First reloaded squib round

.410shooter

April 22, 2012 15:43

I have reloaded at least 100,000 rounds in various calibers, over about 20 years, and last week had my first squib. I was shooting my 5 shot .38 snubbie at the range, had already shot 15 or 20 rounds of the 200 I had loaded for this trip, and then CLICK, and no bang. An attempt to pull the trigger again found the gun tied up. Also not possible to open the cylinder, so this gun is done for the day. Back at home in the gun room, after I had convinced my self that I had failed to charge this case, I slid my caliper down the barrel to find out the bullet was moved forward thus tying the gun up. A few taps with a wooden dowel and small hammer move the bullet back far enough to open the cylinder, now to find out what happened. Put the round in the bullet puller, a few raps and out she comes, along with the powder charge, which was the correct weight. Further investigation finds the de-capping pin that I thought I had broken during the run, stuck in the flash hole! Apperantally short enough to allow the bullet to seat to proper length, but large enough to prevent all the spark from the primer from finding the powder charge. Anyone else ever had this happen?

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  nemesisenforcer

  April 22, 2012 17:57

  Nope, but I've only reloaded tens of thousands of rounds, not hundreds.

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  Mobuck

  April 22, 2012 18:31

  In some cases where the flash hole is plugged or nonexistant, the primer itself will back out and tie up the cylinder.

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  charliemeyer007

  April 22, 2012 20:21

  I have broken my share of pins, never had one stick in the flash hole channel. I do use the Lyman flash hole uniformer/deburr tool on all my brass. I also hand scrape the primer pocket after depriming plus look for splits/etc at that same time.

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  nemesisenforcer

  April 22, 2012 20:50

  I've broken one decapping pin. It was in an "off brand" of ammo that had flash holes that were way too small. Got stuck in the first case, pulled right out of the die.
  
  I tossed the rest of that brand (only bought one box) and never purchased it again.

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  Alan Rushing

  April 23, 2012 06:01

  Last month found that I discovered that we had a pin stuck in the flash hole when we went to prime. Quite an unexpected happening. The primer breaking off and lodging in the flash hole was a first time happening for me and by luck found before charging up. [:0]
  
  ( We'd managed to break several pins during this endeavor, as we were decapping a very large quantity of brass, of a large range of types and makes. ) [:(]

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