They happen, and if you shoot enough, youre bound to have one at some point.
Ive only had a few with my autos, and only one that actually stuck in the barrel. The others all cleared, but the guns didnt cycle.
Ive had more with my revolvers, and most of those did stick in the barrel. I think the revolvers are actually more dangerous in this respect, as they will often let you send the next round with nothing more than a trigger pull.
This was the last one I had, which was earlier this summer. Got into a discussion on another board about ammo and water resistance and soaked a handful of reloads for a couple of days. This was the final resul of 5 or so rounds fired from my one Glock 17. Some fired fine, some fired, but were noticeably off, cleared the barrel, but they didnt cycle, and then this.....
Almost!
What I normally do in practice when I have a round that sounds "off", is to do the malfunction drill, TRB, ect, and then follow through to the point of shooting, but instead of shooting at the end, do a mental "bang", then stop and clear the gun and check.
With the revolvers, I dont pull the trigger again until its checked.
If youre paying attention, the squib, or other than normal rounds, are usually very noticeable when they happen, and worthy of a check.
My brother also had one ...... seems a spider got into one of his cases ..... and got powder dumped on him, and trapped in there when the bullet got seated on top ..... apparently, spiders and Universal don't mix .....
This actually isnt all that uncommon, especially if you scrounge brass thats been laying awhile.
What the problem there is, is usually the little sticky cocoon they lay in the bottom of the case, that often doesnt come out during tumbling and is easily missed, especially when handling a lot of cases. I actually had one yesterday while loading. I usually catch them when charging the case and checking the block for powder levels before seating the bullets. The cases with the cocoon, usually have the powder to the top of the case, if not overflowing.
My buddy and I actually got into a discussion on loading methods and this came up. He loads "one round at a time", where I load "by the blocks".
He swears you cant screw up by throwing the charge, and then immediately seating the bullet.
I like to throw 50 at a shot and then do two checks, a visual comparison check on powder levels on the block, and then weigh three across the block as a QC check.
He says Im being less safe and wasing my time. Too much of a chance to screw up between throwing the charge and seating the bullet. We still argue about it now and then.