You expect to hear bang and feel recoil, but instead you hear click not bang and the gun just sits there. It’s called a malfunction and it happens. It can be just a minor inconvenience or a major deal depending on the circumstances. If you are on the range practicing, then it is no big deal, and you clear the malfunction. If you are in a gunfight then it could cost you your life. Fortunately, malfunctions are not that common and you, if you practice it, can quickly correct the condition and get back in the fight.
Of course, the low probability of a civilian actually being in a gunfight and with the low probability of having a malfunction, combining to make an extremely remote probability of actually having a malfunction while in a gunfight. But it can happen. You can find yourself in a situation where you have no choice but to go to your gun, that is why we train and train with purpose. Then there is Murphy’s Law, – “If something can go wrong, it will.” Add to that Finagle’s law of dynamic negatives – “at the worst possible moment” (often referred to as Finagle’s corollary to Murphy’s law). Put them together and we get a probability nearing 100% – to wit “If something can go wrong, it will, at the worst possible moment” that we are almost guaranteed to get a malfunction if we age fighting for our lives. (it’s not easy being Irish.)
So, we train and practice until our response to a malfunction is automatic and rapid, requiring little thought.
Well, now that I have painted a bleak picture, let’s look at types of malfunctions. They come in two basic varieties: mechanical and ammunition. Some are easy to fix and others are more difficult.
Ammunition Failures
First, I want to clearly state that modern, newly manufactured ammunition is extremely reliable and safe to use. The manufacturers have gone to great lengths to provide exceptional quality. Since I go through a lot of ammo and I need to stretch my ammo budget, I tend to purchase the least expensive brass cased ammunition I can get. I have never been able to use my inexpensive ammunition as an excuse for my poor shooting (user error).
There are three common ammunition failures: misfire, hang fire and squib load. A misfire is simply that, the hammer, firing pin or striker hits the primer and nothing happens. Click, it is a misfire. Often, we call the cartridge a dud and discard it. It could be that there is no primer compound in the primer cap, or it could be something else which we will cover next. I have encountered misfires many times with 0.22 rimfire ammunition. Sometimes the manufacturing process fails to evenly distribute the primer compound throughout the rim and the firing pin hits a “dead” spot on the rim resulting in a click. Since most of us do not use a 0.22 caliber gun for self-defense, this is but an inconvenience. If you are shooting competitively in a bullseye league, like I do, it is an annoyance and, depending on the target being shot, can ruin the score. But no one gets hurt. When encountering a misfire, the proper procedure is to hold the gun, pointed downrange for a count of 30. Why? Read on…..
A note on rimfire ammunition: It is not that uncommon to strike a dead spot on the rim of the cartridge. Unless there is something clearly bad with the round, I do as previously mentioned and keep the gun pointed down range for a 30 count and then I take the round out, spin it and rechamber it and shoot it with successful results. Just had to hit a better spot on the rim.
A hang fire is more insidious than a simple misfire and we must, for safety reasons, treat a misfire as a hang fire. A hang fire occurs when the primer is slow burning and takes longer than normal to ignite the gunpowder. I have never experienced a hang fire; however, they do happen, otherwise we would not have a name for it.
So how do you know the difference between a simple misfire and a hang fire when you hear click? You don’t! Just follow the safety procedure and hold the gun pointed downrange for a 30 count before reloading.
Now we get to squib loads which can be recognized when they happen if you are familiar with your gun’s performance and can tell when something is not right. In other words, you have to practice a whole lot to, not just be able to shoot the gun accurately, but also be able to feel when the gun is working properly or not. A squib load happens when there is a lack of, or insufficient gunpowder or the gunpowder is corrupted or contaminated, resulting in the bullet being pushed off the end of the case but not flying out of the barrel properly. The bullet may get out of the barrel or it may get stuck in the barrel. I have seen this happen twice with one being bit of a curiosity and the other being quite dramatic.
The first event happened at an indoor range during a bullseye competition. One of the shooters had a squib load. When he pressed the trigger and gun made a noise somewhere between click and bang and the gun had a very limited recoil. The shooter both heard and felt the difference in the gun and knew he had a squib load. If the gun sounds and feels different than normal, STOP SHOOTING and that Is exactly what the shooter did. He proceeded to check the firearm and found that it was in proper working order, especially noting that he barrel was clear. During the subsequent cease fire, we inspected the area in front of the bench and found the bullet about 10 feet in front of the shooter.
The other squib load event was dramatic. It occurred during an advance carbine course which had 10 students running and gunning with the AR15 carbines for the whole day. It is hard to express how much fun this advanced carbine course was plus the exceptional instruction upped everyone’s skills. One shooter was shooting at about 50 yards and was on the far left side of the range. This drill had two shooters and the other was at the same distance but on the far right side of the range, about 25-30 yards between the shooters. They were shooting, fairly rapidly, 3-5 rounds at a time (semi-automatic, we can’t have selective fire on this range).
The shooter on the left was firing when the action of his AR15 blew out. It was incredible. The actions just blew out leaving a whole in the bottom and ejection port side of the gun. The magazine was thrown across the range nearly reaching the shooter on the far side of the range. A range full of experienced shooters stood silent with their mouths hanging open hardly able to comprehend what just happened. Fortunately, no one was injured. The only casualty was a destroyed AR15.
Lesson learned. Do not screw around with squib loads.
As an aside, to add to the difficulties for the shooter. His AR was destroyed and, living in Massachusetts, he could not purchase a replacement. If you live in a free state where the rights of citizens as guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, you may not understand. Massachusetts adopted a duplicate of the1994 Clinton Administration “Assault Weapons” Ban in 1998. (note: the term Assault Weapon was made up in attempt to demonize the AR & AK platforms and make our unknowledgeable neighbors think that we are crazy people with Assault Rifles which are quite different.) The 1994 “Assault Weapons” Ban was bad law and the Congress recognized it so there was a sunset provision resulting in its being removed in 2004, however, this ridiculous law remains in effect in Massachusetts. A number of years ago, July 2016 to be precise, the Massachusetts Attorney General, trying to curry favor with the pre-election anointed Hillary Clinton Administration, took it upon herself to throw away 20 plus years of “Assault Weapons” law and change the enforcement of the ban to include any weapon that had a similar (copycat) action to the original Colt that was specifically mentioned in the ban. So, since July 2106, it has been illegal to purchase an AR15 in Massachusetts. Just a s a reminder: The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Mechanical Failures
Mechanical failures also come in a couple of varieties, simple and complex failures. A simple failure is anything that can be fixed with a tap/rack. The failure can have different causes including bad ammunition or a unseated magazine, but the fix is simple: upon click, not bang, tap (whack) the bottom of the magazine/mag well, then rack the gun. Some include a roll during the rack to turn the gun basically upside down to allow any fresh or spent cartridge to fall free of the gun.
There can also be a stovepipe. This occurs when the case being ejected does not clear the ejection port and gets jammed in the ejection port when the slide rams forward. The most common cause of stovepipe is weak wrists/loose arms. A semi-auto handgun is designed to be held securely during the cycling process. If the shooter allows rearward motion of the gun during the cycling, the absorption of the energy in the wrists/arms prohibits proper function and the action jams up of the spent case. There are a couple of ways to clear a stovepipe. The tap/rack with a roll should clear it. Another method is to take your off hand and sweep the top of the gun in a rapid motion, hitting the jammed case and dislodging it. A word to the wise – if you are not wearing gloves, it can hurt.
The complex malfunction is the one that gets you out of the fight. Get to cover. It can be a double feed, or some other jam where rounds are just being pressed into the action the wrong way. You need to drop the magazine. Chances are that the magazine will not fall out and you have to strip it out. Turn the gun upside down to allow anything in it to fall out, and rapidly rack the slide multiple times. Insert a new magazine, chamber a round and get back into the fight.
Think about this; You are in a fight for your life. You have never experienced this level of stress and adrenaline flow all resulting is physical failures: tunnel vision, auditory loss, loss of manual dexterity and more. Remembers Murphy’s Law and Finagle’s Corollary? This is the ideal time for a complex failure. At this time, just shooting your gun is a challenge, racking it is a monumental feat and now, now you have a failure. This is when you have to remember tap/rack/roll, or worse you have to remember to strip it and rip it, get the magazine out, rack multiple times, get the new magazine in, re-acquire the threat and stay alive.
This stuff must be instinctual. The only way that happens is to practice, practice and practice some more, then add some safe stressors and practice some more. Practice while keeping your eyes on the target/threat so that you can do it all by feel. If you carry a gun for self-defense, you need to be training all the time. You need lots of good quality, court defensible training with a quality instructor.
Be Safe, Be Responsible