Tag: double charge

The 9mm Sudden Unintended Disassembly: Concluding Thoughts

By Joe Berk

This is an update on my 9mm 1911 sudden unintended disassembly saga.  I will address four topics:

      • Zeroing in on the cause.
      • Rework of the ammo I had loaded on my Lee turret press.
      • My reconstituted 9mm 1911.
      • Preventing a recurrence.

Let’s get into it.

Zeroing In On The Cause

I’m down to thinking the 1911 event was due to either of two causes: A double propellant charge, or bullet setback (i.e., the bullet slid deeply into the case as the round was being chambered, thereby raising the chamber pressure).

My burst 9mm cartridge case. It was a Remington case, not that it makes any difference. Any case would likely have burst.  Photo by TJ of TJ’s Custom Gunworks.  Compare this to the photo of the double-charged case at the end of the video below.
A Double Charge

I did a Google search on double-charged cartridges, and what do you know, there’s actually someone out there who did the same thing I did.  He caught it on video and posted it with a photo of the case.  His burst cartridge case sure looks a lot like mine.

If you compare the photo at the end of the above video to the case stuck in my chamber, they are identical.  I’ve convinced myself that this is the most likely of the two scenarios, but I’ll describe the other scenario (bullet setback) as well.

Bullet Setback

What has me thinking deep thoughts about the second failure mode (pushing the bullet deeper into the case during chambering) is that I think it is relatively easy to screw up while reloading and induce this failure, and from what I’ve read, 1911s are more prone to do this than are other semi-autos.

This is what bullet setback would look like. The bullet is seated much deeper in the case than it is supposed to be, which would raise chamber pressure. This example did not occur in the gun; I loaded dummy case and pushed the bullet in much deeper using my reloading press.  Theoretically, it can be induced by the gun if the bullet is not crimped sufficiently.

Let’s discuss screwing up the reloading process in a manner that could induce bullet setback.   On my Lee Classic turret press, bullet seating and crimping occur in two separate operations (seating refers to pushing the bullet into the case; crimping refers to locking the bullet in place by crimping the cartridge case mouth).  The third (of the four) dies seats (but does not crimp) the bullet; the fourth die applies a taper crimp to the bullet.  Here’s the screwup:  I’ve had at least a couple of instances where I took the cartridge out of the press after seating the bullet (but before crimping it).   I know; you’re thinking that’s stupid, and I can’t argue with that conclusion.  I don’t know why I did it (too eager to see the completed round, maybe?).  I caught myself, returned the cartridge the press, and crimped it.  But it’s possible I missed the crimping step on a cartridge.

I think setback is the less likely of the two failure modes discussed here.  I tested the crimp by tapping on the bullet with a rubber mallet and it didn’t move.  Failure to crimp or a weak crimp may have caused setback, but on properly crimped bullet, I don’t think setback will occur.  Also, when I made the cartridge shown in the photo above on my RCBS Rockchucker press, it took more effort than I thought it would to seat the bullet as deeply as you see in the photo (and the case had not been crimped).  I doubt that simply chambering the round would drive the bullet in that deeply (even without a crimp).  If you think otherwise, please leave a comment below.

Gun Design and Bullet Setback

As mentioned above, bullet setback is more likely to occur on a 1911 than it is on other semi-auto handguns.  It has to do with cartridge location in the magazine, and how it feeds into the chamber.  On more modern handguns, the top round in the magazine sits higher in the gun than it does on older design guns.   When the slide shoves the round forward, cartridges in more modern handguns have a straighter path into the chamber.  On a 1911, the top round in the magazine sits lower in the gun.  When the slide pushed it forward, the bullet impacts the ramp, it has to stay situated in the cartridge case without experiencing setback, and the cartridge has to rotate up and then into the chamber.  Because of this, a 1911 is more likely to experience bullet setback than is, say, a gun like the S&W Shield.

A 9mm cartridge waiting to be chambered in a 1911.  It’s a little hard to see in this photo (I did the best I could), but the bullet nose will hit the ramp head on and then slide up the ramp and into the chamber. The potential for bullet setback is a little higher here than on most other modern 9mm semi-auto handguns.
A 9mm cartridge waiting to be chambered in the S&W Shield. Notice how the round is nearly aligned with the chamber as it sits in the magazine.

That’s not to say the Smith and Wesson Shield is a better design or that it’s all sunshine and rainbows.  There’s a tradeoff the engineers made on the Shield.  Yep, the Shield’s higher cartridge position makes for a straighter path into the chamber.  It also allows for higher capacity in a smaller gun (my little Shield holds 8 in the magazine and one in the chamber).  But the higher cartridge position can induce another issue:  Failure to extract and eject.

A cartridge case in the S&W Shield caught during extraction on the mouth of the case immediately below it.

During extraction, the round being extracted has to drive the magazine’s top cartridge down into the magazine as it is being extracted.  it does so by using the next cartridge’s bullet as a cam surface.  The rear edge of the cartridge being extracted bumps into the mag’s top cartridge, and then it has to drive it down so the case can exit the gun after firing.  As it uses the bullet of the mag’s top round for that cam surface, the rear of the cartridge case rim encounters the case mouth of the mag’s top cartridge, and that can cause a failure to extract and eject.  It’s happened to me.  I’ve found the Shield is sensitive to ammo brand, bullet configuration, and crimp.  Too much crimp, and the cartridge goes too deep into the Shield’s chamber and the firing pin won’t light the round off.  Too little crimp and it jams in the manner described above.  Too little crimp and it might experience bullet setback.  Like most things in life, the design is a tradeoff.

Again, I don’t think bullet setback is what happened in my 9mm 1911.  I’m including it here simply because it is interesting and relevant to this discussion.

Ammo Rework

One of the personally dismaying and embarrassing things about blowing up my 9mm 1911 is that it immediately threw into question the approximately 1500 rounds of 9mm and .45 ACP ammo I had reloaded on the Lee turret press.

I thought I could use weighing the rounds as a way to screen for double loads, but on both the 9mm and the .45 cartridges, the weight variation exceeds the weight of the powder charge.  That means I could have a double charge and if it was in a lighter round, it would be within the variability for the loaded cartridge.  So weight was not a way to screen.  I know there will be keyboard commandos with advice to stick to one case manufacturer (or to segregate cases by brand), but the same variability problem exists even when cases are segregated (I’ve checked).  I wish the self-styled “experts” on Facebook would slither back under their rocks (or at least refrain from commenting when they just don’t know what they are talking about, which is most of the time).

The RCBS collet bullet puller. You put your cartridge into the press shell holder, raise it into the collet (the gizmo on the right, which fits inside the gizmo on the left), tighten the crank, and lower the press ram. Voila, the bullet is pulled. Most of the time.  Sometimes it doesn’t work.
An impact bullet pullerr. You put a loaded cartridge into the cap on the hammer head, whack the opposite end against a hard surface a few times, and inertia drives the bullet out of the case. It is a lot of work.
The Grip-N-Pull. It works occasionally. I tried a few cartridges and gave up on it.

I’ve disassembled and reassembled the 800 9mm rounds I loaded on the Lee turret press.  I did not find a single one with a double charge.  I used my buddy Greg’s RCBS collet bullet puller for this on my 9mm ammo and it worked like a champ with minimal or no bullet damage.  Surprisingly, with all brands of brass, after pulling the 9mm bullets from crimped cartridges I did not have to expand the case mouths again to reseat the bullets.  They slid right in.  I just seated them to the right depth and crimped them again.  Reusing the bullets didn’t seem to affect accuracy, either.

The RCBS collet bullet puller did not work on my .45 ACP ammo.  The .45 collet couldn’t get a good enough grip on powder coated 230-grain roundnose bullets or on my 185-grain cast semi wadcutters.  I tried one of those Grip-N-Pull devices and that didn’t work, either.  The bullets slid right out of it.  To disassemble the .45 cartridges, I had to use an impact bullet puller, and that was tough sledding.  It takes forever.  I don’t like impact bullet pullers, but hey, it is what it is.  And what it is, well, is a lot of labor.  I’m working it a little at time, at a rate of about a box per week.  Three or four months and the rework will be in the rearview mirror.

That double charge sure turned out be one expensive mistake, both in terms of damage to the 1911 and the need to rework a lot of ammo.  Live and learn, I guess.

The Reconstituted 1911

TJ (of TJ’s Custom Gunworks) worked his magic on my 9mm 1911.  As mentioned in a previous blog, in addition to addressing the damage from the burst cartridge, he polished the barrel and ramp, refit an extractor that actually works (shame on you, Springfield Armory, for letting this one get out of the factory with an extractor that didn’t even contact the cartridge case), he recontoured the slide release and the slide release pin (shame on you again, Springfield Armory, for a slide release that was extremely difficult to install), he fit a one-piece guide rod (which is what I asked him to do), and he did one of his magnificent trigger jobs (this 1911 has a “breaking glass” 2 1/2 pound trigger now, with zero creep and no discernible takeup).  This 1911 is a pure joy to shoot.  I loved it before and I love it even more now.  That target at the top of this blog?  It’s a full box of  my reloaded 9mm ammo (50 rounds) fired without resting the gun on anything.  No failures to feed, no failures to eject, no misfires, and every bullet hit in the 10 ring.

50 rounds shooting offhand with the 9mm Springfield Armory 1911.  Custom work by TJ’s Custom Gunworks.

Preventing a Recurrence

Wow.  Where to begin.

I am implementing a number of changes in my reloading to prevent this from occurring again:

      • I’m slowing down and paying more attention.  Duh.  I’m no longer complacent.  Duh again.
      • I’m installing better lighting on my press.
      • I’m standing up so I can see into the cartridge case.
      • I’m switching to a bulkier powder so that a double charge, if it ever occurs again, will spill over the case mouth and make a big, impossible-to-ignore mess.

I don’t mind sharing with you that when this first occurred, my thought was to abandon the Lee Classic turret press and return to loading on my single stage RCBS Rockchucker press.  Double charging a case using a single stage press is (in my opinion) a much less likely thing to happen, and in 50 years of reloading on the Rockchucker, I’ve never had it happen.

When you load on a single stage press, it’s easier to view all of the charged cartridge cases. If any have been double charged, they will stand out.

I have a friend who works for Colt in their customer service department, and he tells me that when he sees a blown up gun sent in, there’s usually a progressive or a turret press somewhere in the story.  But good buddy Paul told me to think about it a while longer and I did.  I’m back to using the Lee turret press, but I’m a little older and a lot wiser now.  The older part wasn’t really necessary, but the wiser part is and hopefully, readers can benefit from my screwup.

Slowing Down and Paying Attention

You know, when I worked in the munitions industry I participated in two fatality investigations where inadvertent detonations were involved.  Multiple human errors caused those inadvertent detonations, and one of the key human errors was complacency.  That’s what I had become using the Lee Classic turret press:  Complacent.  I’d been reloading for so long I became entranced with the turret press’s speed, and I started reveling in the thousands of rounds I was cranking out (and it was, literally, thousands of rounds).  I always knew that double charges or skipped steps (like crimping) were really, really bad, but I just never thought I’d be the guy making either mistake.  I wasn’t taking the time I needed to and I became complacent.  That’s changed.  I’ve slowed the pace, and you can bet I’m looking into every case immediately before I place a bullet on top to make sure I haven’t double charged it.  You can also bet that I’m making sure I hit the crimping step on every round.   I’ve actually posted a sign on my reloading bench with the best advice I’ve ever given myself:  Slow down.

Better Lighting

Good buddy Duane (who is both smarter and better looking than me) also reloads with the Lee Classic turret press.  Duane mounted a light above his press to allow better visibility into the charged case.  I’m going to do the same.

Standing Up

I used to sit at the reloading station.  My bench, though, is higher than a standard work table (it’s how I had it built 50+ years ago).  When I’m seated, it’s not as easy to see into the case.  I reload standing up now, and that allows seeing directy into the case.

Bulkier Propellant

My last change concerns the propellant.  One of the things I investigated shortly after my 9mm hand grenade episode was if it was possible to get a double charge into a 9mm case.  With the load I was using (5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5), the answer was yeah, you could.  It even had a little room left over.  My thinking at the time was that I needed to go to a propellant that would overflow the case if I double charged it.  In the past, I’ve found 4.8 to 5.0 grains of Unique with the 125 grain bullet is a marvelous 9mm load.  Doubling that (i.e., 9.6 grains of Unique will overflow a 9mm case) and if that happens when loading, that’s a good visual indicator that something’s wrong.  So, from here on out when using the Lee turret press, my load will be 4.8 grains of Unique.  That only works for 9mm, though.  Other cartridges (the .45 ACP, for example) will handily swallow a double charge.  There, it’s back to paying serious attention (which we need to do on everything when we reload; it’s just using a propellant that will spill over with a double charge adds an additional indicator if things aren’t done correctly).

A double charge in the case on the left. My load was 5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5. I loaded both cases with this charge, and then took the propellant from the case on the right and poured it into the case on the left. A 9mm can easily swallow a double charge of Accurate No. 5.
A single (correct) charge: 5.0 grains of Unique in a 9mm case.
The most Unique I could load into a 9mm case was 7.9 grains. A double charge would spill over the top of the case and be immediately noticeable (at least in 9mm; the .45 ACP case will take a double charge of Unique without a spillover).

Incidentally, when this happened, I wrote to Lee and asked them if they offered any accessories to prevent a double charge (my Star reloader has a mechanical feature that prevents this from occurring).  The answer was no, but Lee advised using a propellant that, well, read the above again and you’ll know.  I checked the literature that came with the Lee Classic turret press kit, and sure enough, Lee has a recommendation in there to do exactly what I describe here.

Hornady’s Powder Cop

When I posted earlier blogs on Facebook, a few people mentioned a reloading cop.  In 50 years of reloading, I’d never heard of such a thing, but I found it on Amazon.  Hornady’s Powder Cop die is a die with a pushrod indicator.  You add it to a vacant station on the reloading turret after the propellant charging station and when the charged round goes into it, if the case is double charged the rod will go higher than it normally does.

Hornady’s Powder Cop. The idea is that a double-charged case will lift the rod another 3/16 of an inch or so.

I don’t think the Powder Cop is the answer for several reasons.  The Lee Classic turret press doesn’t have an empty station in its turret (all four stations are taken by the Lee 4-die set), you would have to notice that the pushrod indicator rose marginally higher than it was supposed to, and I believe that if a double charge was present, the pushrod might just push into the powder and not rise enough to indicate the double-charge condition.  The Powder Cop might be right for some people, but my equipment can’t use it and I don’t think it’s an effective check.  If you missed the double charge, you would probably miss the rod extending upward a bit further, too.

The RCBS Lockout Die

RCBS offers their lockout die which is, in my opinion, the best option for preventing a double charge on a reloading press, if the press that has an open station.  If the case has an overcharge or an undercharge (or no charge), the lockout die locks the press, which positively lets you know that something isn’t right.  It’s a clever mechanical device that detects either and overcharge or an undercharge and then stops the process.

The RCBS lockout die. If the case has an undercharge or an overcharge, this device stops the reloading process.

Unlike Hornady’s powder cop die, the RCBS lockout die isn’t just a rod moving up and down.  The lockout die stops the show and forces you to check the cartridge that has locked up press movement.  I think it’s a much better approach.  The problem, though, is that you need that extra station on either a turret or a progressive press, and I don’t have that on the Lee Classic turret press (so for me it’s a nonstarter).  What it says to me is that if I were to buy a new press, I would want one that has an extra station.  I think the lockout die is a stellar idea; I just don’t have the real estate for it on my press.

The Bottom Line

I’m convinced that I had a double charge in the round that burst in my 1911.  I’m also convinced that it’s on my to prevent it from happening again.  As explained above, here’s what I’m doing:

      • I’m slowing down and paying attention to what I do.  There is no place for complacency in the reloading world.
      • I will continue to use my Lee Classic turret press, but I’m installing better lighting and standing up so I can see into the cartridge case.
      • I’m switching to a bulkier powder so that a double charge, if it ever occurs again, will spill over the case mouth and make a big, impossible-to-ignore mess.

So there you have it.  If you have any thoughts on any of the above, I’d sure like to hear them.

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Thoughts on the 9mm Double Charge Issue

By Joe Berk

A few days ago I blew up my 9mm Springfield Armory 1911.  It was hellaciously frightening. I wrote a blog about it and I’ll provide a link at the end of this post.  My initial conclusion was that I had committed the cardinal reloading sin:  I double charged a case.  Instead of the intended 5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5 propellant, I cycled the round twice at the charging station and I inadvertently loaded 10.8 grains.  I know what you are thinking and that’s okay.  If I read about somebody doing this, I’d think they were a dumbass, too.  I’ll get back to that later.

5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5 behind a 125-grain powder coated bullet is good. 10,8 grains is not.

Thinking about the double charge issue more, several additional thoughts emerged.   Were there other possibilities?

One other possibility is that instead of the failure being due to a double charge, it might have been a squib charge (which would lodge a bullet in the bore) followed by another round.  This was dismissed for several reasons:

      • I knew it wasn’t preceded by a squib charge because the prior round felt normal.
      • If it was a squib charge, the following round probably would not have chambered.  Squib charges resulting from no powder and pressure being provided by the primer only (in a handgun) tend to push the bullet into the barrel a very short distance (the bullet doesn’t go into the barrel far enough to allow another round to chamber).
      • The were 5 holes on the target, which is the number of rounds I had fired.
      • The barrel was not bulged (TJ inspected it and pronounced it good).
Count them: 5 holes on the target. The fifth hole is the one at the bottom. This bullet was tumbling due to its low velocity. When the case blew out, the pressure vented elsewhere.

A friend asked if I could have seated two bullets in the case.  I set bullets (one on top of the other) next to a cartridge case.  I think you can see that seating two bullet in the case is not possible.  The bottom bullet would set higher in the case than you see in the photo below (the web near the case base and the thickness of the case “floor” would cause it to seat much higher in the case).  I would not have been able to seat the second bullet even if there was no powder in the case.

A photo showing that two bullets in a single case is not possible.

I pulled the bullets in the photo above from two cartridges using an inertia bullet puller.  Both had exactly 5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5 propellant, which is what I intended.  These are the pulled bullets on top of their cartridge cases:

125-grain powder coated bullets pulled from their cases and then placed back on top of their cases.

After I pulled the bullets and put the powder back in each case, you can see the level at which the right amount of propellent (5.4 grains) sets in the case.

5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5 in 9mm cartridge cases.

I wondered:  Would a double charge (i.e., 10.8 grains of Accurate No. 5) fit in a cartridge case without it spilling out of the case?  The answer is yes.  I took the powder from one case and poured it in the other.  The case can easily hold 10.8 grains of Accurate No. 5.  Take a look:

10.8 grains of Accurate No. 5 in a 9mm cartridge case.

It would be better if the powder was bulky enough that it would spill over the case rim if I double charged it.  I know that my 9mm Unique load sits higher in the case (my Unique load for the 125-grain bullet is 5.0 grains).

Trickling 5.0 grains of Unique onto the powder scale.

Here’s what 5.0 grains of Unique looks like in a 9mm case:

5.0 grains of Unique in a 9mm cartridge case.

The question then was how much Unique can a cartridge case hold?  I was specifically interested in determining  if a double charge of Unique would overflow the case.  To answer this, I completely filled a 9mm case with Unique and weighed that amount of propellant:

A 9mm cartridge case completely filled with Unique.

I weighed the amount of Unique held by a completely-filled 9mm cartridge case.  The filled 9mm case held 7.9 grains of Unique.

Weighing the Unique held by a completely-filled 9mm case.
A completely-filled 9mm cartridge case can hold a hair over 7.9 grains of Unique propellant.

A double charge of Unique would be 10.0 grains.  I concluded that a double charge of Unique would overflow the 9mm case, and this would provide an additional safeguard against an inadvertent double charge.  I was careless enough to not notice a case double-charged with Accurate No. 5.  I’d like to think I wouldn’t be careless enough to miss powder spilling out of the case, as would occur with Unique.  The next time I load 9mm ammo, it will be with Unique.

You might be wondering about the numbers here.  Bear in mind that Unique is a less dense propellant than Accurate No. 5.   10.0 grains of Unique occupies more volume than does 10.8 grains of Accurate No. 5.

The challenge now is what to do about the approximately 1400 rounds of 9mm and .45 ACP I already have loaded on the Lee Turret press.  I thought I might be able to quickly screen the rounds by weight, but that’s not going to work.  The weights of the powder, the brass case, and the bullet all vary, with the bullet (as the heaviest item) having the greatest variation.  On the 9mm cartridges, I found that the weight variation of the completed 9mm cartridges varies from 192 grains up to 198 grains.  The powder charge is 5.4 grains.  If a cartridge weighs 198 grains, would it just be at the upper edge of the weight distribution with the correct single charge, or would it be a 192-grain cartridge with a double charge?   It’s even worse on the .45 ACP rounds, because the weight variability of the completed cartridge is more than the 9mm, and those powder charges are in the range of 5.0 grains or 5.4 grains (they are lost in the case compared to 9mm ammo).  I can’t take the chance that there’s another double charge in there.  I’m breaking down and checking every cartridge.  It’s a lot of work, but it’s better than blowing up a gun.

This is the .45 ammo I loaded on the Lee turret press.   It’s 700 rounds. I have another 700 rounds of 9mm ammo similarly loaded.

You might be wondering what it’s like to get back on the range after blowing up a gun.  I was afraid I might return with a very serious flinch (you know, when you jerk the gun in anticipation of it firing).  I’m happy to report (and maybe brag a little bit) that I’m just fine.  I had my 9mm S&W Shield out with ammo that I tore down, checked, and reloaded, and I also had my Colt Python (in which I shot .38 Special wadcutters).

An S&W 9mm Shield target shooting the 5.4 grain Accurate No. 5, 125-grain powder coated bullet load described in this blog.
A Colt Python target shot with 148-grain powder-coated wadcutters.  I’ve done better and I’ve done worse.

At this point, I’m convinced that I screwed up and double-charged the 9mm round I wrote about last week.  TJ (of TJ’s Custom Gunworks) disassembled the gun and pulled out the case you see in the photo at the top of this blog.  There was a lot of pressure in there (about 10.8 grains of Accurate No. 5’s worth, actually).   Like I said in the earlier blog, it’s an opportunity.  More good news is the barrel wasn’t damaged.  Even more good news is that TJ is doing an action and reliability job on my 1911.  TJ is replacing the two piece guide rod (two-piece guide rods are a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist) and doing a few more good things to this pistol.  I’ve already purchased and received replacement grips and a new 9mm magazine.  I’ll provide an update in a couple of weeks after I get the 1911 back, and I’ll do another blog on what it’s like disassembling and reassembling 1400 rounds of reloaded ammo.

Stay tuned!

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KABOOM!

By Joe Berk

It occurred in an instant, on the fifth and last round in the magazine.  It was as if a cherry bomb had gone off in my face.  I heard a voice yell “whoa!” and I realized the voice was mine.

I stared at the smoking Springfield Armory 9mm 1911 in my hands, waiting for the pain, the blood, and whatever might follow.   My hands, still wrapped around the grips, were stinging.  I knew something bad happened, but I didn’t know how bad it was and I wasn’t especially looking forward to finding out.  My gun had blown up.   The entire gun was smoking and smoke continued to waft from places it wasn’t supposed to:  The grips, the line between the frame and the slide, the trigger, around the hammer, and the ejection port (which was closed; at this point, I didn’t know if there was a live round in the chamber).  Gray smoke curled out everywhere.

I slowly relaxed my grip and looked at my hands.  There was no blood, but my palms stung like they had been slapped with a baseball bat. As I eased my hold, the 1911’s left grip fell away in two pieces (as you can see in the photo at the top of this blog).  There were no cuts and there was no bleeding, but I had powder tattoos all over both hands.  I returned my focus to the gun.  It was still smoking.  It smelled funny, too.  Was that burnt flesh or just the powder and residual oil?

The first four shots from that magazine were delightfully tight, and I ordinarily would have felt good about seeing that.  On each of the preceding four shots (and the fifth one, for that matter), the front sight had been outlined against the blurred rear sight and the bright orange muzzle flash, the way things are supposed to look when the hammer drops.

The first four rounds were forming a nice group. The fifth was a disaster.

I was still afraid to look at my hands.  My face was now tingling and I knew I’d caught something.  I had safety glasses on and I could see okay; that was good.  I worked up enough courage to put the gun down and look at my hands more closely.  They seemed okay.  I knew from previous bad things happening that sometimes you don’t feel anything for a few seconds (the golden minute, I think they call it), but I looked again and I was okay.

The 1911’s right grip appeared to be intact (but it wasn’t; more on that in a second).  The slide was locked forward.  I tried to pull it back but it would only move about an eighth of an inch.  I pressed the magazine release and nothing happened.  I pulled on the magazine and it came out.  It was mangled; the front was bent in and the follower angled upward.  I still wasn’t sure if there was a live round in the chamber.  I cocked the hammer and dropped it a couple of times…and there was nothing.  I concluded it was safe to put the 1911 in its case.  I scooped up my marbles and left.  I didn’t even pick up my brass, and this was Remington brass that had only been reloaded once…that’s how shook up I was.

When I got home, I looked in the mirror.  I had one little spot on my right cheek that bled and had already stopped (I’ve done worse shaving).  I washed my hands to get the powder residue off (that took a while).  There were no cuts.  Dodged a bullet, I did.  Figuratively and literally.

Once home, I examined the 1911 more closely.  The trigger was too far forward in the frame.  The event probably screwed up the trigger mechanism.  The right grip, which I thought was okay, had a hairline crack along its length.   Not that it matters; you can’t buy just one grip (you buy them in pairs).   The slide would not move to the rear more than a little bit; it was not coming off the gun.

The trigger moved far forward. You can see the outline on the trigger denoting where it was normally positioned.
The left grip fell off the gun when I released my grip. The right grip had cracked, but it remained in place.

What could have caused this?  There are a lot of possibilities.  The first (and most likely) is that I double charged a cartridge case when reloading.  In other words, I put twice as much propellant in the case as I should have.  Of all the reloading equipment I’ve ever used, it’s easiest to do this on the Lee turret press I’ve been raving about.  I’m not badmouthing Lee or their turret press; I’m simply making an observation.  If that’s what happened, it was entirely my fault.

I could have fired a squib load, had a bullet lodge in the bore, and then fired another bullet on top of it.  I’m pretty sure that is not what happened because of the holes on the target.   There are four clean holes from the first four rounds, and one lower, oblong hole from the fifth round (when the gun blew up).  You can see this on the target above.  The bullet didn’t have as much energy behind it and it had started to tumble.

I could have experienced a case failure in which the rear of the case tore off, which would have allowed the hot gases to impinge on the gun internally.  There’s some evidence to suggest this.  I can look into the bore and see that the cartridge case is still present, but the interior of the case is partly torn away.   The lower third of the case’s base is gone (the upper two thirds are present).   In the area where the case’s base is gone, I can see the breech face and the firing pin.  I later found part of the cartridge case inside the magazine.

This was a tough photo to get (mea culpa on the image quality). You are peering down the barrel from the muzzle end. The upper arrow points to what’s left of the cartridge case; the front of the firing pin is visible. The lower arrow points to the breech face.

The gun could have fired out of battery.  That is to say, it may have fired without the slide being fully forward.   I can move the slide back about 1/16-inch, cock the hammer, and the trigger will release it.  I don’t know if it is doing that because the internals are damaged, or if it could do it before the event.  Or, there could have been grit in the chamber that prevented the cartridge from chambering completely.  When I look into the bore, I can see residual blue powder coating from the bullet that seems to be lodged between the case mouth and the forward edge of the chamber.

I cast around on the Internet a bit and I found several references to the 9mm 1911 Springfields having tight chambers.  I know mine has a very tight chamber.  Maybe a cartridge wasn’t resized completely and it failed to completely chamber?  If that happens, the slide won’t go all the way forward and the gun shouldn’t fire so I don’t think that’s likely, but who knows.

After I returned home, I examined the magazine again and I could see what I thought was an imprint of the primer on the magazine.  I shook the magazine and felt something rattling around inside.  It was the primer.  It had been flattened, and there was a hole where the firing pin had struck it.  I’m guessing the hole was caused by the excess pressure.

A mangled magazine. The left arrow points to the primer imprint. The right arrow points to the distorted follower.
The primer and a bit of brass residue.   These were inside the magazine.
An inside view of the primer. Note the circular cutout where pressure sheared the brass against the firing pin hole.

My Springfield 1911 is toast, at least for a while.  I have two ways I can go on this (well, three, if you count scrapping the 1911 altogether, but that’s not a choice I want to consider).  One option is to return the gun to Springfield Armory, but I don’t want to do that.  If the failure was a problem with the gun, I don’t want to have the same guys who screwed it up attempt to fix it.  Every gun I’ve ever bought from Springfield has required at least one warranty repair (including this one, but for a different issue).  Two of my friends bought 1911s from Springfield and they’ve had to go back for warranty repairs (one had to be returned twice when they didn’t fix the problem the first time).  I don’t know what Springfield’s warranty repair turnaround times are these days, but it’s probably measured in weeks or months.   The last thing that ruled out a warranty repair was that this event occurred with my reloaded ammo and that voids the warranty.  I’m not in denial here; it is likely my reloaded ammo is the reason this happened.

Nope, I’m going to go with the approach that’s always worked for me.  It’s the silver lining in this sad tale (that and the fact that I wasn’t injured).  I’m bringing the 1911 to TJ’s Custom Gunworks tomorrow.  I’ve already talked to TJ and he tells me my 1911 can be repaired.  The repairs will be on my dime, but I know the work will be perfect and I know the gun will literally be better than new.  I’ll have TJ do a bit of custom work while he has the gun, too.  TJ told me he’ll have to cut slide release off to remove the slide from the frame, and when he disassembles it, we’ll learn more.  I’m thinking a double charge is the likely culprit (which would be my mistake), but maybe TJ will find otherwise.  I’ll keep you posted.

I had a serious debate with myself about posting this blog.  It’s an interesting story; that puts it in the plus column. If I double-charged that case, that’s an admission of carelessness on my part and that puts it in the minus column.  In the end, if it helps other people from making the same mistake (assuming the fault lies with me), this blog will have served a purpose and that is why it is here.

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