Three months to the day after the spectacular catastrophic of Chris Comer's Springfield Armory M1A (M14), we have a scientific report [url]http://communities.prodigy.net/sportsrec/gz-762r.html[/url] on the causes of this horrifying kB!, complete with 50X magnification photos.

Special acknowledgement must be made of Clint McKee and Fulton Armory's funding of this invaluable metallurgical report.

• Dean, jus' visitin' from [b][url]http://www.TheGunZone.com[/url][/b]…

According to the article there were no markings on the barrel,so the identity of the maker is unknown. According to the metallurgist, the Springfield Armory receiver was not responsible for the failure. Unless it was a Springfield barrel, I don`t see how they can be faulted. Just my thoughts.

HOLY SH*T!! Horrendous is an understatement.

Wow; That M1a turned out bad! alot worse than mine! my barrel gave up about two and a half years ago it was a CM barrel, it to split the receiver at the 6 oclock in the barrel threads and the barrel split at 9 & 3 oclock and about 10 inches down the barrel.

What is a CM barrel?

It's good to finally get to the bottom of this.  I remember when I first saw the article about the incident.  It would be nice to know where the barrel came from.

CM is chrome moly.

I doubt it was a SA barrel.  SA uses GI barrels for the standard model and these are well marked. The medium-weight barrels are marked by SA (Geneseo,Ill .308 Win).  

The report stated that the barrel was likely kept at too high a temperature for too long during heat treating.  

To the best of our information, this was not an SA barrel, and so there would be no reason for any of the Reese boys to comment.

But your comment about "time bombs" is now uppermost in the minds of many! I gotta admit that I had always felt that anything this catastrophic…
[img]http://communities.prodigy.net/sportsrec/images/762d15-sm.jpg[/img] …had to have been as a result of a non-standard round. (And no, I'm not one of the AL-BVD crowd who immediately suspected the impossible [C-4] had occurred!) I mean, after all those rounds and all those years of service, who'd've suspected the barrel?!?

Don't overlook John Kepler's sidebar, however… like the dopers say, "know your dealer!"

• Dean, jus' visitin' from [b][url]http://www.TheGunZone.com[/url][/b]…

What happened when you contacted SA, assuming you did? What serial number range was your rifle? Mine is 012XXX. My barrel is marked
Geneseo Ill at 6 o'clock in front of the gas
tube and NM at 12 o'clock 2" behind the front
site.