My near disaster with a squib and rusted ammo
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Last day of duck hunting for me this year nearly turned into a disaster. I often joked that I would willingly shoot rusted ammunition because I was cheap but no more. I had gone through wet shells and tossed ones with rusted primers and thought mainly the ones that were left would either fire or not and I would just eject or chuck the ones that weren't touched off.
However, yesterday I experienced a 'squib' that could have ruined my barrel, gun or even my face. On a very slow day I joined my friends in drawing down on a bird and pulled the trigger, bang -pffffffffff.... and in that microsecond later my mind subconsciously flew back to my competition days and I did not follow up.
Everyone looked strangely at me and in my mind I knew I should stop but not why. I had to manually eject the spent hull but then my buddy told me to check the chamber. Oh yeahhhh. So in the middle of the swamp I unloaded, peered down the barrel and could not see daylight. Then I broke down the gun and with the barrel out could clearly see it had an obstruction.
Without a rod between us that was the end of my day. At home later I cleared the barrel and as expected the wad was stuck halfway up. The powder probably had been wet or corrupted and it had just enough energy to plop out the BBs but not enough to also expel the wad (the plastic bit I am holding). With a blockage, shooting another round would have over pressured the barrel and could have shattered it, possibly even injuring whoever was close. Very happy to have good friends who have their heads on straight!
All of my wet ammo now is far away from my gun. It has gone into my pile of post apocalypse pile of "ammo of last resort'.
Re: My near disaster with a squib and rusted ammo
Good on you for thinking before pulling the trigger again.
Re: My near disaster with a squib and rusted ammo
To be honest, because it fizzled it also lacked energy to properly cycle again so I couldn't have fired the next one. However, I thanked my friend for reminding me to check to check the barrel. I could have very well cleared the last one and chambered another shell!
Re: My near disaster with a squib and rusted ammo
Good to hear you didn't hand cock it and shoot again. Autoloaders tend to not cycle which helps save the barrel but pump action guys need to resist the urge to shoot again and check the gun if something doesn't sound right. I saw a post recently online and a guy blamed the ammo manufacturer...,it can happen with any ammo because as you noted, wet shells can let water in at the primer. A wet shell caused the blockage but it won't blow up your barrel unless you don't check your barrel after a squib!
I've had a few of these over the years but the wad has always cleared. I did have a buddy shooting a pump have one and as he stroked back the powder continued to burn causing a flare to exit the receiver opening. Examination showed the wad had cleared, powder was wet and did a slow burn I guess.
I see more of this happening, shell boxes are poor quality these days and I found I continually had shells dropping out and into my shell bag. As we all know, lots of rain around here and the shells were in a moist or wet environment as the hunting bag never really dried out. Last year I cleared out my shelves and drawers of shells I had deemed rusted and unusable but never disposed of. There was a lot!!! I looked into different storage options and went with the MTM shotshell holder. It's worked great and has a good hinge system. I put a sticker on them to help identify which box holds different shot sizes. It's worked grear and well worth the price. I bought mine online but I hear Italian Sporting Goods has them.
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Re: My near disaster with a squib and rusted ammo
Dano I am always juggling, dropping and fishing out shells. I always hope that I'll shoot em all without taking them home but this year did not have the shooting opportunities I expected. I'm always body booting, sitting in the muck, falling over, I see it as inevitable that the shells on my body at least will be getting a soaking. I just have to be careful to dry them all out and wiping them down before the rust takes over. Not sure about water actually seeping in, though. Not sure if I can tell how powder is affected from eyeballing it.
Re: My near disaster with a squib and rusted ammo
Nothing worse than not being able to blow your wad,,,,,unless it's premature!
Re: My near disaster with a squib and rusted ammo
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mastercaster
Nothing worse than not being able to blow your wad!
Hahaha this made me actually laugh out loud.
Scary situation. Thanks for the reminder
Re: My near disaster with a squib and rusted ammo
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mastercaster
Nothing worse than not being able to blow your wad,,,,,unless it's premature!
My goodness Brent - what is really happening in these duck blinds? Wait - I don't want to know, I don't want to know.
Re: My near disaster with a squib and rusted ammo
An inexperienced friend got into reloading years ago, he didn't play safe, heard the Pssffft, no Bang, recycled another round, the Shotgun blew apart at the Chamber.......he went to hospital but was lucky to survive. Suspected wet casing when reloaded. Wad was stuck in barrel.
Good thinking on your part.
Re: My near disaster with a squib and rusted ammo
Always carry A cleaning rod with me now.Years ago handloading lead shells had a bunch where the powder got damp? or the bottom of the casing was wet when reloaded anyway 1or 2 out of every box would do that.Shot a pump then and as a 18 year old could not afford to throw them away.So it was a real psych job sometimes wondering if there was going to be a bang or a pop .Surprisingly the primer usually had enough to kick the wad out but the real good ones were when the powder strung out in the barrel then ignited, that was a flash bang not to forget oh the folly of youth.