Had my first squib load today

T

TruthTellers

New member
I've had this idea of a .32 round ball load and I made some loads last month and shot them today. THe first three left the barrel and they had less recoil than a .22 Short, but the fourth one...

squib.jpg


It went about 2 inches down the bore and got stuck.

I don't know what grain charge I was using, but I know I was using Bullseye powder.

I think going forward I'm going to use either black powder and load the case to nearly full or Trail Boss and load the case about half full. The fast Bullseye power didn't do me much good today.

All my other .32 reloads shot fine.
 
I'd bet if you upped the charge of Bullseye some they would shoot fine.

I mostly use Red Dot for round balls and for fire lapping with low velocity rounds in rifles (cast lead bullets only).
 
There's a great U-Tube video on how to clear a bullet stuck in the bore. I think the guy is OKhick45 or something like that. The fellow that told me about it used it to clear his rifle...

I agree, you need more powder. I used to make loads like that for my .30-30 and 06 but I used 5 grains of Red Dot...

Tony
 
.32" round ball fired in what cartridge?

For .30 Cal guns, I use a .310" ball...

I use Red Dot for my round ball loads...As it is not a published load, I am unwilling to state what my smallest charge in .30-30 is, but suffice it to say it is really, really small...

I have never stuck a ball in my 26" Marlin 1893...

With a peep sight, I can keep my shots on a 9" skillet all day at 60 yards...
 
Good thing you caught it before firing the next round. Were you just guessing on the amount of powder to use or did you use load data?
 
I don't know what grain charge I was using,
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not a good habit when reloading.....attention to detail....or in this case lack of it....will surely bring a bad day....worse than a simple round ball stuck/squib...
 
I don't know what grain charge I was using, but I know I was using Bullseye powder.
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Please tell us you just left your notes with your manual...:(

FWIW I have a good "gallery load" for my .44 Magnum; a 123 gr. ball over 3.5 gr. Bullseye...
 
Truther Tellers wrote:
It went about 2 inches down the bore and got stuck.
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First, good job recognizing something went wrong and investigating it.

Second, the description sounds like the case had no powder at all and the force of the primer launched the projectile out of the case and into the barrel.
 
Bullseye will work, but Trail Boss will probably be better. Why would you load the trail boss load half full? I thought Trail Boss was always loaded at 75% capacity or more.

Did you load the Bullseye rounds? How can you not know the load?
 
hdwhit said:
First, good job recognizing something went wrong and investigating it.

Second, the description sounds like the case had no powder at all and the force of the primer launched the projectile out of the case and into the barrel.
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There was powder in the case, I single loaded and inspected each case before putting a ball in.

Of note, I seated the ball in the case halfway and crimped it just past the hemisphere and I made a few other loads where I pushed the ball deeper into the case down to where no part of the ball was sticking out past the case mouth.

I didn't get to shoot any of the deeper set ball loads, squib load came from the loads where the ball was crimped just past the hemisphere.

Again, I can't remember how much powder was in the squid load as I made some 1.0 and 2.0 grain loads.

I'm figuring in the future, if I decide to bother with round ball loads again, I"ll use 3 grains of Bullseye or more or just put a generous amount of Trail Boss in it.

And the only reason I knew there was a squib was because I thought that was my last shot and I took the cylinder out to check the bore for leading. The sound between a shot that left the bore and one that didn't were identical.
 
reddog81 said:
Bullseye will work, but Trail Boss will probably be better. Why would you load the trail boss load half full? I thought Trail Boss was always loaded at 75% capacity or more.

Did you load the Bullseye rounds? How can you not know the load?
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If 75% is standard, I don't have a problem loading it to that capacity.
 
1 grain of bullseye would be real light even in plain old 32 S&W. I believe 1.3 or 1.5 grains of BE would be used behind a 85 grain bullet.
 
You might want to consider keeping better track of what your loads are while you're at the range , here's something to consider .

TKbR2L.jpg


Sorry about that first picture size . That was the first time I ever did it from my phone and could not size it down . I got home and checked the thread on my computer . Only to find out the picture was so big I had to run to the other side of the house to view it all :D

I think going forward I'm going to use either black powder and load the case to nearly full or Trail Boss and load the case about half full.
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Yeah that sounds like a sound way to do that . I like to fill the case with powder then blow a little powder out so the bullet can be seated . That way I don't need one of those fandangled levelering things :eek:;)
 
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And the only reason I knew there was a squib was because I thought that was my last shot and I took the cylinder out to check the bore for leading. The sound between a shot that left the bore and one that didn't were identical.
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I've managed to reload a squib. It was a .357 magnum case for a mid-sized .357 magnum revolver when I was playing 'how low can you go'...I found out.

In my case the bullet (fmj 158 grain) didn't exit the barrel and all the gases behind it seemed to come out of the barrel/cylinder gap. The result was quite noticeable at the indoor range where I was shooting. :eek:

No damage to the revolver or me (except for my pride) but the sound was definitely odd and like I said the cloud of gun smoke enveloping me was a clear indication something had gone wrong.

I'm guessing your loads were so light you didn't get the tell tale cloud.
 
As I mentioned in your previous thread on the subject...
I've been down this road before.

If you want super-light loads with a round ball, use a rifle primer, ONLY. Light charges of powder, with the small bearing surface and low friction of a round ball result in very poor powder burn. The powder is effectively acting as a 'buffer' and absorbing the impulse of the primer, without igniting much.

A rifle primer, alone, was better than a very light powder charge in my testing (3" and 5.5" barrels with all of the .32 cases short of .327 Federal).


I haven't tried TB in the 'pop gun' loads, from what I can remember.
But I don't think it would be much better.


Either ignore conventional wisdom and go powderless, or bump the powder charge closer to 3 gr.
 
DaleA said:
I've managed to reload a squib. It was a .357 magnum case for a mid-sized .357 magnum revolver when I was playing 'how low can you go'...I found out.

In my case the bullet (fmj 158 grain) didn't exit the barrel and all the gases behind it seemed to come out of the barrel/cylinder gap. The result was quite noticeable at the indoor range where I was shooting. :eek:

No damage to the revolver or me (except for my pride) but the sound was definitely odd and like I said the cloud of gun smoke enveloping me was a clear indication something had gone wrong.

I'm guessing your loads were so light you didn't get the tell tale cloud.
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Now that u mention it, no, there was little to no iconic Bullseye smoke from those ball loads. Standard .32 H&R Mag loads sure did have that cloud.

Which is something I'm not fond of. I think after I blow through the pound of BE I have, I'm running to Titegroup.
 
FrankenMauser said:
As I mentioned in your previous thread on the subject...
I've been down this road before.

If you want super-light loads with a round ball, use a rifle primer, ONLY. Light charges of powder, with the small bearing surface and low friction of a round ball result in very poor powder burn. The powder is effectively acting as a 'buffer' and absorbing the impulse of the primer, without igniting much.

A rifle primer, alone, was better than a very light powder charge in my testing (3" and 5.5" barrels with all of the .32 cases short of .327 Federal).


I haven't tried TB in the 'pop gun' loads, from what I can remember.
But I don't think it would be much better.


Either ignore conventional wisdom and go powderless, or bump the powder charge closer to 3 gr.
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3 grains it is. Also, I'm going to put a heavier crimp on the ball.

And for the record, I'm looking at using this ball load more in a rifle and not a revolver. So, the extra 12 to 16 inches of barrel in mind, should I use even more powder than 3 grains?
 
I went back to the range today and brought my H&R top break .32 S&W Long with me. I decided I'd shoot through the rest of my round ball handloads until I got another squib and... I didn't get another squib.

I noticed though that the reloads I made where I crimped just past the equator of the ball didn't feel as powerful and they were sooty, so they didn't seal against the chambers.

But the loads where I pushed the ball deep into the case, to where no part of the ball was past the case mouth, they felt stronger and didn't soot up the cases as much.

They mostly hit about 2 inches low at 7 yards.

So, going forward, I think I'm going to use 3 grains of Bullseye, seat the ball fully in the case, and use them as my go to plinking load in my top break. The extra powder should help seal the chamber and up velocity and bring the POI closer to POA.

They were a lot of fun to shoot today too.
 
If you're casting your own. Take a look at the Lee mold for .32 caliber revolvers. I cast those for use in my .300 blackout and squirrel loads for my hunting rifles.

Sometime back in the American Rifleman there was a wilderness survival article and one of the things they talked about was low powered cast bullet loads for small game. The idea was if you got lost and needed to shoot small game, you'd have a load that wouldn't destroy it...

Tony
 
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