I too had a kB! in a Browning HP 40... in fact I had two of them... one factory load and one a hand load... the BHP40 of course does not fully support the case body, so a case even slightly weak can let go... and they do.
I have seen two kB! in Glocks and one in a Sigma... the difference in the kB! in the plastic guns was that they were not as strong as the BHP. The first kB! was with Remington (RP) 180gr ball. The second was my hand load with a GFL case, Winchester primer, Clays powder and 180gr cast bullet... sort of the classic recipe for a kB! in a hand load. I suspect the GFL case had previously been fired in a Glock with a loose chamber. The Sigma kB! was with Black Dawg commercial re-loads with 180gr bullets.
In one instance when the case let go the BHP40 was not damaged at all, though the gun was shut down and the case body had to be removed from the chamber because the head had blown all the way off... the gun was not damaged however, and I was able to resume shooting it in the IDPA match I was in. The second blew the extractor off the same gun, but it was otherwise undamaged.
Both of the Glocks I saw kB! wrecked the gun, blew the magazine out... typical Glock kB!
The S&W Sigma had it's extractor blown off and magazine damaged and had to go to a "smith for repair.
I have thought a lot about kB! events since then... At first I thought the Glock was simply a weaker gun than the steel ones... but not I'm not so sure... If that were the case, the Sigma should have been scrap metal... and it wasn't.
It was also perplexing that the kB! in Glocks would blow the chamber in many cases, but not in other 40s... The BHP40 had two kB! without damage and the Sigma I saw had one... both with only minor damage... yet we see Glocks blown wide open. Are Glocks inherently a weaker design or made with weaker materials? I don't know the answer to that question... The metal on the Glock chamber is certainly of similar thickness to other guns... Perhaps the rupture of the chamber releases gas faster than the case rupture at the base... and that is the source of the damage...
So, it seems there are actually more than one cause for the Glock kB! Though Glock does not admit to knowing, I expect they now know the cause of the kB! because they have become much less common... and they have taken action to resolve the problem.
My best guess is that one kB! is caused by the gun firing out of battery... another from set back bullets and the other by defective or weakened brass... but that is not much more than a SWAG.
It is interesting that in the video clip we saw, the chief deputy blamed the ammunition... but without any explanation of why... It would be interesting to know if there is more to the story...
Anyway, it would be interesting to know the real facts...
FWIW
Chuck
Quote:
Originally Posted by smith crazy
Mark,
The reason for the thread isn't to point a finger at the Glock, but then again, I don't try to run 10mm type of rounds through my 40S&W either.
Much like your truck, you don't put JP5 airplane fuel in it either!
To others:
That is the point of the thread.
Know the tool, work within it's parameters. Then safety can be complete.
If they foul up after they are supremely dirty, don't let them get that way. If they blow up when too fast of a powder is used, don't use too fast of a powder.
I hope that explains my reason for posting this. I have, and so have others, loaded thousands upon thousands of rounds that have been fired safely in a Glock. I/We will continue to do so too. We will just do it with knowledge and not ignorantly.
This is not a Glock bashing thread. Please don't post those types of posts.
The main reason being is that I have a son that depends on his G22 everyday to protect his life while serving as a Deputy Sheriff.
Maybe what we need to bring out is the engineering flaw/idiosyncrasies that bring about the possibility of these kinds of things happening more frequently per design.
I know that I had a KB in a Browning High Power for that explicit reason, unsupported chamber and an over pressure round.
What about the 38Super. Were there any problems when that round came out?
|