Time to change your pants.

[RetArmySgt]

I took my wife out shooting today and it gets off the a rocky start. I send her out into the bay to get started while I finish loading mags and I hear a shot go off that just sounded strange. I look up she as the pistol down to her side and there is a hole in the mud beside her. Figuring its an ND I go off on her have trigger discipline and all that good stuff. Afterwords I explain to her that most people who have ever spent any time around guns have had one at some point in their lives and told her about mine. We go about shooting for a while longer and I decide to shoot her 9mm. I fire a few rounds then 'click' so i cock the hammer and 'click' as I'm reaching up to rack the slide 'BANG!!!" the gun goes off. First thing I do is look at there my finger is and judging by where its out and the crack in my fingernail it was indexed along the slide of the pistol. As we are headed home in the truck I asked her to walk me through exactly what happened with her ND and she tells me a story almost identical to what happened to me, she fire and nothing, fired and nothing, turned to yell at me and BANG!. So I explained to her that it was something known as a Hang Fire, never seen one that hung that long on pistol, rifles yes, but never a pistol.


Point of this story guys is pay attention and dont forget this kind of thing happens, don't ever immediately reach for that slide I'm just glad neither of us did and had to deal with an out of battery.

 

[Tejano Scott]

Amen... Thanks for the reminder and glad y'all are safe.

 

[Charlie]

Amen... Thanks for the reminder and glad y'all are safe.

Ditto!! the above! Close call!

 

[Dawico]

I had a few factory rifle rounds that wouldn't fire. I let the rifle sit for a minute in position before I racked the bolt. You just never know.

Good on y'all for keeping it pointed in a safe direction.

 

[TX69]

Thanks God you two are okay.

 

[Davetex]

A good friend of mine had a .308 hang fire once while we were at the range. I watched him wait it out for a little while, then asked him if he counted to 60 or some such. He said "no, whenever I have a hang fire, I always say the Lord's Prayer to myself."

Figured that was a pretty good idea.

 

[txinvestigator]

Ever just work your drills, get a click and tap, rack, bang......POP?

I don't worry so much about slow primers, as long as safety is maintained.

 

[RetArmySgt]

Ever just work your drills, get a click and tap, rack, bang......POP?

I don't worry so much about slow primers, as long as safety is maintained.

I do know the drill and use it from time to time. I will use it in a situation where it is truly need such as a Life and Death situation. But on the range with a pistol that has an external hammer I try to get the round to fire first. I have seen what can happen with an out of battery with my own eyes and would rather not have to deal with that if it can be avoided.

 

[benenglish]

In my early handloading days, I assembled 50 rounds of .44 mag that hangfired. Every single round would fire 3 or 4 seconds after the hammer fell. I mixed them in with a couple of hundred properly functioning handloads that used the same bullet and looked identical.

Whenever I started to notice flinching, I'd go back to that collection of loaded ammunition and fire 3 or 4 cylinders, always for slow-fire practice.

Hangfires are bad, yes. But sometimes you make lemonade out of lemons.

 

[jrbfishn]

Had several hangfires, but only on black powder. They can be kind of un-nerving. Glad things turned out good.

from an idgit coffeeholic

 

[txinvestigator]

I do know the drill and use it from time to time. I will use it in a situation where it is truly need such as a Life and Death situation. But on the range with a pistol that has an external hammer I try to get the round to fire first. I have seen what can happen with an out of battery with my own eyes and would rather not have to deal with that if it can be avoided.

If you train to try to make that round fire you will do the same in a situation of life and death.

 

[Davetex]

Had several hangfires, but only on black powder. They can be kind of un-nerving. Glad things turned out good.

from an idgit coffeeholic

I had another friend with a hang fire on a smoke pole. He said he threw it in the stock tank!! LOL!!

 

[F350-6]

What ammo were you using? Pretty unusual to have two in one batch.

 

[Saltyag2010]

What kind of ammo?

 

[RetArmySgt]

WWB 100 round value pack.

 

[vmax]

sounds like you both maintained muzzle discipline. Good , and glad you are both ok.

 

[Blind Sniper]

Not quite a hang-fire, but back when I first went dove hunting, I had a pretty scary hiccup with a Maverick 88 and some Remington #8 shells. Couple fail-to-fires where I'd pull the trigger, do a ten count and then rack the action - fourth time that happened, the ejected and supposedly "dud" round went off when it hit the ground brass end first. Really glad I hadn't had breakfast yet that morning, and that the only casualty was the leg of my jeans! Still not sure exactly what happened with that shell, since none of the other duds went off 'til we threw them into the fire pit or burn barrel.

This has me nervous about trying out the reman ammo I have for my Blackhawk - company that makes it stamps the primers with a two-digit code indicating what powder the rounds are loaded with, and I'm paranoid that'll make them more sensitive or prone to issues. Thanks for sharing, Sarge!

 

[Texasjack]

I've never seen pistol ammo hangfire. If that happens, I'd take a hard look at the pistol and make sure that I'm getting good firing pin strikes.

Certain brands of .22 ammo will refuse to fire. I've pulled the bullets on bad ones and usually the primer material in the base has broken into powder.

 

[kyletxria1911a1]

Ditto!! the above! Close call!

X 3

 

[AcidFlashGordon]

A good friend of mine had a .308 hang fire once while we were at the range. I watched him wait it out for a little while, then asked him if he counted to 60 or some such. He said "no, whenever I have a hang fire, I always say the Lord's Prayer to myself."

Figured that was a pretty good idea.

While keeping muzzle discipline. I'd say that would be enough time for even the slowest primer to "light off." I'll have to remember that if I ever have a hang fire at the range.