What is the longest hang fire you had go bang by itself?

[MTT TL]

Eight seconds. Damn near blew my head off being unsafe about it too.

It was about twenty years ago from some milisurp .45 ACP I purchased at a gun show. On more recent reflection it was probably reloaded milsurp the vendor was passing off as factory.

Pulled the trigger, "click"....
long pause...
*I know I just loaded it..... hmmm ...better pressure check the slide.... yep round is in there... .... better clear it and check it.....*
Grab slide to pull back
"BANG"
"OWWW!"
*hand sure is hurty, that was stupid*

I turned the rest of the ammo into the range master and asked him to dispose of it for me. He said he shot some of it and had two more hang fires and then disposed of it.

[oldcabin]

Man I can learn alot reading here.... So I know now what it is. I've never had it happen. Let me ask what do you do with the round? I have use of a private outside range. I guess we could make a hole to put them in, but If there are others in there you dont want it going off. Cant leave it on the table, don't want to take it with us. What is the safe thing to do? I guess on past FTF's I assumed they were duds.

[oldcabin]

For people that didn't know what it was or were not sure like me. This is a good example http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_iGzCXs...%3D_iGzCXsU7YU
I know this guy will stick in my mind if I have a FTF

[wayneinFL]

I've never had a hangfire with cartridge ammunition. I've had one or two with percussion cap muzzleloaders. Longest was maybe 10 seconds.

[JohnKSa]

Let me ask what do you do with the round?

1. Keep the muzzle downrange and wait. The gun is made expressly to safely contain the firing process, nothing else you have handy is likely to be anywhere near as suitable.

2. If you can restrike the round WITH THE TRIGGER then do so.

3. Do NOT attempt to recock the hammer--that will put your hand in a position to be injured by recoil (or by the slide/bolt/action cycling) if the gun fires unexpectedly.

4. Do NOT attempt to manipulate the slide or action. Manipulating the slide or action is clearly a bad idea because there's a lot of potential for damage/injury if the action is partially open when the round goes off.

5. If the magazine can be simply removed from the gun then do so.

When you're sure the round isn't going off, you have two choices. You can cycle the action and try the round a second time, or you can eject the round and ask the rangemaster how to dispose of a dud round. If there's no one around to ask, then look around for a likely disposal container. Most ranges have one.

For people that didn't know what it was or were not sure like me. This is a good example http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_iGzCXs...%3D_iGzCXsU7YU
I know this guy will stick in my mind if I have a FTF.

Assuming it's not a staged video, that's truly horrifying.

[FrankenMauser]

For people that didn't know what it was or were not sure like me. This is a good example http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_iGzCXs...%3D_iGzCXsU7YU
I know this guy will stick in my mind if I have a FTF

That has been proven (and admitted) to have been faked.

You can let it get burned into your memory all you want, but watching a moron look down the barrel of a loaded shotgun (out of which he just ejected the "hangfire" round) won't teach you much. ...other than what stupid looks like, and how to break basic firearm handling rules.

This is NOT a hangfire, it's a squib: "hang fire"
BUT! The guy did the right thing (for a squib), and stopped immediately. Had it been a hangfire, he should NOT have ejected it.

This shows multiple hangfires, though most of them are quite fast: 1916 Enfield Hang Fire (1:00+ for the longer hang fires)
This is a hangfire - almost a second between firing pin strike, and ignition: Example of Hangfire
This is shows a short hangfire: Lee Enfield Hangfire
Here you have at least two obvious, short hangfires: Yugo 8x57 hangfire
And, this idiot has extractor problems and handles the dud cartridge, but it's an example of what a long hangfire might look like, before it goes off: Yugo Surplus in M48 Had it been a hangfire, he may have had a trip to the ER for shrapnel damage or burns to his fingers to deal with.

[Jo6pak]

I have never had nor seen in person a hangfire with loaded cartridges.

I've seen a few with muzzleloaders, the longest was probably my buddy Dan while shooting his Walker replica. The cap flashed and nothing happened for about 4-5 seconds. He displayed perfect discipline and actually still hit the squash he was aiming for.

[oldgunsmith]

We had an old 6.5 Carcano military round fire laying on the ground after it was ejected.