A friend of mine experienced a ‘kaboom’ with his 3 Gun rifle yesterday. We’re thinking it was an over-loaded reload that led to an obvious over pressure.
He is fine and only had his face blackened by the gas, no injuries.
The upper is toast, but surprising the lower seems to be perfectly okay. No visible cracks or any other signs of deformation or damage. We installed a different upper to check fit and everything went together fine with no binding and everything functioned. We did not fire it as a more thorough inspection is probably warranted.
The rifle was built on a Seekins billet receiver set with a JP low-mass BCG. The barrel was a Nordic 18’ SS .223 Wylde chamber.
Loads were 55gr Hornady FMJs over 26gr of Ramshot TAC. No possibility of pistol powder being a factor. The only other possibility is that a range pickup from a match may have made it’s way into his ammo. I’ve run that exact load for thousands of rounds through my 5.56 guns with no issue whatsoever.
[ul]
[li]Bolt sheared in two at the cam pin hole, and split the tail in two.[/li][li]Bottom of the carrier split and peeled away[/li][li]Upper receiver cracked and split in multiple places[/li][li]Rear upper receiver to lower receiver lug sheared off[/li][li]Magazine blew apart[/li][li]Bolt face was stuck in the barrel along with the chambered brass[/li][li]It looks like the bolt just started to slightly rotate out of the barrel extension before everything went[/li][/ul]
Now, for my reason of posting this in the AR Technical Section:
As I stated before, I believe this was a mistake in the reloading process that led to this. However, I’m curious if anyone has any insight to exactly happened here. I’m interested in the forces at play here and how they interacted to cause this kind of catastrophic failure.
Was the barrel clear? Since you suspect a possible range pickup, does the headstamp match those of his own reloads? If they are his reloads, how many loadings? That is a case head failure. Was it caused by overpressure or by worn out brass? Seeing the amount of brass extruded into the ejector recess, I think this was a massive overpressure.
That upper is messed up real good, but I am curious about what damage there is to the barrel, chamber and barrel extension. I can’t tell from the pics. Is there warping/deformation or cracks?
Take a look at the pictures. The bolt broke in half at the cam pin hole. While that can be a failure point on bolts, it likely isn’t the cause of the kb.
Sorry that happened. Makes one wonder when and if it could happen to me. Thanks for the pics to. I’m pretty sure the cause was the EOTech sight Hahahehe
If it were my rifle I’d probably ditch the barrel too, but I’m just ultra paranoid. Glad he’s OK
Hahahehe