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Old 02-09-2011, 03:28 PM
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Default 45acp Round Chambered Backwards

During recent night quals....we conducted a drill (in the dark-about 2000 hrs CST DEC 2010) where you ran out of ammo behind cover while during a simulated gun fight and your back up (from a distance) threw a fresh magazine to you.

Weapon-G21SF 13rnd mags with ball

Distance-roughly 10+ yards

Problem-when the fresh mag (loaded with 10 rnds) hit the ground and bounced....it fell where it stripped off the top round.

The officer remembers seeing the top round in the mag looking up (with what little light there was) or similiar to a smokestack. He thumbs the round back into the mag and sees the other round on the ground and loads the mag. With the low light and stress added by the instructors telling you to load quickly and get back into the fight, he must have turned a round backwards in the mag.

He is not a "gun" guy, but this could have happen to anyone in a real gun fight where time is minimal and stress is high.

anyway....he recalls the gun firing once and then it wont fire again. he goes through the tap rack drill but after several attempts with tap rack....the scenario was ended by the instructors.

The round was "DRIVEN" backwards into the chamber and the bullet is driven severely into the case.

I happened to be near the firing range and get a phone call. I drive over to the range and the gun is handed to me. I felt like they were handing me a live grenade because everyone was afraid of it. A smartalec in the crowd said let see you get this one out.

I happened to have a key holder rod that triples as a cleaning round and stuck slug pusher. the end of the rod is hollowed out to accept screw on cleaning jags.

Anyway, I make a quick determination that the opening in the rod was wider than the primer of the round. I took a standard grip on the gun and DROVE the rod (in the barrel) into a solid barrier and after two tries, the round came free. I was wearing poly lensed glasses and I did close my eyes as a precaution.

everyone in the area started to flee when I did this in fear the round was going to ignite.

My question-
Let say this happened to a person who did not think to utilize a rod that somewhat protected the primer and the primer did ignite....

the slug was not supported....is is basically shrapnel in all directions?

will the slug stay intact....or does it break up with no chamber or barrel support?

anyone have experience with unsupported ignition of centerfire handgun ammo?

TIA
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