Back story... I bought a Century Arms WASR-22 a couple of months ago and had all sorts of problems with it, failure to feed, failure to extract, failure to fire; I returned it and it was sent back to Century for repairs.

Last week my WASR-22 returns from it's extended vacation at Century Arms (I hope it had fun!) repair facility so I pick it up and take it out for a little test fire yesterday, 1 Jun 08.

Using the mag that accompanied my WASR on it's return to Century Arms I load it with 10 rounds of Remington .22 LR Hollow Points and commence to blast away at our targets.

Round 1: No problem.

Round 2: No problem.

Round 3: A strange pop, quieter than the previous 2 rounds accompanied by sparks and smoke blasting out of the ejection port.  I quickly remove the mag and noticed that the top round is burned with debris on the top; checking my hands, nope, no injuries.

Pulling the bolt carrier to the rear I can see exactly what happened, the rifle slam fired as the round was chambering, detonating with roughly 50% of the round outside of the chamber.

As I said I was fortunate that I was unhurt; I always wear BOTH hearing and eye protection while at the firing range, even if I'm not firing.  My friend's wife got to see the importance of eye protection as she was sitting roughly 5 feet behind me.

Note that the pics of the first 2 rounds that I fired show evidence that they too fired before they were fully chambered.

I'm taking this WASR-22 back to my FFL and am asking Century Arms for a full refund; I'm sure that they'll be stand up guys and understand why I don't want this one repaired or replaced with another of their WASR-22's.  I'll keep you guys updated.

ETA:  Prior to firing it I disassembled, cleaned, inspected, and function checked this WASR-22 and it looked GTG; the firing pin moved freely and wasn't binding at all.

Mine did that around 4500 rds. ago (Kinda scarry and a little powder burn on my face but I had glasses and a hat on ) Cleaned breech and inspected action and bolt ,warshed my face with a shoprag and drinking water , loaded another clip and banged away the rest of that afternoon! No problems of that kind since (Eccept the occaisional 2 rd. burst when rifle is very dirty) and I kept the brass that exploded (Looks exzactly like the one in your pics...  

My FFL gave me a full refund and Century is going to give him a full refund, all is well.  

Wow, glad you are ok.  I love mine, but I will definitely be more diligent with glasses.

Good to know you are okay. Out of battery detonation seems quite common with .22lr.Pls. take a look on OOB topic on ar15 rimfire.

On the funny side this should make a price correction on the wasr22 when the demand tapers off after people read this topic. Im still looking for a second one to turn into a folder.

I had a glock .40 go kaboom on me. The discharge sounded funny and when I look at the gun thats when I almost freaked out when I saw the chamber area and the slibe fractured and bulged.

Had xrays taken and thank God my hand was okay and I was wearing eye and ear protection. Now I stick with my g26 .The .40 was a reload.

Its really important towear protection and clean chamber area for proper seating.

Glad you're alright. Making me scared to get one. Nah nevermind I still want one.

you know  you still want one...

Quoted: you know  you still want one... i110.photobucket.com/albums/n83/Dieter122/wasrs/wasr22ab.jpg

Hehe, you suck!     I do still want one, just not one that blows up or randomly works.  Is there anyone putting these together other than Century Arms?

Quoted: Quoted: you know  you still want one... i110.photobucket.com/albums/n83/Dieter122/wasrs/wasr22ab.jpg Hehe, you suck!     I do still want one, just not one that blows up or randomly works.  Is there anyone putting these together other than Century Arms?

NO ! so just buy one from whatever source you can (J&G , DD's RANCH LLC, Classic Arms (If they wise up and order 30 more),Atlantic Arms (Before the GSG AK 22 arrives)...

I just got mine today.
Took her all down and pulled the firing pin. She did
move freely,yet had lots of shit on it(dirt,cosmo,saw dust??).
Sounds like your pin was hanging up
No major problems,just some cases tossed into the receiver.
Will play with it more over the weekend.
All in all,i'm happy with it.

height=8

Quoted: you know  you still want one... i110.photobucket.com/albums/n83/Dieter122/wasrs/wasr22ab.jpg

i really do though. nice furniture on that one. did you refinish it yourself?

Don't do it, they look like crap, and you will feel guilty doing mag dumps for 24 cents!!  When BDM gets cooking it will cost you damn near 75 cents for a mag dump, don't even bother

if you wanna get rid of it..

Quoted: Quoted: you know  you still want one... i110.photobucket.com/albums/n83/Dieter122/wasrs/wasr22ab.jpg i really do though. nice furniture on that one. did you refinish it yourself?

yes sir.  about 20minutes of just putting light stain on it.

its not done quite yet though

Hey, GSG just announced this .22lr:

If it is not the Stg/44  THEN it's old news ($550.00 knockoff of a AK 22)  

Quoted: Mine did that around 4500 rds. ago (Kinda scarry and a little powder burn on my face but I had glasses and a hat on ) Cleaned breech and inspected action and bolt ,warshed my face with a shoprag and drinking water , loaded another clip and banged away the rest of that afternoon! No problems of that kind since (Eccept the occaisional 2 rd. burst when rifle is very dirty) and I kept the brass that exploded (Looks exzactly like the one in your pics...

EXACT SAME STORY with my WASR22! First and only "KB" I had with it; suspect the chamber area was groaty and it didn't feed cleanly.

As much as I LOVE those doubles, was thinking of polishing the chamber area a bit to insure better feed and extraction.

Also, don't be stoopid like I was a few weeks ago; I spent an afternoon shooting with the rcvr cover OFF as I was tired of shaking out the empties from the rifle.

Wasn't shooting it like that when it went KB and won't EVER shoot without the cover again.

Regardless, if I can keep clean pants with a Hakim KB - I can deal with a WASR KB.