Destructive, Dangerous, and Deadly use of Blanks

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Today is the 30 anniversary of actor Jon Erik-Hexum unintentionally committing suicide by jokingly putting a pistol loaded with a blank to his head and pulling the trigger. We rarely discuss blank safety here on THR so I am wondering if it is not time to do so. Does anyone have personal experience with unsafe use of blanks or seen or received injury from blank fire. Here are my personal stories of witnessing unsafe use of blanks.

During an FTX at Ft. Bragg in my first year in the Army a newly promoted Sergeant came to me the morning after having stood guard. He was panic stricken repeatedly whining “I’ve (expletive deleted)-up, I’ve (expletive deleted)-up” over and over. It was to say the least a bit disconcerting for a PFC on his second FTX. What the Sergeant had done during the boredom of standing guard at zero-dark-thirty he chambered a blank in his M16, removed the BFD, and proceed to fill the rifle’s barrel to the muzzle with powder from de-crimped blanks. When the rifle came into my hands the action was partially unlocked and welded (more accurately brazed) tightly in the receiver. On that day this Sergeant was the luckiest man in the U.S. Army. I being a very inexperience PFC and working with an even more inexperienced PVT just happened to be eager to show how STRAC we were and had all the parts needed to completely rebuild the entire upper receiver assembly to include bolt carrier group. I still have the damaged bolt carrier group with the blank case-head still brazed to the bolt face. In this instance of destructive use of blanks nobody was physically injured but one U.S. Army Sergeant was certainly scarred silly and humiliated.

My other story is of the practice of shooting cleaning rod sections out of M16s using blanks. You can shoot a rod section with a blank and nothing too bad will happen to the barrel or shooter. You cannot however do the same with a M193 Ball round. I still have have the cross-sectioned M16 barrel that contains a half a cleaning rod section with half of a 55gr bullet behind it wedging both tightly in the barrel. I never did learn who caused this FUBAR but since nobody was reported as injured I assume no injuries occurred.

It may take some time but I will find the bolt carrier and the cross-sectioned barrel to post photos of each.

Edit: Photos posted being at post #14.
 
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I have seen the aftermath of some yahoo putting an M16 blank adapter on a SAW, which is hard to do. The adapter was damage while they put it on and eventually blew apart while firing at people, pieces few about 20yds and lodged in a tree someone was hiding behind. New safety measures were implemented, including limiter brackets that would not let the shooter point lower than 10 ft off the ground, the gun was vehicle mounted.
 
I almost got my head shot off by the lead wad in a 4.2" Mortar ignition cartridge.

Running a 106mm RR squad during training.

The opposing force took a shot at my gun jeep using a sub-caliber device in their 106mm RR.
They ran out of 12 ga blanks, so had started using mortar ignition cartridges.

Who knew the mortar ignition cartridge contains a lead wad?
But the copper cap should have tipped them off 'something' was going to fly down range!!

Anyway it passed between my driver and myself and shot the right side windshield out of our jeep right in front of my face!!
Sounded like a buzz-saw when it went by!

It couldn't have missed my head by more then an inch or two!

http://i41.tinypic.com/2mecsu8.jpg

PS: I also saw an M-14 completely destroyed in basic/AIT by some combination of blank powder & a full length cleaning rod down the barrel.

Don't know how many blanks the guy emptied out to make the charge.
But it was a good one for sure!!


rc
 
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Speaking of... This another M-16 /FTX story. I was the driver for the Battalion Medical Officer. We had removed those red muzzle attachments from the muzzle and I was under the mistaken impression another guy cleared my weapon. So, when I got into the jeep I slammed the rifle butt on the floor between the seats. The round in the chamber went off and blew a hole in the canvas right above the PA's head. He didn't say a word, he just gave me that "bull with a *astard calf" look. And then it rained. Yea, those primer can really reach out. Be safe.
 
During AF SP tech school in Tejas years ago they bussed us out to a nearby training range base for live fire & a brief war game.

For the war game, we used BFA-equipped M16s & blanks.
Split us up into two sides, one dug in, the other attacked over a ridge.

During the game, Guy One carefully maneuvered up behind Guy Two.
Both were on the same side, but there was some sort of feud between them.

Guy One got just behind Guy Two & emptied an entire 20-round mag of blanks on full auto into the back of his head & neck.

Never did hear what happened to Guy One, but Guy Two got a little scorched over it.

The BFAs we used were screw-on flash-hider lookalikes, with solid sides & a small hole in the front end to allow just enough gas to escape to still let the gun cycle with blanks.
Not the orange clamp-ons you see today.

What came out the front could burn, if you were close enough in front of it.
Denis
 
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Jon Erik-Hexum

I remember too well the death of mr.Hexum,I was a fan of that show and it was not at all amusing to think ANYONE was that careless with a firearm.

My first wife cried about that death.

I also recall the death of Jason Lee [ Bruce Lee's son ].

He was supposedly killed due to a 'blank round' that had a bullet left behind in the cylinder ,after the gun was fired with dummy rounds and the bullet pulled loose and remained in the cylinder.

Not able to swear that it happened that way,but sounds reasonable.

Another "blank" round causing a death.
 
A lot of folks do not seem to understand that even a blank is developing tens of thousand of PSI of gas pressure.
At close rang just the gas is deadly.
Humans are not designed to deal with pressures like this.
 
scaatylobo said:
I remember too well the death of mr.Hexum,I was a fan of that show and it was not at all amusing to think ANYONE was that careless with a firearm.

My first wife cried about that death.

I also recall the death of Jason Lee [ Bruce Lee's son ].

He was supposedly killed due to a 'blank round' that had a bullet left behind in the cylinder ,after the gun was fired with dummy rounds and the bullet pulled loose and remained in the cylinder.

Not able to swear that it happened that way,but sounds reasonable.

Another "blank" round causing a death.
Click to expand...
You're thinking of Brandon Lee, killed while filming "The Crow". Jason Lee (star of My Name is Earl, among other things) is someone else.

Jason Scott Lee, however, is also a son of Bruce Lee, and is still alive, AFAIK.
 
I also recall the death of Jason Lee [ Bruce Lee's son ].

He was supposedly killed due to a 'blank round' that had a bullet left behind in the cylinder ,after the gun was fired with dummy rounds and the bullet pulled loose and remained in the cylinder.
Click to expand...

As USAF pointed out, it was Brandon Lee. I'd heard several stories over the years, but the one that finally seemed to be closest to the truth is that the "dummy" rounds they used for a close-up of the gun were actually live rounds with which they had pulled bullets, dumped power and reseated projectiles. Seems that somewhere between than close-up shot and the fatal moment with a blank, some idiot discharged one of the squib rounds, leaving a bullet in the bore.

Death was ruled an accident, but bottom line is it was negligence of multiple parties that resulted in Brandon's death.
 
Although not really a blank, in my youth I loaded a 20 ga shotshell with paper chads from my dads paper punch. I planned on "shooting" one of my friends when he came down the steps to my bedroom. I loaded the chads tight. When my friend came down the steps, I fired, hitting him square in the chest. I never gave a thought to the plastic wad holding the "shot" column together and the chads all stayed packed tightly together. The bruise on his chest was just a little bigger than the black eye he gave me....lesson learned!
 
Blank, empty or loaded- ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction. Seems to be an easy rule to follow, but many have not learned it.
 
Here is the sectioned barrel. Look closely to see the bullet behind the cleaning rod section and the threads of the cleaning rod section. The barrel extension was melted.


barrel section threads.jpg

Having problems loading the other photos. Will try to split in to multiple posts.
 
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Never had so many difficulties loading photos!
 

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As far as ordinary blanks go, hang a folded newspaper or phonebook and fire at it at close range. With some cartridges at close range, the effect is like setting off an M80 and blowing a hole or serious crater. Even as you back off and increase range, debris expelled from the barrel can by damaging or at least painful.

Blanks are as dangerous as fireworks handled improperly.
 
Friend of mine started reloading shotshells, and he assembled a "blank" with no shot, but a couple of fiber wads. Test fired in his basement, it made a satisfactory "BANG" . . . and the wad column punched a rather large hole in his back door which was a good 30 feet downrange. :eek:

Fortunately, he was savvy enough not to point any gun - empty or "blank" loaded - at anyone else, as the only other person in the basement at the time (me!) would have been rather upset.

brickeyee said:
A lot of folks do not seem to understand that even a blank is developing tens of thousand of PSI of gas pressure. At close rang just the gas is deadly. Humans are not designed to deal with pressures like this.
Click to expand...
If blanks didn't develop high pressures, they'd go "poof" instead of "bang."

Carl N. Brown said:
. . . With some cartridges at close range, the effect is like setting off an M80 and blowing a hole or serious crater. Even as you back off and increase range, debris expelled from the barrel can by damaging or at least painful . . .
Click to expand...
A former colleague told me of a time he was working as some sort of contractor at Ft. Sill, OK. They were driving their van down a road on base that was open (shouldn't have been) when some artillery guys a couple of hundred yards away fired one of their LARGE cannons above them. Though the shell passed well overhead, the driving band from the projectile separated and punched a LARGE hole through both sides of their van . . . the concussion from the muzzle blast was "considerable."
 
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That's a wild one RC. I was hoping the link had a pic of you standing next to the blown out windshield. Or at least a pic of Ol' RC in his army duds!
 
From my earliest beginnings with firearms, including pellet guns, I have always treated them with the respect and safety they demand. I will not associate with those who treat them other wise, for my safety and well being, and that of those around me.

GS
 
^Wish I could say the same about not fraternizing with those that don't treat them with respect. The friends in my neighborhood growing up were absolutely insane with pellet guns/pellet gun war. Surprised I survived with both eyes intact.
 
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