night. I took a friend and his daughter out to the local range to shoot. This was her first time shooting so we started out small 22 lr then 9mm and finally my Taurus Judge with 45 Long Colt reloads.  After about 10 rounds we had one that just flashed no bang. She was shooting so I took control of the weapon and tried to clear it. The round was stuck in the barrel and cylinder. I thought I forgot to put the power in and this was just the primer going off. I got the range officer and we took the weapon out of the range and drove the round back into the casing. We then pulled the bullet out and it had a power charge in it. I guess it was a bad primer. All the rest of the rounds using that same power did fire. Just glad it happened in the judge and not the beretta PX 4. We always need to be on guard for malfunctions while shooting.

Roy

[commonground]

Since you say that there was a flash, it makes one question what caused the misfire.  Most times if the primer is seated properly, a flash into good powder creates a bang.  Was the primer seated backwards?

[Tiogariverrat]

The primer was in the right way. We could not see any thing wrong with this round. It flashed and made a little sound. The main charge did not burn as we did dump some power out after we removed it from the judge. The charge did not seem to have and moisture or oil problems. This was the first time that case was reloaded.

[CATM93]

You might check to see if you had case cleaning media clogging the flash hole of the cartridge case.  De-prime and see if anything interesting comes out.

[Tadrian]

For those of us who reload, let us know if you figure out what caused it.  It's always what we don't know that gets us, so your sharing can help us all.

[Tiogariverrat]

I haven't been able to figure it out. It had powder and the primer was in right. The powder was a fee years old but the rest of the reloads went off OK. I still have 50 more to try. At least it did not clear the cylinder and jammed the thing. It ended up with half the round in the barrel which kept her from firing another round. I really would hate to stack a few in the barrel. That could just ruin your day.

[Taurian]

The important thing was that nobody was harmed.

[mustang125]

I had a factory round do the same thing a few years back. It just falls under the stuff happens button. When ever something don't sound or feel right stop and clear the weapon and check it out. If you had one round still in the barrel the next one will most likely destroy your gun.

[barnjoer]

Most likely A bad or contaminated primer, my guess would the latter.

[Tiogariverrat]

I've shot some more from that batch of reloads with no problems. I pay attention to the recoil and the sound if it does not feel or sound right I'm checking before the next shot. At least that time the round did not clear the cylinder so another round could not be fired.

[Taurian]

I've shot some more from that batch of reloads with no problems. I pay attention to the recoil and the sound if it does not feel or sound right I'm checking before the next shot. At least that time the round did not clear the cylinder so another round could not be fired.

I do this even with factory loads. Having a .44 magnum blow up in my face because of a bad factory (double-charged) load tends to make me watchful for the next one to happen - regardless of the ammunition being fired. I have fired one "squib" load and, luckily, it was a .22 LR. I did not realize it at the time and fired a second shot. The second shot punched the previous bullet from the barrel along with the newly fired bullet. The gun was a Ruger Charger and it was not damaged because, well, it is a Ruger. I may not have been so lucky if the gun had been a larger caliber - regardless of the gun's manufacturer.

You were lucky that the round froze the cylinder. One stuck in the barrel would have caused a different outcome.