AR Kaboom Video

[DeanC]

He should have gotten a clue when he had to beat on the FA like that.

[Pat]

I was shooting AR's with a friend this past Monday, and almost had a kaboom. I was using commercial reloads (company to be named later), and had a can of 500 rounds. Round number three went click. The bolt was stuck and wouldn't open. We had to beat the thing open by pounding the stock on the ground while pulling back on the charging handle.

When we finally got the bold to move a bit, we slid out the rear pin, opened her up and removed the bolt. To my horror, a bullet was lodged in the barrel, half still in the chamber. No powder at all in the chamber, so it was definitely loaded without powder.

After pounding out the bullet, I thought well that was a fluke, so I reassembled the rifle and slapped the mag back in. The first round fired, and the second went click. Again, the bolt was stuck. After we were finally able to get her open again and remove the bolt, low and behold there was another bullet stuck in the barrel. I stuck a brass rod down the barrel from the muzzle end and pounded out the second bullet with a plastic mallet.

I had now fired a total of five rounds, and was not going to use any more of the remaining 495 rounds in the can. If the stuck bullets had moved a fraction of an inch further up the barrel, past the chamber, I would have had a kaboom and potentially could have been either seriously injured or killed.

In the meantime, I have spoken with the owner of the company, and he assured me that they would replace the bad ammo with fresh stuff. I'll let you folks know how that all works out.

[JFettig]

"Don't you know how to load these"... that says plenty there.

Pat, who loaded that ammo you were having problems with? I got 260 more rounds of ultramax to burn up and I'm done shooting that, I did the shake and listen test on each individual round, they all sounded good. The thing I'd be worried about is not hearing anything shake. Lets just hope they keep pistol powder away from rifle powder.

I almost wonder if that ammo in that video was doing what happened to you, a bullet lodged in the barrel then it blew up...

It is hard to see where it blew, the mag flys out and apart, whether it actually blew the barrel apart and did all that I can't tell. I did mess with my AR and it seemed that it would be quite difficult to get it to fire out of battery, the bolt needs to be rotated for the firing pin to protrude out the face, and to rotate it must be in position to get into the clearance in the upper.

Jon

[Pat]

"Don't you know how to load these"... that says plenty there.

Pat, who loaded that ammo you were having problems with? I got 260 more rounds of ultramax to burn up and I'm done shooting that, I did the shake and listen test on each individual round, they all sounded good. The thing I'd be worried about is not hearing anything shake. Lets just hope they keep pistol powder away from rifle powder.

I almost wonder if that ammo in that video was doing what happened to you, a bullet lodged in the barrel then it blew up...

It is hard to see where it blew, the mag flys out and apart, whether it actually blew the barrel apart and did all that I can't tell. I did mess with my AR and it seemed that it would be quite difficult to get it to fire out of battery, the bolt needs to be rotated for the firing pin to protrude out the face, and to rotate it must be in position to get into the clearance in the upper.

Jon

Just woke up in the middle of the night, and realized it was time for a sandwich...

I didn't have a kaBOOM, but came gosh darned close. Am not going to say much more than I have not been treated that well, but promised otherwise.

Maybe take a gander at this forum's thread to learn more about the ammo I was using. I know we had a group purchase a short while back, though I did not participate. Am now glad that I didn't end up buying more of the stuff...

[EAJuggalo]

Pat, I hope you'll be sure to tell us all how it works out for you. I've shot about 650 out of the 1000 I purchased with no problems whatsoever. I've never heard of anything like this with their pistol ammo, and most of the guys on GlockTalk swear by it.

[onebohemian]

This is too important not to just name the product here. The link takes us to a story about Canned Heat blowing up. Be careful out there folks.

[Pinnacle]

I have a theory about how this may have happened - this is just a theory

When he loaded the weapon perhaps he was using ammunition that was not crimped so well - he chambered a round - used the FA and perhaps jammed the bullet which for a number of reasons could have had too long an OAL.

He may have jammed the bullet in the throat of the gun - the gun was slightly out of battery - which he had a click and not a bang - chambers another round which MAY or may not have gone into battery (in all likelyhood - not) and used the FA sharply on the reload after the click.

Now here is my theory - when he did that he jammed the bullt in the reload back into the case with the FA by having another bullet already in the throat of the gun - there were 2 count em 2 projos in the bbl

Just a thought.

BANG - gun simply comes unglued - he is lucky....

[Jeff Bergquist]

FWIW here's my commercial reload horror story.

A year ago in June I ordered a case each of 9mm, .40 and .45 reloads from National Bullet. I had been a satisfied customer of theirs for several years, buying both bullets and reloaded ammo, and they were having a big sale with very good prices so I decided it was time to stock up on plinking ammo. Two months after placing my order; no delivery and no word, so I called and told them I was canceling payment and they then promised to ship the next morning. My order did arrive a few days later, but was short 3 boxes on the .45 case with a note saying the rest would ship the next day. Okay.

Well no make up shipment after 2 weeks and during that time I found out that there was something wrong with the .40 as well. 2 of the first 3 boxes I tried were almost entirely squib loads. Obviously I couldn't trust any of that case of .40. So I called to complain and they apologized, sounding very sincere and promised to replace the case of .40 and ship the other 3 boxes of .45 as well. I started disassembling the .40 rounds while awaiting my replacement shipment. Well, nothing came. Several weeks later I called again and got "I don't know how this happened. We'll ship it out right away!" Again nothing. Thus ensued a cycle of several months of my calling each week, them sounding very contrite, but nothing happening. The last time I called I told them I was never calling them again, but that I'd be badmouthing their company every time and to everyone that I had a chance to.

It's been 16 months now and no, I never got what I had been promised so here I am. Some day I'm going to show up at their factory and see what they have to say face to face.

[Pat]

Canned Heat - Georgia Arms. My story if progressing along the lines of Jeff's experience (above). Will let you know more as it continues to unfold.

I have an analytical balance (no, I'm not a doper...) and weighed 15 rounds last night. The loaded rounds ranged from 174.35 grains to 180.57 grains, with a standard deviation of 1.74 grains (1.4%). Is this normal?

[JFettig]

Canned Heat - Georgia Arms. My story if progressing along the lines of Jeff's experience (above). Will let you know more as it continues to unfold.

I have an analytical balance (no, I'm not a doper...) and weighed 15 rounds last night. The loaded rounds ranged from 174.35 grains to 180.57 grains, with a standard deviation of 1.74 grains (1.4%). Is this normal?

Are you talking the overall round? Yeah they can easily have that much variance, the cases aren't all the same and the bullets aren't all the same. If you want good data, you'll have to pull the bullets and weigh the powder.


Jon

[Pat]

Are you talking the overall round? Yeah they can easily have that much variance, the cases aren't all the same and the bullets aren't all the same. If you want good data, you'll have to pull the bullets and weigh the powder.


Jon

I don't have a bullet puller, so I just weighed the loaded rounds.

[Pat]

Here's a quick update. GA delivered on their promise. I received a new can of "canned heat" .223 yesterday, and will send them back the 495 rounds of questionable stuff tomorrow.

BTW, I have shot at least 1200 rounds of their .45 acp stuff in the last couple of weeks, without one hiccup. I finally cleaned my pistol this evening (call it a forcing test...), and I have never seen the results of a cleaner burning powder. Sure the gun was good and dirty, but it was a lot cleaner than some of the stuff you can buy off the shelf.