WTHeck moment with magtech .44spcl CA ammo

A

arentol

New member
I took the old Super Blackhawk to the range yesterday. Loaded up 6 rounds from a fresh box of Magtech .44spcl (Cowboy Action), just to get warmed up before putting in the Magnum. Fired the first round, barely felt it. Second round, same as the first. Third round... WTH? Massive muzzle flash, kick about halfway between the prior rounds and full-powered .44 magnum. Next three rounds were totally fine.

Anyone else had an experience like this with Magtech or any other ammo?
 
I once had that with my own handloads. About one in 12 was hot . Turned out to be the primers !
A friend had some primers that occasionally would produce a squib load .Enough force to push a bullet into the forcing cone but not ignite the primer !
:(
 
Did you see each of the bullets strike the target? Otherwise, I'd suspect a double charge which is pretty rare in factory loads.
 
It almost sounds as though you had a couple of squibs that got stuck in the barrel and the third round had enough pressure to push all three bullets out (the barrel obstruction of a squib will drastically raise the pressure of a shot fired without clearing the bore). Sounds to me like you're lucky that your gun didn't KB. For future reference, anytime the recoil or report of a gun seems abnormally light, you should immediately unload the weapon and check to make sure that the bore is clear before firing any more shots.
 
Avoid Magtech. Mass produced junk. It's probably a good thing you did this with a Blackhawk and not some Scandium flyweight toy revolver.
 
I also don't like Magtech. Bad news is that is what I have available at reasonble prices (13€ per box, 50 rds of 9mm) and other brands start at 18. It so dirty. So dirty that the other day I run two boxes of that FMJ Magtech stuff and then I switched to Remington semijacketed, and my Star 30M had problems when loading. Not when cycling, but when loading. I had finished a magazine and inserted the next, and the ramp was so fouled that one of the rounds got stuck there. I cleared and it cycled fine, it was just that one round that didn't charge properly into the chamber when I released the slide catch.
 
I had similur issues with 45 colt cowboy action ammo, I tried shaking up the loaded gun a little to hopefully evenly distrubute the pwr and no more issues.

I suppose shaking the box a little would work, too. I do not mean hard shaking either.
 
I shoot a lot of Mag Tech and never had that happen but then none of it has been cowboy stuff. Mostly 45 ACP and 44 mag and it has always shot good for me. I am inclined to think like the previous poster Webleymkv, that you had a squib and were just pure lucky that you were shooting a Ruger.
 
I've shot Magtech cowboy action loads with no problems. Anything is possible in mass-produced items, though.
 
This may sound like a dumb question but what is a squib? A round that gets stuck in the barrel? Also what is a cowboy load? Never heard of it but I'm still kind of a newbie.
 
I have never had a problem with MagTech ammunition in .44 magnum, .357 magnum, nor 9mm. Yes a squib round is round that does not clear the barrel. It is usually the heartburn of those that reload and often the result of inserting the primer, but not getting the full powder charge in the case before seating the bullet. I had one once when I tried using a Lee progressive press. I stopped using that press.

The squib shot was very, very soft and very quiet. It was so unexpected that I stopped shooting and ran a rod down the barrel, which established that there was an obstruction about 1/2" into the barrel.

Cowboy loads are light loads. One example is in .357 magnum a 158 grain lead bullet standard load might use 6 grains of Unique, while a Cowboy load for the 158 grain lead might only use 4.5 grains.

So while Cowboy Action Shooting loads are lighter than standard loadings, I do not think it that much lighter that one would take great notice of how soft and quiet the discharge was. I am inclined to think squib with one, 'Yeah but'. That being having more than one squib round in a box of factory ammunition. I would think that is an unrealistic assumption under any conditions.

How old was the ammunition ? How had it been stored ? Any chance of damage to the rounds prior to using ? It certainly strikes me as a very odd situation with factory ammunition, but not out of the realm of possibility with hand loads.
 
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This may sound like a dumb question but what is a squib?
Click to expand...

A squib is a cartridge that contains very little or no powder. While the bullet doesn't necessarily have to get stuck in the barrel for the cartridge to be considered a squib, the chances of it happening are obviously much, much higher. Squibs are usually encountered with sloppily-assembled reloads, but they're not unheard of in factory ammunition.
 
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