Dorado Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 Ok, so I got mixed up yesterday and thought that today was a cowboy shoot. I got my Sunday's mixed up. So today I woke up, loaded up my truck and headed out to the range. I knew something was up when I got there and nobody had arrived. Then I remembered third Sunday not second. Man I felt stupid. So I figured that while I'm out there I might as well practice a bit. Was having a good time until I pulled the trigger on my rifle and only heard a click. I loaded ten, shot six, I should have a live round chambered. So I set my rifle down on the table I was standing behind and walked off to the unloading table to clear my pistols, when suddenly, BANG!!!!!!!!!!!! My rifle went off!! Scared me half to death. Almost turned my blue jeans brown! I hit the deck and looked around for whoever was shooting at me when I noticed my rifle was now laying on the ground not on the table where I had placed it. Fortunately, I made sure the barrel was pointed down range when I set it on the table. I guess I had a bad primer that fizzled for a couple of seconds before it finally lit the powder. I've never had that happen before. So I guess out of the few thousand rounds I've loaded only having one bad one isn't that bad, but still, dang glad I pointed it downrange. So, I suppose the moral of the story is even when you're on your own, range safety should be #1. Glad that didn't happen during a match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smuteye John SASS#24774 Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 A hang fire is the scariest thing about shooting to me. Getting a click instead of a BANG! is bad enough but the thing going off when it wants to is much worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorado Posted August 9, 2015 Author Share Posted August 9, 2015 I've never had a hang fire. I called it a day after that. I unloaded, packed up, and went home. Other than that one though everything else worked beautifully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 I had a hang fire once... with an 81mm mortar!!! You want to talk about brown spots! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 Do you reload? If you do. do you size & deprime before you tumble/clean your brass. Could have had a piece of media in the flash hole. Many, many years ago use to hunt lots of quail, doves & pheasants in Baja Mexico. Could only bring 2 boxes of shells for each gun you had on your permit. We use to take all our reloading stuff down and reload in the evening for the next day. I had a shotgun shell hang fire and found out later that a feather from a quail or dove was in the empty when I loaded it. I used to put my empties in the same pocket in my hunting vest as the bagged birds. I broke down 2 other boxes and found another one with a feather in it one the flash hole. Feather must have started smoldering and finally made the powder go boom. Who knows................ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 And this is why we review the basic safety rules, even though we know them by heart, and follow them. Every time. Thanks for the reinforcement of the basic lesson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorado Posted August 9, 2015 Author Share Posted August 9, 2015 I had a hang fire once... with an 81mm mortar!!! You want to talk about brown spots! Yeah, I'd of had a big brown spot and a yellow streak tracing my path to the nearest deep hole in the ground. Do you reload? If you do. do you size & deprime before you tumble/clean your brass. Could have had a piece of media in the flash hole. Many, many years ago use to hunt lots of quail, doves & pheasants in Baja Mexico. Could only bring 2 boxes of shells for each gun you had on your permit. We use to take all our reloading stuff down and reload in the evening for the next day. I had a shotgun shell hang fire and found out later that a feather from a quail or dove was in the empty when I loaded it. I used to put my empties in the same pocket in my hunting vest as the bagged birds. I broke down 2 other boxes and found another one with a feather in it one the flash hole. Feather must have started smoldering and finally made the powder go boom. Who knows................ I do reload. I don't deprime before I tumble. I tumble, deprime and size, then load per usual. That was the way it said to do it in my manual. I'm thinking I should start depriming before tumbling. I do check my primer pockets before I prime the cases. I didn't see anything. But then again I'm using a single stage press. It is possible that something may have fallen into the case between when I primed it and when I added powder. And this is why we review the basic safety rules, even though we know them by heart, and follow them. Every time. Thanks for the reinforcement of the basic lesson. Safety may be boring and get in the way of fun, but what if that bullet had struck someone? We all need a reminder every now and then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 Safety may be boring and get in the way of fun, but what if that bullet had struck someone? We all need a reminder every now and then. Which is exactly why we follow safety procedures every time. Get in the habit, then when there is a problem, while it might make a change of clothes necessary, it usually won't involve police and paperwork. The longest 3 minutes in the world is when the charge in a cannon doesn't go off during a reenactment. The most exciting moment is when, at about 2 1/4 minutes, it decides to go BOOM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyrus Cassidy #45437 Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 Funny, the only time I've experienced a hang fire was when shooting muzzleloaders. I suppose I'm lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 I had a hang fire once... with an 81mm mortar!!! You want to talk about brown spots! Did it give you sweaty palms. Don't drop the dang thang. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 Did it give you sweaty palms. Don't drop the dang thang. EVERYTHING was sweaty! Fortunately it did fire, saved us having to go through mis-fire procedures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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