Today after shooting a few rounds down range I went to fire again and instead heard two distinct bangs. I saw gas flying and felt my pmag shatter in my hand.

When I pulled back on the bolt the base of the round fell out as the case had seperated. Where the dimple should have been in on the primer indicating a strike it is pushed out. The rest of the case is stuck at the barrel entrance.


I was shooting some Lake CIty Brass that I had reloaded myself. I know that I did not have a double charge since there is a powder cop on my press and I weigh the rounds when I am done. I have been using Varget and do not load to the max levels. While prepping my brass I do go through and make sure that it all appears structurally sound with any questionable cases getting tossed.

Question one is what could have caused this? Could there have been something in the barrel from the round fired before that could cause that much of an obsturction? Can the rifle cycle fast enough that it would have loaded two rounds with one on top of another? I did shoot some steel case Wolf ammo the other day and have since heard that the lacquer can gum things up. What is the possibility that is the cause?

Question two is what is going to be the best way to extract the mangled brass from the barrel. Thanks for your help.

I was glad I was wearing eye protection. My Pmag while broken still feeds like a champ, just like magpul claims.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43203110@N06/sets/72157628709391951/

you should try the reloading section

Remember a grossly under charged case can make as much pressure as an overloaded round. The round literally detonates like a little bomb instead of a steady buildup.

No, this is the troubleshooting forum.

How old was this LC brass to get a head separation?

I had a friend shooting some reloads. He was new to the AR platform and didn't know any better. He thought he had a Fail to fire. Every time he fed a new round into the chamber (3 times) it failed to chamber and pushed the bullet back into the case. He thought there was something wrong with the gun. He shot a squib then continued to try to reload. I jumped in and pulled the weapon out of his hands. There was a squib stuck just out of the chamber.

One possibility is, as careful as you are reloading, there was probably a malfunction (squib) right before the shot. Sometimes its hard to tell and you think you just had a failure to cycle. Or it cycled but light. Bullet passed the gas port but stopped.

I also found that Varget is a bitch to regulate. YMMV

a squib is not hard to tell, when instead of BANG you just get pfft.

How many times has this brass been full length resized?

A sqiud makes a bigger bang when the next round is fired.