M16 Clinic upper on Colt lower. Lothar-Walther cryo .96" dia. barrel (10.5" IIRC) with YHM FF rail. Unsure of make of stripped upper or BCG.
Suspected cause was a squib load, followed by immediate action, chambering a second round. Shooter was left-handed by firing from right shoulder. Magazine puked out the bottom, case head sheared off, case stuck in barrel removed with tools after the fact. Various states of disassembly shown were achieved at the range with minimal tools. Upper was removed from lower, rod was used to pound bolt back through bore, and then a screwdriver and heavy hammer were used like a chisel to pouch the carrier back to pull the bolt out of battery.
No injuries to the shooter other than being visibly shook up.
Ammunition was shooter’s own reloads.
This was in a match setting where I was the Safety Officer and the shooter was the only one on the line. I should have caught the squib but this was the second-to-last shot of the stage and my mind was getting ahead of me.
mag that puked
One recovered round
another recovered round (sorry for the blur)
condition of carbine immediately following
Upper receiver prior to removal of BCG
Upper receiver after removal of BCG
Case stuck in chamber
Head of case stuck in chamber
Extractor
Bolt catch which sheared off (see above)
and remember kids, always strike the heel of the stock, not the toe, on the ground when mortaring
Incidentally, there is still some discussion that it may have been an over-pressure round, not a squib. I believe it was a squib and that the barrel showed no sign of same because of the .960" diameter. However, it is entirely possible that the shooter had an unrelated malfunction first, performed remedial action, and then had the kaboom due to an over-charge.
Interestingly this is the first occurance of a kaboom at one of our matches in 5 years, some quick math reveals…
5 years x 12 matches per year = 60 matches
20 shooters/match average x 100 rounds/match average = 2,000 rounds/match
60 matches x 2,000 rounds/match = 120,000 rounds down range
Even if you half that to 60,000 rounds that’s still a large sample size with only one kaboom.
Add in two years of drills at 200 rounds/month and an average of 15 shooters per event and it’s even more impressive.
I’m having a smith inspect the barrel today, so hopefully he’ll be able to shed some light on what really happend.
I’m not completely convinced it was a traditional squib load. I dont’ remember getting any kind of indication of it being a bad round except the typical “click” instead of a “bang” before running the bolt to extract the failure to fire case.
What exactly do you guys mean by “squib” ?
I am probably wrong here, but I thought “squib” meant underpowered round went off, possibly leaving a bullet in the bbl, thus obstructing the bbl.
I’ve probably experienced, or been in the presence of just about every type of malfunction you could imagine, but I’m not always up to par on the lingo/terms used for each type.
Is this not right?
Thanks.
This happened at night, under range lights. It was not immediately discerned that the gun was FUBAR and the shooter was initially trying to “stay in the fight” and finish the stage.
How do you arrive at what “should” have been done? It’s not my gun, but I wouldn’t re-use any of those parts anyway. The lower looks to be in tact and I would keep that if it were my gun, but I would not trust any of the upper-related parts. At that point whatever removal of parts goes on is forensic and “hey, look at this” more than anything else.
You are right that is what a Squib is but if you have a round stuck in the barrel and you fire another right after that then the gas pressure has nowhere to go but back the way it came so it will blow back into the upper and make it go Kaboom
The more we toss this around and with more information I have now, it’s the lack of crimping the rounds that caused bullet setback which led to over-pressure and kaboom. Initial malfunction was unrelated.
I would not mortar a gun unless my life was at stake.
I’ve seen a number of people do this and ruin parts of their gun.
I have seen one incident where a piece of gravel got jammed in between the carrier and inside of the upper and mortaring it caused a huge ass gouge along the sides of these two parts and the mortaring didn’t solve the problem.
I’m curious to know exactly what winds up being the issue as well.
Even if this truly winds up being an improperly crimped round, which caused bullet setback, I’d still like to ask if anyone here has ever felt like a progressive, or multi stage reloading press is a good idea to use?
I mean, I’ve just always felt like the Dillon 550 my brother and I own, is somewhat of an accident waiting to happen, despite the care and utmost of attention to detail we put into reloading rounds.
I’ve experienced a few of “weak” .45ACP rounds over the years, which we reloaded on the Dillon 550, but never have we experienced a squib, or any failure of the bullet to leave the bbl.
However, I have always worried that the wrong amount of powder could eventually be put into one of our rounds, which could equal devastating results, especially if it were to be a DOUBLE powder charge, due to some kind of possible malfunction with the Dillon 550 press.
I just don’t trust those things, especially when doing many hundreds/thousands of rounds on such a progressive/multi stage press.
Keeping an eye on crimping and setback, or overall length of the round is one thing, but trying to keep an eye on how much powder is put into each shell casing is much more difficult, if not virtually impossible on such a reloading press.
I’ve just never felt comfortable shooting reloads done on a progressive press.
About the only reload I would trust enough to be really comfortable, would be rounds reloaded on a SINGLE stage press, done by myself, and myself only. IOW’s, I have never trusted reloaded ammo from such companies as GA Arms/etc.
I’ve had several “mini-KABOOMS” with GA ARMS/etc ammo. Of course, I’m not telling you guys anything you don’t already know in regards to reloads. You’ve all heard of many such happenings with the reloaded ammo, I’m sure.
I reload my 223/556 on a 650 and a 1050 and used a 550 previously. I have no hesitation at all to shoot them (shot a lot of them last year at a class in fact). Just pay attention to what you are doing and do look into the case. Most 223 loads come close to filling the case and you can actually see powder at most levels of 223 loads looking into the case. Just use an overhead light. You CANNOT double charge a 223/556 case on a 550. You would spill powder everywhere. As I said, most loads come close to filling the case body (not including the portion where the bullet is) and a double charge won’t physically fit. If you use the wrong powder (like a pistol powder) you could have extreme over pressure, and you can have over pressure if you have set back, but a grain or two plus or minus won’t cause extreme overpressure.
Make sure you crimp correctly.
And watch what you are doing and be careful. Don’t watch TV, or do other things while reloading and take as much time as you need to. Don’t rush it.
You are more likely to get a double charge in handgun rounds, especially 45acp, 38 and 357, etc which are large volume cases and where you use relatively low volumes of powder. Using the load I shoot in 9mm I cannot double charge that either as the powder more than 1/2 fills the case before I place the bullet in.
