Shield 9mm, Can't Rack Slide, Live Round in Chamber

[Rastoff]

Going to be a royal hassle to mail a potentially live round of ammo.

At least... to do it legally.

Good point.

Truthfully, you can just pull the bullet with a pair of pliers. It will have marks on it, but the only concern is whether or not there is powder in there.

Just grab the bullet with one pair of pliers and the case with another and pull. It will come apart pretty easily. The powder that spills out is harmless once it's out of the casing as is the primer.

 

[199]

I encountered a very similar situation at a local range maybe 10 years ago (if I haven't missed anything here).

A shooter was firing new, brand name 9MM rounds in an M&P semi. At some point the handgun got solidly locked up after he pulled the trigger. He thought it had fired (and IIRC it had spat something or another back in his face). However, a pencil down the barrel showed the bullet was still in the case.

After seriously wrestling with the slide for about 5 minutes, we finally muscled it back. The primer looked much like the one shown here.

I pulled the bullet and discovered there was no hole punched in the primer pocket to allow the primer flash to reach the powder. It appeared the punch that is used to make that hole had partly moved some brass and then broken before punching through. There was an unspent powder charge in the case.

Obviously, in this case the pressure from the unvented primer was enough to cause brass from the primer to flow into the firing pin hole, which caused the firearm to seize since the barrel couldn't drop down and unlock. I don't remember for sure if the primer had also backed out, though I think it did (which makes sense given the pressure involved).

Getting the firearm unlocked probably sheared much of the brass that had protruded into the firing pin hole.

I really wanted to keep the case, but when I asked the shooter if he wanted it, he said he did (and it was his, after all).

My guess in the OP's situation is possibly some debris or a part of the original primer had blocked the primer hole causing an identical situation.

Sadly, there is no way to identify this problem with new ammo other than shooting the round. For a while after that, I reloaded my own carry ammo so I could verify beforehand that it had the primer hole. I've become tired of doing that and now just take my chances with the factory stuff.

Still, that firearm was solidly locked up! In that situation the only real solution is a second firearm.

I'd really like to know if there's anything blocking the primer hole in the OP's case.

 

[Larry1945]

Well 199, it sounds like that could very well be what happened to me. Sadly, if that is the case - if the pressure did back the primer out a bit - it means that even careful examination of the round wouldn't have caught it. I'm going to trust that this would be very unlikely to happen with premium self-defense ammo, which is what I use when I'm carrying. With cheap range ammo, the odds of something like this happening are undoubtedly much greater.

I belong to a gun club, and there are bunch of guys there that are heavily into reloading. I'll keep this round in my range bag and one day I'll run into someone who would be willing to do an autopsy. Since you've seen this before though, I'd bet even money that's exactly what happened in my case...

 

[rwsmith]

The Shield is a DAO...

I read through this post several times trying to understand the final disposition and am still frustrated. The OP says he tried several times to fire the dud round. Was he able to rack the slide to re-cock the striker or did he merely pull on a dead trigger? Now that he has the bad round out of the gun and can see the mess on the primer, is in fact the primer live or dead? That's important because if the primer is dead it is either from the original round and was failed to be punched out, or it was a defective new primer. It would be relatively easy to see if the round was disassembled. One way it was Freedom's fault, and the other way it was the primer vendor's. The teardrop shaped indentation on the primer looks like that from a fired round, indicating that the original primer was left partially in the case, explaining its protrusion. Such a round would wedge tightly between breech face and barrel. If this ever happens to me I'll try gently tapping down on the barrel block with the piece aimed in a safe direction. Much more mechanical advantage on that stuck round than trying to cam the barrel down with the locking lug cam. I would also wonder if the firing pin/striker assembly is in good order with a good return spring in a clean hole in the slide. Were it not, and protruding above the breech face, this kind of thing could happen.

I wish I knew what went wrong. Frustrating.

The Shield being DAO has repeat strike capblity because the trigger cocks the striker and lets it go.

 

[BC38]

199's theory sounds good.
I have another.
What if it is a reloaded case, and in the process of reloading, the primer didn't punch out - just got deformed to where the center stuck out a ways, then when it went through the priming step, the deformation got partially flattened out - leaving the raised area seen in the photo.
Just another theory.

 

[199]

Great!!

After literally writing a book (above), I notice that Speedo2 covered the issue earlier in one sentence.

Apologies to him.

And just about any reloader should have a bullet puller to pull the round apart. Tracking down anything blocking the flash hole will take some care since removing a spent primer generally involves sending a punch down that hole.

 

[Buford57]

Great!!

After literally writing a book (above), I notice that Speedo2 covered the issue earlier in one sentence.

Apologies to him.

And just about any reloader should have a bullet puller to pull the round apart. Tracking down anything blocking the flash hole will take some care since removing a spent primer generally involves sending a punch down that hole.

True enough, however once the bullet and powder are removed a good bright light will reveal whether there is a flash hole. If that's absent, you've found the likely cause and that primer can't be punched out anyway.

 

[Larry1945]

Since the primer in that round is now raised a bit, would it be possible to pry it out from the top instead of poking something through the hole in the casing? If you could pry it out from the top, exposing the primer pocket, couldn't you easily tell if the flash hole is either blocked or nonexistent? Or when the primer went off, would it have plugged that hole up anyway? Sorry if that sounds like a dumb question; I'm just thinking out loud. I really like that theory; it makes more sense to me than anything else we've discussed...

 

[oink]

199's theory sounds good.
I have another.
What if it is a reloaded case, and in the process of reloading, the primer didn't punch out - just got deformed to where the center stuck out a ways, then when it went through the priming step, the deformation got partially flattened out - leaving the raised area seen in the photo.
Just another theory.

I agree. See post #29

 

[Larry1945]

To oink and BC38...the box that round came from is labeled "NEW" - how could Freedom Munitions call their ammo NEW if they're using reloaded cases? What part of NEW am I not understanding?

 

[oink]

OP,
Not a brand I'd buy but a cheap enough option for a one time use to pull that bullet and be able to look inside the cartridge case:
Amazon Prime $10.79 Redneck Convent Impact Bullet Puller Tool ASIN: B073X55B68

 

[BC38]

I agree. See post #29

LOL, I thought I had read every post, but it appears I missed one. Looks like we both came up with the same theory.

To oink and BC38...the box that round came from is labeled "NEW" - how could Freedom Munitions call their ammo NEW if they're using reloaded cases? What part of NEW am I not understanding?

Were all rounds in that box the same head-stamp?
My thought would be that either a batch of remans got mistakenly loaded into boxes marked as new ammo - or at least a few reman rounds got mixed in with some new ammo. I know they manufacture both new and reman at their plant in Lewiston Idaho.

 

[199]

Admittedly I may have missed things since this is a long, though interesting, thread.

But I believe this was a reloaded case (marked "IMI" I think).

If it was, then the case presumably had a flash hole to begin with.

A bit of debris, say a small piece of the original primer's anvil, blocking the hole would still be my guess.

Ultimately though, a cartridge autopsy by a careful person is needed.

 

[oink]

Yeah, when I saw the IMI head stamp I "assumed" it was reloaded. But I suppose IMI could be selling bulk brass too???

Edit to add: Well bulk unprimed IMI brass is easily available although I didn't see any 9mm.

Awaiting the autopsy report on the round in question.

 

[Larry1945]

Look, every round in that box - every "New" round I've ever bought from Freedom - is exactly the same: a shiny, new-looking case with exactly the same IMI head stamp. Even Freedom Munitions is not going to call ammo "New" and use old cases; that would be blatant false advertising. Let's stick to theories that assume the case is new, as I have no doubt that's what it is.

IMI stands for Israel Military Industries and has been around a long time; their brass is well-respected from all accounts I've read. They make their own brand of ammo, but I'm sure companies like Freedom can buy their new brass as well...

 

[BC38]

Look, every round in that box - every "New" round I've ever bought from Freedom - is exactly the same: a shiny, new-looking case with exactly the same head stamp. Even Freedom Munitions is not going to call ammo "New" and use old cases; that would be blatant false advertising. Let's stick to theories that assume the case is new, as I have no doubt that's what it is...

That would all be correct if this were a perfect world, but we all know it isn't. Nobody is accusing them of anything underhanded, the assumption is that possibly a mistake was made,because, you know. mistakes do happen.

When you say "exactly the same headstamp" do you mean the same IMI headstamp as pictured in the photo posted by the OP?

 

[Craditch]

I just checked my last shipment of new 9 mm from Freedom Munitions. It is not head stamped with FM's normal stamp. They may be buying brass to keep going. They are in bankruptcy.

I have no doubt that this is new ammo since all 1000 rounds has the head stamp.

 

[Larry1945]

BC38, I am the OP...and yes, that IMI head stamp you see in the photo is exactly the same as every round of "New" ammo I received from Freedom in my last 1,000-round purchase. Do I need to take a photo of the rest of the rounds in that box? It's still half full, and I can do that if anyone insists. Trust me, every case looks the same with the exact same head stamp...

 

[Larry1945]

Autopsy Report

Okay guys, after lunch today I sat down with a pair of pliers and managed to pull the bullet. Took me awhile, but I got it out. The case was full of unspent powder, so that was not the problem.

Now, here's where I'm not sure what I'm looking for. When I look into the case with a flashlight, all I see is solid brass. There is no hole at all, not even a tiny one. There is an indentation in the center indicating it may have been hit with a punch, but it didn't go all the way through. There is no hole there, which tells me there is no way the primer flash could could have reached the powder.

To me this lends credence to the theory posed by Speedo2 and 199...the lack of a flash hole prevented the round from firing and caused primer flowback and case expansion that locked up the action.

If I'm missing something by all means let me know, but it looks to me like the mystery is finally solved!

 

[Rastoff]

When I look into the case with a flashlight, all I see is solid brass. There is no hole at all, not even a tiny one. There is an indentation in the center indicating it may have been hit with a punch, but it didn't go all the way through. There is no hole there, which tells me there is no way the primer flash could could have reached the powder.

That sounds like the issue.

What you should see is this:

Note how the primer hole can clearly be seen. These are .45 cases, but the 9mm will look exactly the same. If you don't see the hole, this was the issue. The primer went off, but the energy had nowhere to go so it just expanded the case in the chamber enough to jam it in the gun.