Hello All,
As I've only lurked here a couple times let me introduce myself and give you a little bit of my history before I go into the exploding rifle.
I joined a local police dept when I turned 21, and had already worked as an armed guard at a nuke power generation facility during one refueling shutdown. After that I got hired at Maine's only maximum security prison (at that time), and worked until I finished my 6 month probationary period and 6 more months to save up some cash. The pay there was exceptionally good. It was unionized and the state pay and benefits were great, and the double and a half overtime was always available (triple and a half OT on holiday weekends).
My problem was the only way to see my kids (125 miles away) was to have my bags packed and head out of town immediately so you weren't recalled to work overtime shifts. This was back before cell phones.
Anyway, I came home and was hired as a reserve officer part time for years, and was also a paramedic for 12 years and a volunteer hunter safety instructor for a couple years. Needless to say I had a pretty good idea of which end the bullet goes in.
I had just put on an EOTECH on my S&W M&P AR-15-22 on 18 Sept. and went out to sight it in. I was using Winchester Xpert HV ammo in it. On the 24th shot of a 25 round mag when I fired it felt like my hand around the magwell was blown off. Luckily I only had one small (1-2 mm) piece of brass shot into my thumb. My wife managed to get it out with surgical tweezers and forcepts.
Checking the chamber I find a case in the chamber with the head blown off but jammed solidly in place with the last round in the mag bent up and jammed into the magazine when it tried to chamber it. I had a hell of a time getting it out of the magazine. It felt to me like the bad round had a double powder charge, It was much louder than the other rounds. I'm glad it was only a 22, otherwise I might have lost a thumb.
I contacted S&W and Winchester/Olin the following Monday, and they both sent call tags for the ammo and weapon. The people at S&W seemed truly sorry and were going to find out the cause and let me know ASAP. The woman I dealt with at
Winchester/Olin was a real pain in the *ss, being really pissy, because the chances of a double powder charge was miniscule according to her (even though I find out later in the day that they have a recall (for possibly double charged rounds) going on, on the exact ammo, just different lot numbers.
Yesterday the big brown truck comes by with a package for me. It's the same exact box I sent it out in, with the same plastic grocerie bags I used for padding. If the boxes I sent out hadn't come back upside down in the box I'd have sworn they were never opened. The letter I sent to them and the index card with the little piece of brass I had to have removed from my thumb were still in there. There was absolutely no letter or anything to show they tested the ammo or anything. I mean ***? Did they even test the ammo? Did the just weigh them all and remove the double charged rounds? Is it even the same ammo I sent in? The lack of any reply makes me suspicious at the least. Oh, and I've checked my mail, and they haven't sent a reply thru the mail either. I'm going to call Winchester/Olin if I don't receive some kind of communication from them by Monday morning.
Dan
