Gun Failure

[SAM]

Shooting today at the range with a Beretta 9000S 40 cal. Shooting factory ammo and after 35 flawless rnds. it basically blew up in my hands. Slide is nearly in two pieces and the frame of the pistol has a huge crack that goes down to about the trigger. Have no idea why it happened and was wondering if anyone here knows if this was something common for this particular firearm. Still have all my fingers---just a scratch and small burn on my left hand.

[solidgun]

Assuming this is factory ammo, on that 35th round, did you get a positive report of a shot? Just wondering if you had a squib followed by a shot.

[Ballinger]

Sorry to hear about the gun, glad to hear just minor injures.

[Pat Cannon]

Holy crap, I got nothing useful to say but glad you're not really hurt.

[Mn01r6]

1. Squib or other barrel obstruction
2. Bullet setback
3. Overcharged cartridge

Unless you soaked the barrel in hydrofluoric acid or coca cola I would put my money on one of the above. I owned a 9000S in .40 for about 10 years. Never heard of any problems with them other than the tight safety lever. Hope you heal up quickly and find out what the root cause of the incident was.

[340PD]

First, glad to hear you are ok with no missing digits (or anything else). Second, assuming it wasn't an overcharged round or a squib (or some other barrel obstruction), are you going to be contacting the gun manufacturer at all to see if they have any suggestions or if they want to perhaps study the gun (or what's left of it) to see if they can come up with a cause. Was the gun new or have you had it for a while? Who knows, if you contact the manufacturer they might reimburse you in some fashion for your loss. But, I suppose you could end up with the gun manufacturer blaming the ammo and the ammo manufacturer blaming the gun. I would certainly want to know why a gun blew up in my hands that was being used with factory ammo.

[DoxaPar]

Yikes. Sorry man. I'm glad you're all right.

[gunforhire]

I have a friend in SD that had the same issue with a 9000s a few years back. no squib before the ka-boom either running factory ball ammo.


Glad to see you didn't get hurt aside from the scratch and burn

[Seismic Sam]

Make of factory ammo?? Anything left of the case to take a picture of?? Glad you're okay!! Did you pick up all the fired cases to see if one looked like it was a low(er) pressure shot??

[SAM]

I have a friend in SD that had the same issue with a 9000s a few years back. no squib before the ka-boom either running factory ball ammo.


Glad to see you didn't get hurt aside from the scratch and burn

After researching as much as I could on the web, this is one of the complaints that pops up most often on that particular model. There was no squib load or barrel obstruction and the ammo was brand new factory loaded 180gr. hardball from a box of 100 rnd. WWW. I'm going to drop it at my gunsmith next time I get his direction. I also fired the rest of that box and 3 more from my Taurus 840 with no issues.

[Seismic Sam]

Well, just having a gun let loose on random round *XXX makes no sense, so there was something about THAT round. IIRC, somebody looked into Glock 40 kabooms, and actually did some experimentation with other guns with deliberately setback ammo, and found it was peculiar to the Glocks because of the partially unsupported chamber. And yes, there have been pictures of near 40 kaboom cases that came from a Dremeled out chamber here in the past, so what's the chamber like on that Beretta?? Failing that, perhaps a poor factory crimp coupled with a combination of recoil spring strength, slide velocity, ramp angle, and something else peculiar to that Beretta??

[Ron Burgundy]

I have a friend in SD that had the same issue with a 9000s a few years back. no squib before the ka-boom either running factory ball ammo.


Glad to see you didn't get hurt aside from the scratch and burn

After researching as much as I could on the web, this is one of the complaints that pops up most often on that particular model. There was no squib load or barrel obstruction and the ammo was brand new factory loaded 180gr. hardball from a box of 100 rnd. WWW. I'm going to drop it at my gunsmith next time I get his direction. I also fired the rest of that box and 3 more from my Taurus 840 with no issues.

Glad you're OK. I can't believe you shot the rest of the box following the kaboom. I know ammo is scarce but dayum! Keep us posted on what you find out from your 'smith.

[thunderoussilence]

Sam,

Is that the one you got from me?

Glad no physical damage to you

[XDM45]

I'm glad you're ok, and am curious as to the cause, do please keep us updated.

[gunforhire]

can we see some pics of this thing whe you get a chance? maybe one of the chamber as well? you may want to call beretta in the morning and see if they will do anything. i hope you saved your brass, because they will likely want to see it too