Who has ever experienced a true "hang fire"?

S

Skans

New member
Reading one of the threads below about a FTF someone had, I decided that I'd like to see how many people here have experienced a true hang fire.

I've shot many thousands of rounds through many different guns and have never experienced a delayed fire or hangfire. I'm starting to wonder if the "hangfire" is a mythical creature of legend and lore.

Now, I know the procedure for dealing with a hang-fire, so there is no reason to rehash that here. But, if you've actually experienced a delayed hang-fire or have been near someone when this happened, please describe your experience. Just wondering if "real people" have ever experienced this.
 
Actually, I have seen several. They usually occur in old military ammo that may not have been stored properly. I don't recall seeing one in modern commercial ammo in the past ten years.
 
I have had duds, and I have seen duds. I have also seen catastrophic failures. I have never seen or experienced a true hang fire outside of muzzle loaders. I have seen a few with those, and have had a couple myself.
 
hang-fire and failure to fire...

Several years ago I purchased a bunch of military surplus stuff from S. Africa, .303 British with the Queens head stamp and dated from the 1940's. I thought I got a good deal until one 4 were usually hang-fires and some never fired.
 
Back in high school when I was on the shooting team, I had a hang fire with my Anschutz .22

not wanting to spoil my good target, I carefully adjusted to aim at the berm, and a few seconds after the round went off.

luckily it was during a practice session, so it didn't really matter all that much.
 
Winchester, 12ga, low brass. About 25 years ago I was shooting hand thrown clay birds with a friend of mine, I pulled the trigger and heard a pop.

I pointed the gun at the ground a few yards in front of me, and waited, nothing, then just as I pulled it away from my shoulder it went BANG, darned near broke my shoulder as it slammed back into place.

Yes, They do happen sometimes.
 
Skans said:
I've shot many thousands of rounds through many different guns and have never experienced a delayed fire or hangfire. I'm starting to wonder if the "hangfire" is a mythical creature of legend and lore.
Click to expand...


Me too!:D

I've had a few genuine duds, all rim-fire, and a few that went "Click!" the first time and "Bang!" the second, also all rimfire, but I've never seen or experienced a "Click!, hm,... Bang!"
 
Had a hang fire with an M1 while at the range while in the Navy. About a 4-5 second delay before BOOM"!!!! Will scare the crap out of you!!!!!!!! Have had several with old .22 ammo. Same thing!! 'Mo
 
Misfires… several (no idea how many)
true hang-fire … only once, and it was with a black powder pistol (old caps) went off on count of three. It's an "attention-getter" for sure ... a few words heard mostly on a golf course were used:eek:
 
While it's not critical for this thread, understand there are specific differences between a misfire, a failure to fire, a dud, and a hangfire... and it ALL depends on where you go and who you talk to. Different organizations use different definitions, and that's true even within the DoD. If it's critical, ensure you and your team/unit are aware of terminology being used.

Personally, I've witnessed some very scary hangfires. misfires, partials and low-order dets that were not always attributable to human error and unfortunately, in some cases, ended fatally. Rundown off the top of my head:

A) .22LR
B) Surplus .30-06
C) 81/120mm mortars stuck halfway in a hot tube
D) 155mm Howitzer that hung and scattered the pipe
E) Blasting caps and high voltage dets (RP-80/81) sitting on anything from a brick of of TNT up to 2000lb GP bombs to a couple tons of RDX/C4/PETN
F) Very frequent with Soviet ammunition, from old 7.62 through 125mm smooth bore

With the larger stuff, 30 minutes cook-off is fairly standard practice.
It happens, definitely not tall tales.
 
I have but only with black powder. Its happened more than once, its usually about 1/2 second, which is just enough time to throw your shot way off target.
 
Ive had them before two or three times with .22lr ammo, and once or twice with rifle rounds...forget which caliber. Kind of runs a shiver down your spine.
 
Once.

A friend of my Dad's loaned me a sporterized 8mm Mauser when I was a kid (about 14) so I could deer hunt. I took it by my grandfather's house to show it off, he had a few old rounds of WWII era German ammo that were moldy and green, so we decided to shoot it in the basement of his house. (He lived in town)

I aimed, pulled the trigger, heard "click", kept the muzzle pointed into the hand-dug dirt wall of the basement, turned my head and said "I think this one was a.. BOOOOM!!"

Three lessons:

1: Old green, moldy ammo is unsafe.
2: Never fire a center-fire rifle in the basement without hearing protection. (or at all, if possible) My ears rang for days. (I was a kid and didn't know any better) It's amazing just how much dust is in a hundred year old hand-dug basement.
3: An 8mm Mauser fired a couple of feet below a kitchen stove will make all the pots jump and dance, and your sweet little grandmother scream at you while shaking a dishrag at the top of the basement steps "I don't know what you're doing down there, but STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"

It became a family legend, but could have easily ended badly. If I have a misfire now, I let it sit for five or ten minutes pointed downrange.

Total delay was probably three or four seconds.
 
I've seen plenty of failures to fire, mostly with cheap .22 LR ammunition when I was a kid shooting rifles at matches. I've had a couple of failures to fire since I bought my gun a year ago and took up shooting again -- both with inexpensive ammunition that I bought at a gun show. I haven't ever experienced a hang fire, however, and I doubt I will ever see it as long as I keep the habit of buying decent quality ammunition.
 
When I was a kid I bought some reloads out of a jar. They sold them individually. I don't know what the heck they loaded them with but I dropped the hammer and ........ nothing. Then "hiss." A moment or two passed then it went off. Same thing second round. I don't think I tried anymore.
 
I had a whole bunch of them with some surplus .303 British ammo in a No. 4 Mk. I Lee Enfield. These, however, didn't give much delay between the striker falling and going off, about like firing a flintlock. I thought perhaps my striker spring was worn and replaced it with the heaviest one I could get from Wolff, but alas the issue persisted and was only cured by switching to S&B ammo.
 
bought a bag of loose silver tipped 7.62x54.

i had a handful of them hangfire.

also a few muzzleloaders.
 
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lots of times with pakistani .303, Turk 8mm, and syrian 7.5 french. The delay was never longer than 1 second. Old ammo that was improprerly stored will do it pretty frequently.
 
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