What Happened to this Gun?

M

Metallifan33

Inactive
Hi All,
First of all, I want to say I'm a noob (so be nice ;)
After 36 years of my life, I finally did what I've been wanting to do for a long time and purchased a handgun (Ruger SR22). I've always wanted to go target shooting with a handgun. Anyway, after reading and watching a lot of YouTube videos and reading the manual, I set out to the range for the first time yesterday.
Everything went well until I reached the 98th round. I pulled the trigger and nothing happened (I thought that I hadn't released the previous pull to the point it reset, so I pulled the trigger again... Like I know now, this was a big mistake). The gun fired but vibrated violently (good thing it's only a .22). Smoke and a flash came out of every crevice in the gun. I pulled the slide open and saw this...



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An empty shell casing (no back) in the chamber. A new very damaged round (looked like it was aborted) was halfway fed.

I stopped firing the gun, unloaded it and told the range helper guy what happened. He took a look at the gun, looked in the barrel and said it was clear and that it was ok. I didn't realize till I got home that there was an empty shell casing still in the chamber. I pulled the casing out with a tweezer and cleaned the barrel out. Everything seems normal except for a couple of nicks in the slide.
Do you think I need to take it to gunsmith, or would you try and fire it again?
Thanks!
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Here's a pic of the round immediately behind. The shape of the damage indicates that it was pushed into the edge of the empty shell casing ahead. (of the empty shell casing was pushed back into this round).
Does the backing of a shell casing normally separate from the cylinder?
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Looks like a cased head separation to me. The second round's bullet is mashed where it tried to enter the back of the damaged case. A rare occurence, but not unusual. I carry a range rod now for such incidents.
 
ouch

Speak with Ruger customer service.

Most likely they will have you send the gun to them for inspection and/or repair

They will even send you a pre-paid postage label for Fed Ex. Their turn around time is usually around 10-days.
 
I would think ammo problem ( case separation ) very rare in quality 22 ammo, I've heard of it but have never had it happen to me . I don't think it is a gun problem ( trigger reset ) If had not allowed the trigger to reset it simply would not have fired in my opinion
 
Cheap Ammo

What ammo?
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Metallifan33
In the spirit of being nice, I will relate a similar experience that I had, with a rifle. It was a semi-auto .22LR. The cycling was consistent then noticed a change in a string of the last two rounds.

On the first round, the case separated from the rim base. The base was ejected and the case was stuck in the chamber. The second round chambered as it push the baseless case down the barrel. The second round discharged and took the case, into the target and stuck there. Did not locate the ejected base but you may just find yours, on the ground.... :confused:
I switched ammo and never had a problem after that. No harm done .... :)

CAUSE??
"That" cheap ammo that is now relegated to non semi-autos. I will not mention the brand of ammo but you get what you pay for. I could squeeze the cheap ammo case with my fingers but not the better ammo case. ... :)


Be Safe !!!
 
Clear it, clean it and go shoot it. I doubt its hurt. But I have to say that after 50+ years of shooting guns I have never seen this happen. And I agree that this was an ammo problem.
 
Is it possible that the first strike of the firing pin on the case rim that failed to ignite the primer weakened the rim sufficiently for the second strike and ignition to cause a blow out at that point, and a separation of the case head?
 
pblanc said:
Is it possible that the first strike of the firing pin on the case rim that failed to ignite the primer weakened the rim sufficiently for the second strike and ignition to cause a blow out at that point, and a separation of the case head?
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This seems to be the explanation that makes the most sense based on my experience.

Thanks again for the comments. I decided to clean out the gun and try one round today initially and see how it goes. I'll let you know.

My concern is whether there is damage to the barrel that I can't see. Would this be a possibility considering the bullet left the barrel after the second shot?

Is it bad form to reveal the ammo I used?
 
No its not bad form but a service to the rest of us. 22 ammo is not really high quality ammo in the sense that it is fired once and the case discarded. So the cases are made to survive a single shot. Getting a weak case is not unheard of and can happen with any brand of ammo.

I have had several Winchester 22 mag cases split down the sides of the case. No big deal just remove the empty and keep shooting. I do not think your barrel is damaged. Those guns like most all guns have a built in extra margine of strength.
 
Seems like an ammo issue to me, too. I don't see anything in the pictures of the pistol that concern me, but there are more expert people who will weigh in before long. Whatever the cause, it seems like a case rupture. It sounds like you reacted with appropriate caution. I wouldn't beat yourself up over pulling the trigger again - rare is the fellow who hasn't had a dud with .22LR and given it a second whack. You might want to look through the remainder of that box of ammunition and see if there are any rounds with visibly abnormal cases. Then go shooting again and have fun.
 
It may be an out of battery firing in my opinion. Here's what I read into the OP's original post.
Everything went well until I reached the 98th round. I pulled the trigger and nothing happened...
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If, and it's a big IF, he means that there was no hammer fall, nor firing pin movement on the first attempt, then I'd say the slide was out of battery, but only by a very small amount. Then, during his inspection, and manipulation, the slide closed a bit more, allowing the sear to release,,,but the round had still not fully chambered. When it fired (out of battery), the result was a case head separation.

Remember that he said after the 98th round..that's a lot of firing and chamber fouling. I know for a fact that in several of my .22 uppers for my autos, 98 rounds would result in malfunctions. I think that's the cause here...a dirty chamber that wouldn't allow a round to fully seat on the first attempt, then managed to seat just far enough on the 2nd attempt resulting in the blow out.

And the poster who recommended never attempting a 2nd try on defective .22 LR ammunition, offers good advice. (Though I've done it myself after rotating the cartridge to allow a different portion of the rim to be engaged, this incident has cured me of that practice).

I've never seen one, but there are reports that the M1 Carbine will fire out of battery in this manner due to out of spec. parts....with considerably greater damage to the gun and potentially severe consequences for the shooter!

HTH's Rod
 
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Thanks again for the comments. I decided to clean out the gun and try one round today initially and see how it goes. I'll let you know.

My concern is whether there is damage to the barrel that I can't see. Would this be a possibility considering the bullet left the barrel after the second shot?
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I strongly doubt there is any serious damage to the barrel -- they can normally take an enormous amount of stress. More likely damage would be something like a blown out extractor, but I think I see it there where it should be in your first picture. I think it's totally reasonable to do some careful test-firing. For the first few shots, you'll probably want to examine the ejected case to make sure it looks normal -- no weird bulges or marks on the case.

BTW, this is very rare.

Is it bad form to reveal the ammo I used?
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Not at all -- we all complain about lousy products. It might be bad form to complain about a high-dollar item while the manufacturer or seller is literally in the process of trying to make it right for you -- in that case it would be best to withhold judgement until the process is complete.

In this case, the issue is clearly cheap ammo. Usually the cheap/bulk stuff is reasonable practice ammo if you're okay with encountering the occasional dud, but you experienced a nasty exception. CCI mini-mags are usually regarded as the gold standard for .22 reliability, if you want to avoid this type of thing.
 
I use to shoot my Ruger MKI in the 22 falling plate matches and would fire 2-300 rounds without cleaning. My uncle ran the match and we would get there early to set up the plates and I would go to playing getting in as much practice as I could. Plus it was just a lot of fun. I would have been real disappointed if my gun wouldn't have made it through a couple hundred rounds without jamming.

But I do agree with Rodfac that the gun probably fired out of battery.
 
I use to shoot my Ruger MKI in the 22 falling plate matches and would fire 2-300 rounds without cleaning. My uncle ran the match and we would get there early to set up the plates and I would go to playing getting in as much practice as I could. Plus it was just a lot of fun. I would have been real disappointed if my gun wouldn't have made it through a couple hundred rounds without jamming.

But I do agree with Rodfac that the gun probably fired out of battery.
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Right, there's no way 98 rounds is too much between cleanings -- other Ruger 22's have been notorious for essentially never getting cleaned because of the difficult take-down and reassembly. 98 rounds should absolutely not be a problem.

However, I'm skeptical of firing out of battery -- if it were possible, one would think it would be a well-known issue with the SR22. Cheap/crappy bulk .22 ammo is much easier to believe.
 
The pistol fired out of battery. That is what caused the smoke and vibration. If you put that left over brass next to an unfired cartridge, you will see how much the round stuck out of the chamber when it ignited. I would be concerned. I wouldn't want any of the molten brass bits end up in my eyes, If it were to happen again.

It is semi auto pistol, not a DA revolver. When the hammer drops on a dud round, one can't just pull the trigger again. It won't work. What probably happened was the round stopped short of fully chambered. The slide was on the verge of reconnect the trigger. Nothing happened when the trigger was pulled, not even a click. Let go the trigger and the trigger somehow reconnect while the cartridge still not fully chamber. Pulled trigger again. Round fired out of battery.

The concern is the trigger reconnected while out of battery. It shouldn't. I would let the manufacturer to look at it.

-TL

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SIGSHR said:
Looks like a cased head separation to me. The second round's bullet is mashed where it tried to enter the back of the damaged case. A rare occurence, but not unusual. I carry a range rod now for such incidents.
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Agreed.

I'd like to know what ammo was used. Some .22 are known for being loaded pretty hot and have had case head issues in the past. Have read of Armscor ammo having case head issues.
 
There are some posters here saying that the gun may have fired out of battery... I don't think that's the case. The SR-22 is a DA/SA pistol, OP said he pulled trigger and it didn't fire, which is pretty common for rimfire. He pulled the trigger again because the gun is DA capable and it fired and the case head separated.

Weak .22 brass is not unheard of because it's only meant to fire one time.

OP, clean your gun, buy some other ammo (preferably CCI or Aguila in 50 or 100 rd boxes, don't use any bulk ammo) and try shooting another 100 rounds and see if you notice the gun shooting any differently as opposed to the first 97 times you did.

My SR-22 has run damn good since I got it last year. It jams with Winchester White Box .22, but that's just because that ammo and MY SR-22 don't mesh well together. The WWB .22 works great out of my .22 rifles.
 
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