Group,

Some of the old-timers may well remember this story from about November 1999 when a board member shared the photos and story that I have posted on the following page...

www.quarterbore.com/ar15m16/ar15kaboom.html


As I tried to mention, this was caused by sloppy reloading practices and PISTOL powder in a 223 case did the dammage!  I am reposting this in hopes that nobody has to learn to use better housekeeping the way this guy did!

Yup, I remember.


I saved every single one of those photos too, after the link went dead I occasionally hosted the pics on my site when I wanted to show the results of when a handloader trys to split atoms in an AR15.   That's not a kB, that's a darned handheld nuke.

I haven't been around long enough to see those pictures the first time.  All I have to say is thats amazing and I am glad no one was hurt.

Keving67

I recall the cause was unknown and that handloads were speculated but not known to be involved.  Below is an alternative explanation:

http://www.bushmaster.com/faqs/troubleshootingfaqs.asp#10
If you shoot enough cheap ammo, it'll happen to you. The rifle is just ticking along, then BAM! The bolt is stuck forward and the magazine blows down out of the rifle. Looking up into the mag. well, you see a crack in the bottom of the bolt carrier. You've just had a case head separation. If you are shooting reloads or surplus ammo, you're out of luck. If you have factory ammo, and the box the shells came in, you can write a letter or call the factory, and they will tell you what to do. We have seen case head failures from overloaded ammo, and from bad brass. There is almost no difference in the result, though. When the case head fails in an AR, the gases flow back into the action. They usually bend or break the extractor, flow along the extractor slot, and crack or break the bottom pad of the bolt carrier. The gases vent out mostly through the mag well, usually wrecking the magazine on the way out. Sometimes the bolt cracks, sometimes it doesn't. In extreme cases, it can crack or break the barrel extension. Many times the bolt catch will break off and the upper receiver will crack by the ejection port. Usually the lower will survive, but sometimes they crack somewhere at the top of the mag well, usually in the front. The front half of the case will remain stuck in the chamber. This is a sure sign of an ammunition failure. If the rifle had failed the bolt lugs would all be sheared off, the stock would be blown off, the gun would probably be blown in half. We've never seen it happen, and we hope we never do.