Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire NOT the way to clear a squib

Guy I know. He had a squib load from his new progressive press. He said he probably has several in that batch. He found some debris in the powder hopper restricting flow, paper I think.

So he got a squib in his Glock. He didn't knock it out with a pin, I don't know if he tried. He primed and loaded a case with powder only and shot it out, straight up.

Got away with it, seems real risky to me.

Actually that works if you do it right but not recommended because it's easy to screw up. Use a range rod. (See Hatcher's Notebook)

I've never heard about that either, and it sounds awful dangerous. There's no way I would attempt that unless the gun was in a vise or something and I pulled the trigger with a string from a safe distance. And then only if I wasn't concerned about possibly wrecking the gun.

I carry a range rod in my shooting box. That and an old planishing hammer. 10 inches long fits inside a 9mm bore. I did that when I had a squib and had to leave the range to fix it a long time ago. I think I used it once since then on someone else's gun. It's aluminum, never bothered to get a brass one.

I don't know about handguns, but that approach has been known to blow up a rifle. It happened to one of Dr. Floyd Brownell's graduate students while they were working on the Pressure Factors series of articles.

Shooting it out of the barrel does seem like the proper redneck approach, I mean where is the fun in just knocking it out with a brass rod

I breech seat my 38-55 all the time in schuetzen matches, it is a pretty common practice, granted cast lead bullets are used. I seat a 330 gr bullet in the barrel with a plugged case. The bullet is fully engraved in the rifling and ends up a little less than 1/8” ahead of the case mouth. I use 16.5 gr of IMR 4227 with a large rifle primer. Some guys will use a pinch of cotton to keep the powder in the bottom of the case. It isn’t unusual for some to shoot the entire match with a single case. They’ll have a decapping/recapping tool and a powder measure set up on the bench. Breech seating eliminates any variation associated with neck tension and seating depth and can lead to some pretty impressive groups.

Like the gender reveal artillery that killed the woman spectator.

Might be a little Redneck here. It was not really a squib.

But one time about 35 years ago I attempted to unload the chamber of my Win 670 30-06 way up on tp of the mountain. Only to dump 60 gr of H4831 down through the mag well and leave a 165 ballistic tip engraved in the lands.

We were two hours from camp and an additional three hours from the nearest 24 inch cleaning rod.

But I did have a pair of pliers on the bike and a pocket full of loaded cartridges. So I carefully pulled a bullet from a second cartridge. Then I pointed the muzzle at the sky and loaded the case full of powder up behind the stuck bullet, took aim at a dead tree stump, and pulled the trigger.

Then the deer hunt continued.

And people ask why I shoot boat tails. Ha

Loaded a 6mm Rem a little long and the bullet stuck in the rifling when clearing the chamber. Appropriate tools about 150 miles away and remembered Hatcher's story of clearing barrel obstructions. Dumped maybe half the powder, loaded up and fired. Worked like a charm. Hatcher didn't recommend the procedure after some really tight obstructions didn't clear. Gas remained under pressure until the action was opened (Springfield) which he said could be exciting.

I wonder if that wasn't a case of an obstruction being pushed into another obstruction? Hatcher said that could bulge a barrel. Another reason to avoid the practice unless you know for sure what's in the barrel.

Shot sporting clays last week with a guy that had several squibs. It’s funny as hell out of a shotgun.

Just don’t forget to knock out the wad.

I was shooting muzzleloaders with some other fellas and one managed to stick his ramrod in his barrel with a cleaning patch and jag on the end. He didn’t stop there. He broke the ramrod off flush with the muzzle. I unscrewed the nipple, packed what little powder would fit into the nipple hole in there, and replaced the nipple, capped it, and pulled the trigger. Sent what was left of his ramrod bounding through the woods.

I heard of one where the guy had a bullet half way up the barrel. He loaded ( I think anyway) something like 10 grains of unique and shot it out. Had to be pointed straight up I imagine.

Sure seems you know some not so smart folks.

Brings back memories of shooting PPC years ago. Reloading a .38 special on a Dillon 450, the slide might stick on the powder measure leaving a couple of rounds powderless. Squib load during a match, if you were lucky the bullet was just past the forcing cone of the revolver barrel. Next round would send both bullets downrange, would impact within an inch of each other. We were running HB wadcutters with 2.4g of bullseye or 231. Looking down the barrel with a bright light you might see a buldge, check it with mikes and you couldn't measure a difference. You only need the last inch of barrel undammaged...

Man, he's braver than I am...
All the more reason to always carry a cleaning rod with you to the range. I even carry a sectioned rod when I'm out hunting just in case.
https://thebiggamehuntingblog.com/gun-cleaning-kit/

I loaded a bunch of .38 SPL wadcutters once - and later found I had skipped the powder in ~ 100 of them.
Luckily, I was near the house, but had a problem - bullet stuck in the forcing cone.
Came home, cut a piece of 5/16" wood dowel - then went back with a small ball-peen and went through the batch.
I forgot to mention that I had dumped them in a 3 pound coffee can about 3/4 full.
Don't be stupid, don't get upset - just see the humor and carry on.

The humor was watching someone frantically shaking 30 rounds of ammo next to their ear, one at a time to see if they could hear if there was powder inside before they shot their next relay...😛

Primers alone make for mediocre bullet pullers !