Odd 10-22 Kaboom

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C-grunt

C-grunt

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I wanted to run this by you guys as my brother in law and I couldn't figure it out.

A week ago my brother in law, we'll call him K. went out into the desert for some plinking. He has an older model 10-22 that his was shooting. We shot for a good hour when all of a sudden he had a kaboom.

The round sounded much louder than normal and a bunch of dark colored smoke came out of the action and through the mag well. K got some slight burns on his off hand fingers. the rifle ejected the casing.

My immediate thought was a squib load but we are both fairly certain the previous round fired as it sounded fine, ejected the shell and Im pretty sure I saw the impact.

One problem we had was that we couldn't find the ejected casing to look at it. K is sending the rifle back to Ruger to have it looked over but there was no visible damage what so ever. The ammo was a mixed bag of factory ammo so its unsure what brand it was.

So my question is, if the previous round fired as normal what else could have caused this?
 
Sounds like when I blew a primer out on my Mosin Nagant.

I've not heard of this happening often in a 22, but if the firing pin pierced the rim (or the round was defective and was split or opened in the rear) I imagine the effects would be identical to what you have described. The escaping powder gasses and flecks of unburned powder are able to cause mild burns. Is K left handed by chance? If his support arm was exposed to the ejection port, this would make more sense.

Obviously this would be easier if you found the casing. :neener:

Ruger will correct any headspacing issues or firing pin issues, if there are any. I would suspect it was a bad round though. This ammo wasn't older like the rifle, was it?
 
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Sounds like the rim let go. Not common today, but it happened a lot in the old days of copper cases, which is why many of the older .22's had recessed chambers. Since the case was not found, it is not possible to be sure that is what it was, but it sure sounds like it.

Jim
 
First of all, not too uncommon with certain brands of ammo whose name starts with an R.

Give it a good cleaning, paying attention to the chamber, older rifles or those shot a lot will form a carbon ring in the chamber that may contribute to this.

Always check the bore for a stuck bullet after an out of battery ignition in any firearm. Make sure the extractor didn't get blown out.

No need to send it to Ruger, just a waste of time and money. It will tick on just fine.
 
I've had the same issue with ammo that starts with a W. W standing for "Won't buy again". R standing for "Right there with W". In my case, the Winchester ammo was out of spec and would not go fully into battery in any firearm without excessive force. Tried a couple in a semi-auto and had an Out-Of-Battery case rupture. A hole was blow out where the case rim and the case wall meet. The rounds only were out by about the width of the rim but that was enough to let go. My guess is you had a round that didn't fully reach battery. The 10-22 design stops this from happening to some extent, but slightly out of battery rounds I believe are still possible to set off, though I don't have my 10-22 in front of me to check.
 
I've had several case head separations with Remington Thunderbolt. I guess I'm not tactful enough to just call it "R"...

I shot or sold all I had and went back to Federal if I need bulk and CCI if I need better...
 
I will echo the ammo as prime suspect.

Find a copy of "The book of the .22 rifle" - it has a very long and detailed chapter on various rimfire ammunition issues.
 
Yeah, me too. I've had it happen with Federal in a Sterling Arms in 1973. In the 80's a YellowJacket case head let go in a NAA, burned a really nice hole in my thumb. Had another YellowJacket let go in an AR7 last year. It happens. As long as the bullet makes it clear of the barrel, no worries...unless it blew the extractor into the next time zone.
 
Yet another good reason to not dump your ammo in a paper bag and shake it up before shooting it.

Every box or carton of ammo has a lot number from the manufacture stamped on it.
That is how manufactures ID problem ammo.
That is how recalls are forced if a certain lot of ammo is causing problems like yours.

Once that lot number is gone, you have no recourse as far as notifying the ammo manufacture of any problem, or getting any compensation for it.

Whatever happened was an ammo related problem.

And you should not have shoved it off on Ruger to pay for fixing it.

rc
 
I wouldn't waste time and $$ sending it anywhere. You didn't have 1/2# of C4 go off, for Pete's sake! It was a .22 l.r. cartridge! :evil:
 
Shooting quickly or slowly?

Either way, check to see if the trigger will drop the firing pin if the bolt is held back a few mm from the bolt face (it shouldnt).

Then clean the chamber, bolt, and bolt face thoroughly.
 
You know given that the priming compound is in the rim of the cartridge and all it takes is a sharp blow to set it off, I think it is remarkable that we don't read of more slamfires in rimfire rifles.
 
I've seen this on several occasions. Did the round in question FTF previously, and if so was it reinserted into the rifle for a second chance to ? If so, its possible that the firing pin indent from the first hit weakend the rim sufficiently to allow propellent gas to escape into the action and cause the resultant activity you describe.
 
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