Second Generation "Kaboom"

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tpaw

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Did not witness it, but at the range today a guys Glock 23, second generation, went "kaboom". The range officer said he was using factory ammo. He collected everything for the shooter who was removed for first aid. What kind of ammo I don't know. The "kaboom" blew the mag out and damaged some internal parts. As for the shooter, some finger damage but to what extent I don't know.
What is it with these Glock 23's?
 
Unsupported chambers + high pressure cartridges.

I'll keep my all-steel guns, thanks. Never heard of a 3rd gen S&W blowing up, though I'm sure they could with a gross overload or barrel obstruction
 
All guns blow up. For many many many reasons.

Larger caliber glocks do not have fully supported chambers, so they are a bit more vulnerable to kabooms if you get a bad round (which can happen even with factory ammo). Another problem (that really shows itself in 40 cal) is setback. There's a lot of documented cases where security guards and cops keep chambering the same round over and over, and when they eventually fire it off - BOOM.

And I am not bashing glocks, I own 2 of em and love em.
 
I have witnessed first hand a Glock 17 KB during a IPSC match and I nearly experienced one with my Glock 26.

When the G17 went, it blew up the chamber and damaged both the frame and the slide. The shooter had some minor cuts to the hand and complained of soreness. This happened with factory ammo, but it happened about ten years ago and unfortunately I don't remember the brand. Being that he was shooting alot of it, I'm sure it was cheap whatever it was.

When my issue with the G26 happened, I had a case rupture in the unsupported area of the chamber that blew the magazine out of the bottom of the gun, but did no other damage to the pistol. It did come real close to ruining a pair of Fruit of the Looms though!:eek::what::eek:

I felt a tremendous blow to my hand and I immediately lost feeling in my thumb and forefinger. Alot of powder residue blew out from under the slide and plastered my hand as well. Luckily the feeling came back pretty quickly and other than some soreness I was okay.

In my case it was a reloaded cartridge that was in with my Dad's leftover ammo after he passed away. I have shot thousands of my Dad's reloads and neither he nor I ever had any issues before this.

I had the gun checked out and it was fine and I have since put about 400 rounds (factory) downrange with it with no further trouble.
 
I have a mdl 21 and will be using a new 20 barrel in it this weekend. Someone mentioned watch out it is dangerous to do that from what I have read about Glocks and Ka booom Got a 10 mm mag that fits my gun and a barrel that fits changes it to 10mm 6" :neener:

Waiting to hear the noise now and getting popcorn:)
 
Not uncommon and EVERYTHING on the internet is hearsy.

I would say the Glock 23 is the HIGHEST reported Kaboom Glock gun there is.

See www.gunzone.com for the truth about glocks.
 
In my case it was a reloaded cartridge that was in with my Dad's leftover ammo after he passed away. I have shot thousands of my Dad's reloads and neither he nor I ever had any issues before this.

Had a KB with 20ga reload that blew hot gas and particulates from the breech gap of a dbl barrel and left my forehead slightly scorched. The brass rim had ruptured. Apparently the brass had been resized too many times after multiple uses, or just pinched while reloading once. Otherwise, no problems with thousands of reloads as you also experienced.
 
Hi, all. I normally lurk but just have to weigh in.

Can you try and find out what ammo the Glock kB!ed on? The reason I ask is that this same thing happened to me a few years ago. I was shooting my G23 with factory ammo- in this case Federal Hydra-Shok 180 gr. The case head separated catastrophically, starting at the feed ramp. The mag blew out and the extractor blew off. I got minor powder burns on my trigger finger and looked like a glitter factory blew up on my hands and face from the brass shavings. Called Glock, they said call Federal and see if they will help out but, since it was being used for Law Enforcement purposes, they would fix it free, regardless.

Called Federal and described the kB!, they told me that they had some bad cases several years before and they had recalled the ammo. Bottom line, Federal got with Glock and fixed the gun.

Another Officer had a kB! with a G23 about a year ago, again with factory ammo, this time Winchester WB 180gr JHP. In this case, bullet setback is suspected since the Officer admitted he constantly chambered and ejected the same two rounds in the top of the mag when clearing the weapon at home, then loading up to come to work. Again, blew the mag out, blew off the extractor and again Glock fixed for free.

Again, just curious to see if you can find out what ammo was used. Thanks.

Bub
 
I am still happy that my own Glock (a model 19, original owner since 1998) is a 9mm. I am not yet ready to shoot with a catcher's mitt on each hand. ;)

Virtually every blowup with them that I have heard of (there's that hearsay again) has been with a .40 model. There could be some unfortunate combination of factors at work here.
 
Kabooms Happen

Glock happens to be a very common gun, so they get the most attention for KB's. It happens with other brand as well. I agree with the unsupported chamber statement in an earlier reply.
One very experience gun instructor has said that he recommends not using Glock in any caliber other than 9mm, for this very reason. I have a G26, but don't shoot it much.
 
OMG, not again. Guns don't break guns, people do. Don't believe me?
Try this on for size. If one percent of these spontaneous explosions from one specific manufacture were true, how much would one cost the consumer? The pricing would close the company doors for good, period. They would be sued out of existence. Statistically speaking EVERY gun mishap is cause by some knuckle dragging, mouth breathing tool.
 
Glock happens to be a very common gun, so they get the most attention for KB's. It happens with other brand as well.
Click to expand...

Through the '80's and '90's, S&W was by far the most common service pistol. Still used by many, many depts.

Google S&W KaBoom, and you get Glock .40 S&W Kaboom.

Everyone that wants to defend the Glocks argues that the reason for the failures is the number of them out there; the failure rate is significantly higher, regardless of total unit numbers.
 
.40 S&W Glocks have been having KB problems since they first came out. To a lessor extent with their .45's but that may be due to a smaller following and number of pistols. I was seeing reports of these pre internet when the .40 was first chambered by Glock. Most often with handloads but there where a fair share of KB's with factory ammo. Most if not all where case ruptures at the unsupported area of the barrel chamber.

The thing is that there are relatively few of these KB's when compared to the number of handguns and the shooter for the most part is not seriously injured though shaken up a bit. It probably is just an economic decision by Glock not to change design and pull old product back in for upgrade.

In 20 years I've only read about 1 Glock KB with a 9mm and that was a handload. The issue is not one of Plastic Gun vrs Steel frame but one of chamber design of a larger caliber that's been stuffed into a 9mm size.
 
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