Not all Glocks Kaboom!

[Yoder]

I was super lucky yesterday at the range. I was practicing moving and shooting so I wasn't completely focused on the gun operation. I had a squib round get stuck in the barrel. I thought it was just a failure to eject. I should have noticed the light recoil but I was more focused on the shooting. I instinctively racked the slide, chambered another round and shot. My gun locked halfway open, brass halfway ejected and I noticed my slide release spring was broken. I thought that was the problem. When I got home I replaced the slide release with a spare and the gun would not open to slidelock. I checked everything and it all looked good. I ripped the gun completely apart and still didn't notice the obvious problem. My barrel had a huge bulge about 3/4 of the way down. It has stress cracks all the way around. It's bulged so bad it won't fit through the slide and that's what locked up the gun. I recently started using a full progressive reloader and it looks like I need to be way more careful. I was loading without my powder checking die since it was out for repair and apparently I screwed up. After this incident I have even more respect for Glocks. Some guns would have blown apart with a stupid mistake like this. Here's a pic of the barrel.

[redeye202]

A lesson learned, now take apart all your reloads that were done without the powder checking die in place.

Damn you were lucky.

[Nic]

Wow were you lucky... it could have ended much worse for you. It's gonna cost you some good money for parts, but I would take that any day vs hand surgery. Glad you are ok.

[Gringo]

This is why Im nervous about switching to a progressive press, with a single stage I know every round is perfect, and ive never had a squib.

[Yoder]

This is why Im nervous about switching to a progressive press, with a single stage I know every round is perfect, and ive never had a squib.

It's not the press that was the problem, it was the careless operator. I was used to my turret press and I think I was too trusting and overconfident with the new press. This humbled me and I will be way more cautious. Also pulling bullets on around 1k rounds and almost blowing my hand off or possibly loosing an eye will be lessons I won't forget.

[twency]

A lesson learned, now take apart all your reloads that were done without the powder checking die in place.

Damn you were lucky.

I'm not a reloader, so maybe this is a naive question.

Could he just weigh the rounds with a small balance one by one to make sure they were the proper weight, without going to the trouble of pulling and reseating all the bullets?

Or is there a risk that the weight might be right, but the loading still improper in some way?

[spblademaker]

Count your blessings! I had a Ruger Blackhawk grenade in my hands when I was a teenager. Someone elses handloads gone wrong. Glad only your gun got hurt. Now's your chance to buy a better gun (shameless anti-Glock statement)

[Pkspawn]

Could he just weigh the rounds with a small balance one by one to make sure they were the proper weight, without going to the trouble of pulling and reseating all the bullets?

Or is there a risk that the weight might be right, but the loading still improper in some way?

That is a possibility. Lot of people use mixed head brass when reloading. And each will have a different weight. Also bullet weights aren't always exact either. So the weights will vary +/- a good amount.

I've had squibs already, 1 I caught right away. The other I didn't, but the next round wouldn't chamber and I eventually checked the barrel after trying to force the next round in unsuccessfully.

My last batch of rounds I suspect there is a squid in it because the powder measure was acting up (hornady quality ). I weighed a bunch of the rounds and just trashed the 20 rounds that weighed the least.

Shot 200 of the 500 rounds and haven't found that squib yet..

[Yoder]

I've loaded about 20k rounds total since I started reloading. This is the first squib. I shot about 1500 rounds that I loaded on my Hornady press and this is the first one. With my RCBS lockout die I don't think it will happen again. I should have just waited for it to get repaired before loading.

[Arrdy]

I'm not a reloader, so maybe this is a naive question.

Could he just weigh the rounds with a small balance one by one to make sure they were the proper weight, without going to the trouble of pulling and reseating all the bullets?

Or is there a risk that the weight might be right, but the loading still improper in some way?

I do.

Get an average shell weight empty with primer, add in the charge weight and bullet weight. Zero the scale for that weight and check each round. Heavy is ok, a little light is too. But really light .... gets pulled apart.

It does work.