Here's a video of a Shield that had a catastrophic failure.

Caliber Cache - Remember wearing shooting glasses should...

__________________
Freedom isn't free.

This is a very long review of all the pieces.

__________________
Freedom isn't free.

Oh man, is the shooter ok?

Impossible, that's just a Glock thing. I didn't catch what factory reloads they were using.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Barrel at the 6:30, 8:54, and 16:08 marks. FB video indicates evidence of a squib, i.e. "Can't believe I didn't hit that" reaction on the shot prior to the kaboom.

A lot of times it's the round that has been chambered a few times driving the bullet back in the case.

Notice in the video there is discussion between the shooter and her "coach" after her previous shot--as if something didn't feel "right"?

I suspect a squib load, leaving a bullet in the barrel. While the next round did push it out and also exited the barrel, it created the overpressure situation that blew the barrel everywhere except toward the muzzle, where the previous bullet probably was. That's my assumption, absent good information.

That was a lot of damage to the gun, even more than I've seen from an out of battery discharge or an over pressure load. I wish the videographer had bothered to say something about the damage. Did everyone of those parts fly out of the gun? I doubt it.

I'm glad she was apparently not seriously physically harmed.

I think this was an over pressure round. A barrel obstruction would have caused a ring or a split where the bullet was lodged in the barrel. The split in that barrel came from the chamber. The gun also cycled when the squib was fired which dosen't usually happen with a squib round. This was caused by a bad reload.

I reload a lot and have found the 40S&W to be very sensitive to bullet depth when reloading. It doesn't take much change in bullet depth to cause pressure to increase quite dramatically. As mentioned above, IF a round has been chambered a few times, it's possible the bullet depth went too deep causing this. I've found 9mm and 45ACP to be a little more "forgiving" on bullet depth variances, not the 40S&W. Depth needs to be right on the money with this caliber. Personally, I would NOT shoot someone else's reloads, especially in 40S&W. IF I'm gonna have a gun blow up, it's gonna be because of my mistake, no someone else's.

I think setback is the most likely cause here.

A bullet that's set back will raise the internal pressure exponentially. Whether reload or just over used factory, it's definitely set back. The barrel damage starts at the chamber and there is no bulge in the bore. If it were a squib, there would be a bore bulge.

__________________
Freedom isn't free.

I'm in agreement with your conjecture!

__________________
It's The Carbonaro Effect!

Bunch of armchair quarterbacks. Why can't it be what it is. It's not like we haven't seen defective barrels before.

__________________
NRA Benefactor

Yes. From my armchair I would call this a defective barrel. The large crack in it gives it away. I don't know how quality control let that gun out of the factory looking like that.

I try to be over cautious loading to avoid catastrophic failures like this. I had one that came through the press over charged and didn't see it, I now visually check every one before the lead gets pressed. The one that fired didn't harm the gun , a .40 M&P
but scared the hell out of me . wasn't doubled because that would cause an overflow but maybe 3 or 4 grns over max

Not a big mystery here. It is a .40 reload.

BTW... What in the world is a "factory reload?" It's either factory ammo or reloaded ammo (commercial or otherwise doesn't matter, it's still a reload).

__________________
Centennial Every Day

Sounds more reasonable than a squib load.

A factory defective barrel that split like that would not have held together too long from the factory, but with no information about this kaboom, conjecture is all we have.

In most autopistol calibers, and certainly the .40, chamber once then fire or destroy. Old news; I bet it is a decade since I first learned that.

__________________
NHI, 10-8.

I am inclined to agree with you. From the looks of the barrel, it is possible a bullet lodged closer to the muzzle than the chamber.

It would be helpful if we knew what the shooter and coach discussed when she benched the pistol and engaged the coach in conversation. If she did not see a hit on target and asked the coach about it, that would point toward a squib load followed by a good load.

I've seen cartridges with set back projectiles fired through handguns before and one handgun was damaged. Most of the damage was to the magazine well and grip area of the pistol. It was not a M&P.

At any rate, I am glad the shooter was wearing eye protection. That could have been a lot worse.

What "Factory" produced the reloaded ammunition?

__________________
Train to win

On the plus side the sights survived undamaged.

You could be right. It could be a defect in the metal of the barrel. However, that is extremely rare. I would have to examine the barrel up close and with a magnifier to make that determination. Definitely not something to rule out.

The one thing I'm sure of, it's not an obstructed barrel event i.e. squib. In that type of failure, the split would start at the obstruction. In this case, the split clearly starts at the breech.

This is an excellent picture of what an obstruction does:


Here is a pic of what a barrel damaged from an obstruction looks like:


Notice how the split starts at the obstruction and moves backward. You can tell this because it's wider at the obstruction.

In the case in the OP, the split starts at the chamber and moves forward.

__________________
Freedom isn't free.

Recoil after the first shot appeared to be light. How do we account for that?

__________________
Train to win

I think she had a squib and that's why she put the gun down and talked to the guy behind her. I bet she said something like that didn't feel or sound right.
IMO the guy behind her should have checked the gun for a problem instead of letting her shoot it again. IMO He was a poor shooting advisor.

Granted since can't hear what she said that makes for poor armchair guessing. The barrel appears to be ringed in the pictures. Was the bullet or bullets found?

It looks normal to me. Why do you think it was light? Her form and grip appear to be good. To me, the amount of movement seems normal.

It looks like a training scenario. I don't know, but I suspect the conversation was about the result of the shot rather than about the recoil feeling wrong.

Most of the time a squib load will not have enough force to cycle the slide and chamber another round. If she had a failure to fire on the second trigger pull and racked the slide, I would completely agree that it was a squib. However, that doesn't seem to be the case here.

Neither does the damage to the barrel support that type of event.

__________________
Freedom isn't free.

If you really want to know about how barrel obstructions work, this is a great place to start. It will dispel a lot of what you think you know about ballistics. Hatchers Notebook was written by General Julian Hatcher. Hatcher was the head of Springfield Armory and was one of the leading ballistic experts during his time. I would say he is the John Browning of ballistics. Although the book was written in 1948, the information is still relevant.

You would be right to say that I haven't read that book. However, we're not talking about ballistics. Even so, please post a quote from that book that demonstrates what I've said that is incorrect. I'm willing to learn.

This is why we have these discussions; to make us all smarter about these events. Knowledge is power and the more we know, the smarter we become. So, tell us some of the details of what you've read.

We are both on the same page that this is an over pressure event. I just don't think it was an obstruction. In fact, look at the parts review video at about time 6:50. He shows the barrel in detail. If it were an obstruction, why isn't the bullet still in the barrel? I guess he could have knocked it out, but then, considering the detail of the video, wouldn't he have included it as one of the parts?

__________________
Freedom isn't free.

My post wasn't aimed at you in particular. I just wanted to point out that this is a great resource to learn about this subject. Hatcher has an entire chapter about his experiments with barrel obstructions and talks about it in several other chapters. One of the things he points out is that the tell tale ring is caused by deformation of the projectile. Not by the build up of pressure which, I think, is the conventional wisdom. One thing I will point out to you is that this is indeed a conversation about ballistics. Of the three types of ballistics generally associated with firearms, internal, external and terminal, discussions about bore obstructions falls under the category of internal ballistics. I also don't think you are incorrect in your view that this is an over pressure incident. I think we agree about that view.

In that context, OK, it's about ballistics. Still waiting for the quote that even hints this is an obstruction.

No telltale ring.

__________________
Freedom isn't free.