Odd thing happened with a cartridge today

[Townie]

Clay shooting today and for the first time in 50 years shooting, had a squib. Little pop and I thought I saw the wad exit the barrel. A misfire drill later,  barrel clear and the empty had nothing odd going on. Some unburnt powder about. 
 

Packing up, I found my coat pocket had a lot of shot in it, which must have been from the faulty cartridge. Could the lack of shot mean the powder didn't burn properly? And what had happened to the crimp?

Fiocchi LiteSpeed plastic wad. Third slab of the 1,000 and nothing wrong with the 189 others used today, so don't propose to take them back.

[Scully]

Have only ever experienced a ‘squib’, and very similar to yours. Strange sound, and after the drill found a wad in the barrel. Cartridge was a Gamebore White Gold if I recall. 

[Smokersmith]

1 hour ago, Townie said:

Could the lack of shot mean the powder didn't burn properly?

Yes … that’s a real possibility 

[Dave at kelton]

Unless one of the ballistics experts on here corrects me I would say the lack of shot and at least partly open crimp will reduce pressures hence the pop.

[stockybasher]

3 minutes ago, Dave at kelton said:

Unless one of the ballistics experts on here corrects me I would say the lack of shot and at least partly open crimp will reduce pressures hence the pop.

Agreed !!

[Stimo22]

We had a batch of Fiocchi cartridges that had several that just squibed. We stopped buying them for the club

[London Best]

11 minutes ago, Dave at kelton said:

Unless one of the ballistics experts on here corrects me I would say the lack of shot and at least partly open crimp will reduce pressures hence the pop.

If you tip out the shot you will find the cartridge goes with a lot more than a ‘pop’.

[mgsontour]

I never tried working out the whys/wherefores but few years ago I had my first pop with a cheddite clay cart; but the half box I used prior were fine. . . . I binned the rest of the box

[Townie]

47 minutes ago, London Best said:

If you tip out the shot you will find the cartridge goes with a lot more than a ‘pop’.

Yes, you're right. More of a hollow bang, not a crack. Also just thought that I'd tipped the cartridges into a bag and then transferred to pockets as required. Pellets only in the pocket, so crimp failure must have happened there.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

3 minutes ago, Townie said:

Yes, you're right. More of a hollow bang, not a crack. Also just thought that I'd tipped the cartridges into a bag and then transferred to pockets as required. Pellets only in the pocket, so crimp failure must have happened there.

By removing the payload you take away the delay in holding back the burn which rapidly becomes the boom!

Consequently a bang is heard but not the crack as the powder is only burning without containment.

[Minky]

I had a blooper on a simulated driven clays day.  The strange thing is that apart from the sound, I actually saw the shot go to the clay and break it. Fortunately I had the forethought to check the barrels. The wad was in the choke.!!  I didn't have a rod with me so I  tried to pull it out.  No chance.  Luckily I  always take two guns so swapped over. When I got home I  connected a pair of mole grips on the wad petals that were poking out of the choke. A spring balance was attached and it got up to 40 pounds pull when the petals gave way. The wad was removed with a dowel and rubber hammer. No damage but an odd happening. If I  hadn't had the second gun with me I would have carried on shooting using the other barrel.

Edit. Never having a misfire of this type before I  was lucky that I recognised the failure and had a look at the barrel, rather than putting another cartridge in.  Considering the amount of force required to remove the wad from the barrel there would certainly been a burst barrel with possible injury to me and others along with serious damage to an expensive gun.

Edited November 18, 2021 by Minky

[dipper]

When I first started reloading all empty cases were paper.Sometimes in my bag a bit of shot would leak  out and  I would get a blooper?Then l
started to paint the ends with Banana oil .problem solved.Same with plastic if you’ve not got a good tight crimp shot will leak out and cause a blooper.