Luger Shooting Failures

[azlaw]

Originally posted by tacfoley
Not sure that your comment 'barrel blockages are common' will meet with much agreement here, tho'. I have been shooting since age 6 - I am now 61, and I've never seen a barrel blockage. Since you say that you have seen a few of barrel blockages and overloads in person, and I have only seen one in my entire life, I'm not sure that you are a good guy to be around any firing line that I'M on. Remind me to stay well away from you.

tac

"Blockages" in my parlance includes bullets lodged in the barrel as a result of a "squib" load. We get these occasionally in Cowboy Action shooting, where we use revolvers and there is a lot of handloading. These are supposed to be caught by the shooter, and/or the Timer, and the shooter is then stopped for a safety check. The stuck bullet is tapped out with a rod, and there is no damage.

The problem comes in when the shooter does not notice or ignores the "squib", then shoots another round into a blocked barrel. Kaboom. Actually, the lower power of CAS loads tends to preven real catastrophy, bulged barrels are a usual result. Not always however, - I have pictures somewhere of a repro 1873 carbine and a repro Colt Bisley that weren't so lucky.

H