"Pop, Bang, Boom." Sounds like a Rice Krispies commercial! When it comes to shooting, there is a fine line between perfection and tragedy. You want your gun to go "bang" every time, without fail. "Pop" is a problem. "Boom" is an even bigger problem.
By "pop" I am referring to the sound your gun makes when firing a round of ammunition that is underpowered. Generally this is caused by a round which contains no powder. The primer detonates and produces a modest "pop" but there is not enough energy to drive the bullet down range. In fact, the bullet generally gets lodged in the barrel. This is known as a "squib load." A bullet stuck in the barrel is not a big deal, in and of itself. The big deal occurs when you fire the next round. Frequently, the next round blows up the gun because the blockage causes the chamber pressure to skyrocket. This is the "boom." "Boom" is extremely loud and extremely dangerous. Another way to create excessive chamber pressure is having too much gunpowder inside the round, as routinely seen in home reloads. At very least, "boom" is going to cost you some money in gun repairs. At worst, "boom" will cost you your life.
Use high-quality factory ammunition. Don't trust your life to reloads. However, even factory ammunition is not perfect. Here is a scary example. One of the gunsmiths at Front Sight recently purchased a box of 9mm ammo made by one of the major, brand-name manufacturers. He loaded a magazine and tried to fire a round. The round contained NO powder and was thus a squib load. He hammered the stuck bullet out of the barrel and tried again. Same thing. He then decided to inspect the remaining 48 rounds by pulling the bullets and looking inside. The result? Twenty rounds in that box of 50 had no powder! And this was high-dollar, factory ammo!
"Pop" and "boom" are almost always the result of low-quality ammunition. However, another cause of "boom" is using the wrong ammunition. Let me use an automotive analogy. If you put the wrong fuel in your car (diesel instead of gasoline, for example) you are in for problems. It's going to cost you a lot of money and a lot of inconvenience. If you put the wrong ammo in your gun, you risk WAY more than mere inconvenience. For example, if you drop a 20-gauge shotgun shell into the chamber of your 12-gauge shotgun, it will slide right past the chamber and get lodged in the barrel. If you then load a 12-gauge round and fire the gun, you are in for a real surprise! You should probably call the ambulance now. The same logic applies to handguns. If you load a round of 9mm ammo into your .40 S&W handgun, a variety of things can happen...all of them bad. First, the 9mm round may slide right past the chamber and down into the barrel, as described above. Secondly, it's possible that the round of 9mm can be held in place by the extractor sufficiently that it will actually fire. At that point, the 9mm bullet rattles its way down the larger .40 caliber barrel. There will obviously be no accuracy and very little velocity. The case will either completely rupture causing a jam or it will "fire form" to the chamber and not be extracted properly causing a malfunction.
At this point, you might be asking "Who would be stupid enough to put a round of 20 into a 12 or a round of 9 into a 40?" It's not a function of stupidity, it's a function of simple bad luck. And perhaps of "carping." Carping is the term we have affectionately applied to the ridiculous process of rooting around on the range during a break in hopes of scoring free ammo. Think of it as grubbing your way through the gravel looking for a tasty morsel, just like a bottom-feeding carp. Carping is fraught with peril because you never know what you're going to get. You might get some perfectly good ammo but you might also get squibs, double-charged loads, rounds with no primers, or rounds that fit somebody else's gun! Carping ammo is like an Easter egg hunt, except the treasures you find might be tiny little bombs just waiting to kill you or your loved ones. One man's trash is NOT necessarily another man's treasure. Quit the bottom feeding! The few cents you save are not worth the risk to your safety.
