The Squib That Bulged the Barrel

Shot 12 was almost certainly a squib: the charge was insufficient or absent, the bullet lodges in the bore, the case ejects and the slide may still cycle. The dull pop, light recoil and missing hole are classic signs. Elena should have stopped immediately. The correct drill is: keep the muzzle pointed downrange, remove the magazine, lock the slide back, and inspect the bore from the chamber end, never by looking into the muzzle. A cleaning rod or bore light can confirm the obstruction. She should then call the range officer and declare the pistol out of service. Firing shot 13 was the critical error: the new bullet struck the lodged bullet, pressure rose sharply, and the barrel bulged and cracked. The jam was a symptom, not the cause. Her reloading notes point to a powder-bridging alarm on a progressive press, which can produce a case with little or no powder. The lesson is that an abnormal report is a stop signal, not a round to be 'burned off'.

The range officer should control the line with clear commands: 'Cease fire, cease fire, cease fire'; then 'Unload, show clear' for the other shooters; then 'Range is safe' only after all weapons are cleared and the damaged pistol is removed from the firing line. Elena should keep the pistol pointed downrange until told otherwise, remove the magazine, show the empty chamber, and place the pistol on the bench with the action open. The range officer should record the incident, preserve the damaged barrel and the remaining cartridges from the same batch, and if possible photograph the bulge. The pistol should not be fired again until inspected by a gunsmith. If the range has a barrel-rod kit, use it; if not, the pistol is set aside. Other shooters should not crowd the lane. The incident also triggers a review of the reloading batch: quarantine the remaining rounds and do not use them until the charge weights are verified.

The immediate cause is a load with no or insufficient powder, likely from powder bridging in the progressive press. She should adopt a visual or electronic powder-check at every station, weigh charges at intervals, and never rely only on the press's automatic measure. She should keep a written log with powder type, lot, charge weight and primer lot, and quarantine any batch produced after an alarm. A squib can also come from contaminated powder or a wrong shell plate, so the whole batch should be pulled down. She should use a bullet-puller or a kinetic puller and verify the powder charge in a sample. Finally, she should treat any shot with abnormal sound or recoil as a stop: clear the firearm, inspect the bore, and only continue after the barrel is confirmed clear. Reloading must be done within the limits of the law and with safe procedures; the range incident is a training issue and potentially a safety violation.