Manual

3. Firearms may be severely damaged and serious
injury to the shooter or bystanders may result from
any condition causing excessive pressure inside the
barrel or chamber during firing. Excessive pressure
can be caused by powder overloads, an obstruction
in the barrel, or by the use of defective cartridges.
Never use dirty, corroded or damaged cartridges
-
they can lead to a burst cartridge case and damage to
the firearm and to the shooter as a result of the
explosive escape of high-pressure propellant gases
within the firearms mechanism.
4. Immediately stop shooting and check the barrel for a
possible obstruction whenever:
l You have difficulty in, or feel unusual resistance in
chambering a cartridge, or
l A cartridge misfires (fails to go off), or
l The mechanism fails to extract a fired cartridge
l Unburned grains of powder are discovered spilled
in the mechanism, or
l A shot sounds weak or “funny”
In such circumstances it is possible that a bullet is
lodged part-way down the barrel. Firing a subse-
quent bullet into the obstructed barrel can wreck the
firearm and cause serious injury to the shooter or
bystanders.
5. Bullets can become lodged in the barrel -
l If the cartridge has been improperly loaded with-
out propellant powder, or if the powder fails to
ignite. (Primer ignition alone will push the bullet out
of the case, but does not generate enough energy to
push it completely out of the barrel).
l If the bullet is not properly seated tightly in the
cartridge case. When such a cartridge is extracted
from the chamber without being fired, the bullet
may be left behind in the bore. Subsequent chamber-
ing of another cartridge may push the first bullet fur-
ther into the bore.
6. If there is any reason to suspect that a bullet is
obstructing the barrel, immediately unload the
firearm and look through the bore. It is not
sufficient to just look in the chamber. A bullet may be
lodged some distance down the barrel where it can-
not easily be seen. If a bullet is in the bore, do not
attempt to shoot it out by using another cartridge,
or by blowing it out with a blank, or a cartridge
from which the bullet has been removed. Such tech-
niques can generate excessive pressure, wreck the
firearm and cause serious personal injury.
If the bullet can be easily removed with a cleaning
rod, (using hand pressure only, never “hammer” a
bullet lodged in the bore), clean any unburned pow-
der grains from the bore, chamber and mechanism
before resuming shooting. If the bullet cannot be
dislodged by tapping it with a cleaning rod, take the
pistol to a gunsmith.