Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Had a Squib with Red Dot Today!!

Trying a load of 4.2 Red Dot; WSP primer; Starline Case; 125 Rainier plated H.P. @ 1.465" o'all in my 6" K-38 (.38 Spec.) - the very first shot was a squib!! I didn't use a super-tight crimp, per Rainier's recommendations. Curious what your opinions may be?

Rather than take a chance, I didn't shoot the remaining 9 rounds. I'm going to break down all the rest of 'em tonite to double-check the loads in each, but, this is a first for me. I use 2 scales, one as a check on the other, and weigh every 5th one, so this is a real head-scratcher..

I used the same load with 125 grain cast "Blue Boy" brand bullets, crimped a bit more firmly, during the same session, and they performed very well.

Sounds like a good load I scored 16 lbs of red dot a few years ago and use it in everything I can find data on. That charge should be good to go. I wonder if you may have had a pluged primer pocket.. Did the bullet lodge in the barrel or did it make it out?

I assume that by you saying you weigh every 5th round you are not loading on a progressive press. How you prep brass ? If loading a tray full of brass from a powder measure, do you take a light and check that each case looks charged the same?

Weak crimp.



Travis

Was there any chance that the loads were near any water?

Perhaps some 50% or 91% alcohol?

The only squib I ever had, years ago, was some ultra-low power round ball loads in a .44 mag. The load was from the Speer manual of the time, and was a .433 round ball over a small charge of Bullseye. One of them actually stuck the bullet halfway out the muzzle. And left a bunch of half-burned Bullseye in the barrel, which is rather smelly

If I were trying it again today I'd look at Titegroup or something position insensitive, to improve consistency

I'm going with operator error.. It's the only thing I can come up with - I always look over the cases to be sure they're charged before seating the bullets, but all I can figure is I must have missed that one. Lesson learned.
There was no water or alcohol (rubbing OR imbibing) anywhere around. The remaining cases all held between 3.9 and 4.3 grains and the bullets had a definite crimp mark, so, it's looking more and more like blockheadedness on my part. And, my signature line says to triple-check everything.. What a dummy..
The bullet made it about 4" down the barel - I have it sitting on the top shelf of my loading bench as a reminder.
The loads are done on a single-stage press.

Well don't be too hard on yourself if one loads long enough rounds some will go a bit off some where, just hopefully not real bad . The important thing as you have already said is learn from your mistakes. With a squib load the most important thing is to catch it, and not fire another shot after, things can go real bad fast than.

Good thing you don't shoot trap or skeet with reloads! Just about every week I get to see at least 2 sometimes 3 squibs.