A close call and a lesson learned (just not sure what it is)

[Setter Man]

So Sunday I am working Tess and we really get into the grouse. At one point I pulled the trigger and heard a click. I opened the gun and found my right barrel had an empty shell. Assuming I had not opened the gun after the previous shot I pulled the empty and dropped in another shell. We were on the way back to the truck and no more birds were flushed.

Got back to the house and broke apart the gun to clean. Pushed the cleaning rod through and - there was an obstruction. After really pushing out popped a wad and 7/8 oz of #7.5 shot from the Spread-R load I had been shooting. I guess the primer had in fact fired but it only moved the load about 8" down the barrel. Thank god I did not pull the trigger on the next load - needless to say, it would not have been pretty for me or the 20 ga DHE.

So, what did I learn? Well, never assume that I forgot to remove a spent hull, especially on an ejector gun; always check the barrels for an obstruction and.... I am not sure what else.

This is more than a little un-nerving for me. In my life I have fired thousands of rounds and never had this happen. Do I let the fellows at Spread-R know about the "dud"? What would you do?

Thanks,

JDG.

[Autumn Daze]

Jay,All I can say is Whew!!! That was a close one.The gods were smilling on ya brother. In all seriousness I have gotten in the habit of looking down the barrels alot and I am sure you will now also.

When I started loading spreaders I talked to Jay Menefee at poly wad about using the inserts and he told me to use 20 ga. inserts in my 16ga. hulls and I have been doing that ever since. They work fine and if you have a situation as you just had the insert will fall out and so will the shot. But you will still have the wad to contend with.

And yes I would let them know.I am sure they would want to.

[Smoothebore]

Jay, I had the same thing happen with a reload about a year ago. I too was lucky to notice the obstruction before loading another shell. Bill Murphy said it sounded like a tumbled wad. It came out with a rod and considerable effort. The wad was all twisted and mangled and stuck tight. Since that experience I've made it a habit to at least look down the barrels after each shot. Another good habit to get into is the old black powder trick of blowing down each barrel after shooting. The black powder guys would do this to soften the powder residue and extend the number of shots before having to swab the barrel. Of course that is not necessary with smokeless, but its a good habit anyway to blow the residual smoke out and glance down the tubes for obstructions.

Dave

[Harry Collins]

Jay,

Sometimes I think of "close calls". You know, the ones that wake you up at night and you can't get back to sleep. Wow, what a night mare that could have turned out to be. I too look down the barrels, but not always. Guess we all need to be more concious of what we are doing. Thanks for sharing.

Harry

[Don Kaas]

If you ever watch a squad of old timers shooting trap at least one of them will blow down his barrel after every shot. The younger guys laugh and say something about 'old farts'. The old timer remembers fibre wads and paper base wads and was probably one of the young guys on a sqaud in 1958 when the guy next to him blew up his Ithaca 4E single...he became an 'old fart' after that..

[J.B. Books]

Firing with a bore obstruction can happen easily or so it seems, especially with repeater. About 10 years ago I was goose hunting with a young man only a few years out of HS. He was using an 870. We had a flock of geese decoy nicely and I gave the go ahead to take them. In spite of the excitement and focus on my own target I heard his 2nd shot to be a squib load. Some how with birds on top of us I had the presence of mind to yell STOP, STOP, DON'T SHOOT and he didn't fire again even though geese were still within 25 yards of us. Upon examination the wad from his second shot was lodged firmly in the choke of the barrel. We were laying/sitting about 3 to 4 feet apart when firing and I was close enough to get hit by any shrapnel. It all happened in a couple of seconds and I am pretty sure a disaster of some sort was narrowly averted.

[VH20]

Originally Posted by Don Kaas

If you ever watch a squad of old timers shooting trap at least one of them will blow down his barrel after every shot. The younger guys laugh and say something about 'old farts'. The old timer remembers fibre wads and paper base wads and was probably one of the young guys on a sqaud in 1958 when the guy next to him blew up his Ithaca 4E single...he became an 'old fart' after that..

I am usually the youngest guy amongst the folks I shoot skeet with, but the only "old fart". My target handload for high volume shooting utilizes the Federal hull with paper base wad. I have shot many thousands of them and never seen a stuck base wad, but once you develop the habit of routine - remove empties, blow down barrel, then look down them, it would feel strange NOT to do it. I do it in the field as well, without even thinking. Sometimes, however, a few birds in a covey will flush and shots will be taken, then it is realized the dogs are still on point and getting antsy - that is about the only time I might break the routine and reload in a hurry (a fairly scarce occurence) but even then I have feelings of "taking a chance" in the back of my mind.

Last year on a dove shoot, I got into a box of bad loads, and had about four squibs (no idea to this day as to why). I checked the barrel each time as I do after every shot and it was clear - except for that last one that left the shotcup about halfway down. Fortunately I always bring a rod with me, so a short walk from my stand to my truck was the only inconvenience to getting the bore cleared and back to shooting.

Jim

[Dave Miles]

Originally Posted by Jay Gardner

So Sunday I am working Tess and we really get into the grouse. At one point I pulled the trigger and heard a click.
JDG.

I would think they're was more than a click noise.
The primer had to have went off for the the wad to have left the hull.
At any rate, it's a good thing a fresh shell wasn't fired.

[Setter Man]

Epilogue: contrary to my what my daughter believes, I am not an Old Fart. However, I aspire to be one. As such, I will make it a habit to blow down my barrels after firing a round and I will check the barrels by looking down them as well.

I called Poly-wad and let them know what happened. They were very surprised and apologetic and ask if they could have back not only the remaining shells in the box that contained the "squib" but also the other two boxes that they shipped at the same time. They will replace the boxes with new. I could not ask for more.

Imagining what could have happened is terrifying. I was hunting a couple of miles from my truck, which was parked miles from civilization and I was hunting alone. I am extremely fortunate not to have fired again.

JDG

[Old and Reliable]

One reason I prefer a double when shooting Tower birds (will be doing that Sat 17th. at Marion MI), as there can be a lot of action. I open whichever gun I am shooting to reload and look into the tubes as I drop in fresh shells, I don't shoot AA reloads or a repeater for those events. With the excitement of airborne pheasants, 12 or more other shooting stands in the circle zone, plus a possible shooting stand partner, it seems to me a better call to use a breaking action shotgun. If you were shooting a repeater and had a stuck wad (caused by whatever reasons) and then in the "flurry of the event" fired a second, or third shot- possible disaster.

Many years ago I had a hunting partner, a DVM- he had three nice 16 doubles (two Parkers and an Ithaca if memory serves) and loved to bird and duck hunt. This was early in the season for both grouse and ducks (prior to steel shot) and he had been bird hunting with a 16 the day before our duck hunt. We had a private blind on a brushy point on a very good lake, dawn broke, we both had 12 gauge Model 12's- (30" Full) and four big Canadas were heading right towards us- I shot one on my side and saw him fold, and heard a "Bloop"- He was wearing the same Filson hunting coat he wore for birds, and was using Remington green plastic hulls- however, back then Remington apparently used green for both 12 and 16 (unlike Federal with purple for 16 ga.) and the shell fired in the larger chamber, and jammed the bolt shut-I had to remove the barrel from the receiver and it took some time to cut apart the expanded plastic hull, and the wad was stuck halfway up the barrel. So he shot my gun (after we dumped out his hunting coat to remove any other 16 gauge hulls) and I finally got his M12 back to proper function.

I enjoyed the "Old Fart" comments, this experience is NOT the only reason why I shoot ONLY 12 gauge shotguns, but it was a telling one. I have several boxes of Spred-R no. 8 12 loads (not reloads) but have yet to shoot them in any of my 12 bores. Are they prone to having wad problems? Just curious?