Black Rifle Blow-Ups — Shocking AR 15 Kaboom Collection
This shocking photo of destroyed AR-15 bits and pieces was posted on Facebook by William Walter, a firearms instructor. William said this was “The worst AR-15 blow-up I have ever seen. The case head literally atomized …you can see the brass residue on the parts. The bolt was split in two also.”
There’s nothing inherently wrong with AR-platform rifles (well, except that they run dirty). Over the past six decades Eugene Stoner’s semi-automatic design has proven its merits in military and civilian applications. You may not know, but the original AR from 1955 was a .30-caliber. The Armalite AR-10 shot the 7.62×51 cartridge. Later, at the request of the U.S. Military, Armalite created a smaller version that became the M16/AR15. The rest was history. Now there are millions of AR “black rifles” in the hands of soldiers and sportsmen.
With so many ARs in circulation, it’s no surprise that some get used by folks who don’t know how to hand-load or otherwise fail to follow safe gun practices. The AR is actually a pretty sturdy rifle, but when it’s fed bad ammo, or abused, bad things can happen. Very bad things… commonly known as Kabooms.
The American Shooting Journal (ASJ) has compiled a set of particularly extreme AR Kabooms. Compiling the “evidence” from various web sites, ASJ has published nine (9) of the most Unbelievable AR-15 Fails. Here are two of the worst “AR-15 Fails”. CLICK HERE to see them all.
Nothing but busted parts after this catastrophic Kaboom…
Notice the bolt is still stuck in the barrel extension … with the rest of the gun in pieces.
Another view of this sad blow-up…
These catastrophic AR failures are eye-openers, that’s for sure. ASJ cautions: “Any weapon can fail if given the wrong ammunition, faulty reloads or a plugged barrel. Always be aware of what can happen at anytime if you fail to follow common sense and gun safety rules.”
ASJ Sources: Photobucket, Armory Blog, Pinterest, Northeastern Arms, Eric Nestor
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Tags: .223 Rem Kaboom, 5.56x45 accident, AR blow up, AR Rifle, AR15, AR15 Accident, Kaboom, MSR, Rifle Accident
OK. Enough with the melodrama!
What is a duplex load and what and how much powder was used so we can all learn what NOT to do?
The other thing that can lead to this sort of thing i untrimmed cases.
I’ve seen a few, but nothing quite as “exciting” as this one.
The worst two I ever saw were on raare and exotic rifles; a SiG AMT and a genuine ex-Portuguese AR-10, both in 7.62 NATO.
BOTH owners were using reloads.
Fortunately, the damage was not as catastrophic as the illustrated AR-15, but ugly, none the less.
When both were carefully dismantled and examined, the fired bras showed a wildly enlarged primer pocket and distorted head.The big clue was the neck. In both cases, the very end of the neck was “featheredwith a thin ring of an extended brass “flashing”.
It appears that both cases had “missed” case trimmong and were over-length, but not to te point the chambering force of the return spring would be insufficient.
So, the end of the neck was “crimped” deeply into the bullet, right at the beginning of the throat / leade.
In a basic bolt-action, a firer might just notice a round that was resisting being chambered and thus hopefully NOT try and hammer it in, but eject it for later examination.
One of the engineering bonuses of the AR platform is the Alloy receiver. This is more of a “shell” than something like the M-1A type. In the AR, if the bolt-head and barrel extension are to spec, they may “hold” and the the barrel will be blown out of the extension. Bear in mind that, if there is a wild over-pressure in the bore, the bolt WILL unlock at a bout the same time the case is startiing to “flow”; REALLY NASTY!!: A massive rush of gas from a ruptured case, surging back into the “works”.
The alloy upper and lower will be wildly bulged and maybe torn, but will not fragment like a grenade. This is not unlike the difference between steel and Aluminium SCUBA tanks. Neither type was known for regular, catastrophic failure. Poor maintenance and handling probably destroys more SCUBA tanks, guns, cars etc. than the mere passing of time.
Trim your brass and double-check how much of what powder you are shoveling into those cases!!
Brass cases, gauges or verniers, trimmers and powder scales are a LOT cheaper than eyes and fingers.