Bad day at the range yesterday!

[Seismic Sam]

Based on the shooter's experience:

On shot #29 I felt a sharp jolt in my hand

This isn't metal fatigue - if it had been the recoil would have been normal or less, and he still would have gotten particles in his face. Where did the extra momentum come from if not from a double load??

[mmcnx2]

If the gun was originally sold in 2010 from Brazo and your the 4th owner I have to ask why is it moving around that much and is it still all original parts. I've got a open gun from Bob and his quality is excellent. Clearly something was either wrong with the ammo(which is the strongest possibility) or someone did a barrel/link swap and did not know what they were doing.

It will be interesting if your ammo manufacturer will step up and replace the gun.

[dtapper2]

That is a terrible thing to see happen to that firearm, I'm glad you're safe.

I've personally handled and shot that exact pistol, it is a dang shame to see such a functional piece of art be blown up like that. I sure hope everything gets sorted out.

[Seismic Sam]

It will be interesting if your ammo manufacturer will step up and replace the gun.

A bargain "remanufactured" (whatever that means....) ammo dealer replacing a $2600 gun?? Hah!! Halle Berry will show up and make me her boy-toy before that happens.....

[mrp]

It will be interesting if your ammo manufacturer will step up and replace the gun.

A bargain "remanufactured" (whatever that means....) ammo dealer replacing a $2600 gun?? Hah!! Halle Berry will show up and make me her boy-toy before that happens.....

So you're saying there's a chance...

[rottenit]

If the gun was originally sold in 2010 from Brazo and your the 4th owner I have to ask why is it moving around that much and is it still all original parts. I've got a open gun from Bob and his quality is excellent. Clearly something was either wrong with the ammo(which is the strongest possibility) or someone did a barrel/link swap and did not know what they were doing.

It will be interesting if your ammo manufacturer will step up and replace the gun.

I've tore down and cleaned it 2 times since July when I bought it. Everything looked right only modifications from aside from what Bob did was a custom grip stipple, and a dawson ice magwel. Previous owner to me was getting out of .40. I got his dies, brass, bullets, powder, 2 holster rigs (1 3-gun, 1 uspsa), and another holster. According to him the guy who owned it before moved to open class and got a STI that was done by someone in MN.

[rottenit]

It will be interesting if your ammo manufacturer will step up and replace the gun.

A bargain "remanufactured" (whatever that means....) ammo dealer replacing a $2600 gun?? Hah!! Halle Berry will show up and make me her boy-toy before that happens.....

Not really a bargain even without factoring in the blown up gun, there new vs reman ammo was about 1 cent each apart. They were out of 180 JHP new and I wanted to try there bullets out so I grabbed the reman stuff. If I look at the prices on the website now I paid more for the reman vs new.

[rottenit]

That is a terrible thing to see happen to that firearm, I'm glad you're safe.

I've personally handled and shot that exact pistol, it is a dang shame to see such a functional piece of art be blown up like that. I sure hope everything gets sorted out.

It was a sweet, sweet gun. Only thing I would have changed, I don't like the STI grip safety, I have an ed brown here that I was going to put on after the season was over.

[Rodentman]

It's a real shame that happened. I hope you get everything sorted to your satisfaction, but that usually isn't the case in such matters.

[Seismic Sam]

They seem like a moderately large company that seems to cater to the action shooting crowd. I've shot about 2500 rounds new and reman from them without a single issue. They say they pressure test all cases.

Okay, how do you pressure test a case without actually firing a calibrated load of some sort through it in a gun?? SAAMI pressure for a 40 S&W is 40,000 PSI, and you sure as hell can't get to that level with compressed air. Hydraulically you might be able to, but that would be one hideously expensive piece of equipment to build, and you certainly couldn't do a case more than every 5 seconds, which would be ruinously expensive. And if they are firing standard or proof loads, that DOUBLES the cost of the ammo because they have to load it TWICE to be able to sell it to you for LESS than factory ammo??? I smell BS here....

[Bessy]

They seem like a moderately large company that seems to cater to the action shooting crowd. I've shot about 2500 rounds new and reman from them without a single issue. They say they pressure test all cases.

Okay, how do you pressure test a case without actually firing a calibrated load of some sort through it in a gun?? SAAMI pressure for a 40 S&W is 40,000 PSI, and you sure as hell can't get to that level with compressed air. Hydraulically you might be able to, but that would be one hideously expensive piece of equipment to build, and you certainly couldn't do a case more than every 5 seconds, which would be ruinously expensive. And if they are firing standard or proof loads, that DOUBLES the cost of the ammo because they have to load it TWICE to be able to sell it to you for LESS than factory ammo??? I smell BS here....

Sam,

They are probably talking about using compressed air to ensure the cases don't have any cracks (leakage),... at least that would be my guess. I recall watching an ammo factory tour where they preformed this step.

[Seismic Sam]

Thank you for the clarification Bessy. For finding cracks, that makes sense. I was thinking about testing the actual strength of the brass case, and obviously that made no sense at all. In reality, then, they are doing leak testing rather than determining the strength of the case.

Bottom line, based on the extra sharp recoil, the only way to make that happen is to double charge a case to generate that extra felt momentum.

[Snakeman721]

Which is why I ONLY buy NEW manufactured ammo from large well known companies like Remington, Winchester, Hornady, Federal, PMC...etc. I'm not saying a Kaboom won't ever happen with those manufacturers, but it's a very, very remote possibility.

[crbutler]

As to extra sharp recoil, that is not only the ammo. If the gun locked up, then the energy used in running the action is transmitted to the shooter.

Not quite an apples to apples, but I had a para break the link once when I was chronographing some .45 loads. I thought that I had double charged and broken the gun. The recoil was really heavy and sharp. However, on checking, Velocity was right at 830 fps, and once I beat the piece open, found the broken barrel link, I figured out the problem.

Point is, this particular gun, the barrel chamber area came apart, and the case head is still visible. Commercially re manufactured ammo is not real likely to be bad, not that it can't be, and the gun is stuck in a locked up position, so I would not be certain the shooter's perception is enough to say that any one part of the failure loop is the cause.

I would expect to see a visible bulge in the barrel with a squib/jacket separation.

I also would expect to see evidence that the unsupported portion of the case head let go if it was a dangerously over pressure round, or if it was an out of battery detonation.

Something like this there are always enough unknown variables that the lawyers can always find something "else" that could cause it. I agree it was a bad day at the range. You were fortunate to take the precautions that you did and that this along with a dose of luck kept you from any physical problems, but you will likely be taking a hit in the wallet to repair or replace the gun.

[Seismic Sam]

As to extra sharp recoil, that is not only the ammo. If the gun locked up, then the energy used in running the action is transmitted to the shooter.

Not quite an apples to apples, but I had a para break the link once when I was chronographing some .45 loads. I thought that I had double charged and broken the gun. The recoil was really heavy and sharp. However, on checking, Velocity was right at 830 fps, and once I beat the piece open, found the broken barrel link, I figured out the problem.

You know, now that you mention it, I had the same thing happen to me a long time ago with a 440 Corbon Magnum barrel for my 50DE. The chamber had not been finished at all, so it was very rough, and when you fired a round the case stuck in the chamber and wouldn't let the action slide back, and the gun did indeed kick like a mule. Not that a DE in regular use doesn't kick, but this actually made my wrist ache. Thanks for pointing this out.