Brand new BLEW UP IN MY FACE ON SHOT#16

[Kilminator]

I purchased a brand new M&P15 yesterday. Was in the process of zeroing this evening. I had fired 15 rounds over about 15 minutes. When I squeezed the trigger next, the gun blew up, knocking my glasses and earmuffs off, and burning my right forearm. As near as I can figure, the round didn't fully seat and allow the chamber to close BUT the gun fired anyway. Much of the gas blew out through the magazine exploding it into pieces and sending unfired rounds everywhere. It scared the **** out of me. I am an army vet and have never seen anything like this. I'm taking it back to dealer tomorrow and expect he will be helpful, but ***....I don't feel comfortable with another S&W. Will probably just get my money back. Is this a problem with this model or did I just get the one in a million?

 

[sgtsandman]

Based on what I've seen. Your experience is very much far from the norm. I don't remember anyone else experiencing the same on this forum or any of the other firearms based forums I belong to.

 

[nachogrande]

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER.

Look on the bright side. You're 15 shots ahead of the guy whose gun blew up on #31.
AND on the first post too. Fancy that.

 

[murphydog]

Welcome...quite the introduction and glad you are OK. I would document everything to the extent possible (photos, parts), save the ammunition and contact factory customer service tomorrow. If you were using factory ammunition, chances are good they will replace it under warranty.

I am not super familiar with the workings of the AR, but I don't think the trigger will drop the hammer unless the gun is fully in battery, so I suspect an overpressure load. Others here may have equally possible theories.

 

[a59cheffy]

Glad it wasn't worse, amazing how hot and powerful that gas is...is the rifle a .223 or 5.56?

 

[Rocket3]

Can't tell you what went wrong but I think you may have won

"most exciting first post"

 

[richardw]

I would not take the gun back to the dealer as they are not responsible. You deserve an answer and restitution from the horses mouth. If the dealer refunds and sends the gun back to SW that is the end of the story. But what about he next guy whose rifle blows up. SW needs to know about it, investigate it, and fix the problem.

If the rebound was not in proper register, then the gun ought not have fired. It did, and that is bad dangerous.

I hold SW in high regard, and they need to know about what happened to diagnose the problem. On top of that they need to at least compensate for a worthless gun.

 

[Engine49guy]

An AR-15 will fire out of battery if the bolt is close to closing but not fully locked .

Not gonna venture to guess what went wrong but as long as your OK and the gun is warrantied consider yourself lucky.

 

[Watchdog]

It seems sort of anticlimactic to say "Welcome to the forum" after reading your first post.

I'm sure all of us are glad you were not seriously injured.

However you decide to pursue this, please keep us posted on how it plays out.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

 

[bamashooter]

Likely a squib. I'd have the remaining ammunition checked / contact manufacturer. Yet another example why (not the op) grasping the magazine is not a wise thing to do.

Next to impossible for an AR to fire oob unless it has a serious mechanical problem.

Don't let this incident stop you from enjoying another S&W. Even it was a mechanical fault, it's about as rare as getting hit by lightning.

 

[C J]

I don't know how I ended up liking your post. That had to be horrible. I've had a .22 fire OOB once and that was plenty bad enough. I got a piece of brass that smacked my face but luckily did no damage. Burned my arm a little.

I would definitely take my complaint to S&W. They should know about it big time. I've never seen another story like yours so likely you did get that one in a million bad example. Manufacturing is not a perfect thing. Most people are very happy with their rifles. Mine has had no such problem but maybe I'll be a bit more watchful for problems now.

Thanks for posting. It's good for all of us to hear these things to remember to be a safe as possible and watch for problems. And that's what shooting glasses are for. Not saying you should have caught that problem BTW. I doubt I would have or most of us would have.

 

[laytonj1]

What, no pictures.....
You'd think someone who just blew up his brand new gun them immediately joined the forum to tell us about it would at least have pictures.

Jim

 

[ameridaddy]

Factory ammo or handloads? If factory, S&W will want to know and have a sample of it. Handloads, you probably had a cartridge too long. Case shoulder-to-base length is critical in semiauto rifles firing shouldered ammo. With a bolt rifle, not quite so much, because you'll likely feel it if the case too long. OTOH, if too short, the brass may stretch on firing and thin the case wall to the point it blows out. For shouldered brass handloads, a case gage is your friend and an absolute necessity for me.

Being S&W, not some fly-by-night AR builder, the headspace should have been in limits and the gun test-fired at the factory for your gun.
Nonetheless, I'm paranoid about just what happened to you, and I submitted each of my AR's, including an M&P-15, to a gunsmith for headspace checking before I fired them. One of them (not the S&W) was too short, which could have led to a slamfire like yours.
I'm relieved you survived that without any permanent injury, and I sure hope Smith can get to the bottom of the problem and make you whole again.

 

[rwsmith]

If the dealer.....

If the dealer doesn't satisfy you, call S&W. If you were using factory ammo I know they will want to see what's going on as well as brass and unfired rounds. If it has live ammo I'm sure it must be shipped ground, but S&W will know all of that.

Did you check to see if the barrel was blocked. If there was a squib in that batch of ammo and the case ejected or was ejected, it's highly likely the backup of gas would back up and come out the mag well.

If the gun is at fault, S&W owes you something. If the ammo is at fault, that ammo manufacturer owes you something. Good luck and I hope you pursue it and hopefully get some sort of compensation. I don't care if it's a Maytag or a Whirlpool, it shouldn't blow up first time out.

Honestly I would suspect the ammo first. Not that something couldn't be wrong with an S&W gun, there certainly could, but what malfunction would cause the gun to explode? It just sounds more like an Ammo problem.

 

[amazingflapjack]

get a pistol caliber carbine or an AK-47.

 

[rwsmith]

"Liking" is fluid here.......

I don't know how I ended up liking your post. That had to be horrible. I've had a .22 fire OOB once and that was plenty bad enough. I got a piece of brass that smacked my face but luckily did no damage. Burned my arm a little....

For newbies "Liking" something is fluid here. it can mean:

"I appreciate what you were saying"
"I'm glad it turned out ok for you"
"Thanks for telling us about this"
"We're glad you are getting it checked out"

And several other meanings...

It doesn't mean:

"I'm glad your pet died."
or any similar negative.

The moderators in their wisdom seem to not want 'dislike' or 'I'm sorry' buttons.

 

[agksimon]

A Google search turns up all kinds of incidences of the M&P AR 15 and the AR 15-22, firing out of battery. I have an M&P AR 15 and have never experienced this problem.
Wolf ammo even sent out a notice about it.

Wolf Gold not recommended for S&W M&P15? - AR15.COM

 

[C J]

For newbies "Liking" something is fluid here. it can mean:

Well I'm not quite a newbie with over 700 posts but I can and do make mistakes. I just don't remember clicking the like button. But I sometimes click the mouse just by accident and probably clicked right on the button that time. For whatever reason I didn't mean to imply I liked what happened. I just wanted to be clear about that since the poster was new. I know there are reasons to like such posts and in truth I'm glad that he posted the info. It's good to keep us all on our toes if nothing else and to watch for more issues like that too. But I didn't want to appear crass to someone who is new here and maybe doesn't understand the things you stated so well. I made a mistake and I wanted to clear it up. Simple as that.

Wolf ammo even sent out a notice about it.

I saw other threads about that warning. It seems that only Wolf Gold ammo was involved. And it had no problems with any other rifle while the Smith's had no trouble with any other ammo. I thought there would be scads of reports about an issue this major if there was a lot to it but that's speculation. I haven't seen too many instances of this problem reported in the 5.56 version of the M&P 15 but I saw a bunch of reports about the M&P 15-22 firing out of battery when I did a Google search for "S&W m&p 15 out of battery". Turns out they were banned at Appleseed events because of an ongoing problem. Makes me wonder if it the 15-22 that was having the issues and Wolf reported on that. Their warning really wasn't very clear. I did see a poster claim that it was based on 7 out of battery occurrences with their .223 ammo which is more than their normal 2 reports per year for any particular rifle. It wasn't Wolf that said that. Could it be that the high volume of M&P 15's being sold especially to newer shooters may have contributed to this? I don't know. It just seems strange that only one brand of rifle was mentioned and there are actually more than one rifle bearing that name. And the 15-22 did have a bunch of reports of firing out of battery. Anyone with any insight would be appreciated by me at least.

 

[292]

Wow! I'd be pretty disgusted myself. I did learn something though. I "had" a habit of resting my palm on the bottom of the magazine and bracing my elbow against my side. Glad you are OK and welcome.

 

[Kilminator]

Update and reply

I will attach a couple pictures. They aren't very good. The carrier is stuck in place I assume with the expended round in chamber. The bulk of the energy blew out the magazine well. Thanks for the well wishes....I am very thankful!! I've grown up around firearms and spent 6 years in the army. Ive literally seen hundreds of thousands of rounds go down range, never seen anything like this. It could have been a lot worse.