The Dangers of the Hangfire – Also Known as “Don’t Look Down a Gun Barrel”
Know what a hangfire is and abide by the rules of gun safety.
A “hangfire” is a type of firearm malfunction that can be quite dangerous when the four rules of firearm safety are not followed. A hangfire occurs when the powder is slow to ignite and goes off after a delay. Hangfires can go off with near full force after a short delay, or go off with limited force causing a “squib,” which is when the bullet travels part way down the barrel and get stuck.
So when you pull the trigger and nothing happens, keep the gun pointed in a safe direction and be ready for it to go off anyways. Do not do what this guy does and look down the barrel – heck, don’t look down the barrel at any time unless the gun is disassembled for cleaning.
Know what a hangfire is and abide by the rules of gun safety.
I’m going to say it again: don’t ever look down the barrel of an assembled firearm.
Here’s the video – you can hear the click, but there’s no bang. That’s what you need to pay attention to.
https://youtu.be/Za2ezCNvBeU
While it is a staged/fake video for educational purposes, it still is useful to learn from.
Written by Brian Purkiss - always a student, sometimes a teacher.
I don't consider myself a competition shooter - I think of myself as a performance pistol shooter. I am all about performing at as high of a level as possible. Towards that end, I am obsessive about learning how to perform. I spend a lot of my life learning from the best across the entire firearms world and even into other areas of performance and other sports. I am a USPSA Carry Optics Grandmaster, currently working towards my second GM title in the Open division.
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