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I was shooting my Ruger Mk II the other day and it made the strangest faint noise. I've not heard anything like it before when shooting. I opened the action and a little brass disk and the front half of my extractor fell out. Upon further inspection I noted the forward portion of the case was still in the chamber. My trigger finger and left hand index finger had two parallel soot streaks on them. What happened was a case head separation (that little disk is the case head) and the resultant leaking gas blew down along both side of the trigger leaving the soot staining on my hands. Everything seems in order other than needing a new extractor ... which is on the way.

The remaining case and head when put together almost look like a .22 Short … but I assure you it was a Long Rifle round. The back half of the extractor was nowhere to be found.

This is a new one on me. I've had bottle neck rifle cartridges separate and I've had a few blown pistol cases over the years, but this is the first time anything like this has happened to me with a .22LR. Anybody else see this before? What really puzzles me is that the bullet was clear of the barrel, so a fair amount of pressure was present in the bore, but there was hardly any noise at all.

06CC2C2E-E915-4D82-81F7-0603F6F0CF06.jpeg
 
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I was shooting my Ruger MkII the other day and it made the strangest faint noise. I've not heard anything like it before when shooting. I opened the action and a little brass disk and the front half of my extractor fell out. Upon further inspection I noted the forward portion of the case was still in the chamber. My trigger finger and left hand index finger had two parallel soot streaks on them. What happened was a case head separation (that little disk is the case head) and the resultant leaking gas blew down along both side of the trigger leaving the soot staining on my hands. Everything seems in order other than needing a new extractor ... which is on the way.

The remaining case and head when put together almost look like a .22 Short … but I assure you it was a Long Rifle round. The back half of the extractor was nowhere to be found.

This is a new one on me. I've had bottle neck rifle cartridges separate and I've had a few blown pistol cases over the years, but this is the first time anything like this has happened to me with a .22LR. Anybody else see this before? What really puzzles me is that the bullet was clear of the barrel, so a fair amount of pressure was present in the bore, but there was hardly any noise at all.

View attachment 751413
What kind of gun were you shooting when this happened?
 
Ruger Mk II

5.5 inch bull barrel target model in stainless steel (KMK512)
If you had been doing extensive "mag dumping" the chamber may have heated up enough to cause a round to "cook" off. When this happens, the powder in the case ignites first and then the fuel in the primer goes. It happens very quickly and the case detonation is enough to blow the unsupported rim off. The rim can then destroy the entire extractor. The compressed case would be attributable to a "rebound effect of the powder detonation not being confined in the case and allowed to expand into the chamber and force the easily compressible brass forward into the chamber. Or not.
 
I was shooting at a slow deliberate rate, no mag dumps or overly hot gun. The only cook-offs I've ever witnessed were with M60 and M2 machine guns, in 110+ temperatures that come with 29 Palms in August!

I doubt it was an out of battery fire as well, but who knows. The round before felt and shot totally as expected. The gun had only about 150 rounds since it's last thorough cleaning, but that doesn't guarantee that the round itself might have been out of spec allowing a slight out of battery condition.

Weird stuff ... especially the almost silent firing of this round. I was in an indoor range by myself, with my active headset volume on high so I should have heard something if there was an actual noise.
 
I was shooting my Ruger Mk II the other day and it made the strangest faint noise. I've not heard anything like it before when shooting. I opened the action and a little brass disk and the front half of my extractor fell out. Upon further inspection I noted the forward portion of the case was still in the chamber. My trigger finger and left hand index finger had two parallel soot streaks on them. What happened was a case head separation (that little disk is the case head) and the resultant leaking gas blew down along both side of the trigger leaving the soot staining on my hands. Everything seems in order other than needing a new extractor ... which is on the way.

The remaining case and head when put together almost look like a .22 Short … but I assure you it was a Long Rifle round. The back half of the extractor was nowhere to be found.

This is a new one on me. I've had bottle neck rifle cartridges separate and I've had a few blown pistol cases over the years, but this is the first time anything like this has happened to me with a .22LR. Anybody else see this before? What really puzzles me is that the bullet was clear of the barrel, so a fair amount of pressure was present in the bore, but there was hardly any noise at all.

View attachment 751413

A couple years ago my daughter had what sounded like a squib with her Browning Buckmark. I looked over and hollered "STOP!" I could see that the slide hadn't gone into battery. I must not have hollered loud enough because she touched it off. All she got was a "poof" and a bunch of smoke. Wound up with two bullets lodged in the barrel and a couple scraps of brass identical to the ones in your picture.

I vote out of battery detonation, and suggest a long, slow careful look at the bore and chamber.
 
I have an aftermarket Mark2/3 made by TacSol and still use the original bolt. I had the exact thing happen with it not too long ago. My chamber was dirty though from shooting those Aguila Colibri's loaded single. No broken parts but taugh me to clean chamber before shooting lr again.
 
Thanks for the thoughts folks!

Last night I did a thorough cleaning including the barrel. There really wasn't much to clean, since it was only about 150 rounds since it was last done.

A tightly fitted patch pushes through the barrel without any felt bumps or loose spots and looks like it normally does when cleaned, so that is encouraging. I know this is a very crude method of assessing barrel health, but for what it is the results are good news. The rest of the gun seems fine.

I did have a bit of an issue getting extractor plunger and spring out, as the back half of the ejector had jammed the plunger in its track. A few minutes of precisely applied pressures with a tiny punch and dental pick won the day here. I didn't know the back half of the extractor was even in the gun until it fell out right behind the plunger and spring.

The plunger moved freely after this, but I still polished the interior of the plunger channel with a bit of Flitz on a small section of cleaning patch wrapped around a drill bit shank chucked into a slowly turning drill. It seems to move more freely now, but that could be my imagination.

So, it's back to the range in a few days once my new extractor shows up in the mail. I'm hoping all is well, as this has been an insanely reliable and accurate pistol for me, I'd hate to have her less capable after this incident.
 
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A few years ago I had a similar experience, full head separation! I shoot in a Friday night Gallery Bulls-eye league.
I heard what sounded like a 9mm blast, heavy recoil and lots of soot. I figured an overpressure kaboom! (++charge of powder!) There was no evidence of overpressure damage!

As I recall I was burning through some Remington bulk ammo at a practice match!

No harm no foul!
 
Well, for any who may still be interested ...

I installed a new Volquartsen extractor this morning and shot the gun over lunch. It shoots fine, no noticable problems anywhere. I had a mishmash of about 9 different brands of ammo and shot it all up, about 159 rounds in total. Zero problems, so unless I get another Kaboom ... (well it was near silent a Shhhh-boom maybe?) I guess this case is closed!
 

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