Posted: 10/16/2012 12:07:45 AM EDT
This CAN and DOES happen to every make and model of gun. I got this photo from Subguns.com . I am not the owner of this photo. But I think it goes without saying that it's worth sharing because firearms are a dangerous pastime. We simply try to minimize the dangers and yet.... Anyway. The story as told to me was that this relatively new gun was being fired with factory Winchester 62gr penetrators. The casing had a casehead seperation ( ass end of casing shears off) leaving the brass stuck in the chamber. The following round managed to chamber enough to allow the firing pin access to the primer while not in battery. Thus you get a Kolt Kaboom. Sorry collectors, you might have noticed the serial number of the gun, thus adding to the irony of this pony's demise.
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Funny, I've seen rifles with DIRTY ass chamber fail to lock closed, and not fire... Upon cleaning they would lock and fire fine. I'd like to know how a round chambered in a case far enough for the bolt to be far enough forward to even hit the firing pin. My vote? ELDER SON. |
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Quoted:
Funny, I've seen rifles with DIRTY ass chamber fail to lock closed, and not fire... Upon cleaning they would lock and fire fine. I'd like to know how a round chambered in a case far enough for the bolt to be far enough forward to even hit the firing pin. My vote? ELDER SON. Perhaps it was............ Out of spec. 
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My wife had an upper blow up when she was shooting it. I still have all the parts. The upper receiver looked like the classic bananna peel, bolt carrier broke, extractor jammed into the locking lugs of the barrel extension. After disassembly, the barrel extension was fine, and the barrel has provide many more years of great service.
The cartridge that blew looked as if someone had EDM cut the case from the primer completely through the extractor rim from 2-4 O'clock. The cases were new from a major US manufacturer, and the ammo was sent off to a lab for testing. The lab said that it certainly wasn't pressure that caused the blow up. The lab was surprised at how consistent the velocity and pressures on the ammo they received were. If max pressures for that powder were 60,000 cup, the ammo the lab tested all came in right around 50,000 cup. The powder used was designed specifically for the 5.56 cartridge, so that if you scooped a case full of propellant, you still couldn't blow up the gun (so the manufacturer claims, I haven't tried it). The conclusion was that the case that blew had one of those 1 in a million defects that can occasionally cause something like that to happen. I'm just glad no one got hurt, although my wife won't shoot any more. |
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Quoted: The cartridge that blew looked as if someone had EDM cut the case from the primer completely through the extractor rim from 2-4 O'clock. That's one of the signs of a high pressure blow, the case nearly always fails directly under the extractor, gas vents through the FP hole and blows the gun, usually venting through the mag well when the bolt carrier fails. The PSI required to shred steel like that is far in excess of 50,000 PSI. It's never been solved but it's far more common with reloads than with factory and whether it's projectile set back or inappropriate powder we'll probably never know unless some one has diagnostic equipment hooked to one when the one in a million happens. |
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Bullet setback could certainly have happened. As it is impossible to prove a negative (that a setback didn't happen) I will never know. Fortunately, it hasn't happened before or since, I'm just glad my wife is OK. The bolt carrier cracked, the upper receiver looked like a bananna peel. I found it odd how many of the parts remaining were just fine, while others were completely destroyed.
Finding a large front pivot pin flat upper to replace the one that blew wasn't easy. I don't know if anyone (other than Colt) even makes them any more. |
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Quoted:
Bullet setback could certainly have happened. As it is impossible to prove a negative (that a setback didn't happen) I will never know. Fortunately, it hasn't happened before or since, I'm just glad my wife is OK. The bolt carrier cracked, the upper receiver looked like a bananna peel. I found it odd how many of the parts remaining were just fine, while others were completely destroyed. Finding a large front pivot pin flat upper to replace the one that blew wasn't easy. I don't know if anyone (other than Colt) even makes them any more. I think DD made some at one point. |