Ever had a kaboom or other catastrophic failure with a firearm?

[Stomper]

Freaky.... SomeOne or SomeThing was speaking thru your Unconscious Mind... glad you heard it!

It had to be the baby reloading Jesus!

 

[Aero Denezol]

Where is countrygent? Hasn't been seen in months.

I thought he moved to Texas.

 

[SuperBreed]

When I was around 17, growing up in Kentucky, I had some buddies that had been shooting an old double barrel muzzle loader all day just across the way from my house. They shot it probably 15-20 times. They came to the house and asked if I wanted to go shoot it. Of course my dumb bubblegum said sure. Now, unknown to me at the time, they had been loading this old thing with powder out of shotgun shells they had cut down. They handed the rifle to me already loaded.

So here I go out in the field to blast away with this thing. My first two percussion caps didn't go. Placed the 3rd and said the classic, third times a charm before pulling the trigger. Things started to happen quite quickly at this point. The left barrel disintegrated at the chamber, my right hand that was on the stock was blown back with stock still in hand, the barrel flipped upward 180 degrees and the muzzle struck me in the chin and shoulder. I couldn't hear anything but ringing. Trigger, trigger guard, and neither hammer where ever found. At this point I started to check for damage. I had a light flannel jacket on that absorbed most of the frag from the barrel and the forend. Ended up with more then a few holes in my arm still though, as well as splinters of wood.

Still have the scars to remind myself. Also haven't shot a Muzzleloader since. Don't know that I ever will or want to either.

 

[kopcicle]

@SuperBreed

There is a difference between "hold my beer, watch this"
And
"let me hold your beer, I'll watch"

Details are critical.

 

[boattail]

I remembered a time when I was in high school my neighbor made a pipe cannon. 1/2" water pipe with a nut welded in the back. Hole drilled for a fuse. We stuffed six shotgun shells worth of powder in the tube and tamped it in with a damp paper towel. Then he dropped a AA battery in the tube. He lit the fuse and it went out once in the hole. He tried two more times and gave up. I told him to heat up a piece of wire and poke it into the hole. That worked.

Made a bang louder than four 30-06's going off at once. Back of cannon blew off and the nut hit his shin while all the powder burned his hands and shins. I was at the side of the cannon and it blew me back 6 feet. Buddy went to the ER and I went home and we agreed I wasn't there when it happened.

We found the battery a few years later about half a mile away. How stupid were we to think six shells worth of powder was just right? My parents did not think I would live to 16. I often wonder how I made it out alive.

 

[Stomper]

When I was around 17, growing up in Kentucky, I had some buddies that had been shooting an old double barrel muzzle loader all day just across the way from my house. They shot it probably 15-20 times. They came to the house and asked if I wanted to go shoot it. Of course my dumb bubblegum said sure. Now, unknown to me at the time, they had been loading this old thing with powder out of shotgun shells they had cut down. They handed the rifle to me already loaded.

So here I go out in the field to blast away with this thing. My first two percussion caps didn't go. Placed the 3rd and said the classic, third times a charm before pulling the trigger. Things started to happen quite quickly at this point. The left barrel disintegrated at the chamber, my right hand that was on the stock was blown back with stock still in hand, the barrel flipped upward 180 degrees and the muzzle struck me in the chin and shoulder. I couldn't hear anything but ringing. Trigger, trigger guard, and neither hammer where ever found. At this point I started to check for damage. I had a light flannel jacket on that absorbed most of the frag from the barrel and the forend. Ended up with more then a few holes in my arm still though, as well as splinters of wood.

Still have the scars to remind myself. Also haven't shot a Muzzleloader since. Don't know that I ever will or want to either.

Sounds like maybe you were holding it from the wrong end…. or something.

 

[Hemlock]

When I was a teenager, I had a 16 gauge break open single barrel shotgun split the chamber down the top and peel open. Not a damascus barrel.
Factory Winchester ammo. Muffled hearing. Doctor had to pop my ear drums back. We never did find the rib that tore of and went flying somewhere.

 

[Mike_M57]

Hasn't happened to me, but...

This was one of grandpa's guns. He loaned it to a friend, and this happened. Suspected double charge of powder.

 

[Toxic6]

No pictures but had some squibs while doing a rapid fire waste of ammo with a keltec sub2k. Had it all tricked out even had a hogue slip on grip! Turns out that hogue grip acted like a rubber band/shock absorber and kept the frame together when the kaboom happened and likely saved me from lacerations as I was not wearing gloves. Hand and arm were numb, magazine had blown apart and there were loose rounds everywhere around me. Everyone was staring like they'd just seen a ghost. We never found the base plate or follower.

Lessons I learned
1- if ammo is recalled and your alerted to it, do not proceed to shoot it anyways (or do so cautiously I guess lol)
2- if your weapon sounds different firing and doesn't clear the spent casing do not proceed to manually clear and continue rapid fire without inspecting it first.
3-plastic/polymer weapons are way more forgiving structurally then metal ones. And hogue slip-on grips are actually pretty sturdy

 

[arakboss]

Haven't had a kaboom yet but it could happen soon. I am hoping that I will be a safe enough distance away, if one of the guns does go kaboom.

 

[quneur]

I have several years ago. I was hunting pheasant when a rooster flushed and pull my shotgun and fired. It sounded kind of hollow so I ejected the shell and examined it. The primer strike was good and shell was spent as it should. I loaded up another shell and another rooster popped up less than a minute later. Pulled the trigger and boom.

Squib round. Shooting Winchester white box. Never trusted Winchester again. Broke the tip of my index finger. Luckily, was wearing Mechanics gloves as it was a cold morning.

 

[Val1884]

Yup ..had some extra custom AK tracer ammo pop an put the top cover into my forehead. Felt like Mike Tyson punched me. Bellied out the AK receiver an twisted top cover. Headspace was good rivets , lugs everything else ok. Case head was completely separated and brass flowed into the fp hole an under extractor. It kicked so hard it left a perfect buttplate bruise on my shoulder.

 

[Ben B.]

Hunting rabbits in the snowy mountains with a 12 ga 870. No joy, so we got out the trap thrower to shoot some clays. First shot seemed extra loud, 2nd shot was weird, so looked it over and there was a hole in left side of barrel with steel curled back like a sardine can. I have some guesses but don't KNOW what happened.

Case head separation in an AR at a 3 G match. Trashed the bolt, blew the magazine apart, left a smooth cylinder of brass inside the chamber. The broken shell extractor tool failed to work and had to take gun home to get it running. PROBABLY was just a bad or weakened piece of brass.

Later blew that rifle up when I accidentally chambered a .300 BLK round into a .223 AR while testing compensators. That one was 100% my fault.

 

[PA31350]

You guys are not shooting enough.
I had a pretty new Colt Match AR blow up from a firing pin getting part of a primer jammed into the hole, fired the next round out of battery.
Blew the bolt in half, ballooned out the lower.
It felt/sounded funny,
Magazine dropped to the ground in with the bottom blown out, with ammo everywhere.
Gun held together.
I did not get hurt.
Got a new one from Colt..
My brother was shooting a 32-20 Colt revolver blow the top strap and part of the cylinder.
Was shooting old mix matched ammo, a .30 Carbine got put in it(also had an M1 at the range)

 

[JDubDub]

Had the receiver on a commercial M1 Carbine crack all the way through on the right side right behind the barrel. Started noticing that I was getting cases stuck enough to rip the bases off. That happened a couple times, then one of the cases let go catastrophically. Slightly loud bang, some smoke and a weird recoil impulse. The bolt ended up jammed back so hard in the receiver that I had to beat it loose with a mallet. Ended up with a bag full of extra parts for my other carbine. Painful to the wallet, but no damage to me.

The only painful failure I ever had was blowing up a brand new, never been fired before 1st gen Glock 21. First 2 rounds without a problem, but on the 3rd round, the gun decided to perform a rapid, unexpected disassembly. The barrel and chamber split open, the slide cracked in half just forward of the ejection port and the frame split all the way down the grip. Need up with some lacerations, some minor burns and a broken ring finger. Glock blamed the ammo maker, the ammo maker blamed Glock and I didn't touch another .40 for a few years. Still have a G35 that survived many, many thousands of not too gentle reloads, so I tend to blame the ammo.

 

[MikeInOr]

I was at the range with my boss when his fathers 1941 dated GI 1911 went full auto on him and emptied the mag. After that he gave up for the day and went home.