Squib Round: What It Is & What To Do If You Have One

[AmmoManAaron]

While shooting a steel match in Brookston a couple years ago, I experienced something I'd heard about years ago, but had never seen. I mentioned the concept to some friends while trying to figure out how one of them bulged a 1911 barrel when the bullet clearly hit the target. It could not have been a squib, everyone thought.

While shooting, I heard a lighter than normal report from my gun. It seemed like the bullet struck the backstop, but something seemed weird. I stopped shooting, opened my cylinder and examined my gun. I found the bullet jacket, without the lead core, sticking out of the muzzle about 1/8 of an inch. There must have been a lighter than normal powder charge and the jacket stuck in the bore before exiting (see attached photos). The lead core, however, kept traveling out of the jacket and bore and continued on to strike the backstop. It is very weird and rare, but I maintain that may have happened to my friend's 1911.

Since that episode, four shooting buddies had similar experiences. It just got less rare. The problem stems from low velocity jacketed bullets sticking in the barrel and the lead core continuing out the muzzle due to inertia. Some of these instances may be due to too little powder being dropped by an inconsistency in the powder measure. Some could have been the result of borderline reduced loads: jacketed bullets that were OK most of the time, but the occasional round was too low a velocity for the jacket material to overcome friction. This is why it is best to load reduced velocity rounds with lead bullets, not jacketed. The lead has less friction in the bore and is less likely to get stuck. Lead bullets can get stuck, but they will not hit the target and fool you into thinking the projectile completely exited the bore.

Lesson #1: If a shot does not sound or feel right, even slightly, stop and check out your gun. The worst that can happen is you loose time on that one round in a match. If you do not check out something like that, it could ruin your barrel or worse yet cause injury.

Lesson #2: For reduced velocity loads, lead bullets (or coated lead) are preferred over jacketed. The best combos for light target loads are lead or coated lead bullets and a fast burning powder (e.g. Bullseye, Clays, Red Dot, VV N310, WST, etc.). Slower powders are not a good choice for light target loads. Some slow powders do not recommend a reduction from even their max load data. Slower powders are best choices for maximizing velocities of a cartridge. Just some food for thought.



View attachment 125168 View attachment 125169

To add to Whip's excellent post, I would say not to use gas checked lead bullets for reduced loads. Several years ago, I had a gas checked lead bullet leave it's gas check midway down the barrel much the same as that jacketed soft nose in Whip's story left it's jacket in the barrel while the lead core continued on to the target. I don't know how much damage might result from the gas check in the barrel when the next round hits it, but I prefer not to find out! In my case, the culprit was a 44 Mag mid-range load with a very fast powder for the application (Bullseye) which of course means rapid pressure drop as the bullet moves down the barrel. In a single shot, you might not have as much of a problem, but in a revolver with the cylinder gap also bleeding off gas pressure and contributing to the pressure drop as the bullet moved down the barrel, it was enough to cause an issue within a mere 5 round test batch. It think it was round #2 or #3 that lost it's gas check. Anyway, I very carefully fired the remaining rounds just to dispose of them and marked down the test as unsuccessful (potential danger and the accuracy sucked anyway).

Interesting bit of trivia - I know at least one of my old Speer loading manuals warns about this potential problem when using their half-jacketed projectiles in low or mid range loads, so this is an issue that has been around for a while, even if it is not widely known in the shooting community. Great topic to share and educate about!