YouTuber Kentucky Ballistics almost dies from 50 cal explosion
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D.B. Cooper
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Too late. Now she's all scared. As am I.
D.B. Cooper
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Seriously. Near as I can tell, it's one giant zip gun. Not much more than a piece of plumbing pipe with a threaded cap on one end. (I'm sure the metallurgy is better than plumbing pipe, but you get my point.)
I bet the stocks in that company are on their way to zero.
D.B. Cooper
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Anyway, I just saw the video, and Ian McCollum's analysis. What a soul shaking wake up call that video is.
My take aways:
I'm pulling the projectiles on all my milsurp 1982 Korean M2 Ball ammo and reloading with new powder.
I'm never buying milsurp or dubious ammo again.
I'm never shooting so much as a cap gun without those cheap, $8 safety glasses again. (Think about that. $8 saved that guy's sight, and possibly his life. What a bargain.)
I'm buying a dedicated trauma kit for my range bag at the next pay day. (I've been putting it off for a long time because a.) they're expensive, and b.) ammo and new guns are so much more cooler and more fun.)
Now I know why the Army made us wear kevlar helmets when we went to the range. I may try to find one for the range.
Holy crap.
ETA:
PS, to borrow a theme from the guy over at Active Self Protection, make sure you have a strong relationship with Christ and say what needs to be said to whomever needs to hear it. I'm sure the Kentucky Ballistics guy (or anyone of us here, for that matter) never thought that trip to the range might be his last day on earth.
My take aways:
I'm pulling the projectiles on all my milsurp 1982 Korean M2 Ball ammo and reloading with new powder.
I'm never buying milsurp or dubious ammo again.
I'm never shooting so much as a cap gun without those cheap, $8 safety glasses again. (Think about that. $8 saved that guy's sight, and possibly his life. What a bargain.)
I'm buying a dedicated trauma kit for my range bag at the next pay day. (I've been putting it off for a long time because a.) they're expensive, and b.) ammo and new guns are so much more cooler and more fun.)
Now I know why the Army made us wear kevlar helmets when we went to the range. I may try to find one for the range.
Holy crap.
ETA:
PS, to borrow a theme from the guy over at Active Self Protection, make sure you have a strong relationship with Christ and say what needs to be said to whomever needs to hear it. I'm sure the Kentucky Ballistics guy (or anyone of us here, for that matter) never thought that trip to the range might be his last day on earth.
First off, there's nothing wrong with surplus ammo as long as it's been stored correctly.
After watching the video multiple times and looking at screen captures that were posted on another site, the ammo isn't surplus it's reloads!
The SLAP-T projo is real but by looking at the brass and the crimp, you can see that the rounds are reloads. Whoever loaded it had no clue of what they were doing and the guy in the video had no clue of what he had. He even said it in the video!!!
Why he shot questionable ammo at all screams clueless! Just because you own firearms doesn't mean that you're an expert in ammunition! If you didn't load it, why would you shoot it in your firearms?! Again, clueless! This is one of the first things you learn about reloading or buying ammo.
I'm not shocked that there's people like him out there. What scares me the most is that people will think he's an expert because he has a Youranidiottube channel!!! He should have a warning about not being a professional in anything gun related on his channel that plays before, during and after his videos!
Again, he's lucky to be alive and I feel bad that he got hurt but stupid hurts for a reason!
After watching the video multiple times and looking at screen captures that were posted on another site, the ammo isn't surplus it's reloads!
The SLAP-T projo is real but by looking at the brass and the crimp, you can see that the rounds are reloads. Whoever loaded it had no clue of what they were doing and the guy in the video had no clue of what he had. He even said it in the video!!!
Why he shot questionable ammo at all screams clueless! Just because you own firearms doesn't mean that you're an expert in ammunition! If you didn't load it, why would you shoot it in your firearms?! Again, clueless! This is one of the first things you learn about reloading or buying ammo.
I'm not shocked that there's people like him out there. What scares me the most is that people will think he's an expert because he has a Youranidiottube channel!!! He should have a warning about not being a professional in anything gun related on his channel that plays before, during and after his videos!
Again, he's lucky to be alive and I feel bad that he got hurt but stupid hurts for a reason!
I appreciate KB sharing his experience with us. It has made me think about how I operate and made me re-think my procedures. I didn't watch the big moment, seeing his bandages and scars was enough for me. I see the same kind of stuff on woodworking forums. Its easy to critize the victim but I always use the negligent example as a learning opportunity.
With regards to surplus ammo, the Forrestal disaster was the result of improperly stored 1000lbs bombs. The Navy pulled 1000lb bombs from ammo dumps on Pacific islands. It had been sitting outside in the equador weather for 10 years. Old ammo from private sellers with unknown storage conditions could be questionable too.
With regards to surplus ammo, the Forrestal disaster was the result of improperly stored 1000lbs bombs. The Navy pulled 1000lb bombs from ammo dumps on Pacific islands. It had been sitting outside in the equador weather for 10 years. Old ammo from private sellers with unknown storage conditions could be questionable too.
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It could be. I'm going to make some arguments, but I'm not going to be dogmatic since there's obviously a component of speculation that can't be eliminated.
There's no requirement to test guns with proof loads in the U.S. although SAAMI does publish information for some cartridges for manufacturers that choose to do so.
The proof pressure for the 50BMG appears to be 65,000psi from what I can find which means that the 85,000psi figure from the video doesn't seem to be related to any official proof pressure.
The way the video presented the information was: "...for those threads to have sheared off and this cap to have just blown off like that we're looking at over 85,000 psi...". That strongly implies that the whoever made that comment (supposedly a quote from Serbu) is making some assessment of the strength of the action--the pressure required to shear the threads. Maybe they weren't, but I think that's how it's going to sound to most people.
And yes, "...over 85,000psi" does also obviously include everything above 85,000psi, but typically, one would expect a gun manufacturer to emphasize the strength of the action of their guns. That is, presumably if the manufacturer could have said that it would take over 150,000psi to shear the threads, they would much prefer to say that over saying that it would take over 85,000psi.
Finally, even if we completely avoid putting a pressure number on the failure of the gun, I still think that if the design of the gun is such that a failure drives the breech, and other parts of the gun, back into the shooter's head and upper torso, it should be a much stronger design. Heavier threads, more of them, some kind of containment (or perhaps a deflection mechanism) for the breech in the event of failure so it doesn't come back straight at the shooter. Something more than what we see there.
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Russell13
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So nothing like this has ever happened to me. If there was a catastrophic fail like this in my bolt action rifle what would happen??
1942bull
Member
He is lucky to be alive. I know he provides good videos on YT, but I see his accident as preventable. In the video he explains he knew nothing about the ammo, and I see that as very careless. He was shooting a round meant for much more capable guns (machine guns) out of a rifle. The fact that it was a 50 Cal rifle means little. It was a rifle and not meant to fire the type of ammo he fired.
I think there’s a lot of people who are watching his videos, this one in particular, for the first time. He has fired a LOT of SLAP rounds through his rifles. I’m not saying he should or shouldn’t. But SLAP rounds are crazy expensive. I think he said $100 round. I found it for $90 a few months back. SLAP isn’t just something you go to Midway and buy as a component to reload. Even if the crimp was wrong, it’s crimping metal to plastic, not metal to metal.
Maybe some injuries to your support hand and arm from pieces of the stock. The trigger group might come out of the gun hard enough to injure your strong hand. Bolt actions are not only very strong, but they generally have a secondary safety feature to prevent the bolt from coming backwards out of the action in the event that there's a failure.
You can do an image search to see some pictures. You will see that the bolt stays in the gun.
Are you serious?
postscript for the Peanut Gallery: How did that end cap not come straight
back to take the shooter's jaw off at both hinges?
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It appears that it was deflected slightly upwards into his eye when it sheared off the two action "ears". One of the "ears" drove into his neck and chest, damaging his jugular and puncturing his lung. The other "ear" went higher, making a hole in his cap and ripping it off his head.
FROGO207
Member
Well all said he is one lucky guy! Also this is a distinct warning against shooting unknown ammo weather reloads or sketchy old stuff. Duly noted.
To play devils advocate....how would the end user know about the storage life of ammo from decades past?
I realize that a person can break down old ammo and sample check lots.....but how many people actually do?
Its to redirect escaping gas in the even of a cartridge rupture.....Ians video about "gun go booms" explains it pretty well.
For those interested, heres a video of Scott/Kentucky Balistics firing Slap rounds out of the RN-50, where he mentions its gotten a custom barrel and a machinegun chamber. There are also close ups of the rounds hes firing.
Screen shot from my phone
Double Naught Spy
Sus Venator
Not begging for problems is a good thing, but I am not sure that this would not have happened with a USGI round. All we know from what is stated and shown in the video is that he fired a SLAP round through a Serbu rifle and the rifle came apart and apparently the bullet made it to the target. We don't know why the rifle came apart. It could have been over pressure from a hot loaded round. We don't know because there is no way to test for this.
So when the guy in the video says he did nothing wrong, that is really a bit misleading. He was firing ammo from his rifle that wasn't designed for his rifle that he knew had issues in other rifles, but since he got it to chamber, just assumed he as good to go and then blamed the ammo. I realize this wasn't the first SLAP round he has put through the rifle. He shot several. Not all were going where intended, but he was okay with continuing to shoot them despite the fact that things were not right. He claims the last round was very very hot, but was it? Or did the rifle just finally fail after shooting a bunch of ammo through it that wasn't supposed to be fired through it?
If so, then again this goes back to him saying he did nothing wrong when he apparently did, which was simply that he didn't know what he was doing.
Bottom line, he was firing a round through a gun for which neither of the two were designed to use. He was using a muzzle brake with SLAP rounds which you should not do. He was using ammo of unknown provenance and getting really unsettling results at the target and continued to use it...but he thinks he did nothing wrong. In his mind, he didn't, but you really should be smarter than the gear you are using.
ApacheCoTodd
member
Hard to say either way other than noting the amount of SLAP and other *exotic* G.I. rounds we shot out of AMACs and Barretts with muzzle devices attached. Could be luck - could be we made our own luck.
Todd.
Double Naught Spy
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I think Kentucky Ballistics made his own luck as well, bad luck.
MosinT53Hunter
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Your right on that point. From watching the video, he had to have known something was wrong when the rounds weren't hitting anywhere near where he was aiming at, as well as the increase of recoil.
Though he could see down the barrel with no obstructions, still, caution should have kicked in and done a through survey of the rifle before continuing.
Least he had a quick thinking camera guy out there with him. His chances of survival all alone would have been dire.
Elkins45
Member
Fo
I got a hold of a bad batch of IMR 4831 sometime in the early 90s. I didn’t know it was bad of course, and over the years I loaded a whole bunch of rounds with it including a bunch of 270s. Some of those rounds sat on my ammo shelf for close to a decade, and unbeknownst to me the powder was deteriorating inside the brass casings the whole time. I discovered this when I had a case head blow out with a full power load in my Savage 110. Some of the powder had deteriorated to nitric acid and was eating its way through the case walls, which I discovered after I pulled apart the remaining rounds. Not only was the brass weakened but the bullets were corroded tight to the case mouth. Who knows what the uncorking pressure of those things was?
When the case head let go the jet of gas that escaped from the vent hole was so powerful it blew a full 50 round box of ammo off the shooting bench next to me. It also blew the extractor off of the bolt. Luckily all I received was a slight burn on my right hand. I’m a left-handed shooter and fortunately I was shooting a left-handed rifle with that particular ammo. That’s significant because it means the vent hole is on the left side of the receiver, not the right side as with a right handed action. Given the strength of the gas jet I’m pretty confident it would have done serious damage to the fingers on my right hand hand had I not been shooting a lefty rifle.
I gained a newfound appreciation for the genius of Mauser’s design that day. Royal Nonesuch is no Peter Paul Mauser.
DeepSouth
Random Guy
In the second video linked by LoonWulf in post #64
He says at about 5:40 mark he knew you couldn’t shoot it out of a standard .50 bmg barrel so he got, from Serbu, what I’m sure he assumed to be a barrel that would handle the 50 SLAP.
I don’t know if he assumed wrong or if the ammo was really over pressure, but he wasn’t just being negligent.
He says at about 5:40 mark he knew you couldn’t shoot it out of a standard .50 bmg barrel so he got, from Serbu, what I’m sure he assumed to be a barrel that would handle the 50 SLAP.
I don’t know if he assumed wrong or if the ammo was really over pressure, but he wasn’t just being negligent.
CapnMac
Member
Per his description, it was "bent into a "W" shape," and later he stated it was fixed with surgical pins.
When you get into the ligaments of the fingers, the muscles that operate them are up in your lower arms. So, if a ligament gets cut, you have to open the arm up until you can find the end of the ligament, which will retract through the carpal tunnel in the wrist.
The bearing surfaces in fingers are small, so, after pinning, you want the repairs supported for a good long time until the bones stitch back together. Which requires bracing.
The staples and chest cut were from the surgical intervention, not the Kaboom. His right lung collapsed as well as the jugular injury. Managing blood flow to the brain while repairing a jugular vein injury is extremely critical to successful outcomes. You have to clamp off the jugular above the injury, which slows flow into the brain. Which can recommend partial clamping of the same-side carotid, lest the unclamping of the jugular after the anastomosis create blockages or insufficiencies within the brain on flow resumption.
Had that chunk of steel been perhaps its own width closer to the centerline, it would have parted the carotid artery, which would have been significantly harder to come back from.
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