Squib lessons

[longrangelarry]

Had my first squib the other day, probably because I am not yet used to those tiny charges in 9mm. 1. There was no real indication that I had a squib except that the round "didn't go off". There was no pop sound. I thought it was a ftf due to limp-wristing the 1911 (I never owned one before, so it happens). After that, the gun would not go into full battery (fortunately), so I assumed this was the problem, probably because OAL was too long. Primers had a light indent only, which could have been caused by a primer set too shallow. Tried again, same result, so at that point I cleared the gun and put it away. When I broke it down at home I found the bullet lodged just past the throat. 2. I figured out what caused it. During loading I had charged 4 rows of cases but not all, because I couldn't get the middle of the block under the powder measure (single stage press using a manual RCBS powder dropper). So I stopped and rearranged the cases to all be along the sides, AFTER seating bullets in the 4 rows so assure I didn't double charge them. (Case wouldn't have held it anyway.) That's when I found myself having seated the first case on row 5, and realized there might be no powder in it. My mistake was setting the round "aside" to pull the bullet later. When I got done seating 49 rounds, there was one hole left in the block. I saw the lone round on the bench and plopped it in that hole, forgetting why I had set it aside in the first place. (Welcome to your 60s) Clutter was the main reason I made this particular mistake. I should have dropped the squib into a can or something. I also did not notice that when I ejected after the squib, it was an empty case that came out, not a full round. Again, I thought this was due to limp-wristing the previous round. Damn lucky the next round did not chamber fully or there would have been trouble. There are lessons here but to be honest I am not sure what they are except for putting the suspected round out of sight, and of course, cleaning up the loading area. Unfortunately I have been working on that project for years now.

[SAWMAN]

Ugh !! There is a thread here about use of a loading block. --- SAWMAN

[Papajoe222]

When I first began loading for pistols, I had the same thing happen without the gun attempting to go into battery. I knew exactly what happened. I changed the steps of reloading on my single stage, to include changing the attitude of the brass in the block after each step. Head up prior to charging, neck up prior to bullet seating. Although there is no 'need' to visually check that all the cases are charged doing it this way, I still look down into the block to verify.

[Bentstick]

When I first began loading for pistols, I had the same thing happen without the gun attempting to go into battery. I knew exactly what happened. I changed the steps of reloading on my single stage, to include changing the attitude of the brass in the block after each step. Head up prior to charging, neck up prior to bullet seating. Although there is no 'need' to visually check that all the cases are charged doing it this way, I still look down into the block to verify.

a newbie to loading only done 500 9 mm,and 500 7.62x25 on a lyman All American used as single stage,head stamp is switched during each step in loading block , case is charged then neck up ,once bullet is seated it goes back in headstamp up,details in my eyes are gold and less mishaps