Important Misfire Question

Bullzeye

Today I was out on the range with my H&R .22LR Leatherneck autoloader. I shot up about 50 rounds.At one point, I fired 5 shots in quick sucession. On the last shot, the rifle gave a very weak report and no cartridge ejected. Concerned, I ejected the round to discover that the slug had not been fired (and the main charge apparently not discharged) and the right-lower part of the rim on the .22LR rimfire round was torn open, blackened and smoking.I got a little scared. I quickly threw the round into a puddle nearby, emptied the rifle and hightailed it home.Now, I dont know what to attribute this to, or whether it is the fault of the ammo or the gun. I dont know if this is any factor, but the weather was quite cold and intermittently drizzly that day. Yeah I know you shouldnt shoot when it rains, but it was intermittent and I was under an awning.The rifle had been cleaned just the day before.Please help me. I'm not shooting this thing until I figure this out.

22WRF

Weather should have nothing to do with it.Sounds like a faulty round. What brand ammo were you using? Whatever try somthing else.

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Bullzeye

Lo and behold, it was those damn Thunderbolt rounds.If it was really the round's fault, I'll chuck the whole bunch and swallow the 11.50 charge

22WRF

Soundds like a good move to me. Try some CCI's

paul1231

Sounds like a slam fire before battery.You did well to inspect upon hearing the strange sound. Hind sight is easy: perhaps you could have really taken a closer look at the spent shell to see if there was a firing pin mark, or a larger indent where it may have been caught by the bolt face causing the discharge. FYI: the brass flying from the rupture, even if it was only as big as a flyspeck, can easily penitrate an inch into an uncovered part of the body, like the hand, face, or eye. That's why shooting glasses are recommended. Perhaps the wet weather contributed to the accident: water on the receiver rails mixing with oil and powder residue could definately be a bad situation, particularly when below freezing. However, your type of accident rarely happens at anytime. Better have a REAL close look at your action, and the components below the action, like the magazine and trigger group, as the escaping gas/brass may have damaged them. If all looks well, and the rifle is cleaned up, try the range again... on a dry day.

prebanfan

I had something to that effect happen to me about 3 months ago with a marlin 22, shooting federal ammo. I pulled the trigger,heard a loud pop, smoke rolled out from the chamber not the barrel. The ejector never went back to eject the shell, or if it did, I did not notice. The shell did not eject. I pulled the shell out and it was still totally intact but it put a crack in the side of the bullet. If I were to have been shooting a large caliber gun it would have probably done severe damage to me and the gun. Also the smoke rolled up under my shooting glasses and burned like hell. You would surprised how much smoke can come from such a tiny shell. I don't know what happened to make it do that, but I do know that the shell was the problem. What would cause a shell to do that????