Glock slide stuck with live round

[Schnitzjr]

I had an interesting problem with my G30SF yesterday...
Shooting Tula .45 steel cased stuff (Yeah, yeah yeah...). Insert mag, pull trigger and get *click*. OK, no problem, rack slide and eject bum round except the slide will not budge.
So I head home with a live round in the chamber. Yay.

I put the pistol in a padded vice and cranked it down so I can give the grip a healthy wack. This was the scariest thing I ever did with a loaded gun. I know enough to understand the round really *Shouldn't * fire. The trigger is stuck in the fired position and the firing pin has no force exerted against it's spring so if I do get the slide to move back it really should be ok...

I was still scared!

So with a wack on the grip the slide breaks free with a POP and the smell of cheap Russian powder. A little piece of something falls out of the barrel and the round falls through the mag well.
The round is missing its primer. The little piece that fell out of the barrel was the spent primer.

So somehow releasing the slide ignited the primer that then fell out of the cartridge.
Correct me if i'm wrong but had the primer not fallen out of the round wouldn't this result in a fired round??

I'm curious what you folks think because i'm a bit rattled. Unless i'm not understanding how Glocks work the firing pin should not have struck the primer (Again) unless the trigger was reset.

[TailGator]

Do I understand you correctly, that the spent primer was in the barrel in front of the rest of the cartridge? I am trying to imagine how that could happen, and I cannot come up with anything.

[Schnitzjr]

No sir. When the slide came back the primer popped out of the barrel and the round fell through the mag well. I think the primer could have just as easily fell through the mag well but didn't.

The primer ignited when the slide came back. I heard and smelled it.
That's the part that has me a bit concerned.

[Salmoneye]

No flash hole in front of the primer pocket?...Blocked flash hole in front of pocket?

The primer fired when you pulled the trigger thus backing out and locking the slide...

That's my story and I am sticking to it...

[Salmoneye]

The primer ignited when the slide came back. I heard and smelled it.

You left that out lol

Is the primer pierced?

[g.willikers]

Hammering on the grip and frame never seemed like the best approach.
The method used at a local range seems to do the job without worry.
The range officer there puts the top of the slide, just above the barrel, against the underside of the bench top.
The muzzle is pointed downrange and clear of the bench.
Then he pushes on the grip slow and even.
So far they always open without discharge.
And if they would go off, the bullet would still hit the backstop.
Just a thought.

[Independent George]

I'm no gunsmith, but is it possible that the firing pin got 'stuck' in the primer without igniting it, and when you struck the grips, the FP jerked just enough to set it off?

[Schnitzjr]

Independant George: To me, that's the most logical explanation.

The primer hit the garage floor and disappeared amongst the dozens of other spent primers spat out from my Lee Turret press thus I was unable to inspect it.

Gee Willikers G. Willikers. I'm not stupid; not like I hit it with a sledge. fact is, the slide needed a good whack to move. Pulling it wasn't going to do the trick. In essence I used the same method you describe but I could argue mine is even safer because my vice secured the muzzle pointed exacly where I wanted it.

[g.willikers]

Ah, it's now clear where the problem was.
You didn't hit it nearly hard enough.
When hammering on guns, I always prefer my trusty five pounder.
Don't forget to hollar
"Fore!"

[dyl]

My thoughts:

The round probably spun around/jiggled around in the open breech after you whacked it and the ejector hit the casing. You did whack it pretty hard but I'm guessing the action didn't reciprocate as fast as upon normal firing so that's why the round didn't fly off to the side like a normal ejection cycle. Or the vice blocked the ejection port. Gun was angled down I'm assuming (if primer rolled down barrel all on its own), so if the primer fell out of the case in any orientation, a good chance it would go in the barrel.

With the Glock having a depressed trigger, the conditions of the trigger safety, trigger bar safety, striker safety plunger were met. I suppose the gun could inertia fire at that point in theory but that would have to be a serious jolt to the striker.

I would first: keep the round and primer. Does the primer have a "normal" striker indentation? Extra marks compared to other rounds? If you want to tell Wolf ammo about it, keep the box too. If you want to check it out yourself, you can pull the bullet and check for unburnt powder/bad powder or a blocked flash holes (2 for berdan primed)

I would check the striker/breech face. I've heard mumblings about the polymer/varnish on steel russian ammo gumming up the works when the gun gets very hot. I could imagine a gummed up striker giving a weak strike, then protruding from the breech face which could hit a primer if whacking was involved. I'm glad your round was a dud. The primer was detonated somehow but since the actual powder didn't ignite, the case was not propelled backwards to seat the primer back in the pocket again. The primer essentially propelled itself out of its pocket, or loosed itself at least. I think the round COULD have gone off just like you suspected, but something stopped the powder in the case from catching fire. Thank God!

If a protruding striker didn't do it, either inertia itself caused the anvil to strike primer cup or something else struck it. The only other pointy thing around the breech is the ejector, however it is over to the side. If the slide was in a vice perhaps it caused the extractor to hold on to the case extra hard (due to external pressure from the outside... Glock extractors don't sit flush when chambered) and that factors in somehow.
Primer indentation might give a little info. Wolf ammo is known to have hard primers and it had been struck once so perhaps the primer cup was part way depressed and all it needed was a little more force. I would expect to see 1 normal indentation from the range, then if something else struck the primer MAYBE another subtle mark on the cup compared to other normal spent cases. But this sure is a puzzler so who knows?

Glad you're alright. Reminder for me to wear hearing protection when scrapping old rounds.

[Independent George]

The other worry besides where the bullet would have gone is the possibility of an out of battery detonation.

[leadcounsel]

The primer hit the garage floor and disappeared amongst the dozens of other spent primers spat out from my Lee Turret press

It's now become clear... reason number 1,435,412 why I don't reload.

Doesn't Glock expressly say not to use reloads in their guns?

I would NOT have driven home with the gun in that condition. I'm glad it worked out. I would have shared your great concerns about a discharge while in transit.

[2ndsojourn]

^^^ He wasn't shooting reloads, he was shooting cheapo Tula crap. And, yeah....driving with a gun in that condition would've worried me too.

[Sevens]

Reason #1,111,355,202 that true handloaders are THRILLED that you elect to never "yikes" reload. Your attention to detail is atrocius. Factory round of commie crap ammo.

To the OP, a suggestion:

A stuck live round is stuck in the barrel and the ONLY thing keeping the slide locked to that round (which is locked in the barrel) is that very solid, strong and well-functioning extractor on the right side of the slide.

Next time, use fingers or a small improvised tool to lift the extractor from the locked-up offending round and free the slide, draw it backward.

If you are extremely familiar with a Glock, it's operation & field strip, you could even cock it & try for a second strike (wouldn't have worked in this case) but with striker released, you could field strip the pistol if dexterity allowed you to again lift that extractor.

Tula?
Freedom Munitions?
A-Merc?

I'll stick with the hundreds of thousands of 100% phenomenal handloads I build, with attention to detail. And again, thrilled with ninnies who irrationally fear handloads who are too scared to educate themselves.

[745SW]

Hopefully the OP can provide further details about the cartridge and pistol condition. It would interest many I believe.

[DaleA]

Doesn't Glock expressly say not to use reloads in their guns?

Well they do say:

Glock recommends that you use only factory produced ammunition...

But they don't say 'No, really guys, we mean it' so we all know it's okay.

[Cheapshooter]

Doesn't Glock expressly say not to use reloads in their guns?

1. HE WASN'T read the OP...Tula Steel.
2. Most gun makers say that. It's called "lawyer speak"!

[skizzums]

I had that problem a few times when using cast bullets that I kept too big of a size. I was able to put my slide(right above the barrel) against a wooden stair, and crank my weight down until it popped out has worked for me several times, not best for the finish, but i would rather not have a cleaning rod shoved through my hand. the real PITA is when this happens in an AR, i gotta gouge the ejection port with a flathead screwdriver. this also happened when me and a friend were playing with "simunition" without using a conversion barrel.

[Schnitzjr]

I don't have much to add. The gun is fine so no worries there.

Here's a pic of the bullet:


I'm confused because there is still a solid piece of something separating the primer from the powder.

I pulled the bullet in case you were wondering whats inside cheap Russian ammo.





Getting back to my confusion...when you remove a primer you can see through the case; there is a hole left where the primer was seated in the primer pocket. In the first pic you can see this is not the case.

[Schnitzjr]

OK, I did a little poking around and it seems this case was loaded without a primer hole, hence the *click* when I pulled the trigger. Still not sure why the primer popped when I pulled the slide back though...

[burrhead]

"the real PITA is when this happens in an AR, i gotta gouge the ejection port with a flathead screwdriver."

skizzums, learn how to "pogo" an AR. Take a firm hold on the charging handle and slam the butt of the rifle onto the ground. If you have a collapsible stock, collapse it all the way before doing this and, of course, watch your muzzle.

It ain't no big deal as it isn't any big deal to clear a stuck round in an auto-pistol. For a pistol, take a firm overhand grip on the slide and smack the the back of the grip with your other palm. Smack it like you mean it. A stuck round generally isn't a problem and certainly is no reason to get one's panties in a bunch. Nothing's going to blow up.

Man up.

[Salmoneye]

when you remove a primer you can see through the case; there is a hole left where the primer was seated in the primer pocket. In the first pic you can see this is not the case

So my first post was correct...

[marine6680]

When a primer goes off by itself... It sounds like a firecracker. It's decently loud and you will know when it happens if you have no hearing protection. The case will muffle it a bit, but even when the round is chambered and you're in hearing protection you can hear the pop.

If it didn't have a flash hole in the case, what happened is that the primer ignited when you pulled the trigger. The force of that couldn't go anywhere and caused some deformation that pinned the case in the breach... Or something similar to that anyway.

[runningbear]

Post removed.

[James K]

I suspected the absence of a flash hole, and the pictures prove it. That is not a very common occurrence and modern loading machinery has a sensor specifically to stop the process if the flash hole is not present, but either the equipment used at that factory did not have that protection, or it failed somehow.

Anyway, here is my take on what happened. The round chambered normally. Either the case was oversize, or the lacquer on the case caused the round to stick in the chamber. Had the round been fired, it would have extracted and ejected normally because of its internal pressure.

But the case had no flash hole. The primer fired, but the gas generated in the primer pocket could not escape. Instead, it expanded the primer cup to seal off the primer pocket. There was not enough pressure to move the slide, so the slide remained closed, supporting the primer.

So that case was sitting there, the primer pocket like an inflated balloon, while the OP drove home to try and deal with the problem. When he got the slide to move, that took away the support for the primer, and the remaining pressure in the primer pocket caused the primer to fly out with an audible pop.

It was that pop that the OP heard, not the primer firing, which had taken place earlier at the range.

Jim