Newsletter Article October 3, 2011

"Common Misfire Phenomena"



Hangfire

This is a perceptible delay between the pull of the trigger and the ignition of the cartridge. The delay can be a fraction of a second, several seconds, or a half a minute. The thing about a hangfire is that you don't know it's a hangfire until the round goes off. At first, it may appear to be a simple misfire.












Misfire



This is when the ammunition fails to fire upon the pull of the trigger. A misfihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifre may be a hangfire "waiting to happen". The danger of the misfire is that you don't know if it is a hangfire or misfire, so you must treat it like a hangfire. After noticing a misfire, keep the gun pointed in a safe direction. After 30 seconds has passed, eject the round from the chamber. (Note: for the first 30 seconds, you wait for the round to go off, even if you think it wont fire)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amdgNd5aO0I







Squib Load



When a round develops less-than-normal pressure, it sounds and feels different. Instead of a "BANG", you may get a "bang", or a "POP". It will sound noticeably less intense than a normal fired round. It will feel different too. The recoil may be less than normal. The concussion from the blast will feel different. You will usually notice a difference.

Most of the time, when this happens you say to yourself something like "Wow...that was different!" or "Hey...that didn't feel normal!" or some variation thereof.



When you do...STOP! Don't fire another round until you've checked your barrel for an obstruction. If a bullet gets lodged in the barrel and you fire a round in bachttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifk of it, it could lead to damaging your gun, an explosion, injury(ies), and/or worse. It is very important to check the barrel and make sure it is not obstructed.



This video shows and obstructed barrel and near the end shows the guy hammering the squib out of the barrel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ_ecPFspuY







Summary

Of course, these are things we need to be aware of. As well, when we are shooting with new shooters we need to advise them of these three phenomena, as well as the Three Fundamental Gun Safety Rules:

1. Always keep your gun pointed a safe direction.

2. Always keep your finger off the trigger until you're gun is pointed at the target.

3. Always keep your gun unloaded until ready to shoot.


Guns are a great self-defense tool because they can inflict massive amounts of damage. For that reason, we need to know and practice safe gun-handling technique.



- Don