Blowups and resulting Injuries

I don't know if this meets you criteria but a Woman that I know had the rear part of the slide on an M-9 "Berreta 92" come off and impale itself into Her right cheek.

She was doing Her annual qualification with the M-9 and on Her 5th round the slide broke at the locking lug area and pierced Her right cheek, the tear in Her cheek required 36 stitches on the outside and 27 inside. It left Her with a triangular scar on Her left cheek about 3" by 4".

I'm nt sure where you could find the proof of this mishap but I knew Her and heard the story from Her myself.

Woody
 
If you want to see a photo of such an injury to the hand you can email me a request...
But be warned - it is most nasty. I will not post it. It would offend almost everyone. If you are really concerned - and you really want to know - I'll send it to you.
If your just a sick puppy, there are worse on the net, so dont bother me about it.

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"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." - Sigmund Freud
 
We weren`t supposed to use reloads in our service/off duty guns because of this. Charges and specs could result. One instructor I worked with blew up a comp. gun with commercial reloads while practicing. He wasn`t hurt and the reloading co. replaced the gun. That`s the only one I can recall but misfires from factory loads were sometimes a problem. These were revolvers. I don`t know about semi autos since I retired as they were being phased in.
 
It is easy to jump to a conclusion and blame reloads. Those that do often ignore the problems with factory ammo. I've visited with Federal CCI and others and they often get blown guns that they can not pinpoint the cause. One was a Model 66 with the top strap blown off and the top of the cylinder gone. This was with factory .38 specials. Even a double charge should't do that. Guns are well capable of a catastrophic failure with any ammunition and often the true cause is never known. It isn't something that boils down to one gun type or brand it seems. That is what can happen when you have thousands of pounds of pressure released thousands of times in any gun. That stresses the need for shooting glasses. You gotta protect those orbs.
 
Pluspinc
I suppose you`re right and I can only relate what I know. Dep`t policy was if you had a mishap using approved ammo, you were covered as far as injury (LOD, very important) and weapon replacement. Reloads were not authorized on the street, on the P.D. ranges and at private ranges. I`m not saying they weren`t used, but if you used reloads and something happened, the policy was it was the officers fault and he/she wouldn`t be covered in any way. Plus they would be subject to disciplinary action. I`m sure this hasn`t changed after they switched to semi autos.
 
My S&W M36 Chief's Special KBed while I was shooting off some loose rounds. The topstrap departed to parts unknown and took out a finger sized balsam branch 5 yards behind me. The cylinder split in two major pieces which came to rest 6' apart. Suffered a small cut on right cheek bone as I was hip shooting.
S&W claimed it was an overpressure round. I located the brass case but couldn't find the base. I got to pick pistol of choice at cost and selected the 686 PP.
I miss that little gun.

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I was standing next to a friend on the line doing a night qual when his Glock 21 blew. Causes, faults have all been discussed before, so I won't go into it, but I have an opinion. Injury: He is not a person who reacts to pain and is a rather large fellow, but he went to his knees. His right hand was swollen. The mag well of the weapon was empty except for the shell of the mag, and there was a large crack down the right side of the frame and I think near the trigger. I can get the exact detail from him if you need it. No permanent injury, but his hand swelled badly and had some bruising.

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When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; IT IS that they shall be destroyed forever...Psalms 92.7
 
I originally posted this back in July, but since this topic is again being brought up, here it is again.


After reading about Glock KB's, I actually had one (actually, it happened to my wife, which is unfortunate, as she is just starting to shoot).

The Scenario: Glock 19 (not a .40 as is more common). Clean gun. Reloads, using 115 grn. jacketed (not cast) bullet, and a below max charge of 231.

The KB: Shot sounded normal, magazine was ejected from the gun. My first thought was that my wife had inadvertantly depressed the mag release. She said "That hurt, and I think that I'm done shooting now," but she didn't cry out or anything. Her hands had several burn marks where hot gas escaped between the frame and slide.

The damage: Minor burns to my wife's hands, and she is O.K. now. The little "foot" at the front of the magazine follower was broken off. The frame has a 1/2 inch crack on the right side.

The analysis: Most likely culprit is bad brass. The KB blew a 1/4 inch (approx.) hole through the brass at the rear, where the brass is unsupported. Glocks have the ability to fire while slightly out of battery, but this was not the case. Post-mortem on the case (chamber markings) show that the case was fully seated when fired.

While a bad reload is a possibility, it isn't likely. The brass was most likely Eastern European military, and likely obtained while an R.O. at a GSSF match.

The Bottom Line: Be careful out there! ALWAYS wear eye protection! (my wife was, fortunately). A high level of experience in reloading, coupled with very careful brass processing procedures will not guarantee that you will have no problems. It is possible for a weak piece of brass to get through, unnoticed.

Could this have happened in a gun with a fully supported chamber? Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? Just remember, that doing everything right may not always be enough.

Now before any of you start ranting and raving about "overpressure reloads" being the obvious culprit, ask yourselves how this could ever be determined, after the fact? After a round has been fired (and a kB occured), how will it be determined that faulty reloading and an overpressure reload occured? This is analysis I would love to see. Or perhaps your "analysis" is based on the following syllogism:

Glock is perfection.
A kB occured.
Therefore, faulty reloading MUST be the culprit. QED
 
The only Kb I ever had personally was a Ruger P89 9mm shooting factory ammo. It blew the extractor out and it stuck in the partition (indoor range). The case looked like it welded itself to the barrel and was blown out on the side. I sent it back to Ruger, and had it back in my hands in exactly 7 days. I think I could have put the extractor back in, and picked the case out of the barrel and the gun would have been ok. Since the gun was only a week old, I sent it back. It shoots great now, and I have had no further problems. I'm sure glad I was shooting a robust, well built gun. The magazine wasn't even damaged.

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Good shootin to ya
Plateshooter
 
I test fire a great many pistols and revolvers. The most spectacular mishap happened to me when firing on the range with a customer who had just bought a used 1911 at a gun show. He had fired about 50 rounds and handed the pistol to me. I loaded using a box of 1953 ECS steel case military rounds. On the fourth shot I felt that something was wrong. Blood was running down from the corner of my eye. My hand stung.
Looking down at the pistol, I saw that the slide had peeled back at the ejection port, the chamber area of the barrel was blown out on the right side and everything was jammed tight at about halfway into recoil.
I instantly thought that I'd fired one of those famous ECS double charges. Nope! It turned out to be the firing pin spring had broken and some genius had wound it back together to save the cost of replacing it. It finally jammed with the tip protruding and fired the round before the slide had returned to battery, blowing out the bottom of the case at the feed ramp, sending the magazine bounding away and doing all kinds of physical damage to me and to the pistol.
A good long swig of single malt and an application of Betadine and Band Aids fixed me up, but the gun was scrap.
 
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