Exploding AR9 round

Status
Not open for further replies.
What weight buffer? It needs to be a heavy 9MM buffer. I have shot a bunch of full power rounds through my 9MM AR with no bulged cases.

And while it dirties up cases worse than a locked breech design, it doesn't dirty them up nearly as bad as those in the pic.
 
What weight buffer? It needs to be a heavy 9MM buffer. I have shot a bunch of full power rounds through my 9MM AR with no bulged cases.

And while it dirties up cases worse than a locked breech design, it doesn't dirty them up nearly as bad as those in the pic.

The buffer is a 9mm extended length to help the bolt catch breaking problem. All parts are what I would consider upper middle shelf. I have $1500 in a rifle that is trying to blow my face off.
The brass looks darker than what it really is. It is about the same as out of my pistols. I put them through my chronograph at 997 average out of a 4in barrel.
 
I got the hankering to turn one of my AR’s into a 9mm, but all of the issues I have read about made me pause.

I went with the Ruger PC 9 instead. This gun has had some feeding issues written about as well, but not the myriad of issues of the AR design.

I hope you’re able to diagnose and fix the issues you are having with yours, as $1,500.00 is a lot to spend on a gun that’s not working for you.

Stay safe!
 
For anybody that might be interested, I just spent an hour trying to make this rifle fire out of battery and couldn't make it happen. I would take the bolt out, lock in a piece of primed brass, ease it in, then use the charging handle to pull it back about an 1/8 in. I could feel the hammer hit the bolt, but never would fire. I feel like I can trust the rifle again, but I have almost 600 rounds left of the lot that I loaded that night.
Was I asleep at the wheel??
 
I wasn't in rapid fire. There was at least 2 seconds between the last good shot and the bad round. It was the last round in the mag, so maybe it didn't pickup just right. But still, I didn't think it could fire out of battery because of the AR design. But I was wrong. The rotating bolt is the difference.


This rules out bolt bounce as the cause of the OOB.

This leaves me to suspect a high primer.

How are you priming your reloads? What kind of primer?
 
I set primers as deep as i can without crushing them. I use thin skinned Winchesters and set em with a Lee bench prime. I haven't ever had a slam fire. It didn't go off until I pulled the trigger, then it went way off.
I have come to the conclusion, it was a double charge after testing the bolt for out of battery firing. With the testing I did, it seems next to impossible to fire OB
 
For anybody that might be interested, I just spent an hour trying to make this rifle fire out of battery and couldn't make it happen. I would take the bolt out, lock in a piece of primed brass, ease it in, then use the charging handle to pull it back about an 1/8 in. I could feel the hammer hit the bolt, but never would fire. I feel like I can trust the rifle again, but I have almost 600 rounds left of the lot that I loaded that night.
Was I asleep at the wheel??
Sounds like the gun is properly designed...at least you now KNOW the hammer can't hit the primer until the bolt is fully home. You also have checked that the projectile isn't engaging the rifling when chambering...yes? I had a short chambered Browning Hi-Power that just wouldn't take ammo that chambered easily in all 9 other guns at the time and if it did manage to get one chambered it would have very much higher pressure.

But super high pressure doesn't show on the primers (though that's a very imprecise way to gauge it) so early bolt movement coupled with perhaps some lack of ductility in the brass seems to be a good enough explanation for what happened. A more ductile case most likely would have just swelled up as shown in the examples posted by others and given a more gentle reminder that something is slightly amiss with the rifle.:)

What to do now? First question: what kind of hammer spring are you running? Unless you can add weight to the bolt/buffer assembly perhaps a heavier hammer or spring would add enough resistance to retard the blow-back a little longer? If I were you....I'd be doing something along those lines. You NEED to keep that bolt closed a wee bit longer methinks.:)
 
What is the weight of your bolt?

I have a JP Enterprises bolt in mine and it weighs 13.6 oz. I haven’t had any issues yet in mine but only have a few hundred factory rounds through it.

My JP Silent Capture buffet setup weighs 8.4 oz., so upon firing it has 22 oz. of resistance to overcome on a 9mm thrust.

With blowback operates firearms one wants to make sure about having a heavy enough Bolt (or BCG in this case) to more than counter the resistance of the bullet leaving the cartridge and the friction caused by the rifling so that the bolt has adequate dwell time to let initial pressures from the explosion be contained while the cases is still supported by the chamber walls.
 
Sounds like the gun is properly designed...at least you now KNOW the hammer can't hit the primer until the bolt is fully home. You also have checked that the projectile isn't engaging the rifling when chambering...yes? I had a short chambered Browning Hi-Power that just wouldn't take ammo that chambered easily in all 9 other guns at the time and if it did manage to get one chambered it would have very much higher pressure.

But super high pressure doesn't show on the primers (though that's a very imprecise way to gauge it) so early bolt movement coupled with perhaps some lack of ductility in the brass seems to be a good enough explanation for what happened. A more ductile case most likely would have just swelled up as shown in the examples posted by others and given a more gentle reminder that something is slightly amiss with the rifle.:)

What to do now? First question: what kind of hammer spring are you running? Unless you can add weight to the bolt/buffer assembly perhaps a heavier hammer or spring would add enough resistance to retard the blow-back a little longer? If I were you....I'd be doing something along those lines. You NEED to keep that bolt closed a wee bit longer methinks.:)

Well, I want to say thanks to everybody for trying to help fix my little problem, but it turns out, this fell in that pesky category of You Can't Fix Stupid.
RecoilRob asked in a very polite way.
" You did a plunk test, right."
Words went through my head about myself that would never come out of my mouth.
In my haste to shoot this thing, and complete lapse in self discipline, I didn't do a plunk test. I will say thanks again, and please excuse me while I go outside and beat myself in the head with a 2x4.
One picture is Winchester white box, the other is Hap reload.

View attachment 799045 View attachment 799048
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top