So... ever load a bug into a round???

[jeffsoward]

Last night I was doing some reloading and I have a couple hundred rounds that need pulled apart to be reworked (bad case sizing).
So, I had my wife helping me, she was running the bullet puller while I was loading. She asks me to come and look and one of the rounds she dumped had a dead beetle of some kind in it. It was one of black, hard-shell bugs, about .75" long broken into a few pieces.
I immediately thought, awesome! What the he!! would have happened when I shot that one?
At first, I thought squib, but then I started thinking about it, and with the "extra" displacement, would it cause increased pressure instead of decreased pressure. It had the same charge as the rest, but less cavity to expand (although, I think it would've probably compressed a dead bug pretty well).
So, what are your thoughts (other than check the brass for foreign objects)?
Would it have caused any issue or simply been a dirtier round?

I honestly don't know how the bug got in the case other than maybe it crawled in to get a drink while they were laying on a towel drying after my wet tumble. I do this stuff out in the garage, so there's some creepy crawlies out there.

I've found other objects before in brass I bought from a member (coughmitchcough). But they were like little black rubber balls or something and they stopped the decapper from pushing through the primer. The decapper is probably what split the little dude up the first time.

 

[WhiteyMacD]

If the bug was not part of the weight of powder thrown, I would assume higher pressure (not sure how much, compressed mass of the bug may not have been enough to create a significant amount of overpressure, but I could be wrong on that).

You should have put the bullet back in and do a mythbusters test with someone else's gun.

 

[Old Fart]

I've heard of folks packing cream of wheat as a filler in rounds.
I suspect it wouldn't have caused much of a ruckus.

 

[Hawgman]

Nope. But when we were kids we used to put rolly-pollys down the barrel of our Daisy lever-action BB guns. Then we'd shoot them at each other or against a wall or three or something. Back then it was called fun. I'm sure it's called something else these days.

 

[jeffsoward]

Nope. But when we were kids we used to put rolly-pollys down the barrel of our Daisy lever-action BB guns. Then we'd shoot them at each other or against a wall or three or something. Back then it was called fun. I'm sure it's called something else these days.

somebody would probably turn you in to the ASPCA for cruelty nowadays.

 

[Harley1953]

Nope. But when we were kids we used to put rolly-pollys down the barrel of our Daisy lever-action BB guns. Then we'd shoot them at each other or against a wall or three or something. Back then it was called fun. I'm sure it's called something else these days.

Hawg ---- That is some funny stuff...

Many years ago(decades actually) we did the same thing. Heck you might have been one of the guys we shot the roly-poleys with...........

Ah the memories of youth......

 

[Blitzfike]

Most of the bug exoskeleton is a sugar based substance. I suspect most of it would have vaporized. What happens is that the bugs crawl into the empty brass while you have it stored. The depriming punch goes right through them and you don't even know they are in there unless you tear down a few as in this case.. No telling how many I have vaporized over the years.. Blitzfike

 

[Roadking Larry]

I fond one while loading .223 on my LNL AP once. Deprimed normally but when I powder charged it, it overflowed all over the place. I pulled that round out and dumped the powder charge into my scale pan. I'm still not sure how a bug that big could get into a .223 case.

 

[44minimum]

We stuffed a carp down the barrel of a black powder mortar. Does that count?

 

[GlockCop]

I say Kudos to the wife for noticing this. And for helping you out. BB almost always helps me out with the reloading duties...sorting brass or some such.