Indoor Range, Failure to Fire, What do you do?

W

westphoenix

New member
Only happened a couple times to me.
But what is the best thing to do if you pull the trigger,
no shot is fired.
Of course keep the weapon pointed down range.
But once you pull the cartridge out of the chamber, what should you do with the cartridge.
By just setting the cartridge on the bench pointing downrange aren't you still in danger if it is a delayed fire?
I mean cant the casing exploded and shoot outwards?
Thanks,
 
What I was taught about a slow fire (or no fire) is to keep the weapon pointed down range at least 30 seconds, up to a minute if you want. At that point you can be fairly certain that it won't fire. Place it where you can keep track of it, and on the way out, give it to the people at the range, and tell them what happened with it. More than likely they will either disassemble it, or drop it into another gun and try to get it to fire.
 
I always wait ten seconds, which is surely at least three times as long as necessary (I have had a few hangfires, none anywhere near a second's delay, all with VERY old military ammo), and try the same cartridge again. Most go off the second time. Most indoor ranges I use (clubs) have dud boxes for rounds that don't go off.
 
After a 30 second wait, if nothing happens, I rack the slide, ejecting the cartridge. I put the cartridge in my pocket and bring it home and pull the bullet.
 
I wait about 10 seconds and then drop the mag. I rack the slide, put the bullet back in, and try to fire it more time. If it goes off, great. If not, I just chuck it in the garbage.
 
stephen426 I wait about 10 seconds and then drop the mag. I rack the slide, put the bullet back in, and try to fire it more time. If it goes off, great. If not, I just chuck it in the garbage.
Click to expand...

I do the same except I throw the bullet at the target!! Who wants to waste a round? :D Just kidding of course. I give it to the range master to dispose of. Then it is their liability. $.25 isn't worth me taking the risk.
 
Wait about ten seconds, pull the hammer back and try again. If no bang then wait a couple of seconds, drop the mag, rack the slide, and then look to see if my fire pin even hit it. If so then I figure it's a dude, if it didn't then I put pistol away, something is wrong with firing pin :eek: (had this happen to me on a old gun that my dad had, firing pin broke).

Wayne
 
I usually wait a few seconds with the gun pointed down range. Then I pull the trigger at least 3 more times to see if it goes off. One of my buddies had some crappy Egyptian 9mm that would fire occasionally after 1 hit of the primer, sometimes it would fire after the 2nd or even 3rd hit. :eek: Good training ammo for those who have a flinch, though. :D
 
id try the round again if it wasnt a hangfire. f it doesnt work a second time then it is safe to put on the table for the rest of the time spent shooting. if it is an unusually lokg cook off and the round does blow, the result wont be as bad as youd think, all that pressure now has somewhere to go and would most likely just rupture the case and move the head a bit. ofcourse ive never seen magnum calibers do this, but according to hatchers notebook its perfectly safe
 
This being the "Tactics and Training" forum, I suggest:

1) Misfire.

2) Tap, roll & rack.

3) Drive on.

When you're done shooting your string, and it's safe to do so, retrieve and inspect the misfired cartridge for a light primer strike. If the primer indentation appears normal, it's possible the primer anvil is off center (defective primer).

If it were me, I'd load it in a magazine and give it another go. Another misfire? Discard it in the defective cartridge bin. (Your range *should* have one. If not, ask the staff what you should do with it.)
 
Well hopefully you'll do what we tell you, which is:

1. keep gun pointed downrange 15-20 seconds
2. eject round if semiauto, proceed shooting if revolver
3. either save round to try it again or send it off with the rest of the brass.
 
I have to completely agree with Shawn Dodson. The immediate action for a Type I (doesn't fire) malfunction is Tap, rack ready (or fire). You will fall back on your training when it counts.
There is that story of the CHP officer who was found dead after a gunfight. In his hands they found the brass from his empty cylinder (had revolvers then). At the time, officers were programed AT THE RANGE to hold onto their brass and pocket it for cleanup later. The CHP officer did exactly as he had been doing AT THE RANGE.
Westphoenix, please train as if your life depended on it.
 
+1. The reason you wait is to see if the round will discharge after a slower than normal ignition burn. The problem is that if you condition yourself to wait, you'll do so in the "real world." So, do a fast tap, rack, bang and 99 times out of 100, the round will be out of the chamber before it can possibly ignite. Once out of the chamber, at worst you're looking at a minor bang with some frags going around. A lot less dangerous than taking yourself out of a gunfight.
 
It's a cliche, but TRAIN LIKE YOU FIGHT. I'd have to advise against getting in the habit of waiting 30 seconds before you clear a malfunction.
 
If it doesn't fire, my Taurus has second strike (and third and fourth) capability. I just pull the trigger again and give it another try, Never had one that didn't go on the second try. But, if it were to again not fire, I'd wait at least 30 seconds, then chuck it in the "dud" bucket at the range.
 
.22lr's are the exemption in my book. I've occassionally had a round that DID go off after a good 5 or 6 seconds. So, I count to myself and wait when I have a hangfire. 10 seconds, recock and fire. That almost does it. If it doesn't, wait another 10 seconds, eject.. go on.
 
Tap, rack & fire caution....

Recently at a CCW course, this incident happened to me:
As taught in the course for a type one malfunction, failure to fire, we were taught the tap, rack and fire procedure.
During a practice course of rapid fire on the line, I encountered a click after the trigger on my glock was pulled. No fire.
Assumed that the slide did not hold open after the last shot and racked the slide to check. Saw that there was a case in the chamber, and racked the slide again to eject. Case gone, ejected the current magazine, popped in a second full magazine and released the slide. Slide did not go foward all the way, and would not fire. Locked the slide back again and second time it would not close again. By this time I decided to slow down and really check what was happening, perhaps a bad ejector? By this time the RCO came over to see what was happening. He looked down the barrel after emptying the chamber and mag and could see a bullet lodged in the chamber!!!
Good thing that it was lodged in the beginning of the riflling, otherwise the next round would have loaded and kaboom!!
We finally determined that perhaps the first round did not go off due to bad primer or no power. (match grade commercial reloads)
When I racked the slide, it jammed the bullet into the rifling, but pulled the case off the rear, and thus the bullet remained lodged in the barrel.

So... before you tap, rack and fire, remember that incident.
Still practice it, though....
Thought it was tap, rack, look and fire.
 
Another caution about Tap & Rack

This happened to me. I had a failure to fire, so I tried to tap and rack. The slide would not pull back. I tried a couple of different positions to rack the slide. I switched hands to try and get a better grip. No luck. I turn the pistol on its side with muzzle pointing down range to look at my pistol. I was so caught up in the jam that I did not pay attention to where my finger was. BOOM! I now have 9 2/3 fingers. If the situation does not require a tap & rack I would wait with the muzzle pointed down range.
 
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