[HotGuns]

Yesterday I took my sons father in law and his father in laws father in law to the Gun Club range that I am a member of.

They had bought several new guns that they had just purchased so they wanted to check them out. It was a beautiful day, not to hot, not to cool and between us we shot several hundred rounds.

I only brought two guns to shoot this time(rare for me) and a Dillon shooters bag full of .45. I was shooting one of my Government Model .45's just because it had been awhile since I shot that particular gun, and I needed some trigger time with a gun that I conceal alot, a Sig P225 9mm.

The guns they bought were mostly defensive guns, a S&W M&P a few various makes of Taurus and the .45/.410 Judge.

Naturally, we all exchanged guns and shot up everything we had. Everything went well until my .45 locked up. My son's FIL was shooting it and the slide wouldn't go into battery. Thinking that it was crudded up from having several hundred rounds shot through it I told him not to worry and stuck it in the case that it came from.

Today I took it apart to clean it and much to my dismay, found that the barrel was bulged to the point that the slide wouldn't retract past the point of the bulge. The slide was sticking on the bulged part and a knock on it with a leather hammer freed it up.

Only one thing could have happened. Sometime while all of us were firing, he must have had a squib and not noticed it. The gun cycled like normal and the next shot ran into the lodged bullet and bulged the barrel to the point of failure. It didn't come apart, luckily, but the barrel is useless.

As soon as I get some batteries for the camera I'll take a picture of it.

Its just goes to show that anything can happen at anytime. The ammo he used at that moment was commercial ammo they purchased at Gander Mountain in Little Rock, it was a brand that I had never heard of. There were a couple of misfires in that box, that had good primer strikes but no ignition, so I'll go out on a limb and say that it was ammo related.

In the meantime...one of my guns is down.:dead:

Looks like I'm about to order another barrel.:frown:

 

[Plop]

Glad nobody was hurt!

 

[Stevew]

Good thing your 1911 contained it.

 

[stanislaskasava]

Obviously, it could have been a lot worse. Shooting in groups seems to greatly increase risk (including accidentally damaged guns). I might be a stick-in-the-mud, but I dislike 'free for all' group shooting for several reasons.

 

[BikerRN]

HotGuns,

Glad you and your group are OK. I don't know what else to say except, that sucks.

Take care and stay safe,

Biker

 

[TX-JB]

Good thing nobody got hurt...Too bad about your barrel...

 

[Katana]

Glad to hear no one got hurt. It sucks having to replace your barrel though. :frown:

 

[OD*]

Sorry to hear that, but glad to know no one was hurt.

 

[Paco]

I hate to hear when a good one gets hurt. Glad the family is OK though.

 

[archer51]

Glad no one was hurt, and yeah, having to buy a new barrel sucks.

 

[Hopyard]

Shows the value of a well made solid gun. Something of lesser quality plus a little worse luck and the day would have ended differently.

I'm glad you told about this. It helps us all realize it can happen to anyone at any time and we need to be vigilant about everything going on with our weapons, ourselves, and surroundings when we are at the range.

Great post HG. Thanks.

 

[grady]

That was unfortunate, but fortunately no one was hurt.

That's an example of the benefits of having another gun you can place into service immediately.

Thanks for the reminder of what could happen to any of us.

 

[RETSUPT99]

That had the potential for ruining someone's faith in firearms...permanently.:blink:

Did you let the 'shooter(s)' know about what could have happened?

Glad all are safe.:hand10:

 

[HotGuns]

Haven't talked to the shooter about it yet. Since it really wasn't his fault, there is no sense in worrying him about it because he will worry about it.Since they became members of our gunclub yesterday, we'll have plenty of time to discuss it in the future.

Anyhow,here's a picture of a what a .45 barrel looks like when a squib gets stuck in the barrel and another bullet is fired behind it.

The bulge is just about centered in the barrel. The ring around it is where the slide recoiled and jammed itself into the bulge, locking it up. Luckily, the slide wasn't damaged. A whack on the slide with a leather mallet knocked the barrel loose and I was able to take it apart.

Its a good thing that I have a few dozen handguns to shoot or I'd really be ticked off.:scruntiny:

 

[QKShooter]

Thanks for posting the photo HotGuns.
A classic "picture~perfect" bulged barrel. :yup:
A spanky new barrel and bushing will fix er right up.
You should also not reuse that barrel link or link pin.
and...give your slide stop/release pin a good, careful, look-over though it should be fine.

 

[OD*]

Thanks for posting the photo HotGuns.
A classic "picture~perfect" bulged barrel. :yup:
A spanky new barrel and bushing will fix er right up.
You should also not reuse that barrel link or link pin.
and...give your slide stop/release pin a good, careful, look-over though it should be fine.

Ditto. :wink:

 

[pollardjd]

Same thing happened to me in 1988, except I pulled the trigger on one of my own handloads. It had no powder; primer only. I noticed the strange sound but without the big bang, I just assumed that it was a normal misfire, racked another round, and pulled the trigger. The first bullet was lodged in the barrel, of course. The second round pushed it out and I could see both bullets fly downrange. The barrel was bulged and ruined. That first factory barrel was the sweetest one ever, and I regret it to this day. I use this story as the "dumbest thing I've ever done" at the range story...

 

[Steve201]

Wow!!!....that's something I've heard of but never seen and really glad I haven't witnessed up close and personal...thanks for sharing the experience and really glad nobody was injured.....

the weapon can be repaired or replaced...family can't.....glad it all ended well in the long run...

Steve

 

[HotGuns]

The thing is, if all of us had been carefully sighting in on a paper target, we might have caught this one.

As it was, we were all shooting steel B27 silhouettes and shooting as fast as we could and stay on target. All of them have a center flapper, that flops up when hit and they were at 15 and 20 yards. They were actually doing quite well for newbies.

Since the two guys that were with me are pretty new in the world of defensive handguns, they were experimenting with new guns and control. With all the racket going on, a squib load can be hard to detect, especially for someone not so experienced.

Oh well...it's just money.:scruntiny:

It could have been worse.:gah:

 

[RETSUPT99]

The thing is, if all of us had been carefully sighting in on a paper target, we might have caught this one.

As it was, we were all shooting steel B27 silhouettes and shooting as fast as we could and stay on target. All of them have a center flapper, that flops up when hit and they were at 15 and 20 yards. They were actually doing quite well for newbies.

Since the two guys that were with me are pretty new in the world of defensive handguns, they were experimenting with new guns and control. With all the racket going on, a squib load can be hard to detect, especially for someone not so experienced.

Oh well...it's just money.:scruntiny:

It could have been worse.:gah:

A lot worse...:yup:
Missing the extra shot on a target is pretty easy...even if shooting alone...glad no one needed bandaids.:22a: