Learning about getting stuck

I've been around firearms for a long time shooting long guns (rifles), handguns and shotguns for over thirty three years and one learns a lot in that time.

I've taught a few people to shoot; initially simply because I was there and they needed some direction and then by request. Today, I was working with a couple, husband and wife, who have been shooting rifles for a short time and decided to add in handgun shooting. I started at the basics months ago - safety and other things I'll not go into here today - and they're progressing well and increasing knowledge and skills quickly, but there's always more to learn.

Because they want to do what I do, run and gun, I wanted to demonstrate a very important element to them and that's what I was doing today. But first, what's run and gun?

---

---

It's basically what it sounds like, shooting whilst on the run, fire and manoeuvre.

It involves starting from a static position, drawing from the holster and engaging multiple targets that have to be double-tapped (shot twice each) and steel targets that fall when struck once. Targets can be moving or static, and as one moves through the course of fire one may need to work around obstacles, open doors, shoot through apertures (windows), with only one hand, using the off hand (non-dominant hand) and to reload magazines of course...it's basically military and law enforcement situations designed to challenge accuracy, problem-solving and strategy skills, speed and firearm handling. It's very exciting.

A course of fire might involve shooting up to forty rounds or so and because speed is the focus this may only take 15-20 seconds including the shooting, reloading and running. The rounds are sent down-range very rapidly and with all that trigger-pulling there's the risk of something going wrong, and when that happens with firearms it often goes badly. That's what I was demonstrating today.

I reload (make) my own ammunition for rifle and handgun calibres and I check and recheck everything. There's room for error though and failing to put in the right amount of gun powder (or any at all) will open the possibly for catastrophic events. You see, if there's not enough gun powder in a piece of ammunition, the projectile (bullet) may not clear (exit) the barrel and if that happens, and another round is chambered and fired, the resulting blockage and pressure can cause the gun to explode and that's never a good thing. Of course, that doesn't always happen, but even if it doesn't and the barrel simple deforms due to that pressure not being able to escape, it's ruined. That's costly.

_{The components that make up ammunition: Case, projectile, primer and gun powder.}

Today, I took several specially prepared rounds to the range to shoot from a handgun, a Glock 17 9mm semi-automatic, to demonstrate what I mention above so the couple knew what it felt and sounded like. The premise was that if they knew what to feel and listen for it might prevent them pulling the trigger on another round with one stuck in the barrel...but let me rewind a little.

I took rounds with only 15 and 30 percent of the usual amount of powder that is meant to be in them for optimal performance and rounds that had zero powder at all, just the primer, the little explosive device the firing pin hits to set off the main gun powder chare inside the casing. Basically, the idea was to have each of them shoot those various rounds so they could feel the reduced recoil and hear the difference in the sound.

So, what happened?

Well, with the reduced gun powder loads the projectile (bullet) became stuck in the barrel.

Just so you know, bullets don't move freely down a barrel, they are forced by gasses created in the explosion of gun powder which pushes them along the barrel. So, depending on the load used, 15 or 30 percent charges I made, the bullet became stuck at various points of the barrel. (Only one round was loaded into the magazine for safety purposes, before you call me out on that.)

After the round was fired, the gun was made safe and I'd pull it apart then measure the distance the bullet had travelled down the barrel before getting stuck. We discussed it and then I took a hammer and a brass rod-tool designed for this purpose and hammered out the stuck projectile which takes some effort, always working in the direction of the bullets travel of course. We did this a few times so both people could feel/hear the difference and moved onto the rounds with just the primer in them, no gun powder.

When fired there was only a small pop and literally no recoil. You see, the projectile barely entered the barrel, let's call it about one to two centimetres in, before it got lodged. They were both amazed that just a primer with no powder in the round was enough to push the bullet into the barrel, albeit it only a little way. More importantly, they got to hear what it sounded like.

Now...had the magazine had more rounds in it and the trigger was pulled again with a bullet stuck in the barrel the second bullet and the gases would have nowhere to go and that's when things get dangerous. In a rifle it can literally tear the gun apart (with disastrous results for the human) and with a handgun can split the barrel, make it bulge/deform or even completely destroy the whole gun...none of these things are ideal and they often end with human injuries or death.

It was really important for me to show the couple these things, especially considering they'll be pulling the trigger so quickly in shooting stages, 30 to 40 times in a matter of 10-20 seconds all while manoeuvring. The whole point to today was to ensure they knew what to feel and listen for with their firearms so that they would have the presence of mind to simply stop and check rather than potentially carry on and do some damage to their firearms or themselves.

They were really happy with today's session, as was I, and I look forward to seeing them progress. I feel good about having given them some critical understanding and know that they'll be safer shooters because of it.

---