Strange squib(?)

[Berg]

Took a friend to the range today. Our first time shooting together but he's experienced with handguns.

He was shooting my Shadow Systems MR920P that has roughly 500 rounds through it. It's run 100% since new. Ammo is Blazer Brass.

3 rounds into a mag he has a failure to feed. He racks the slide, same thing. We stop and I start to t-shoot. He hands me one of the ejected rounds with the bullet clearly set back in the case. I check the chamber and you can actually see a bullet in the barrel and it looks like it's barely touched the rifling. I forgot my squib rod so we move on.

When I get home, I take the comp off to remove the barrel from the slide and once I'm done, the bullet falls out in my hand. There's only marking on one side of the bullet (pics below)

Not my first squib, but the fact that this didn't even seem to make it deep into the rifling is new. I was policing brass so I wasn't watching when it happened but my friend didn't notice any difference in noise or recoil. He's more of a long gun guy so it's possible that he missed something but pretty unlikely.

So my question is, was this really a squib? What the heck could have happened?

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[55_grain]

Any chance you saved the brass and/or noticed unburned powder in the action? Could be a primer-but-no-powder squib or bad powder.

 

[appraiser]

that is why it is important to listen to the report of every shot and stop shooting if you hear something that doesn't sound right.

 

[whatluck]

looks like no powder in the case

 

[Berg]

Unfortunately the case was mixed in with hundreds of others by that point so we couldn't do more investigation on that. No unburnt powder or anything unusual in or around the chamber.

It certainly could have been a no powder squib but I had a couple of those in my early days of reloading and they all made it at least into the rifling.

Guess they can all be different and we got lucky that the failure to feed prevented him from firing another round.

 

[milktree]

“No powder” doesn’t make sense, a primer alone will jam the bullet half way down the barrel.

Blazer Brass has really low neck tension compared to other brands, I’m guessing there was bullet pull-out from recoil, making the OAL way too long, causing it to not chamber when the bullet crammed into the rifling, where it got stuck and separated from the case.

Dealing with the failure-to-feed ejected the empty, unfired case, and naturally subsequent rounds wouldn’t go into battery.

 

[AMV]

“No powder” doesn’t make sense, a primer alone will jam the bullet half way down the barrel.

Not in my experience, a primer will put the bullet far enough into the rifling that a new round can't be chambered behind it, halfway down the barrel, I highly doubt it

 

[milktree]

Not in my experience, a primer will put the bullet far enough into the rifling that a new round can't be chambered behind it, halfway down the barrel, I highly doubt it

Yea, I was a bit sloppy there, a bit hyperbolic. "halfway" depends on the length of the barrel, and the type/depth of rifling, and the bullet construction, etc.

But for sure the primer, all by itself, will get the bullet deep enough into the barrel that it won't interfere with chambering the next round.

There are .22 rounds that deliberately don't have any powder at all, the primer is enough to send the bullet to the target. e.g.: 22 LR COLIBRI

 

[AMV]

But for sure the primer, all by itself, will get the bullet deep enough into the barrel that it won't interfere with chambering the next round.

Nope...Not in my experience, Don't believe me, Load one up and give it a try

 

[milktree]

Nope...Not in my experience, Don't believe me, Load one up and give it a try

I have. That’s how I know.

 

[slipknot]

If that bullet was in the picture is the one you suspect of being a squib, why is the back of the bullet clean? Shouldn’t it have black residue from the primer ignition?
Strange

 

[Berg]

Agreed slipknot. I wiped the bullet with a clean patch and there was no evidence of any combustion residue.

I think milktree's explanation is the most plausible given the circumstances. The rounds we attempted to chamber after the bullet became lodged in the barrel also showed significant setback which supports his point about low case neck tension.

I didn't notice unburnt powder anywhere in the action after the gun was handed over to me but that could be explained by his racking of the slide and turning the gun chamber down to get the failure to feed out.

I appreciate everyone's input.