Have you ever seen a gun blow up?

[Peter J.]

Just DAMN! This is really some amazing stuff.

 

[Trigger-Time]

At a Steel match guy wanted to shoot my gun in the match. We switched rigs, second stage his Glock .40 cal went KB in my hand. Blew mag and extractor out of gun, made my hand sting for a few min.

 

[Yorkie Man]

I was 16 it was -13 degrees outside and for the first time in my life I decided to fire a Stevens 12 gauge double barrel shotgun from the hip while I was rabbit hunting. The next thing that I felt was my left glove filling up with something warm, my blood. I was stunned and deaf. When I looked down at the gun the barrel was missing over the left chamber and the stock was cracked. If I had fired it from the shoulder I probably would be deceased right now. My glove had filled up from the leak on my left forearm. A piece of the barrel went through my inner wrist and exited through the middle of my forearm. Another piece hit the band of my watch and knocked the crystal out on the other side of my wrist. OUCH, it still hurts thinking about it.

The gloves were new, the watch was given to me from my Grandfather and the shotgun was borrowed.

 

[29aholic]

I have seen some blown guns after the fact.

I personally had a M-16 "cook-off" on me due to being overheated during "fam-fire"

 

[Deltaboy]

Originally posted by Doug.38PR:
Has anyone ever witnessed or experienced a handgun blowing up at the range for whatever reason (too hot handloads, turnign a 38 spl into a magnum etc.)

I have been lucky only on Youtube and on some training films.

 

[Bat Guano]

Only one, which is ok with me. A friend was shooting a M36 in the booth next to me when I heard an odd, somewhat louder report. I looked over at him and he was still holding it downrange--but his eyes were big as saucers. The topstrap and most of the top of the cylinder were gone. Apparently the ammo was something he "picked up" along the line; probably a double charge. We never did find the missing pieces even thought it was a fairly small indoor range with low suspended ceiling.

I never had believed in shooting anyone else's reloads prior to that, and that only reinforced the idea. I still won't.My usual practice is to charge cases in a block and eyeball the whole batch with a good light. I also like powders (I use Unique)that are sufficiently bulky that overcharges would be instantly apparent.

I am sufficiently careful (paranoid?) to where I will NOT use a progressive reloader. Murphy is always lurking somewhere IMHO.

I propose to leave with the same number of eyes and fingers I came in with.

 

[Match10]

Originally posted by David Sinko:
Years ago I was firing a Ruger 10/22 with factory loaded Remington Thunderbolt. Somehow a round went off when it was halfway chambered, blowing out the extractor and magazine. I swear, I do NOT reload .22 rimfire!

I've had that happen with stingers and Thunderbolts.

 

[firearmsunlimited]

The stories shared in this post are both interesting and frightening. Unquestionably 95+% of failures are a result in reloading errors and/or carelessness during the reloading process. When I began reloading some 35 years ago I got into a few habits that quite possibly may have saved me from destroying a firearm or myself. Early on I worked with load development for various Ackley Improved rifle cartridges when there was little data available except from Ackley's book on the subject. With the change in powder characteristics over the years it was not possible to rely on the Ackley data and I always errored on the side of caution and kept starting loads at a minimum working up from there. A very cautious old timer gave me some useful basic rules when I began reloading. He said to never attempt to reload more than one caliber at a time, refuse to converse with observers, don't try to watch TV and don't take phone calls until the last bullet is seated. Lastly, he suggested that every step be checked twice from the time you reach for the powder bottle until the last seating measurement is taken. If you shoot long enough most of us will experience a case failure. Although it is unpleasant and can damage a chamber a firearm explosion and resulting injury isn't likely. One area that has the potential of causing catastrophic results is cleaning. That's right cleaning! Quite a few years back at a bench rest match in Michigan City Indiana a shooter cleaned his rifle and being in a hurry to prepare for the next target didn't notice that the brush had unscrewed from the cleaning rod. Consequently when the next round was fired into the obstructed barrel the bolt locking lugs let go under the pressure allowing the bolt to exit the rear of the rifle and into the shooters right eye - he died!

 

[Hondo44]

A friend was shooting a 2nd generation .45 Colt SAA about 1967 vintage that he bought used in like new condition. After about 13 rounds he didn't see the bullet strike the target. I did...about 6 feet in front of him in the dirt. It didn't sound like a normal shot. I was spotting for him and he asked me where it hit. I turned towards him to answer and saw the top strap sticking skyward from the barrel joint; top three chambers went no man knows where! I said look at your gun! He didn't know anything went wrong. No one hurt. We sent the gun back to Colt along with the remainder of a new box of Remington ammo and the already fired cases still in the intact chambers. Colt said they would contact Remington.
While we waited for Colt's report he told me the following: After buying it but before shooting it, he noticed one chamber of the cylinder had a rub mark on it where it contacted the bottom of the frame window. He took it back to the gunshop where he bought it used. They filed the frame window a little until that chamber no longer rubbed!!! Three weeks later a brand new gun came in the mail from Colt.

Jim

 

[Guest]

While I was stationed in the RVN I managed to run into some "Very Bad" 7.62X39mm ammo and after hearing about several "issues" from Grunts in the field who were using AK-47s having guns blow up I did some checking. The Division had been into Cambodia recently and we had brought back some fairly large numbers of this ammo. I pulled some of it apart and found what looked like C-4 instead of the powder. I used some of this stuff to blow up a number of AKs and SKSs as Demos for the Brass. I finally got a Federal Stock number that allowed me to order 7.62x39mm ammo for issue to the LRRPs and others who had a need. The stuff came in Winchester style wooden crates but looked for all the world like Russian built stuff. A few months ago the American Rifleman ran an article about this ammo being something the CIA had come up with a couple of years earlier. All these Years I had thought it had been something the "Bad Guys" had thought up - but the more I think about it maybe I was 'Right' all along!!!

 

[jrd1976]

I double charged a 45ACP round with AA#2. It blew out the magazine on my Colt 1991A1. Pieces of brass hit and bruised my cheek where they hit me beneath my glasses. The rubber recoil cushion on the guide rod was about cut in half. My gunsmith inspected and miked, pronounce it fit to shoot and I've put a couple of thousand rounds through it since.

A friend had a muzzle break installed on his TC chambered for 35 Remington. Only problem was the muzzle break was for a .308 or .32, I forget which. It was swaging the bullet to the smaller caliber and throwing parts of the copper jacket 30 feet in either direction making me wish I had worn long pants that day.

The only other time was when I fired a MAC 10 for the first time. On the second or third magazine, a case separated, leaving about half in the chamber. A MAC fires from an open bolt which has a fixed firing pin. The next round headspaced on the piece that was left in the chamber and fired with the bolt open about a half an inch. Big supprise but no injuries.

 

[lebomm]

While on desert exercises in W. Texas, acouple guys in my squad were fooling around (ignoring my warnings) with the 7.26mm blanks for their M14s To "make 'em louder". One guy gave his buddy a TRIPLE-charged round! Blew the spring & floorplate out of the magazine, and bulged the box. Split the bolt, jamming it in the receiver, and splintered the stock. Floorplate hit him in the thigh, but no worse injury than severe chagrin !

 

[Freischütz]

I broke the slide of a P.38 several years ago. The slide broke at the locking lug recesses. I fired and found the front 1/3rd of the slide hanging from the front of the barrel. The front sight stopped it. The two previous shots ejected to the right so I knew something was up, but I couldn't see anything wrong. I was using Finnish military ammo.

 

[MaineProbation]

Freischütz

Freischütz,

A similar thing happened to a friend of mine when I was on the range with him many years ago. He had a WWII era P-38 made around 1943. The lugs broke and the slide went flying back, narrowly missing my friend's head. Turned out he was using Swedish ammo made for the Madsen SMG.

 

[tires2burn]

I blew up my sweet 357 mag tonight at the range. I suffered no damage but the S&W is toast. I was having trouble resizing the cases and not getting enough neck tension. I weighed all the rounds and found one lighter than the rest so pulled it & it had no powder. I should have pulled the heaviest because that round got the powder from the squib. If I can post pictures you can see what a double load will do to your gun. It makes me sick that this happened. I was lucky I guess if you want to call this lucky that it was the last round.

 

[Hang-Fire Hank]

BAD INJURY - GUN DESTROYED

About 30 yrs. ago, during a big bore pistol silhouette match, a guy's Super Blackhawk blew up. He set his powder measure to drop 24 grs. of H110, but left Unique in the hopper. He was laying on his back, holding his head up with his left hand & resting the gun's barrel on his bent right leg in what was called the "Creedmoor" position. The top strap blew off, the cylinder chamber in line with the barrel blew open, & the cartridge just to the right also exploded its' chamber apart. Surprisingly the shooter suffered no more than a bruised right leg, but two positions to his right, a friend of mine was standing up shooting off-hand. Part of that cylinder blew upward at about a 45 deg. angle & hit my friend's face. Put a wide open gash in his left cheek & tore thru the bridge of his nose (his glasses just exploded into pieces). He fell backward into his spotter's arms, who happened to be a retired fire dept. Captain. I had just introduced the two of them to each other to team up for the match. Fortuitous, no?
The injured young man was a good looking married man in his 30s. Medical miracles in plastic surgery resulted in no more than a faint red line running up his cheek over a year later.
At least that much time after the incident, he asked me to take him back to that range to shoot a gun, so he wouldn't have a phobia towards guns & gunfire. When we arrived, I noticed he'd flinch at every gun shot he heard. I sat him down at a shooting bench, loaded one .22LR round in a TC Contender & had him rest his hands & gun on a block of wood. Once rested/supported, he shut his eyes, turned his head downward & fired. That was it! He succeeded in over-coming his fears & wanted to leave.
Hank M.

 

[robertrwalsh]

Yup. Right new to me. Twice. Very impressive. One guy was hurt by one, chomped his thumb up pretty good. Took the top off a .38 snubbie.

 

[Gryff]

I've experience two. First was when my daughter was using my Gen1 Glock 17 in an IDPA match with WWB 9mm factory ammo. During her run on a stage the gun sounded odd on a detonation and she immediately stopped shooting. She said it felt like someone had hit her in the hand with a stick, and she got peppered in the face by powder particles, but no injuries otherwise.

The kaboom blew out the mag and extractor, and put a two inch crack down the grip of the gun. We found the empty casing, and it had blown out around 1/4 of the case head circumference. Glock replaced the 20-year-old frame for free and repaired the damaged extractor.

My other experience was with a new Sig P320 in December. I was shooting factory ammo that I inherited from my father. Ammo looked a little older, tarnished, but perfectly good otherwise.

My last round fired was just like my daughter's incident. Louder than normal, felt like someone smacked me in the hand with a bat. I checked the gun, and the damage was similar to my Glock's. Cracked frame, damaged extractor. Unlike Glock, Sig charged me $150 to repair the gun.

 

[CajunBass]

Interesting thread even if it is old.

Only once I remember for sure. My ex and I were visiting friends in the country and thier son, about 16 years old was going to show us how he loaded his double percussion gun to throw a flame over cars "parking" in their long wooded driveway at night.

He poured black powder down that barrel for what seemed like a week. I asked him if that wasn't an awful lot of powder. He replied that "You can't put too much of this stuff in them. You could fill it to the end of the barrel."

When he touched that thing off, it sounded like a bomb hit. I guess it did. He screamed like a little girl and staggered around holding his hand. I think I screamed like a little girl too, now that I think about it. I thought he had blown his hand off and put his eyes out.

But he wasn't hurt, proving that God looks out for fools, drunks, and small children. He was more or less two of the three.

The barrel split about where you hold it by the forearm. I suspect there was so much powder in there it blew out before it all blew up. This was a really nice looking Navy arms double percussion gun too. They told me later that Navy arms replaced the gun.

I do seem to remember a 1911 that blew the floor plate out of the magazine, dumping the rest of the rounds, spring, follower, etc., on the ground but I'm not sure if I saw it, or someone t old me about it. I'm starting to come down with that CRS disease.

 

[billw-sw]

I had one. On the twelfth round into the first stage of a USPSA match about 4 years ago, the barrel separated completely from the chamber/ramp/recoil lug assembly of my M&P Pro. The separation occurred immediately forward of the chamber area. The barrel remained in the slide protruding 2.5" out from the front of the slide. The chamber assembly was recovered on the ground approximately 6' behind the shooter having apparently followed the ejected case out the ejection port of the pistol. No one was injured in the event although a number of people were left scratching their heads wondering exactly how that happened.

The barrel was not obstructed, nor was the case double charged. It was a 124 gr minor power factor USPSA load.

I sent the gun back to Smith & Wesson. They essentially replaced the entire top end. It has been flawless since.

Bill