Kimber Kaboom

[Casey]

Hello all.

I always had a lot of faith in the way my Kimber Classic Stainless Gold Match was built. This afternoon, I had a "first hand" demonstration of the strength of Mr. Browning's design, and of Kimber's implementation of it.

I had just started to shoot, and on round 37 all H*ll broke lose. The round went downrange, but my hand felt like it was on fire and my face was also stinging. Smoke was pouring out of every hole in my Kimber, and I had a sinking feeling as I looked at my hand and saw black all over it.

I put the gun down and went out to wash it off to see if anything needed urgent care. To my true suprise, the only damage was to my right thumb and it was minor (the slide stop blew off).

The Kimber was locked up tight, the magazine was blown out about 3/4 of an inch, and the slide stop was on the floor. After the range owners and I got it apart, the problem became obvious. The case was stuck in the chamber, and when we got it out, the side was blown very neatly .140 inches from the bottom, almost 1/2 of the way around the case. The hole is a very neat slice that is .100 inches wide.

The case is (was!) a twice fired Starline .45 ACP, loaded with 4.0 grains of Clays with a 200 gr copper washed wadcutter. I have been shooting these cases and loads for quite some time, and have shot much lighter (3.3 gr of Clays with the same slug) as well as up to 5.0 gr of Clays.

I have no idea what happened. Obviously, if I had even the fainest idea of a charge problem I would not have shot it. Although I would like to know what it was, after much thought, I don't think I'll ever know. I can't blame the Starline cases, as I have about 500 that I have shot as many as 30 times. Every case gets a visual inspection as I load it into the press.

I had heard of others having this happen to them, and had actually wondered how my 1911's would handle the problem. While I haven't shot it since this afternoon, I did ultrasonic clean it and give it a very careful inspection before reasembling it. The magazine was trashed, and the two rounds left in it were really beaten up. Other than that, no problems!

I know some folks have problems with the Kimbers, but I am very thankful that they build them as well as they do! Also, thank you JMB!

Casey

 

[blades67]

Sounds like a double charged case. The 1911 .45acp, like some .40S&W chambered guns, has an unsupported chamber. Some folks only like to talk about it when it happens to other guns, like a Glock, because rabid fans of the 1911 seem to think that the 1911 has no faults. (They're wrong, but refuse to see the truth. )

 

[WESHOOT2]

CASEY, NOT A GUN ISSUE

You had an "ammo event", with the (armchair) most likely cause being [drumroll please] "bullet setback".

I GUESS the case had insufficient tension to hold that copper-washed (National Bullet Company?) slug tightly, and when it got slide-rammed up the ramp the bullet was pushed deeply into the case, giving you a chamber pressure in excess of 90,000PSI.

That's my guess.

My solution?

When reloading (as opposed to handloading) those fired cases lose their ability to provide adequate case neck tension on those slippery undersized (.450"?) projectiles, so I HIGHLY RECOMMEND for those who reuse ANY case over and over to invest in the under-$25 LEE "U" Undersized sizing die.
This die reduces case dimensions slightly more than ANY conventional sizing die and provides additional case tension so those tired old cases hold those nasty old bullets tightly enough to avoid set-back (except, perhaps, in unusual circumstances).

Make sense? Feel better?

Really glad you weren't hurt, and a good reason to make safety glasses MANDATORY.