YouTuber Kentucky Ballistics almost dies from 50 cal explosion

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Lesson to be learned here is, surplus ammunition from an unknown source is sometimes not a good thing to shoot. He said he thought it was military surplus, but was not firm on it.
To have the rear threaded cap blow off, its amazing he didn't suffer more injuries.

Big badda boom!
 
I have read SLAP rounds are recommended for use ONLY in M2 Browning machine guns and are not recommended for sniper rifle use.

Added:
Powder charge of most .50 BMG cartridges is 210 to 225 grains of rifle powder.
Some early WWII M2 hangrenades had a powder charge of 315 grains pistol powder before they switched to high explosives.
Luckily the pressure of a .50 BMG is vented by the bullet going down and leaving the barrel.
Except here it was vented at both ends.

Good thing that stripping the threads off the barrel end musta slowed that cap considerably.
 
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"Velocity: 3985 feet per second
Maximum effective range: 4921.5 feet (1500 meters) against 3/4" High Hard Armor (HHA)

50 caliber SLAP ammunition was developed by the Marine Corps during the mid/late 1980s and was approved for service use in 1990 during Operation Desert Storm. It uses a reduced caliber, heavy metal (tungsten) .30 inch diameter penetrator wrapped in a "plastic" sabot or "shoe" of .50 inch diameter.
Since the mass of the saboted penetrator is much lighter in weight than normal ball .50 caliber ammunition, SLAP's velocity can be significantly and safely increased in an unmodified M2 Machine Gun. This produces a very fast round with a very flat trajectory which enhances hit probability. SLAP ammuntion is completely interoperable with M2 machine guns with stellite liner.

Background: During the 1980s, the Marine Corps invested in both .50 caliber and 7.62 x 51 SLAP concepts. The .50 caliber effort was very successful and extends the light armor capability of the M2 Heavy Machine Gun significantly. The 7.62mm effort was not successful in the M60 and caused catastrophic barrel failures due to in-bore break-up of the sabot and the penetrator puncturing the side of the barrel. Also, its increase in penetration was not on the same order of magnitude as the .50 caliber SLAP's." Quote from FAS.

I would imagine his rifle suffered the same same fate as the 7.62 in the M60. It appears in the slow motion of the explosion very little gas exited the barrel. looks like most was expelled around the receiver.
 
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That is crazy. He is definitely lucky to be alive and that they didn't waste any time. What a story. Doesn't sound like any negligence on this part. Just a freak occurrence. Hopefully he makes people think twice about being airheads with guns. Not that he was being an airhead, but I've seen some iffy stuff on YouTube, people doing questionable things for views....
 
Here's what myself and a friend think happened. He was shooting rounds through the rifle and heating up the barrel/chamber.

The rifles chamber is tighter because it wasn't made to handle the SLAP-T ammo being fired. The sabot came into contact with the chamber wall and melted to it. When he pulled the trigger to shoot the round and the sabot being stuck to the chamber wall allowed the pressure nowhere to go... kaboom!

All the pressure had to go somewhere and that was right out the rear of the barrel. As I said, you need a proper chamber to shoot SLAP .50 out of.
 
Carl N. Brown said:
I have read SLAP rounds are recommended for use ONLY in M2 Browning machine guns and are not recommended for sniper rifle use.

Added:
Powder charge of most .50 BMG cartridges is 210 to 225 grains of rifle powder.
Some early WWII M2 hangrenades had a powder charge of 315 grains pistol powder before they switched high explosives.
Luckily the pressure of a .50 BMG is vented by the bullet going down and leaving the barrel.
Except here it was vented at both ends.

Good thing that stripping the threads off the barrel end musta slowed that cap considerably.
Click to expand...
Yep, just got done reading about them that is what I got from the article. These are machine-gun rounds.
 
Have any of you have a round explode in the chamber?
I’ve heard this happens sometimes with hand loading and being run to hot. I shoot only factory ammo and have never experienced it.
 
Such a violent impact. He is lucky he had dad watching out for him and that they had good sense about them. I know of thr Serbu, just not really familiar with their reputation. Are they known for KB's?
 
The design of this .50 is not from Mark Serbu, he helped the guy that designed it, bring it to market.

It has his name on it because of all the work he did on the design and that it comes out of his shop.

All of his stuff is solid, including the RN-50 that's in the video.
 
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