.22 Mishap

[GD]

I took my wife out target shooting today, and she did pretty well until a kaboom occured. She was shooting a Remington Speedmaster 552 with Remington golden bullet ammo. All of a sudden, we got a loud report and the magazine bottom plate blew out of the rifle. A load of gas blew over me as I was standing behind and to the side of the rifle. I examined the case and the whole back end of the case was missing. Apparently the head separated during firing and the next round got jammed entering the chamber. It scared my wife enough that she quit shooting. I hope I haven't ruined her interest in shooting.
How common is this?

 

[TheDriver]

Scary. Glad everyone is OK.

And THAT is why we wear eye pro....

 

[JDGray]

I've seen it once, in many, many, thousands of rounds, not too common. Glad yer ok!

 

[mdm288]

my friend and i were shooting once when he had a similar mishap with golden bullet ammo. a part of the sidewall of the bullet case blew out near the base. he was using a remington model 572 fieldmaster, it kaboomed and broke the ejector and the spent case had to be ripped out. personally i would not use golden bullet ammo, i have seen too many failures with it along with feed problems. same with remington thunderbolt. i've even seen the bullet be over sized and not feed into the chamber. id have the gun checked to make sure it's safe and buy some federal bulk pack stuff from walmart, i've had the best luck with that and by far the least amount of fail to fires and fail to ejects

 

[Yo Mama]

GD, i'm confused:

Apparently the head separated during firing and the next round got jammed entering the chamber.

So did the first bullet get stuck in the barrel? Or was the 2nd round just jammed?

First thing i'd do is a call to Remington. Keep the round. Take pictures of the gun. I'm guessing it's damaged now.

As to how common it is....you won the lottery there man, very unusual, it does happen but almost never.

 

[joustin]

I had that happen to me with my 597, it killed the magazine and the back of the case looked like a tin can, the case head was barely hanging on. I tossed the mag since I lost the spring. I checked the barrel and after I was sure it was clear I starting shooting again. It was a Golden Bullet as well, that is the last box of those I bought. Pretty happy that it was my only out of battery detonation.

 

[Geno]

It happened to me once, with Remington Thunderbolts, in my T/C R-55 Classic. It too blew the magazine to pieces, and split the stock. Wow it was loud when it let loose.

Geno

 

[CZguy]

I'm curious now, has this ever happened to anyone using something other than Remington ammo?

 

[sniper58]

It's never happened to me with anything but Remington ammo.
It happened twice to me in an Anschutz model 520 and model 525
It's getting hard to find new extractors for these rifles, so I will not use any Remington amo in any of my semi-autos.

 

[lomfs24]

A similar thing happened to me. I was shooting Remington Golden Bullets in an older Marlin 39A Golden. It was getting close to dark and we came across a family of varmits that needed some attention. I shot a couple time when the next shot sounded very loud and I was hit in the face with a hot gasses. I thought that something blew up. I didn't see where the spent case went when I ejected. I broke the gun apart and couldn't see through the barrel. So I quit shooting for the night. The next day I tore the gun apart and everything looked normal and I could see all the way through the barrel.

Didn't think anything of it until I just read this thread.

 

[Cypress]

I had a problem with the Federal Auto-match (I think that's right) from Wal-Mart. They would not reliably cycle my autos so I went out to shoot them up in a single six. Two or three were so weak that I could actually see the bullet leave the barrel and track it to the groud. If it had been a rifle it would have surely stuck in the barrel. Apparently quality control is getting bad everywhere.

 

[tenbears]

I had that happen to me years ago, back in the late 70's with some off the wall brand of ammo Kmart was selling at the time called, "Sterling" ammo in.22lr. Happened in a Jennings 22 auto. Blew the charge between the slide and receiver into my right eye. Never bought that stuff again, and it disappeared off the shelf shortly after-wards for some strange reason.

 

[MountainBear]

I had a similar thing happen with Remington Thunderbolt ammo. Its called a case-head separation. It happens infrequently, but it happens. Its happened to me once, and it sucks. Tell your wife that's why she was wearing ear and eye protection. Accidents are going to happen. A gun is simply a vessel that contains an explosion. Give her a day or two, and get her back on the horse, so to speak...

 

[VA27]

Shoot enough rimfire ammo and it'll happen.

Blew a casehead in a Sterling pistol back in 1971, Federal ammo.

Blew a casehead in an NAA in the late 80's and it burned a big ol' hole in my thumb, Remington Yellow Jacket.

A coupla years ago, blew the barrel off of a NAA Black Widow, Remington Yellow Jacket, again.

With BILLIONS of rounds of 22LR made every year, the wonder is that it really doesn't happen all that often.

 

[cal74]

I blew a Winchester Wild Cat in my Ruger Mark I many years ago, didn't really do or sound any different but noticed the stuck case when the next round failed to feed.

 

[Carl Levitian]

"All of a sudden, we got a loud report and the magazine bottom plate blew out of the rifle."


I too am a little confused over your post. Having owned a Remington 552 speedmaster for over 20 years now, I'm at a loss as to what you are calling a magazine bottom plate. The speedmaster I own has a tube magazine rnning under the barrel. Are you saying it blew the tube out of the magazine?

Or is there a variant of the speedmaster that takes a removable magazine?

There is no bottom plate on the gun, expept for the trigger group that has to have two pins driven out like the 870 shotgun, to drop out.

Do you have pics?

 

[skoro]

How common is this?

I've had the exact same thing happen to me a couple of times when using Remington GBs in my 552. Since I switched to anything but Remington 22LR ammo it's never happened again.

Those "Golden Bullets" are the worst ammo on the planet. Severe quality issues. And, as we've both learned, it can be unsafe as well.