Shield 40 Mishap

[2001gmc]

Today me and dad were enjoying the nice weather and decided to shoot our guns. We shot the AR's and his Walther PPK 380 and his Sig 1922 pistols. I got out my Shield 40 out to shoot and was planning on putting 100 rounds down the pipe as the gun has only 150 rounds through it so far with about 10 Fail to ejects. I shot 50 UMC 180gr flawless with no issues except I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. So I got this box of Federal 180gr High Shock JHP. I load up 7 rounds bam bam boom on the 3rd round all I seen was a flash and got 3 small burns and where something hit under my eye and blood was running down my face. My hands were numb and just couldn't believe what had happened. Well it appears that my shield I guess you could say blew up in my hands. The mag flew out on the ground and I couldn't find the remaining ammo that was in the mag. There are 4 more rounds somewhere up in the hay field. What do you guys think about this and should I email Smith&Wesson and send them the pics or just call them first?

 

[justherenow]

Wondering if there was a casting problem. On another forum a guy tried to replace the sites on his and the area around the site cracked majorly.

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[2001gmc]

I dunno but it scared me to death my hands are still kinda numb and it happend almost 3hrs ago. I forgot to add it knocked out a piece of my inlays and the white dot out of my rear site to. It was quite a shock to my hands. I'm not sure what hit me in the face but as you can see the take down lever is half or more gone in the pic I couldn't find it either.

 

[Jakpro]

That looks bad. I am glad that you were not hurt more seriously.

I would call before emailing, personally.

I am subscribed to this thread. I would like to know what you find out about it. I have a Shield .40, also.

 

[Dieselscout80]

I would talk to the Ammo manufacture too.

 

[jwalts27]

Today me and dad were enjoying the nice weather and decided to shoot our guns. We shot the AR's and his Walther PPK 380 and his Sig 1922 pistols. I got out my Shield 40 out to shoot and was planning on putting 100 rounds down the pipe as the gun has only 150 rounds through it so far with about 10 Fail to ejects. I shot 50 UMC 180gr flawless with no issues except I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. So I got this box of Federal 180gr High Shock JHP. I load up 7 rounds bam bam boom on the 3rd round all I seen was a flash and got 3 small burns and where something hit under my eye and blood was running down my face. My hands were numb and just couldn't believe what had happened. Well it appears that my shield I guess you could say blew up in my hands. The mag flew out on the ground and I couldn't find the remaining ammo that was in the mag. There are 4 more rounds somewhere up in the hay field. What do you guys think about this and should I email Smith&Wesson and send them the pics or just call them first?

The exact same thing happened to my buddy about a month ago. It actually looks worse than yours as it blew part of the trigger guard apart. Stung his finger really bad. He had about 500 rounds of factory ammo through it. That day we were shooting reloads that i made myself 165g flatpoints loaded rather softly. I have never had a bad reloaded round before. SW blamed it on the reloads which I think is just a bull**** excuse. But they did give him a replacement gun no questions asked.

 

[2001gmc]

I hope they replace my gun. Will really be a bummer if they don't. I'm just glad I still have all my fingers and whatever hit me in the face didn't hit me in the eye.

 

[SmurfHunter]

The exact same thing happened to my buddy about a month ago. It actually looks worse than yours as it blew part of the trigger guard apart. Stung his finger really bad. He had about 500 rounds of factory ammo through it. That day we were shooting reloads that i made myself 165g flatpoints loaded rather softly. I have never had a bad reloaded round before. SW blamed it on the reloads which I think is just a bull**** excuse. But they did give him a replacement gun no questions asked.

The fact you said reloads ends it for me. Double charge without question. I've seen it happen way too many times.

As far as the OP goes if you were firing factory ammo it sure looks like the case failed. Not the gun. It has a clear bulge on the rim of the casing.

 

[hkmiller]

This looks very serious. I am sure S&W would want the gun returned to try to determine what went wrong. From a legal perspective, this could be a big problem with them.

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[jwalts27]

The fact you said reloads ends it for me. Double charge without question. I've seen it happen way too many times.

As far as the OP goes if you were firing factory ammo it sure looks like the case failed. Not the gun. It has a clear bulge on the rim of the casing.

possibly, but I have loaded 10s of thousands of reloads and never had a double charge, but hey first time for everything. I think SW has a problem here and isn't recognizing it.

 

[2001gmc]

Is this a normal primer strike? I just been looking things over and noticed this.

 

[DocSunShine]

Is this a normal primer strike? I just been looking things over and noticed this.

That is a normal primer strike, but it looks like you had a kaboom, glad to hear you're ok though. Contact Smith, very strange for this to happen with factory ammo and this is the first Kaboom I've heard of in the .40 shield... But as you learned they do happen, despite their rarity. Perhaps you should play the lotto as well.

 

[bionic218]

Sorry this happened, and glad you're okay. Did it fire out of battery, or is that just where the slide ended up?

The explanation of events and pictures look like it fired out of battery.

But looking at the case alone, it looks like brass failure.

Either way, I'm sure S&W will make it right, and I'm glad you're okay. That's what matters. They make new guns every day. New hands or eyes...not so much.

 

[2001gmc]

Sorry this happened, and glad you're okay. Did it fire out of battery, or is that just where the slide ended up?

The explanation of events and pictures look like it fired out of battery.

But looking at the case alone, it looks like brass failure.

Either way, I'm sure S&W will make it right, and I'm glad you're okay. That's what matters. They make new guns every day. New hands or eyes...not so much.

This is where the slide was when I opened my eyes and the mag was laying on the ground. The other 4 rounds flew out of the mag somewhere I couldn't find them we looked all over. The brass you see in the pic is only half of it. The other half is suck in the chamber like it ripped it perfectly in half. But there is no bullet in the barrel.

 

[hkmiller]

How does the inside of the barrel look?

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[2001gmc]

How does the inside of the barrel look?

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Looks normal to me other than half of a casing is hung in the chamber end. It just ripped it right in half. I haven't really tired to pull the slide back and see if it will come out. I was gonna give it to Smith just like it is.

 

[Roger S&W]

The two most common causes of this happening are :
1) Poor chamber support
Take a round and put it in the chamber of your removed barrel. The case should have full support around the entire periphery.
Older Glocks lacked this. The casing did not have full support at the 5,6,7 o'clock positions. In the potent high pressured .40 caliber, they were getting KaBooms.
Glock fixed this by giving the chamber full support.
I checked the chambers (as described above) and my M&Ps in .40S&W have full chamber support. Don't think I checked my Shield but it's in 9mm which is very rare to have Kaboom.
I'll check it later

2) Double charged reloads.

Hope your hand feels better. Put ice on it.

 

[Roger S&W]

Dude, I don't wanna jump all over your sh1t cause I know you've enough pain for one day but....no eye protection. C'mon man. You could be permanently blind in one eye as of right now.
Hope everyone reading this now knows why we wear eyes. EVERYTIME.

 

[jonesy814]

The fact that you had 10 failure to ejects out of 150 rounds makes me wonder if something wasn't wrong with the gun from the start. The shield is generally much more reliable than that.

 

[Der Biermeister]

as the gun has only 150 rounds through it so far with about 10 Fail to ejects.

No one has questioned this part yet, so I will. I believe that your 10 Fail To Ejects is quite abnormal for only 150 rounds. I have about 600 rounds through my Shield 40 and zero Fail To Ejects and I read many other similar reports. So perhaps this issue was a precursor to your KABOOM?

 

[Rpg]

Today me and dad were enjoying the nice weather and decided to shoot our guns. We shot the AR's and his Walther PPK 380 and his Sig 1922 pistols. I got out my Shield 40 out to shoot and was planning on putting 100 rounds down the pipe as the gun has only 150 rounds through it so far with about 10 Fail to ejects. I shot 50 UMC 180gr flawless with no issues except I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. So I got this box of Federal 180gr High Shock JHP. I load up 7 rounds bam bam boom on the 3rd round all I seen was a flash and got 3 small burns and where something hit under my eye and blood was running down my face. My hands were numb and just couldn't believe what had happened. Well it appears that my shield I guess you could say blew up in my hands. The mag flew out on the ground and I couldn't find the remaining ammo that was in the mag. There are 4 more rounds somewhere up in the hay field. What do you guys think about this and should I email Smith&Wesson and send them the pics or just call them first?

I anticipate S&W will blame the ammo. But you're not the first with this pistol.

One reason they don't interest me.

The pistol is too buggy for my taste. I like less excitement from my gear.

Ask them for a refund and get something else!!

 

[bionic218]

Is this a normal primer strike? I just been looking things over and noticed this.

Is that one of the casings from today's incident?

 

[wingnuut]

Got rid of my 40 shield got mp40c I think they are a little more rugged and a 9mm barrel.

 

[BIGMAC116]

Same thing happened to my buddy's glock. Squib round blew his up but the barrel took the explosion and saved his gun. I'm just glad you're okay. That's why we wear eye protection, huh?

 

[2001gmc]

Yea I will wear eye protection every time from now on for sure. I was getting excited cause of the 50 rounds I shot before the mishap didn't have one failure at all and that not been my experience with this gun previously. Something else that's alarming me I was shooting at 15yds and even moved up to about 8 and I couldn't hit the target at all I hit it maybe 3 times out of all the shots. Before at 10yds I could at least hit a 8" target almost every time depends on how fast I was shooting.

 

[2001gmc]

Is that one of the casings from today's incident?

No this case is actually from a previous outing that I picked up in the field from before. The cases from today are UMC and there are the 2 federals somewhere but cant find them in the grass. The primer strikes on the UMC look to be barley indented with more of a round small hole instead of the big gash like in the WIN casing.

 

[2001gmc]

I anticipate S&W will blame the ammo. But you're not the first with this pistol.

One reason they don't interest me.

The pistol is too buggy for my taste. I like less excitement from my gear.

Ask them for a refund and get something else!!

To be honest I was searching for the 9 Shield when I picked up this 40. I've never owned a 40 before but I grabbed it cause I had been looking for like 4 months or so and I grabbed it. I'd rather have the 40c to be honest. I don't want a 40 shield back but that's probably what I will get if anything.

 

[Mcwsky09]

Even if it was not a double charge on the reload - there could have been damage or weakening of the case that caused it to split at the base even if the powder load was in spec I would think.

Not sure if there are any videos out there where people have deliberately loaded a double charge to demonstrate what would happen or to test the safety of the firearm in such as case. (not thinking private individuals here but manufacturers or perhaps an independent lab such as those that test car crashes and household appliances).

some interesting results on google search:

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=341348
http://ingunowners.com/forums/ammunition-reloading/302519-45-auto-double-charge-results.html

 

[bearfoot]

glad your ok.

 

[2001gmc]

All my ammo is new within the last 6 months purchase. This box of Federal Classic 40 S&W 180gr Hi-Shock JHP has a date of 1997 but that shouldn't matter. I know looks arent everything but the ammo looks good and its still in original box. I'm not even sure they still make the ammo. I have no reason to believe its the ammo cause of all the problems I been having with the gun. The 10 fail to ejects in 150 rounds. The last 50 rounds were brand new UMC 180gr and I couldn't hit the target 7-8yds away.
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