Experiment Completed.
As some of you have read my opinion differs from others on this thread about what a squib is and how a squib is behaved.
I said earlier that a round that will not leave the barrel is never powerful enough to cycle the action and that some rounds that are powerful enough to leave the barrel will still not cycle the action.
Others have said that squib loads that were insufficiently powerful to exit the barrel often still cycle the action. Others have also said that powderless loads will cycle the action with enough authority to eject the empty and chamber a new round with just the power of the primer.
My goal was to see who was right. I thought I was right. But nothing beats testing. Let the chips fall where they may.
So today I want out to test my theories using 3 guns and 2 loads. All 9mm.
Earlier I mentioned I'd use my 9mm S&W 547 revolver, but I passed on that since it would be difficult to clear a stuck bullet from the barrel.
So here are the guns in question:
1) Kahr P9
2) Glock 17
3) Dan Wesson PM9 1911
The ammo all used a 147 GR moly coated bullet fro precisionbullets.com and mixed brass that was cleaned, polished and loaded on a Dillon 650. The 2 kinds of squibs were:
1) Case, primer, bullet and no powder
2) Case, primer, bullet and 1.0 gr of Clays. For point of reference a light 38 spcl load uses about 3 gr of Clays.
Results:
In all cases, all of the firearms behaved in exactly the same way, so I'm not going to break it down by firearm.
1) Squib with no powder - There was a very faint pop. The slide did not move. The gun did not recoil, not even a little. The bullet was found inside the barrel within the first inch of the barrel. The brass did not eject. A new round did not chamber.
2) Squib with 1.0 gr of Clays - There was a normal handgun sound, although it was muted. The slide moved. The gun recoiled a bit. The bullet left the barrel in all cases. The brass failed to eject in all cases. There were no double feeds as the slide did not go back enough to pick up a new round from the magazine.
Conclusion:
1) Under my test conditions a squib that consists of a primer only will NOT cycle the action. This is so positively proven with my guns and my ammo that I'd be comfortable making the blanket statement that in no gun is the primer to going to cycle the action, especially if the bullet remains in the barrel.
2) In my guns using my ammo, a squib with a reduced powder charge did not cycle the action but did send the bullet downrange. Remember, the danger is if the bullet is still in the bbl and the gun cycles. With my guns, this could not be induced to happen.
See for yourself. Please excuse the cinematography. Pay particular attention to the primer only loads. Not even close. Anyone who thinks that a primer cycled their firearm is simply mistaken. For what its worth. I loaded up more than originally planned. Each gun got 4 squibs with 1 gr of Clays for a total of 16 rounds. All exited the firearm but failed to cycle it. Each gun got only 2 of the squibs with no powder because I got tired of pounding the bullets out. Especially with the 1911. All of the primer only squibs demonstrated no recoil, no movement of the slide and all left the bullet about an inch in to the barrel.
Don
[video=youtube_share;yYAmYgG40Us]http://youtu.be/yYAmYgG40Us[/video]
