Clovishound

My buddy and I have been working through some teething pains with reloading 9mm. Last batch seemed to work pretty well. Tried some different diameter bullets to see if there was a noticeable accuracy difference.

Showed up at his house with some Tightgroup powder. He wanted to try some with the .356 flat nose bullets. He told me to go ahead and set up the powder measure and fill and then do the bullet seating on some cases he had primed and flared. I usually add powder to a batch of 50. Double check and then seat the bullets. For some reason I decided to load powder and seat, round by round. Had a couple cases with issues and was talking with him during the process, swapping out a couple cases during the process.

Got to the range and things were going fine for me. About halfway through the box I had powdered and seated I had a failure to fire. I kept the muzzle pointed downrange for a while, then racked the slide. The next round would not fully load. Field stripped the weapon, and discovered a bullet stuck in the barrel.

All I can figure is that somehow I failed to load powder in a this case when swapping out a bad case. From now on all the cases get powder first, then double check them all in the loading block before seating bullets.

GunLover

Be glad the round wouldn't load, because if it had, and you fired, well, you might not be here posting about it. I also had a squib round once, but had just watched a video of a gun blowing up and knew what to do.

Clovishound

I would like to think I would have caught it when I went to pick up the "unfired" round and discovered it had actually fired.

From now on, a non fire gets the mag dropped, eject and inspect the ejected round prior to doing anything else.

I have doubts that the weapon would have exploded in my hands, but I sure would not want to test the theory.

Temmi

I have not yet had a squib...

Knock on wood

I do a LOT of QC to insure I don't

I'm Glad your ok


Snake

Mr Sasquatch

The good news is that, in most cases, if there is no powder in the case, just a primer, the bullet will just wedge itself in the rifling but will not go any further into the barrel. This will prevent the next round from chambering therefore saving the firearm and shooter's fingers and eyes.

The worst squib would be with too low a powder charge where the bullet would go half way through the barrel and stop.

bhefley59

I always throw the powder, look in the case then seat the bullet, crimp. I have done this for years. Knock on wood I have not had a squib. I just don't like the fact of 50 or a hundred cases sitting open with powder in them. Also I can get more done this way.

fungun

I'll probably get into reloading in the next year or two, I'm saving up my brass already for it.

I'm curious to know if there are presses that have some sort of tool to confirm the powder volume in the case, like a depth gauge dip stick sort of thing?

Obo2

i just did the exact same thing the other day for my 40...

could kick myself.

I fully checked my barrel before i even tried to load another round.

I like you also have found it necessary to load the entire tray and then check it round by round usually with a flashlight.

FlyerTom

I'm assuming that everyone here is using a powder measure to dispense the charge. I learned the hard way while loading some mild .38 Special loads using Unique. The load called for 3.2 grains, and this is where I later discovered that the coarseness of Unique contributes to it not flowing through measures very well with charges less than 4.5 grains.
My shooting session was cut short the day of the squib, because I didn't have a rod to knock the bullet out. When I got home and did the deed, I set up the press again with the 3.2 grain load, and monitored every drop. The measure would work fine for 2 or 3 loads then suddenly there would be a charge with only a couple of kernels of powder in the case, sometimes none at all. I finally invested in a bullet puller and dismantled the rest of the loads. Out of the 50 I loaded, 11 had little to no powder in them.
I've since switched my powder for the 148 grain wadcutters from Unique to WW-231. This powder has dropped its weight 100% of the time for 400 rounds that I've loaded.
I should note that the .38 Special case is rather long and this makes it difficult to just glance inside unless I remove the case from the press to check such a light load.

CdnInAz

yes there is: RCBS Lock-Out Die I like it, but I still look into every case before seating - LED light mounted on press, works well for me. Not applicable to what OP was doing with single stage loading.

Clovishound

Loading the 9mm, with the powders I have used so far, it fills the case well over halfway up. While I may not be able to distinguish between a 3.0 and a 3.6 gr load, I should be able to see an obviously short/missing load of powder by eye.

grandpabear

Glad it all worked out. I'm new to reloading and am doing 9mm also. Maybe I'm too cautious but I'm gonna keep on doing it my way. I use the powder through the die expander and do everything single stage. I look at the case when I take it out then look at all the cases in the loading block to see if everything looks uniform before I start seating bullets.

Dawgface

I am curious to know if you all that had squibs were using single stage presses or progressive presses like a Dillon Sq. Deal B?
Thanks

*EDIT* I see grandpabear's using single stage.

Mr Sasquatch

There is no such thing as being too cautious when you are learning how to reload.

That's why I'm a strong proponent of using a single stage press when one is just starting.

rclark

+1. I do too.... and never a squib. Knock on wood. Single stage press of course. Eye balls work pretty well to see level of powder in case. Of course I like to use powders that fill at least half the case if I can.