[Hans]

I'm fairly new to shooting defense-caliber pistols (most of my experience up to this point has been with Ruger Mk II's). I was at the range last night shooting a friend's M9, and I had what seemed to be an unusual malfunction:

I fired a round in SA mode. Recoil seemed typical, but the report had an odd, sharp sound to it. I caught a facefull of powder (wear your eye protection, kids!) and noticed that the slide had not cycled; the hammer remained decocked after the round was fired. Thick white smoke was coming out of the action. I put the weapon down, and signaled my friend and the rangemaster. They opened the action, and the casing from the shot was just sitting there; it hadn't stovepiped, but didn't eject either.

The top half of the casing was scorched, but showed no other abnormalities; the firing pin mark on the primer was WNL and the casing was unmarred and unbowed.

The weapon was inspected, found in good order, and I fired another 50 rounds from it without incident.

Is this a common malfunction, and does it have a name?

Peace,
Hans

 

[Adler]

Is this a Steyr or Beretta m9? I think you just had a bad round of ammo.

 

[Hans]

Make of weapon

It was a Baretta M9.

Peace,
Hans

 

[jamz]

Very wierd. was the case seated in the ejector? almost sounds like a wrong caliber round was inserted in there.

 

[Hans]

*cough* Idon'tknowwhattheejectorlookslike. *cough, cough* I looked as though a round were chambered, just missing the bullet.

I saved the casing, and it is, in fact stamped 9mm Luger. I suspected it might've been the wrong caliber, myself.

Peace,
Hans

 

[jamz]

Who was the ammo manufacturer?

 

[Adler]

Yeah I would say bad ammo is most likely the cause. The m9 has its shortcomings but ejection is not one of them.

 

[Hans]

Ammo manufacturer

I'm not sure if this is common practice, but this range sweeps up the brass left on the range, inspects it, re-loads it, and sells the reloads. That's what I was shooting.

Peace,
Hans

 

[Adler]

That ups the chance of a bad round depending on who is reloading with what components and with what machinery. Personally if I dont reload it myself I wont buy it unless its from the bigger relaoding companies like Ultramx, but tey dont offer much of a deal so I just buy new.

 

[Hans]

Yeah, it always seemed kinda sketch to me, as well, but it's what the weapon's owner encouraged me to buy. I may stop by SportMart en route next time I head down to the range.

Peace,
Hans

 

[Hans]

Thank you folks for your insights into this little malfunction. I appreciate your expertise.

Peace,
Hans

 

[Adler]

tis what we are here for.You are most welcome

 

[Jeremy]

Sounds like the bullet wasn't seated correctly in the casing when it was reloaded. Either from a bad bullet or the casing not being resized correctly, or to much powder. The bullet being loose, the pressure won't build enough to cycle the action and in some cases burn all the powder.

In this case I would guess the round got double or triple charged and the bullet didn't seat right. Some of the poweder burns but a lot gets blown out because the bullet gave no resistance to build heat and pressure. The white smoke comes from the powder just burning.