Misfire, hangfire or squib: how to tell, and what to do about each

These three words get used interchangeably on firing lines and they describe three different events with three different correct responses. The reason it matters is that the instinctive reaction to one of them, opening the action to see what went wrong, is exactly the wrong reaction to another.

Nothing on this page is a substitute for your firearm's manual or for instruction from somebody standing next to you. It is the vocabulary and the sequence, so you are not learning it for the first time while holding the gun.

The three, defined

The NRA's Shooting Sports USA publishes definitions worth quoting rather than paraphrasing (SSUSA):

• Misfire: "A misfire is diagnosed when a cartridge fails to fire after the trigger is pulled and the hammer or firing pin has fallen." You pull, you hear a click, nothing happens.
• Hangfire: "When there is a noticeable delay between the time the hammer or firing pin drops and the discharge of the firearm, a hangfire has occurred." It fires, just not when you expected.
• Squib load: "A cartridge or shell that produces projectile velocity and sound substantially lower than normal is called a squib load." It went off, quietly and weakly.

The cruel part: at the instant it happens, a misfire and a hangfire are indistinguishable. You cannot tell whether the round is dead or merely slow. Which is why the response starts the same way for both.

The rule that covers all three

In order, every time, regardless of which malfunction you think you have:

1. Keep the muzzle downrange. Do not turn, do not look into the ejection port, do not lower the gun to your lap.
2. Finger off the trigger. Out of the guard.
3. Wait 30 seconds for a modern cartridge, counting rather than estimating. Two minutes with a muzzleloader.
4. Say it out loud. "Malfunction" is enough, and it is what Georgia DNR's rules require of you.
5. Then unload, still pointed downrange, and look at what came out.

Thirty seconds of standing still feels absurd and it is the cheapest insurance on a range. The alternative is having a round discharge while the action is coming open and your face is over it.

Misfire: what to do

A click and nothing else. Most often a bad primer, sometimes a light primer strike from the firearm, occasionally a round that was not fully chambered.

You still wait the 30 seconds, because at that moment you do not know it is a misfire rather than a hangfire. After the wait: unload with the muzzle downrange, catch the round rather than letting it bounce off the floor, and look at the primer.

• A clear, centered dent in the primer: the firearm did its job and the ammunition failed. Separate that round from your good ammunition and dispose of it properly. Set it aside, do not re-chamber it.
• A light, shallow or off-center mark: the firearm may be the problem. If it happens more than once in a session, stop and have the firearm looked at rather than working through the box.
• No mark at all: the round probably was not fully chambered, or something is wrong with the firing mechanism. Stop and check.

Do not re-chamber a round that has already been struck. The primer may be partially initiated, and you have no way to know.

Hangfire: the dangerous one

A hangfire is the reason the 30-second rule exists, and it is the malfunction most likely to injure somebody, precisely because it looks exactly like the harmless one.

The failure mode is simple to describe and ugly to be part of. You get a click, you assume a dead round, you start working the action, and the round fires as the case is clearing the chamber or as your hand is over the ejection port. The SSUSA article's advice is the right default: when in doubt, treat every delayed or absent discharge as a hangfire.

Which in practice means there is no "probably fine, it is just a dud" shortcut. The only version of this you ever perform is the slow one. Count the thirty seconds out loud if that helps you actually wait, the way NIOSH suggests counting while a foam earplug expands on our how to wear foam earplugs page.

Squib load: stop shooting

A squib is different in kind from the other two, because the round did fire. The danger is not a delayed discharge, it is a bullet stuck partway down your barrel and the next round arriving behind it.

What a squib feels and sounds like:

• A noticeably quieter report and much less recoil than the round before it. SSUSA's definition is a cartridge producing velocity and sound substantially lower than normal.
• The action does not cycle on a semi-automatic, because there was not enough gas or impulse to work it.
• No new hole in the target. The clearest confirmation, and the one most people are too busy to check.

That last point is worth being blunt about: clearing a squib means driving a lodged bullet out of a barrel, and getting it wrong damages the bore. A cleaning rod is the right tool and a hurried afternoon is the wrong time. The Otis-style kits on this site use flexible cables rather than rigid rods, which are excellent for cleaning and the wrong thing entirely for pushing out an obstruction, so this is one case where a rod kit matters. Our bore snake vs cleaning rod page covers the difference.

What to say on the line

Georgia DNR requires you to advise all persons at the firing line of the malfunction, and Florida FWC's rules say to immediately stop shooting when anyone calls a cease fire. Both of those put words in your mouth, so have them ready:

• "Malfunction!" Loud, while the muzzle stays downrange. Then hold position.
• "Cease fire!" If what you have is a squib, or if you are unsure and want the line stopped while somebody looks. You are allowed to call it.
• Ask for help. A range officer handles malfunctions for a living. On a first trip, asking is the correct move rather than a failure.

The thing not to do is turn around with the firearm to show somebody the problem. Our range commands page covers the rest of the vocabulary, and cold range vs hot range covers what the line does next.

What you need afterward

Nothing on this page is solved by a purchase. Two things do help: the means to practice the clearing motions safely at home, and a kit with a rod in it for the squib case.

Reducing the odds

You cannot eliminate ammunition faults, but most of what goes wrong is avoidable:

• Buy factory ammunition from a reputable maker for your first few hundred rounds. Reloaded and remanufactured ammunition is where squibs concentrate, because a missing or short powder charge is a hand-loading failure mode.
• Store it dry. Primers and powder are chemistry, and damp storage is how a box turns into a collection of misfires years later.
• Keep the right caliber in the right magazine. Obvious, and still a real source of problems in a bag with three calibers in it. Our how to organize a range bag page covers separating them.
• Clean and lubricate the firearm as its maker specifies. Light primer strikes track back to a dirty or dry firing-pin channel more often than people expect. Ruger's own LCP MAX manual is an example of a maker publishing the schedule, and our how often to clean your gun page covers it.

And the underlying habit that makes all three malfunctions survivable is the one the NRA and NSSF put first: the muzzle always points somewhere safe. The NSSF's new shooter guidance is worth reading before a first trip, and our gun safety rules page has the rules themselves.