Overloaded Factory Ammo and Damaged Gun

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Contact Wolf. They are pretty good about taking care of this sort of thing. The shop my sister works at had a SA SOCOM II grenade using Wolf ammo. Wolf sent them a check to replace the gun before even receiving the rest of the ammunition in the case from which the bad round came.

As for me, I'll use Wolf in my AK's and SKS's, but that's it. For all my other stuff, I can still reload brass cased ammo for less than Wolf and know I have quality.
 
Wolf vs Kimber. Who's the culprit.

I vote Kimber. Not because I like wolf, just because Kimber is getting that bad. It's a shame, they make some good looking guns.
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I mean no disrespect but in reading this post I kind of feel like you are behind the times here. There's no denying that Kimber went through some rough times. Particularly with respect to their design changes, primarily an external extractor. It took them way too long but they fixed this problem. They got a lot of bad press and unfortunately it still haunts them. There guns are no more poorly made than any of the major manufacturers and in many cases they are better. There will always be owners that got a poor example or in this case got a poor design, heck they sold hundreds of thousands of this design they're out there. I shoot Kimbers and several other premium manufacturers .45's. The Kimbers stack up well with any of them. Saying that Kimber is just getting that bad is just like saying America, Smith & Wesson, Ford, Apple or Boeing are just getting that bad. It's all relative and there is always a bone to be picked.

By the way, I'm betting on faulty ammo but firing out of battery isn't out of the question. I'm glad the OP is still able to type this thread. There's always a bright side.
 
Roma Wrote:
Glad you weren't seriously hurt.. Welcome to THR! Nice pics btw.
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Thank you. I tried to make the pictures as clear as possible. Glad I wasn't hurt significantly, either. It did scare the daylights out of me, though.
 
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FWIW, I had a similar KB under a similar set of circumstances in my Beretta 92 using lower tier ammunition (not wolf) a few years ago. The KB round was about twice as loud as the previous rounds fired. Sorry about your gun, I hope that Wolf or Kimber makes things right, most importantly, glad to hear that you didn't sustain any serious injuries.
 
Gearhead wrote: By the way, I'm betting on faulty ammo but firing out of battery isn't out of the question.
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I'm thinking you and others that have suggested an out-of-battery fire may be correct, or that it was a faulty round. This was my first experience using Wolf (and last). Prior to this, I'd run about 500 rounds of Fiocchi ball and Speer gold dot through out. I'm calling Wolf, Kimber and Midway tomorrow morning. Midway and Wolf, according to a friend of mine who's a lawyer are both negligent from a legal perspective if the round was faulty. Kimber would be found negligent if there is a manufacturing defect in their product.

I'll post tomorrow once I've had the opportunity to speak to the three parties.

Wish me luck!
 
I don't see how Midway could be negligent at least from a sensible point of view, they didn't make the ammo they just sold it to you and unless you have reason to believe that they reasonably knew that it was bad ammo going after them is just vindictiveness.

Also good to hear you still have all your bits 'n' pieces attached.
 
RaspberrySuprise wrote: I don't see how Midway could be negligent at least from a sensible point of view, they didn't make the ammo they just sold it to you and unless you have reason to believe that they reasonably knew that it was bad ammo going after them is just vindictiveness.
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That's an interesting point, and I thought the same. A friend who's a lawyer explained to me this way:

A defect may be the result of a design defect or a manufacturing defect. If your bad Wolf round was the result of a manufacturing defect, then it was unreasonably dangerous. Product liablity is usually a strict liability tort. This means that the defendant is liable even if it was not negligent in any way. Liability is imposed on any business that manufactures or distributes the product. That would include Midway. The theory is that if you profit from the sale of products, then you should be responsible if they are defective.
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I'm not the vindicative sort, and hopefully, will not have to pursue legal alternatives to obtain a remedy.
 
Bogie, earlier in the thread, the OP poster said he could see the case that is still chambered. So I would say that no, there isn't a bullet lodged in the bore.
I'm curious if the OP poster has tried to get the pistol apart.
Might need a big rubber mallet. ;)
 
Wolf Ammo is not the best or even in the top half of ammo I will feed my firearms.
Stag Arms even warns ageinst using it in their AR's.
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Great! I've got a thousand rounds of the stuff for my Bushy for any possible SHTF scenario. I've never shot any, haven't even opened the box. Looks like I was counting on the wrong stuff to keep me safe.
 
Glad you're ok!

I hope you'll post the end results of all the gyrations. I"m particularly interested in the root cause. (I vote for out of battery or bullet setback)

Have a good one,
Dave
 
I'm curious if the OP poster has tried to get the pistol apart.
Might need a big rubber mallet.
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I'm thinking that if you are trying to accurately determining who is at fault that the last thing you want to be doing is taking the gun apart. Leave it as is so the "pros" can see what happened.
 
Evan wrote: I love this... nobody knows what actually happened but the lawyers are already working on the lawsuit.
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No, what I wrote is that a friend of mine who's a lawyer was explaining product liability/negligence to me. No lawyers are required yet.

Bogie, earlier in the thread, the OP poster said he could see the case that is still chambered. So I would say that no, there isn't a bullet lodged in the bore.
I'm curious if the OP poster has tried to get the pistol apart.
Might need a big rubber mallet.
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Correct, no bullet is lodged. I can see all the way to primer, and where the bottom of the case is blown out. Also, attempting to take the pistol apart is a bad idea. I'll leave that for the experts with true know-how.
 
The lawyer's already suggesting suing Midway. So in a couple of months we'll get posts asking "why have Midway's prices gone up?".
 
If any party's bear any responsibility I would think it would be Kimber or Wolf.
(Note: I am not a Lawyer nor do I pretend to be one)

I'm with most of the above posters, it sounds like either a OOBD or a CCF.
finding out which will be the hard part.
 
Product liablity is usually a strict liability tort.
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That applies to manufacturing defects. The idea is that once a design is tested (presumably for safety as well) and put into production, there is an incentive for insuring that the production standard is maintained and the customer gets precisely what they bargained for. So, the standard is strict liability as that puts the heaviest incentive on manufacturers to insure the product works as designed.

By contrast, there is an incentive for innovation. So, when there is a problem in a design, the standard usually applied is a negligence standard. Was the design defective on its face, or only when combined with some circumstance that the designer could/could not have reasonably foreseen?
 
Unknown Sailor...Gun went back to Kimber and it wasn't right after repairs... earlier in the thread
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Jolly: Actually, the OP's gun still hasn't even been disassembled. Doc2000 also had a Kimber KB, and HIS gun was never right.
 
"Ethics - how would this be midways fault? "
"jgo296 - wait so you are saying a 1911 kimber kaboomed? "
"evan price - I love this... nobody knows what actually happened but the lawyers are already working on the lawsuit. "


Did any of you read the entire thread? :rolleyes:
 
Brighamr wrote: Did any of you read the entire thread?
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Excellent point, brighamr! :)

Okay, here's where we are today with a recap for the purposes of setting the stage, so to speak. After the ammo incident I sent an email to Midway customer service and to Wolf customer service explaining what occurred with my Kimber. I received a reply from Midway Saturday afternoon expressing regret and letting me know my email was being forwarded to their product line manager. This morning Midway contacted Wolf. A representative from Wolf then called me at my office, and left a message on my home telephone. After playing telephone tag for a little while I connected with the representative. He opened a claim, took a statement from me regarding the incident, the condition of the pistol, it's age, how long I'd owned it, and lastly, requested that I send it to Kimber for evaluation. He stated further that A) Wolf will pay for repair or replacement, and B) that he's sending a UPS tag for the ammo to be returned, and C) they will replace the 500 rounds I'd purchased through Midway with new ammo. The individual with whom I spoke was very nice and very interested in what occurred. It's also a nice touch that Midway contacted them as well. Personally, I think Midway is outstanding and I've always had a good experience with them.

Tomorrow the pistol will ship to Kimber, and I'll post the results of their evaluation.

Lastly, thanks to all you guys who jumped in with comments/thoughts/observations and opinions. I greatly appreciate all the feedback.

Joel
 
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