My first squib yay

[Unclenick]

I've had 4 squibs, all factory ammo. They are unnerving.

I'll bet it is. We had a fellow on another forum who ran a contract testing handgun ammunition for several federal agencies. He said that by the time your crew had fired a couple hundred thousand rounds of commercial ammo, you'd seen every kind of failure a handloader can experience, plus several a handloader would not experience just because he handles his components and looks at his brass. These included duds due to primed cases without flash holes, hollow bullet jackets with no core, inverted bullets, untrimmed cases, et cetera. Of course, these were on top of squib loads, overpressure loads, backward seated primers, split cases, and all the other stuff handloaders run into.

I found a funny loading error with a round of Lake City National Match ammo I had fired at a DCM match at Camp Perry in the mid-1980s sometime. It actually shot OK, but when I was cleaning my policed brass, I noticed one case felt heavier than the others. I weighed it, and it was about 230 grains, whereas the others were about 195 grains. I looked inside with a bore light and saw that the web appeared darker on one side. So I got out a dental pick and poked and found a dark lump was there. After a bit more effort, I pulled it loose and got it out of the case with needle-nose pliers. It was lead. About 35 grains. Part of a bullet core, I supposed, but not a whole one (this ammo was loaded with the M1 Type 173-grain open-base boattail FMJs). An odd-size lump of scrap, oddly located. I only mention it because it is an example of a handloader handling components and therefore seeing what the machine at the factory did not.

 

[MarkCO]

I'll bet it is. We had a fellow on another forum who ran a contract testing handgun ammunition for several federal agencies. He said that by the time your crew had fired a couple hundred thousand rounds of commercial ammo, you'd seen every kind of failure a handloader can experience, plus several a handloader would not experience just because he handles his components and looks at his brass.

I know one of the "magazine testers" for MagPul. He would go through cases of factory ammo a day. Just cranking round after round through 223, 308 and 9mm magazines. He said the same sort of thing. Had all kinds of failures shooting as much ammo in a week as a high volume shooter shoots in a year.

 

[jetinteriorguy]

As the title leads I had my first squib load today. Been reloading for 7 years and now my confidence has sunk. Load was 45 acp 4.2 grains of VV N-310 with a Berrys 230 RN shot in an AR 45 8in barrel. I know heavy bullets with fast powder is always more susceptible to this. Loading on a LNL Progressive I assume during the process one was loaded light due to the standard hiccups that come with progressive presses. The bullet just barely made it into the barrel indicating to me it was a light load. My question is there anyway to inspect the case or bullet to better identify what happened?

Just consider it a good lesson in the dangers of complacency when hand loading ammunition. Thankfully no damage done, may not be so lucky next time. In 30+ years of hand loading I’ve never had a squib, but I have had an accidental double load of Titegroup that blew the top off my 627. This was due to cascading events in my loading procedure on my no longer used Loadmaster and my carelessness. Luckily other than the gun no injuries were incurred.