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Why I don't shoot other people's reloads...

ScottS

ScottS

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I don't reload. As a rule, I don't shoot reloads. Not "factory manufactured" stuff, and certainly not other shooter's reloads. Generally, factory ammo is too cheap to gamble.

BUT...a guy dropped off 500 rounds of 9mm he had reloaded as "payment" for some help I gave him on his guns. Guy's an engineer. Detail oriented. I thought, well, maybe just this once...

Loaded up mags for my AR15 9mm carbines, Colt-style and Glock-style. (I embrace diversity. Coexist.) I figured there wouldn't be a problem, but if there were, they were pretty stout platforms in case something untoward happened.

Turns out I was shooting with Reloader and his daughter. We're shooting the carbines in head-to-head competitive runs on the falling steel plates. Good fun. After one run, the Colt gun (daughter) has FTF. Round won't chamber. Bolt is stopped half-way. Run the bolt again. Same. Hmm...

Pop the gun open. Oh, lookie:

IMG_6833.JPG

I don't think that's supposed to be there.

Only had a shitty cleaning rod along. Couple of taps. No go. Take the gun off the line. When I get home, I pop a delrin rod down the bore and give it a solid rap. Bloop.

IMG_6835.JPG

No rifling engraved on the bullet. I think it was just jammed up in the front of the chamber.

Best I can tell it was primer-only, no powder. Luckily, it didn't get far enough forward to allow the next round to seat. We were shooting "at speed," and I'm not sure she would have caught the squib. Might have had a chance to test my "stout platform" theory.

So, back to Rule #1: factory ammo only.
 
shit happens even to the best of us, it's just odds, factory has less of them.

primer only would not push bullet far enough, especially 9mm luger for the next round to seat, I don't think that it's catastrophic but healthy dose of paranoia is always good.
 
So the reloader's daughter is shooting your rifle with the reloader's ammo that he gave you as "payment"?

What was the reloader's reaction?
Stepbrothers_Whatever.gif
 
TomMontana said:
So the reloader's daughter is shooting your rifle with the reloader's ammo that he gave you as "payment"?
Click to expand...

Yeah. It's less convoluted than it sounds. We met up to shoot. I brought my two 9mm ARs (among other things) and the 9mm ammo I brought happened to be the stuff he reloaded. I was running the timer while he and his daughter ran mano-a-mano on the steel.

I filed it under "cheap lesson (re)learned."
 
This can all happen with factory ammo the difference is the large ammo manufacturers have insurance policies.
 
It can happen with factory too , but yes I would be a little Leary about others reloads.
I'm over the top anal about my reloads and some of the guys who do hundreds of rounds an hour would probably be ready to throttle me after an hour of watching me.
 
ScottS said:
So, back to Rule #1: factory ammo only.
Click to expand...

Lol, reloads are just fine.... I only made one squib in like 20,000+ rounds reloaded.

You're going to say "well that's still one too many"

The thing is, When that one squib happened, I knew it when I created it... because during the run I noticed the dump return arm or whatever it was, was loose
on my press. So I quarantined that ammo... but I shot it anyways (under controlled conditions), and sure enough, caught one.

The other reason... those were 38s... its hard to see into the case on a 38. If you otherwise have a press set up so you can see into the case before you put a bullet on, and you watch it... constantly... you'll literally never get a squib... and a double becomes obvious, too. Obviously with longer cartridges, it doesn't work so
hot... but things like 9mm, 45, etc? No problem.

Your friend might want to check out his press to make sure it's working correctly. A lot of times on if the return rod gets loose, the powder dump will
get stuck in its travel and not dose enough powder, leading to a squib. I wouldn't be surprised if he pulled the rest of that batch if there are more squibs after
that one...

-Mike
 
Last edited:
Dadstoys said:
It can happen with factory too , but yes I would be a little Leary about others reloads.
I'm over the top anal about my reloads and some of the guys who do hundreds of rounds an hour would probably be ready to throttle me after an hour of watching me.
Click to expand...

I've had factory ammo that didn't fire, had dinged up cases, or sometimes just found primed cases in the box...

Also you can still get acceptable QC going hundreds of rounds an hour... if I had to go any slower than that for anything but a small run, id throttle myself, lol.

-Mike
 
dingbat said:
[bs2] How did the rifle continue to cycle once the gas port was blocked? I'm betting someone did that with a hydrolic press.
Click to expand...

I believe it. 9mm rifles are blowback, so no gas tube.

The most squibs I've personally seen in barrel cross section is 4 or so in a .38 revolver. It looked just like the barrel posted above, almost comical.
 
Boris said:
shit happens even to the best of us, it's just odds, factory has less of them.
Click to expand...

It's not just odds, it's called not taking it seriously enough and having poor quality control/enough safeguards in place to prevent it from happening. AKA, sloppy
workmanship.

-Mike
 
bill o said:
I believe it. 9mm rifles are blowback, so no gas tube.

The most squibs I've personally seen in barrel cross section is 4 or so in a .38 revolver. It looked just like the barrel posted above, almost comical.
Click to expand...
Ah, Ok. I was not aware of that. Still having a tough time believing someone could pop 22 squibs without realizing it though.
Eta: My mistake, 24 squibs.
 
drgrant said:
It's not just odds, it's called not taking it seriously enough and having poor quality control/enough safeguards in place to prevent it from happening. AKA, sloppy
workmanship.

-Mike
Click to expand...

it's odds, one mistake in a thousand, million, billion ... this is how "workmanship" is measured, sigma, six sigma, sixty sigma etc.

I shoot commie guns designed to use shitty ammo made in lap of a bearded old woman taking a shit in a outhouse. Ultra gay gAyRs may not fare well.

common guys, it's a f***ing 9mm squib-wanna be on a blow back gun, don't shit your loin cloth, it's not like

nuclear-atom-bomg-explosion-animated-gif-4.gif
 
I don't understand why this is a problem in 2018. You can simply buy an rcbs lockout die for your press or get one of them fancy powder charge alarms for the Dillon which will buzz if there's an over or under charge.

We have the technology.

 
twice in my shooting life I've seen an inexperienced shooter with a .45 acp try to load another round into the chamber after a squib because they didn't know they had a squib even though they heard a "funny" report and experienced no recoil. the only thing that saved them from an accident waiting to happen was the bullet didn't move far enough into the barrel to allow the slide to go into battery cause the next round wouldn't chamber fully. i'm sure if they were shooting revolvers they wouldn't have been so lucky. both were shooting ammo manufactured by a well meaning friend.
 
greencobra said:
twice in my shooting life I've seen an inexperienced shooter with a .45 acp try to load another round into the chamber after a squib because they didn't know they had a squib even though they heard a "funny" report and experienced no recoil. the only thing that saved them from an accident waiting to happen was the bullet didn't move far enough into the barrel to allow the slide to go into battery cause the next round wouldn't chamber fully. i'm sure if they were shooting revolvers they wouldn't have been so lucky. both were shooting ammo manufactured by a well meaning friend.
Click to expand...

If you click the link provided above to the article about the 9mm barrel with 24 squibs in it, there is a video from JP. They are seeing this often and are calling out a fast burn powder with 147g projectiles. Claiming a squib will look and feel like a good round, you need to listen for the round to hit the paper or steel.
 
I've had 2 or 3 squibs in my light 357 mag loads (38 spl loads using 357 brass) when using light charges of Bullseye under a plated bullet. I still to this day can't understand how it happened as I'm confident powder was in each of the cases. I think it was Jim/EddieCoyle that said it might be possible that the some of the plated bullets I used might be out of spec/oversized. Or it could have been an issue with the brass possibly. Don't know...

I've yet to get any squibs for the other calibers I reload (9mm, 44 mag, 7.62x25, 30 carbine, 30-06, and 7.5x55 swiss).

I let others shoot reloads in my guns but I never offer my reloads for someone's gun.
 
Johnnyh said:
I don't understand why this is a problem in 2018. You can simply buy an rcbs lockout die for your press or get one of them fancy powder charge alarms for the Dillon which will buzz if there's an over or under charge.

We have the technology.

Click to expand...


Thank you. I didn't know this, (RCBS lockout die) existed. Just watched a couple videos and ordering one later today.

I had a squib Saturday from some ammo I loaded a while ago. The stuff I'm loading now I have no doubts about, I'm using it for matches. But I've got a couple of earlier boxes that I'm shooting in practice sessions only because I was definitely learning as I loaded them and it was from one of those boxes that I had the squib. Primer only. I have a squib rob and it popped right out.
 
andrew1220 said:
I've had 2 or 3 squibs in my light 357 mag loads (38 spl loads using 357 brass) when using light charges of Bullseye under a plated bullet. I still to this day can't understand how it happened as I'm confident powder was in each of the cases. I think it was Jim/EddieCoyle that said it might be possible that the some of the plated bullets I used might be out of spec/oversized. Or it could have been an issue with the brass possibly. Don't know...

I've yet to get any squibs for the other calibers I reload (9mm, 44 mag, 7.62x25, 30 carbine, 30-06, and 7.5x55 swiss).

I let others shoot reloads in my guns but I never offer my reloads for someone's gun.
Click to expand...

It can happen if there is junk in the case, lube, etc. I've have had it happen from a couple cases that got wet and I loaded them.

I shoot other people's reloads all the time. They shoot mine. We know what a squib is like and it's not an issue even when shooting quickly
 
Years ago, in some Cowboy Action mag, this regular contributor discussed how you have to be careful when reloading.

He didn't blow up one SAA. HE blew up at least TWO of them. (Maybe not Colt's, but single-actions) He thought it was sorta humorous that he doesn't watch the machine while reloading and clearly loaded 2 bullets into one case (because one got stuck in the seating die) at least twice.

No, he didn't pull EVERY reload and his scale just to be sure he didn't do it a 3rd time.

Nice pictures of some ruined single actions. Not sure if he got his point across to be safe. I used to keep a CAREFUL eye on the press. But even with that, I checked my seating die and it was full of lube and gunk.

Yikes! Don't mess with your hands and face, folks!
 

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