Always check

[Slavex]

I watched a guy nuke his 1911 in 40 with a squib back when I started IPSC, the RO didn't catch the squib (we all did) but the shooter tap racked and fired. blew the chamber out of the ejection port, cracked the slide and blew the mag out. He wasn't happy. Bad bruised hands too. Also saw the same with a Glock at the range in 40, shooter was two stalls over from me, I was loading mags, heard the pop, stepped back and didn't have time to say anything as again, this shooter tap racked and BOOM. he had to go the hospital to get plastic out of his hands. But he healed up fine. Gun was a total write off.

[SLG]

I watched a guy nuke his 1911 in 40 with a squib back when I started IPSC, the RO didn't catch the squib (we all did) but the shooter tap racked and fired. blew the chamber out of the ejection port, cracked the slide and blew the mag out. He wasn't happy. Bad bruised hands too. Also saw the same with a Glock at the range in 40, shooter was two stalls over from me, I was loading mags, heard the pop, stepped back and didn't have time to say anything as again, this shooter tap racked and BOOM. he had to go the hospital to get plastic out of his hands. But he healed up fine. Gun was a total write off.

Wow.

[Slavex]

I've had a couple case failures that I am reasonably certain were from low powered loads, not squibs, but can't prove it. They blew the mags out of the guns, toasted a couple extractors but no other damage to the gun.

[SecondsCount]

I would never say always or never in this case, but I have seen a round fired behind a squib load several times. usually it just pushes the squib out the barrel. Often it bulges the barrel, but that usually doesn't matter too much, though it certainly can. Never have I seen a gun blow up from it. I'd like to hear if someone can actually verify that a squib caused a blow up, as opposed to something else that they are not aware of.

I really think it has something to do with the case capacity and powder burn rate. Faster powders will spike really fast.

I had a friend that split a 38 revolver cylinder in half with a squib load and have seen a a 6" 357 Taurus with the 3 bullets stacked in the barrel. First guy was using Bullseye (fast) and the other was Power Pistol (medium).