Mild Buckmark Kaboom

[lochaber]

My trusty Buckmart Micro Standard and I had a bad day today. I was plinking away trying to work my way through a few boxes various ammo I had laying about the house and after about 200 rounds one went PFFT! Smoke poured out of the breach and mag well and small bits of burning powder landed on my hands. This is the first time this ever happend to me but I managed to at least obey the safety rules and I watched the embers burn out to the scent of burning hair and a tad of flesh while pointing the gun downrange. Slide is locked about half way home and I can see the back of the case. still in the chamber with a nasty split on its butt. When the smoke cleared, I droped the mag and the slide droped forward in the closed position. And here is were I made my only mistake. I racked the slide and the case went on the floor, among many hundreds of cases of various calibers and many hundreds of .22 cases. The bullet had cleared the barrel as well.

Nope I couldnt find the case after about 15 minutes of sitting on the floor like an idiot. Then I got another surprise. The slide of the Buckmark would rack and everything seemed ok except that I pressed the trigger the hammer would not drop. I packed my stuff, including the rest of the rounds from the same box and walked out to one of the owners of the shop/range. I relate my sob story to him and he takes a look too. He racks the slide, presses the trigger and the hammer drops just fine. Great, now not only am I shaken up, I look like an idiot to this nice guy, as well.

So now what? The ammo was Federal High Velocity, and I still have the box and about 20 rounds out of the hundred including the one which was next in the mag and is covered in soot. I have yet to take the gun appart or clean it. A visual inspection doesnt show any damage, and I suspect the hammer problem was just soot and debries in the action. However, what do I do? If I call Federal and I have no case it will most likely do me no good. If I call Browning I'm sure they'll tell me to call Federal. I dont want to shoot the gun until its checked out by someone more competent then me, but I also worry how much that is going to cost me. So where do I go from here?

On the bright side, I'm ok and my CZ75 performed as flawlessly as usual and my better then usual, putting 14 rounds in about 4 inches at 50ft, with on flyer a couple of inches away from that. Believe me that is good for me, and I should have known that karma was going to nip me in the bud 20 minutes later, just not that hard, darn it!

Any advice would be appreciated.

Lochaber

 

[Mike Irwin]

Inspect the gun thoroughly, and then take it out and shoot it again to see if everything functions properly.

Chances are that absolutely nothing is wrong with your gun.

What likely happened is that a weak spot in the case head let go, either a crack in the brass, or possibly an impurity or inclusion in the brass matrix itself.

I've had this happen with .22 ammo before, too.

 

[Hal]

Coincidence the hammer wouldn't drop?

Probably. My Buckmark Camper did this a couple months ago. On the right side, just above the right grip, is the trigger disconnect. It needs to be spotless and lightly lubed to work 100%. It's also possible a bit of debris from the offending round temporarily lodged there, and worked itself free during transport. Be careful if you take the right grip off to clean/inspect that area since it has a gazillion little pieces-parts.(really only about 5, but it seems like a gazillion when they fall out.)

The other possibility is that a piece of debris lodged there and prevented the disconnect from disconnecting, and your Buckmark "doubled". IE: The round fired out of battery.). Check also to make sure the top strap is secure and the screws are tight. Once in a while my Wife's Micro (we're a Buckmark kinda family ) has the screws work loose and it keeps the disconnect from working. So far it has only caused jamming, but I (we) tend to keep an eye on the screws when shooting the Buckmarks.
I had this happen once with a friends(used and repaired)Marlin model 60 and it fired a round through the base of the empty in the chamber. Scary, but not any real damage to anything.