Posted: 8/29/2016 4:33:44 PM EDT
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TL;DR – I’m an idiot, and Daniel Defense is awesome.
I wanted to share something as both a cautionary tale, and as a testimonial to exemplary customer service. I am also cross-posting this in GD. On July 16th, I went out with some friends into the hills to do some shooting. It’s a fairly remote location on a friend’s property with some gongs and silhouettes set up in a valley. We got a table set up with some rests, and I began to check the zero on my rifle. I was using Federal ammo that I got from Wallyworld the previous weekend. There were only a handful of rounds in the box, and I was using a Magpul 10rd mag. After zeroing, I decided to just finish that box off. Loading the mag for the third time, I shot twice. Third pull – KABOOM. The rifle blew up in my face, smoke pouring out, and pieces flying off the rifle. I immediately knew that the rifle was toast. The mag had blown out of the magwell, the spring and baseplate forced out, along with the remaining rounds (which were all dented up). The upper was destroyed, with the ejection port and top rail separated from the receiver at several points. I had to use a punch to get the bolt carrier group out; it had expanded and blown apart. The bolt split down the middle. The chamber was cracked. I used a brass rod to get the casing out of the chamber. The bullet had cleared both the barrel and the suppressor. The casing had been pretty mangled. It had been crumpled in the rear, accordion-style, and ruptured. The headstamp had been pretty much wiped by the explosion. I sent it off to Federal, and they responded that when they cleaned it up, “Barnes 300BLK” was clearly visible. Federal’s customer service rep, Trevor, was extremely professional and responsive in our communications, I should add. He mentioned that usually the bullet would get stuck about 4”-5” down the barrel in most cases he had seen, but those had all been 16” barrels. My friends and I had speculated that it was a 300blk due to the damage and the casing shape, but weren’t sure. After the confirmation, I realized that I had taken my 300blk upper out the previous weekend, had an issue with the gas block, and had probably ejected a live round after it started going single-shot on me due to the gas issues. I was with a friend and his kid, and although I keep my 300blk upper and the corresponding mags separated (because I have seen other 300blk kabooms on here), I’m guessing one of them picked up the round during our post-shooting cleanup and threw it the Federal box. Shouldn’t have been a big deal, but I was negligent when I was loading my mags to zero and assumed instead of looking at what I was doing. Totally my fault and a huge lesson learned. I also contacted Daniel Defense immediately after the incident, and was told to send the entire rifle in. So while it was on the way to their facilities, I got the confirmation from Federal that it was indeed a 300blk. I sent an email to Caroline, their CS rep, and she said they would still want to look at it for future reference. As a matter of fact, her first comment was asking if I had been injured, and not just the standard here’s the RMA, this is the time frame, etc. That should’ve been a clue that my customer service experience was going to be quite different than what I had expected. I was pretty morose at this point, knowing that it was my own negligence that caused this incident, and fully expected that I would just have to start piecing together another build to replace this upper. Caroline assured me that this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, and that they would work with me to replace the upper. I figured that meant they would work with me on pricing out a new upper or components to build one, which would have been exceptional customer service in itself due to the circumstances. A week went by, and Caroline contacted me. She asked me if it would be alright if they built me a new Mk18 upper receiver group. I was shocked. I couldn’t type YES fast enough, and I tried to convey how immensely grateful and blessed I felt. They really didn’t need to do a damn thing for me, because it was completely my own inattention that caused the issue. I’ve never had a company go above and beyond for me like that before, and it made a huge impression. Daniel Defense now has a customer for life, and I will continue to sing their praises for eternity. Some pics for reference: 
The new upper: 
If anyone from Daniel Defense is reading this, THANK YOU AGAIN! The action your company took meant a lot to me, and I truly appreciate it. |
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Quoted:
Thanks for the well-wishes! The suppressor was fine, shockingly. I threw it on my other rifle after looking it over and it was good to go. That's awesome man, those Surefire cans can take some serious abuse. Glad to hear you don't have to hassle with an NFA replacement. |
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First, wow, Glad you are okay and Daniel Defense is freaking awesome!
Second, I have zero experience with the 300 Blackout, but assumed it utilizes .30 caliber projectile in essentially a necked up 5.56 case. How does a a 300 Blackout round even chamber, let alone have the bullet make it all the way through a 5.56 barrel? |
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Quoted:
First, wow, Glad you are okay and Daniel Defense is freaking awesome! Second, I have zero experience with the 300 Blackout, but assumed it utilizes .30 caliber projectile in essentially a necked up 5.56 case. How does a a 300 Blackout round even chamber, let alone have the bullet make it all the way through a 5.56 barrel? The round gets pushed back in the casing and will chamber like that. It's a 5.56 casing that is cut further back and necked open to 30 cal. |
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Quoted: First, wow, Glad you are okay and Daniel Defense is freaking awesome!
Second, I have zero experience with the 300 Blackout, but assumed it utilizes .30 caliber projectile in essentially a necked up 5.56 case. How does a a 300 Blackout round even chamber, let alone have the bullet make it all the way through a 5.56 barrel? An increasingly common occurrence. Lightly crimped bullet sets back just enough for bolt to close. KaBoom! Impressive that the bullet made it out. That's quite a swage. Good on DD. |
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Quoted:
An increasingly common occurrence. Lightly crimped bullet sets back just enough for bolt to close. KaBoom! Impressive that the bullet made it out. That's quite a swage. Good on DD. Quoted:
Quoted: First, wow, Glad you are okay and Daniel Defense is freaking awesome!
Second, I have zero experience with the 300 Blackout, but assumed it utilizes .30 caliber projectile in essentially a necked up 5.56 case. How does a a 300 Blackout round even chamber, let alone have the bullet make it all the way through a 5.56 barrel? An increasingly common occurrence. Lightly crimped bullet sets back just enough for bolt to close. KaBoom! Impressive that the bullet made it out. That's quite a swage. Good on DD. What about the over sized case mouth on 300blk? How does that get in the 5.56 chamber? |
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Quoted:
What about the over sized case mouth on 300blk? How does that get in the 5.56 chamber? Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted: First, wow, Glad you are okay and Daniel Defense is freaking awesome!
Second, I have zero experience with the 300 Blackout, but assumed it utilizes .30 caliber projectile in essentially a necked up 5.56 case. How does a a 300 Blackout round even chamber, let alone have the bullet make it all the way through a 5.56 barrel? An increasingly common occurrence. Lightly crimped bullet sets back just enough for bolt to close. KaBoom! Impressive that the bullet made it out. That's quite a swage. Good on DD. What about the over sized case mouth on 300blk? How does that get in the 5.56 chamber? It's made from a necked-out .221" Fireball case, not a .223" case. So the neck fits fine. Wish the OP had a chrono set up. Probably impressive velocity for that weight .223" round. |