A misfire is when you pull the trigger and the hammer falls, but the round fails to detonate.

A misfire is when you pull the trigger and the hammer falls, but the round fails to detonate.

• A. A double feed.
• B. Misfire.
• C. Stovepipe.
• D. Squib.

Answer: (B)

A misfire is when you pull the trigger, the hammer falls, but the round does not fire. This means the primer failed to ignite the powder, so there’s no pressure to propel the bullet. Causes can include a bad primer, defective ammunition, or an unusually weak hammer strike, but the key idea is that no ignition occurs. The other terms describe different problems: a double feed happens when a second cartridge tries to enter the chamber and jams the action; a stovepipe refers to a spent case ejecting straight up like a stovepipe; a squib is a discharge that fires but with such low energy that the bullet moves slowly or gets stuck in the barrel.

A misfire is when you pull the trigger, the hammer falls, but the round does not fire. This means the primer failed to ignite the powder, so there’s no pressure to propel the bullet. Causes can include a bad primer, defective ammunition, or an unusually weak hammer strike, but the key idea is that no ignition occurs.

The other terms describe different problems: a double feed happens when a second cartridge tries to enter the chamber and jams the action; a stovepipe refers to a spent case ejecting straight up like a stovepipe; a squib is a discharge that fires but with such low energy that the bullet moves slowly or gets stuck in the barrel.