Blooper rounds.....

[Dave McC]

This may be overdue a bit. With all the tyros here and the shooters just getting into clay games,etc,maybe we should go over the safest way to deal with these.

Bloopers are not dud rounds. A dud doesn't go off at all. Bloopers have the primer go off, but the powder doesn't. Just from the force of the primer, the load goes forward. Sometimes the shot even exits the bbl. but the wad rarely does.

So, you've pulled the trigger and instead of the usual bang, there's this wierd "Bloop" sound. What do you do?

The next sentence may be the most important one in your life.

DO NOT FIRE ANOTHER ROUND WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING TO SEE IF THE BBL'S CLEAR.

If the wad,base wad or any other parts of the load is stuck in the bbl,you're holding a potential grenade, not a shotgun.

Check by making the weapon safe, and looking up or down the bbl to see if there's daylight at the other end.

And if there is something stuck in the bbl?

Use a dowel, bolt and nuts, or an old AA battery to punch out the blockage.

Stan Baker makes a neat little wad knocker for this, but a dead AA battery doesn't cost $14.95.

Any questions?

 

[PJR]

Hadn't thought of an old AA battery. Thanks Dave.

You're advice is right on target as always. I'd only add that ANYTIME your gun doesn't behave as expected CHECK THE BARREL. If you are walking through snow or mud CHECK THE BARREL from time to time. Before you go shooting, CHECK THE BARREL just in case something got in there. During a sporting clays round, a squadmate had a small piece of clay target from a previous shooter lodge in the barrel of his racked over/under. The odds on that happening are very small but it did happen. Good think he had the foresight to CHECK THE BARREL.

If you own a 20 gauge and your 12 gauge gun doesn't fire when expected CHECK THE BARREL because a 20 gauge shell might be lurking in the chamber because you had a left over 20 in your shooting vest. This happened to me once and I still shudder to think what might have happened (my wife and two dear friends were just a few feet away) if I hadn't taken a moment to CHECK THE BARREL.

Paul

 

[C.R.Sam]

One of the joys of a break top gun.

Folks sometimes giggle when a shooter dusts bird, breaks gun and blows the smoke out the front. Not giggling matter at all, blow the smoke out and look through it before loading again.

Few years back I did a gun autopsy on a Sweet Lucy that had blown into multitudinous pieces. Previous birds had been broken (shootin doubles) and gun blew on next pair. Shooter (not much hurt) hadn't looked through after each shot. Best guess was that a BASE WAD had followed down the tube for bout 6" or so. Was a many times reloaded paper hull.

Thanks for bringin up an important aspect of shooting Dave.

Sam

 

[HSMITH]

Ahh the glory of backbored barrels, just blow the wad out with your mouth. One birthday cake sized blast will have the wad on the ground.

Good advise, and a great way to keep from getting hurt.

This WILL happen to you eventually!!!

 

[Romulus]

As always, useful and enlightening advice from Dave. Now what the heck is a "tyro"?

 

[dick w. holliday]

i saw a guy push a wad out of his crown grade kreighoff with the radio antenna on his truck last week.......Dick

 

[C.R.Sam]

Did he break the antenna off ...
Or climb up on the hood to do it.

Sam

 

[Dave McC]

Thanks, guys, especially to Erick for filling in what I forgot to include.

In this 6-8K trap binge I've been on, had two bloopers from my own reloads. The Dave McC wad knocker, cleverly disguised as a dead AA battery, worked as advertised.

And H, you're so right about it happening eventually...

 

[Coronach]

Romulus-

A "tyro" is someone who is inexperienced in the field in question...in this case, someone new to shotgunning.

Mike

 

[yzguy]

ok, how exactly would you use the AA? just drop it down the barrel? is that heavy enough to do it just by dropping it?

 

[Dave McC]

Rest butt(The shotgun's, not yours) on the ground, drop in at muzzle.Recover wad and battery at breech. Works perfectly so far. My 2 and maybe another 3...

 

[Kevan]

LOL! I saw the title "blooper rounds" and thought this was a thread about 40mm rounds for the old M-79!

 

[BigD]

Hmmm...I posted a response to this thread earlier today but it seems to have been lost when the site was down today.

Am I the only one who has noticed that many of the larger firearms related boards have been having technical difficulties the past few weeks?

Full-Auto.com has been completely down for close to a week now, AR15.com has been having technical difficulties and performance issues for a couple of weeks, and TFL has been down on several occasions in the past several days. Kinda makes me wonder...

Anyway...Dave, it's funny you should mention this particular topic as I was just faced with having to find a suitable object for barrel clearing upon a squib load. I ended up settling on a slug from a .50BMG round that I had liberated from an old firing range back when I was in the army. I figured it would be heavy enough to clear most obstructions (definitely a wad) and the copper jacket shouldn't damage the bore. It's tucked away in my range bag as I type this.

 

[HSMITH]

Big D, you will definately be pulling out the coolest stuck wad getter-outer on the range anytime you use that 50 slug!!!! At an ounce and three quarters that thing should work well too.

 

[Dave McC]

That 50 caliber wad knocker definitely has more class than an AA battery. And it should work just as well...

 

[Romulus]

Thanks Mike...a little off topic, but what is the etymology of "tyro..." Is it an abbreviation? Just curious, but it sounds like a neat shotgunner's term.

 

[David Park]

According to my dictionary:
tyro, from Medieval Latin tyro, squire, variant of Latin tiro, recruit.

And you call yourself Romulus?