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Gun Safety: Misfires & Hangfires

So...I’m gonna pontificate, here.

I don’t worry about hangfires. If I’m shooting, and I get a click instead if a bang, I’m gonna do an immediate action drill (TRB if it's an auto, hit the trigger again if it's a revolver, work that bolt...etc).

Because the only round I’ve ever had hangfire was a pre-WW2 .303 round...in ammo produced since Nixon was President? Not a one.

The reason I won't worry about it is simple:

You fight as you train.

If you've trained yourself to stop and keep that weapon pointed downrange for X seconds before you do something about it? You will do the exact same thing in a fight for your life. You won't think about it, you won’t have time...you will fall back on your practice. Don’t think this is true? See the example of the cops who would always eject the brass from their revolvers into their hands, and then pocket it at the range while training, so they didn’t have to police it up...when in an actual gunfight, they died with spent brass in their pockets. They didn’t think about it, they just fell back on training.

Just my thoughts on it.
 
singularity said:
The only time when a misfire, hang-fire or cook-off ever concerned me was when I was in an M109 Paladin. When it happened in one of those, we'd get far away, quick!
Click to expand...
I had a "sticker" in Grafenwoehr, Germany once. For those unfamiliar with the term, it is similar to a hangfire where the propellant ignites, but does not have sufficient energy to push the round out the tube. The howitzer rumbled and shook as the projectile worked it's way through the rifling finally lodging mid way. This situation is not for the faint of heart!
 
We fired many thousands of rounds between the Academy, training days, and qualifications. Never once were we told anything about possible hangfires. We were trained to react to any failure to fire with an immediate "tap-rack" for the same reason Hans mentioned. In all of trainings I participated in or observed as a supervisor, I never witnessed a single hangfire. I'm by no means implying that they never happen, but waiting 60 seconds to fix the problem seems excessive.

I was present for a one-in-a-million (or possibly billion) event where a round exploded for no obvious reason. We had just finished a rifle to pistol transition drill and were downloading the unused rounds from our pistol mags into a .50 cal. ammo can on our loading table that we used to hold loose rounds. One officer removed several unspent rounds from his mag and casually tossed them into the ammo can. One of the rounds he tossed, or one already in the can, exploded.

The point of the story is that 7-8 of us were standing around that can. Without a barrel to direct the bullet, everything just fragmented and no officers were injured in any way. The incident shocked the Rangemaster enough that we collected as many fragments as we could and sent them back to Remington to try and diagnose what caused the explosion. Most of the fragments were recovered from inside the ammo can. This leads me to believe that a hangfire that is immediately ejected from the pistol, with the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, poses little to no danger to anyone.

I do not consider myself an expert because I experienced something once, and am absolutely willing to learn from the experiences of others. Have any of you ever personally witnessed damage or injury that resulted from a hangfire?
 
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