[cslinger]

Kabooms with various firearms. Luckily it seems at though most folks who experience a KB with either a rifle or pistols seem to end up with minor injuries and a need of a change of underear.

So lets talk about KBs and what actually happens. Please do not interject Glock bashing or anything else to that effect because all guns have the capability to KB whether through poor factory ammo or bubba's crazy but stomping, buffalo flattening, special, reloads.

It seems to me that most well made firearms, although destroyed in the process seem to do a reasonably good job at protecting the shooter, whether rifle or pistol. I have seen pictures of both rifles and pistols that have had catestrophic failures that look like they should have killed the user yet the user escaped with nothing more then minor injuries and soild underwear.

Chris

[Taurus 66]

I have heard of a few injuries (no deaths), but never found any documented cases in the local or national news. The stories I heard were along hearsay. I did at one time watch a History Channel documentary on the M-16A1 where during a military testing phase the barrel had a huge blow out, with flame and shrapnel missing the shooter's hand by just a few inches.

[jtward01]

I had an RG .38spl revolver blow up in my hand. No injuries. The cylinder split in half, almost as cleanly as if it had been cut with a saw. It split horizontally. The gun kicked down when it fired. When I looked I saw that the top strap and top half of the cylinder were gone. The cylinder had punched a hole in the tin roof over the firing line. The missing pieces were never found.

The revolver blew because an idiot friend of a friend had stolen some ammo off my reloading bench. They were .38 spl cases loaded to .357 pressures for use by some local police officers who were allowed to carry .357 handguns, but only .38 spl ammo. (This was in the mid-1970s.) I was shooting the gun because this guy had followed my friend and I to the range and he couldn't hit a thing with the gun. I offered to shoot it to see if the problem was him or the gun. Never had a chance to find out.

[Gunpacker]

A few years ago, one of the owners of a large Milsurp importer, or wholesaler, was killed when the bolt came out of a US Lee Navy rifle. I don't remember the particulars, but there was some kind of problem with reloads. Way over pressure I believe. Never saw descriptions of the wounds, but couldn't have been pretty.
In another case, long, long ago, Paul Mauser (yes, THE Paul Mauser) lost an eye when the bolt came out of one of his prototypes I believe.

[newfalguy101]

I personally was killed once by a splodin gun, oh wait never mind :evil:












But seriously, of all the KB'd guns I have seen ( mostly pics) I dont recall hearing about any serious injuries, well cept the guy that gunpacker refered to, and dyin's bout as serious as it gets

[JohnKSa]

I have seen the immediate aftermath of a kB!. The shooter came into the clubhouse with the damaged Glock 17. Magazine was blown out, slide was bulged and split on the top, the frame was cracked and the barrel was split.

His only injury was "ammunition amnesia"--he couldn't remember ANYTHING about what kind of ammo he had been shooting.

After he left, one of his buddies told us that he had been shooting ammunition from his VERY FIRST attempt at reloading... :rolleyes:

[Rem700SD]

I believe that a 1998 estimate was <1000 accidental firearm-related fatalities. I recall that from one of Wayne LaPierre's books...

[Taurus 66]

I personally was killed once by a splodin gun, oh wait never mind

Nice try, but cslinger is very precise in his wording. He did not say, "So how many of you folks have been seriously injured or killed from ...", or "So how many here have been seriously injured or or killed from ..."

SO :neener: to you. :p

[newfalguy101]

Nice try, but cslinger is very precise in his wording. He did not say, "So how many of you folks have been seriously injured or killed from ...", or "So how many here have been seriously injured or or killed from ..."

SO :neener: to you. :p



pesky details :neener: :neener: :neener:

[slzy]

i don'tknow if this fits the thread or not,but i feel like telling the story.i read this in a newspaper 10 or 15 years ago. yes,it is alcohol related. these guys ad handloaded some .270s,and were trying to zero a scope. they shot a lot,and could'nt do it. whoever brought 'em more ammo,brought .280s, also hand loaded and hot.dude said he felt like the bolt closed hard. he lived,but the bolt went through his face.

[McCall911]

I remember a case from the late '80s or early '90s that was actually disseminated for broadcast nationwide over the NCIC law enforcement network. (I guess it's okay for me to talk about this now. :uhoh: )

Anyway, what supposedly happened was an officer in Georgia IIRC was either practicing or qualifying with his Smith & Wesson Model 645--when it (reportedly) exploded!!! :eek:

The details that I recall are fuzzy at best, but the message attributed the explosion to some sort of powder build-up inside the frame (or maybe it was the slide.). :scrutiny:

(Friends, your question is my question: "How the heck could this have happened?" :what: )


I never saw any follow up message to this one which gave any additional details, nor have I learned much else but the speculation that the officer was playing with some sort of handloads which may have wrecked his pistol and caused minor injuries to his person.

Anyway, I hope we can rule out some unheard-of design flaw inherent in the S&W 645, as I own one and love it. (It's my nightstand gun BTW!)

[NeoCon]

I saw my father have a KB, of sorts. He was shooting some old, cheap .22 LR rifle someone had left at the cabin. For whatever reason the bolt and vicinity of the bolt exploded. Some pieces flew in his face and broke his sunglasses; fortunately he wasn't hurt.

[f4t9r]

So how many folks have been seriously injured or killed from......

I am pretty sure I have not been killed. (so far) and hope to keep it that way

[R.W.Dale]

A few years ago, one of the owners of a large Milsurp importer, or wholesaler, was killed when the bolt came out of a US Lee Navy rifle. I don't remember the particulars, but there was some kind of problem with reloads. Way over pressure I believe. Never saw descriptions of the wounds, but couldn't have been pretty.
In another case, long, long ago, Paul Mauser (yes, THE Paul Mauser) lost an eye when the bolt came out of one of his prototypes I believe.

I remember reading about that. I'll try to dig up some more info. But I believe it was last year.:(

[Chipperman]

I personally witnessed a kB! of a Glock 21. The shooter was shooting his own reloads, with lead bullets. Not sure if it was a double charge, or poss lead buildup causing it to fire slightly out of battery. We never found the brass. Anyway, the frame was split down the grip, the mag blew out of the bottom. A Hogue grip was over the main grip, which I believe saved the shooter's hand from major injury.

He came away with a fairly superficial cut along his palm, about 3cm long. It did not require any sutures. I think it would have been much worse if the Hogue grip had not been on the gun.

He sent the gun to Glock, with full disclosure about what happened. They replaced the frame for a fair price. I forget exactly how much, but something like $200.

[1911Tuner]

One of the mauser brothers fired a prototype from the shoulder???:scrutiny:

I had a gun blow up and kill me once...but I got over it.

[Trebor]

I found this on another site. It was dated July 2002:

Farewell to Glenn deRuiter of SARCO
Submitted by: Evan F. Nappen
Website: http://www.evannappen.com There are no comments on this story
Post Comments | Read Comments

Glenn was involved in a tragic accident on Saturday, June 29th when his 1895 Remington Lee Rifle exploded. He was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, PA, but was not able to recover. He was 54.

Glenn was a devoted employee of Sarco for 28 years, and specialized in military firearms. He had a tremendous love for guns and was passionate about his work. He was among the most well respected and knowledgeable people in the industry. Glenn was good friend and he will be missed.

[rwc]

I had a kb w/ a G17 back in the late 1980s. I walked away with just a "stinger" (about like holding a little firecracker tightly in your hand and letting it go off).

[spooney]

I have a good friend who blew up an old NEF single shot shotgun, a piece of barrel about 3.5cm's long went through his left forearm traveled up the bone and lodged just below his elbow. He said it hurt like hell.

[bogie]

1) A benchrest shooter at an event I was attending used a section of cleaning rod to drop down the barrel to dislodge a bullet stuck at the throat. He neglected to remove the rod. When he fired the next round, the bolt froze, and hot gas/brass came back out of the action, and penetrated his skull. He lost consciousness soon after, and died at the hospital.

2) A friend blew up a Para Ordnance 1911. I suspect he double-charged the case (Dillon 550), but he swears he didn't. Given that I've seen him do some beers while loading, I'm gonna stick with my theory. Only thing I'd use a non-indexing progressive reloader for would be rounds where you are using 65% or more of powder capacity.

3) No kaboom, but it woulda probably been fatal. A guy I used to know bought a muzzleloader rifle at a flea market or a yard sale or something... He went to a local gun store to buy supplies. He knows NOTHING. He had the right size balls, the right primers, but I suspect that he musta been REALLY rude to the guy behind the counter, because he got sold a pound of Bullseye. And he didn't want to believe me when I told him about the possible consequences... Finally managed to trade him some rifle black powder for it... In hindsight, I shoulda let him go ahead...

[R.H. Lee]

I would be interested to hear of there are any documented KB's with factory ammo and factory firearms (without some bore obstruction, of course). The sharp rear of the bolt on the Marlin 336 always gives me pause, but I've never heard of a 336 KB or even failure.

Yesterday the rangemaster told a story of a guy who showed up with a milsurp he'd just picked up from Big 5, and was having trouble chambering a round. He asked the RM for help. Upon inspection, the bore was plugged with cosmoline............:uhoh:

[scott5]

At the gun store I frequent, one of the workers there showed me his mod 19 smith that had half the cylinder and the top strap blown off.

His tale is that he was shooting at the range with only one other person there and all of a sudden Kaboom.:cuss: He saw a piece go horizontal to his left.

He said that was his favorite revolver too.:banghead:

After that he packed up his stuff and headed for home when he noticed the other fellows truck window was broken, so he stopped and looked at the mess and sure enough a big chunk of his revolver had broken the guys window.:what: :cuss: :banghead:

If someone had been standing to he left when the KB happened they would not have stood for anything after that. :what: :fire:

[AK103K]

My right hand got tore up pretty good when my DCM Garand went hand grenade. I'm just glad it happened when I was single loading it, we never found the rear of the receiver, which I have a feeling would have ended up in my head. The worst part of the whole thing was, it happened in New Jersey and trying to convince the people at the hospital that it wasnt a "gun shot" wound and no need to bring the police into it.

[telomerase]

>My right hand got tore up pretty good when my DCM Garand went hand grenade.

Do you think this was because Garands don't like civvie 30-06, or was it a metallurgy problem? (BTW, sorry about your injury).

[1911Tuner]

>My right hand got tore up pretty good when my DCM Garand went hand grenade.

Do you think this was because Garands don't like civvie 30-06, or was it a metallurgy problem? (BTW, sorry about your injury).


Slam-fire or firing out of battery. Seen Garands do that. Soft or sensitive primers can be a contributing factor. Garand, M1-A, M-14, and AR-15/M-16
firing pins "float" and will lightly dent a primer as the bolt goes to battery.
Fire a round and eject the next one to see it. That's why CCI offers harder
Mil-Spec primers...for self loading rifles like these.

[telomerase]

Slam-fire or firing out of battery. Seen Garands do that. Soft or sensitive primers can be a contributing factor. Garand, M1-A, M-14, and AR-15/M-16
firing pins "float" and will lightly dent a primer as the bolt goes to battery.

I see. Don't some SKS and other semiautos do this too? I guess what I want to ask is: "which semiautos have well-designed firing pin springs?"

Or should one just buy a trusty K31?

[AK103K]

I believe it slam fired. The recovered case was missing the front half, which leads me to believe it fired out of battery. The ammo was DCM issued GI Lake City 69 and not commercial 30-06 or reloads. I sent it back to Anniston and they never did tell me what they thought the cause was. They did send me a brand new H&R though. I still shoot M1's, but I no longer load single rounds by allowing the bolt to go home on its own, and anymore, I usually use a SLED. I also only use CCI primers when I do reload, for both my M1 and M1A's, and I also mike the primers.

edit to add: I dont believe that the M1 and M1A's firing pins can protrude or reach the primer, due to a slotted bridge in the receiver, that wont allow the tail of the firing pin by until the bolt is closing or closed.

[kahr404life]

I was right handed but now they call me lefty. Lucky for me a serial killer was put to death and they gave me his right hand. The only trouble I have with it is when I try to shave right handed. That hand allways tries to cut my throat. :scrutiny:

[longhorngunman]

Yeah, what happened to the Garand? That exposed bolt action always seemed to me could become deadly if something was out of whack.

Whoops, never mind.