A Farewell to Arms (Why I jumped off the Glock bandwagon)

[esrice]

Looks like a FOOB to me.

Ok well let's explore that idea then. Anyone else with experience in such things believe this to be the case?

 

[HeadlessRoland]

UPDATE

Well this isn't the kind of update I normally bring, but it happened so I gotta put it out there.

I blew up my M&P.

Now I'm sure you're all first thinking "OMG were you injured?" No, I was not.

More unfortunate than having to replace my gun is that the culprit was a round that was reloaded by lovemywoods. As you can imagine, he felt absolutely terrible about the incident and I hope that his confidence in his reloading abilities wasn't shaken too much. Anyone who knows Dad knows how detailed and careful he is with every aspect of his life, so something like this really bothers him. I've shot thousands of his reloads before without incident and will continue to do so. He took the ordeal much harder than I did.

Anyway, I was about 12 or so rounds through a magazine when the gun suddenly leapt from my hands as if someone had hit it with a baseball bat. The magazine blew out, the back half of the casing was ripped from the gun while the front half stayed in the chamber, and the gun fell to the ground in battery. My hands were marked with black powder that had exited between the slide and frame.

Upon the initial inspection at the range nothing was out of place except for the lodged casing rim. It wasn't until we got back up to the house that I noticed the cracked frame.

We tore the gun apart, manged to get the casing out of the chamber, and inspected everything for further damage. We tracked the path of the exiting gas and it appears the crack in the frame was enough to allow the magazine to blow out but we couldn't find any other damage. I'll probably have a 'smith look at it just to be safe.

Our best guess is that the 9mm round was loaded with 6.0 grains of powder instead of the 3.0 that it was supposed to have. As reloaders know, a 9mm case does have enough room for a double charge.

So I'll be calling S&W to first see what they can do, if anything. From there I'll start looking for another M&P9. It sucks, but it is what it is. I'm only attached to the utility that this gun provided so surprisingly I'm not that worried about it.

Many thanks to the INGOers who loaned me their guns so that I'm not pistol-less for the time being.

I can't help but think that if you'd just stuck with tried and true perfection, things would not have KB'd.

 

[esrice]

I can't help but think that if you'd just stuck with tried and true perfection, things would not have KB'd.

Ahh yes, the un-Kb-able Glock.

 

[rhino]

We did consider that. But wouldn't such a thing release the gas upward through the ejection port rather than down through the magwell? Neither of us are well-versed in major malfs like this.

Probably, but it might have not been noticable given the rest of the excitement.

When I've seen genuine double charges and the gun fired when in battery, I've seen significant damage to the chamber and/or barrel. A guy blew-up his Kimber two years in a row at matches at Riley and both times the pressure split the chamber and the barrel almost its full length.

Obviously there are many variables here and I'm not an expert on failure analysis. Given that, though, a lack of damage to the barrel/chamber would lead me to look at whether or not the barrel was fully in battery. If not, it makes sense. It if was, you still might see the damage you saw, but at least it's worth considering.

Another data point is that I saw a Glock 22 KABOOM and leave similar damage to what you reported. Based on the sound and the lack of damage to the barrel, I thought it probably fired out of battery. Another clue to confirm that was that the rear of the case was bulgy about two thirds of the way back, but it didn't rupture the case.

 

[ryan3030]

Just out of curiosity, not implying that it's related to this failure, roughly how many rounds did you have through the gun at this point?

Although I suppose a weakened recoil spring could make a gun more likely to fail at returning to battery.

 

[esrice]

Just out of curiosity, not implying that it's related to this failure, roughly how many rounds did you have through the gun at this point?

Although I suppose a weakened recoil spring could make a gun more likely to fail at returning to battery.

I purchased it used, so round count prior to my owning it is unknown. I probably had 2-3k through it. The gun wasn't in poor or worn-out condition when this occurred.

 

[KoopaKGB]

Is it possible the round was seated too deeply in the casing?

 

[Westside]

I am joining the out of battery band wagon. Do you have pictures of the whats left of the casing? if you do please post them. If the gun was just out barely out of battery the case would split like you have described.

Also, the case will split at it's weakest point. That my be up, down, left, or right. Then the failure will propagate until all the pressure have been release. So if the case split at the bottom first I believe it would eject the mag for you. Where as if the case failed at the top first most of the pressure would of been sent out the ejection ports. PM me pictures of the Gun and casing I will give my basic failure analysis.

If you haven't stripped the gun down yet take pictures of everything then take it down piece by piece taking photos along the way. Need pictures of everything to really give a good idea what happened.

 

[cedartop]

I will take this opportunity to point out Evan, that this is but one reason why you should own more than one gun. Even if it is just a duplicate of your primary.

 

[WebSnyper]

I will take this opportunity to point out Evan, that this is but one reason why you should own more than one gun. Even if it is just a duplicate of your primary.

Definitely agree. I just picked up a second Glock 23 for this very reason. I'm definitely in agreement with the have a spare of your primary gun.

 

[Jeremy1066]

Glad you are ok!! Maybe it was a case of severe limp-wristing?
I also think that if it were a double charge, the damage would have been much worse. I've seen steel framed pistols break in several pieces after a double powder charge. Firing slightly out of battery seems more plausible to me.

 

[esrice]

I will take this opportunity to point out Evan, that this is but one reason why you should own more than one gun. Even if it is just a duplicate of your primary.

And this whole time I thought that's what I had OneBadV8 for.

But I do agree with you. Even if I haven't currently put any gun money into a duplicate gun.

 

[OneBadV8]

I should charge you rent

 

[jblomenberg16]

Glad to hear you are ok, and that we're all going to be able to learn from this.

As a reloader myself, I'm always concerned that a double charge could happen. I've also had an "under charge" that nearly blew up my wife's Colt 1911. I was shooting, and noticed that the slide didn't fully lock. Upon inspection, there was a bullet still stuck in the barrel. I'm lucky it stopped where it did, and prevented the next round from chambering. Otherwise I would have had a KB.

 

[esrice]

I should charge you rent

You mean like in addition to the back rubs?

 

[Westside]

You mean like in addition to the back rubs?

 

[OneBadV8]

You mean like in addition to the back rubs?

I'd settle for the ability to use Neg Rep again if you can call in some favors from your previous life still

 

[Westside]

I'd settle for the ability to use Neg Rep again if you can call in some favors from your previous life still

oh the good old days.

 

[esrice]

if you can call in some favors from your previous life still

Ahh man, that means even more back rubs.

 

[lovemachine]

This thread got real fast.


Evan, I'm glad you're ok. And just something to think about, this COULD be a sign that means you should go back to a Glock 19.