I've reloaded thousands and thousands of pistol rounds without a single issue. I've been reloading for my brother for a while now and he's shot thousands without any issue.

He called me up today to let me know that he had a squib. My gut immediately twisted up and I felt sick. Everybody was okay...no damage to him or the pistol. Fortunately he wasn't able to chamber a round behind it. The primer had enough umph to lodge the round just onto the rifling. New round wouldn't fully seat. He's shooting an XD40. The firearm did cycle, strip a new round, and tried to go into battery. Scary stuff.

I am very careful when I'm loading. Just goes to show that anything can happen. Hope some of you guys can learn from this. I'm pretty confident in my process on the progressive and haven't had any issues yet. I'm going to go back over my process and see where there is room for errors like this to happen and pay extra close attention during those steps.

My gut tells me I probably took the round off the press to weigh the charge and then got distracted and didn't drop the charge back into the case after I weighed it. Wish it had happened to me rather than him. He was very understanding. Cleared the bullet and fired through a couple hundred more rounds.

That is my #1 fear! Almost all of the squibs I've seen shooters get, the bullet lodges into the rifling at the beginning of the chamber. This prevents the next round from chambering fully. I

I also run powder check dies on my progressive presses to beep when you have an "off" powder throw (no powder, double charge, or a low charge).

Glad no one was hurt and no hardware was damaged. It's good of you to share the experience...every handloader needs to think about these things periodically, whether you've done it for six weeks or six decades.

Haven't ever had a handload squib but I have seen a Monarch brand from academy in 380 though. Lucky my BIL was paying attention cause it lodged the bullet halfway down the barrel, the powder was only half burnt and yellow.

This is why I stick to a single stage press and measure each powder charge one at a time. I even keep my un charged casing on one side of the loading block and move them to the other side after charging before measuring the next charge so there is no confusion.

I have never had a squib, but have had a failure to fire, I believe it was a faulty primer. Happened on a spot and stalk hunt, made me nervous to eject it, but I did and still got my deer!

When you shoot a lot, the failure to fire is not uncommon. I have had several. I get home and inspect the round. I pull the bullet, dump the powder, and slowly eject the primer. Upon inspection, the primer looks normal. But several attempts at firing the round and it never goes off. I've seen Fed 210M, Fed 210, CCI #200, #250, and BR-4 not go off when struck. I never shoot Tula, S&B, or Wolf primers, but I know many shooters that will never use them again after many failure to fires with them. Life's too short to shoot cheap, foreign primers!

I find loading with a single stage press enjoyable and loading with a progressive stressful. When I use the progressive, it gets my undivided attention as its entirely too easy to churn out junk.

I also find my single stage enjoyable to work on, but I admit I don't churn out much volume, especially in recent years.

I did pull the round apart, it was a rem 223 loaded with Benchmark powder and a REM SM rifle primer. The primer did not fire. Ive never had a problem with it since.

I bought some Wolf's once because they were $17/1000 or something low like that. Never again. AT LEAST one out of every hundred failed to ignite.

The only squib I have ever had was Wolf new out of a box, powder didn't burn completely, in fact most was still in the barrel. No damage to the firearm, next round didn't feed. Chad is right about not shooting cheap... I also don't use progressives for that fear. Setup two or three single stage and you can still churn through the reloads.

I mostly posted this because I know there are a lot of new reloaders starting out now with the ammo mess. I think it is a bad idea to start out on a progressive. I've been doing this a long time...and it just shows that even an experienced reloader can run into problems on a progressive press. Just a momentary lapse of concentration can cause this or worse.

Be careful out there folks.

Thanks for posting. In the spirit of Public Service Announcment, the only squib load I have ever encountered was loaded by my dad (!) -- 38SPL.

A little pop on firing and then the cylinder jammed - fortunately it was a revolver. The projectile lodged inbetween the cylinder and forcing cone. A beast to pound out...

the post mortem -- he had been loading on his Dillon Square Deal and switched from 357 to 38 without adjusting the powder drop funnel...so the 38 case rose up a probably got just a little powder + primer. We have since agreed that he will load exclusively 357 and I will load any 38s on my press.

another good reason why any
step of reloading needs your
undivided attention at all
times free of all distractions,
although some here have posted otherwise.
single stage or progressive either
one, it's not worth the risk of
injury to try to multitask while reloading.

How do you clear it from the barrel?

Get the brass out and then use a cleaning rod if it is only the bullet stuck. They make a special tool... it is a welded solid cleaning rod for most pistols.

There is a set of brass rods that are specific to 9mm, 40 cal, etc, that fit inside the barrel, and you drive the bullet out with these rods. I've never seen a cleaning rod dislodge a stuck bullet, only broken cleaning rods.

Well, you can use a cleaning rod if it is a quality rod, but you can't slam on it with a sledge hammer. Have seen two instances where the cleaning rod saved a hunt. Unfortunately the hunter did not have your special rods so he made do with what he had and continued hunting. The secret is to be patient and tap lightly.

Another way is an old trick which most people have never seen. Cut a wooden dowel rod the size of your bore into a length long enough to touch the bullet and leave about two-three inches protruding from the muzzle and lightly tap it with a wooden mallet, the bore will keep it from bending and breaking. Continue alternating 2-3 " long pieces, and don't try to ram it out, just move it in small increments. The short pieces will not break. Very similar to inserting a sabot into a muzzle loader, you use a starter stick. Also very similar to slugging a barrel to find the true diameter.

Was the bullet lodged into the rifling from improper neck tension on the brass (and bullet stuck in the rifling), or was it a squib load that the cleaning rod was used in?