- Handgun malfunctions will occasionally occur, regardless of how careful you might be when you pick up a pistol and attempt to fire it.
- Failure to fire, eject, and extract are just a few of the most common handgun malfunction types that firearm owners must be aware of.
- Knowing how to troubleshoot malfunctions in handguns is of the utmost importance and can prevent serious accidents.
As long as you purchase a high-quality pistol, maintain it, and handle it with great care, you may not think handgun malfunctions will become a problem. However, you will likely deal with the occasional hiccup, no matter how careful you might be with a firearm in your hands.
Knowing the most common handgun malfunction types and how to fix them is essential. It will keep you, others, and your firearm safe if your gun ever glitches. Learn about six malfunctions you may encounter, and discover what to do if you face them.
1. Failure to Fire
When you pull the trigger on a handgun, you expect it to fire. If it fails to do this, it’s typically due to an issue with its powder or primer. Either way, you should point it in a safe direction for approximately a minute, since a delayed discharge is possible, and chalk it up to one of the most prevalent handgun malfunctions.
Once you have waited the appropriate amount of time and are confident that a handgun isn’t going to fire, fixing this particular problem, which is also known as a hang fire, will involve confirming that the round you tried to fire is dead. If this is the case, you must remove it and dispose of it safely before using your handgun again.
2. Failure to Eject
Also known as stovepiping, this issue will not stop you from firing a handgun successfully. However, a spent shell casing will flip vertically after you pull its trigger, stopping an empty casing from clearing a gun’s ejection port entirely. Like other handgun malfunctions, this usually occurs due to a lack of cleaning and maintenance or improper ammunition loading.
To remedy this, start by tapping on the bottom of your handgun’s magazine before racking its slide, which should cause the spent shell casing to eject from your firearm. This should get your handgun firing like it should.
Failure to extract is another type of handgun malfunction, and it is similar to this one. The big difference between the two is that failure to extract occurs when a firearm’s extractor fails to remove a spent shell casing from its chamber, making it impossible to move a new round into the chamber to take its place. You should be able to take the same approach to fixing this problem that you would to fixing your firearm when a spent casing fails to eject.
3. Failure to Feed
This is arguably the most common problem when it comes to handgun malfunctions, and it’s also one of the most challenging to diagnose. Failure to feed occurs when a firearm feeds a round from its magazine, but it fails to enter its chamber. Instead, this round pushes against a handgun’s barrel hood, refusing to move further.
Emptying, cleaning, and lubricating your handgun should solve a failure-to-feed problem, though you might also want to explore the possibility of a bad recoil or magazine spring causing it. Replacing it could get your gun to feed rounds into its chamber seamlessly again.
4. Double Feeding
Every so often, a handgun might try to feed two rounds from a magazine into its chamber at the same time, leading to double feeding. This might also occur when a firearm fails to eject a spent shell casing from its chamber.
In each of these cases, the quickest fix is to remove a magazine from your handgun — this may take some wiggling and other creative maneuvering — before removing the rounds from its chamber. This should clear the way for you to continue using your firearm without further issues.
5. Incomplete Discharge
This is arguably the most dangerous of all the handgun malfunctions included here. It involves a projectile getting stuck inside a firearm’s chamber after it is fired, instantly transforming your gun into an explosion hazard. If you pull the trigger again and the subsequent round fails to move past the projectile, intense pressure can build up and cause an explosion. This projectile is known as a squib, often resulting from a cartridge's powder charge failing to produce enough firing force.
Here are the steps to take if you suspect you might have a squib stuck in your handgun:
- Unload your firearm immediately, removing its magazine and racking its slide to remove any rounds from its chamber.
- Strip your firearm, remove its barrel, and dislodge a squib with a brass cleaning rod, a wooden dowel, or another tool.
- Analyze your barrel for signs of damage and stop using your handgun altogether if you spot them.
6. Slamfire
If you have ever endured a handgun firing unexpectedly, you might be familiar with slamfire, another one of the most dangerous handgun malfunction types. This common gun mishap occurs when a fresh round moves into a firearm’s chamber, and a bolt slams it so hard that the round fires from a gun without you even pulling the trigger. It may catch you so off guard that you lose control and start pointing a weapon in unsafe directions.
The key to stopping slamfire from becoming an ongoing issue is cleaning your firearm to prevent dirt and debris from building up on its firing pin. You should also check that the firing pin has a functioning spring, which will create enough resistance to minimize the chances of slamfires.
Understand These Handgun Malfunction Types and Aim to Prevent Them
Handgun malfunctions are relatively rare, but that doesn’t mean they won’t creep up on you every now and then. Look closely for signs of these malfunctions, and take the necessary steps to prevent them.
Wing Tactical can supply the handgun parts you need to stop your firearm from malfunctioning. Shop for them now!