What's The Most Dangerous Pistol or Revolver Malfunction You've Seen Or Experienced ?

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Mike H

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The title says it all really. A lot is said about handguns self destructing, I personally have never seen it and I often wonder just how much damage a 9mm or .40 can cause when it goes off in your hand and blows the chamber wide open. I know that H&K demonstrated the USP by putting a bullet half way down the barrel and then chasing it through with a "hot" one, the barrel bulged, but not only did the gun not explode, it could still shoot. Can someone help me put some meat on the bones of these scare stories, worst caliber, worst manufacturer, frequency of occurence and amount of damage caused.

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Mike H
 
Greetings Mike H; One of the most deadly combinations that I have seen picture's
of, would be a double charge of Bulls-eye
powder into say a .38 Special case. The
pictures were very descriptive. as the
top strap was blown in an upward position
and half the cylinder was missing.This
accident resulted in a serious injury to
the shooter, the article said. For years,
Bulls-eye has been known to be the fastest
burning of the handgun powders. Mistake's
with this powder my friend are unforgiving;
so always check for double charges when
using a powder measure. The gun shown in
this article was a Smith & Wesson Model 36
Chief's Special with 2" barrel.

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Ala Dan
 
I always try to use a powder that would overfill the case or close if double charged. And as I'm loading,I ALWAYS keep an eye on the bullet feed station,checking the powder charge in the case. I reload 357 Sig,and had one set back on me but I caught it before I fired-thank God. I always check to make sure the bullets won't push back,usually cycling a few a couple times to make sure. I did'nt have the OAL right on the one that set back and it jammed. Thats how I caught it.......
 
Sportster,

Is bullet setback a problem peculiar to bottleneck cartridges as I've only heard about it in relation to autoloading rifles (the 357 sig obviously having a similar cartridge shape). I've also heard that the cure is a cannelure, am I right in thinking that this is a groove cut around the bullet to help the "crimping seat" or whatever you reloaders call it, and what would have been the nasty outcome if you had fired that round ?

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Mike H
 
I have had two 19ll pistols in .45 acp blow up in my hand when range testing with factory ball ammo. One mishap was caused by the firing pin spring breaking and wedging the firing pin in the extended position. Fired unlocked, blew out the mag, swelled out the slide and jammed slide to frame. Barrel blew out at ejection port. Grips shattered, hand cut badly and facial cuts resulted.
Second one was result of somebody grinding out feed ramp. Less spectacular case split and gas escape.
Another was a Gold cup that had been mangled when new owner also bought loading press and gear and a 10/10 scale. Nobody told him to put the poise all the way down in the notch and when the balance beam dropped, the poise clicked in 10 grains higher. Bullseye powder. Don't know how he seated the bullets. Must have been a chore. Anyway, it was well over 3X load. Did not blow out barrel. I surmise it was due to the tightly packed powder not having a chance to burn until it was blown out the muzzle. Mas Ayoob refered this gent to me. He saw the gun at one of his classes. This guy has more luck than I do.
 
Mike H,

Bullet setback is a problem for straight-wall cases too. Has to do with not being able to roll crimp most semi-auto straight wall cartridges cause they headspace on the case mouth rather than the rim or belt as in other cartridges. You can and should taper crimp .45ACP, .380, etc. Some reloaders use an asphaltic sealer or fingernail polish or lacquer on base of bullet as they insert into case. I've never had much of a problem with this in my Colt .45ACPs.

Sometimes revolver recoil will cause the bullets in the remaining rounds to creep out of the case and tie up the cylinder, kind of opposite of setback.
 
Interesting question. I can think of two that were directly related to the firearms rather than a reload goof. The first one involved a brand new Colt Detective Special that was purchased about five years ago by myself for my wife. She has always favored Colts as far as DA revolvers go and really liked the feel and balance of the Detective. When we got it out of the box I noted a very gritty DA and a gritty, heavy SA. We took it out to the range and about the third time she fired it (or attempted to) SA the hammer fell about 2mm and hung. Luckily, she gingerly stuck her thumb between the hammer and frame and made it safe. I shudder to think about what could have happened with an unexperienced shooter or if someone had bouth it and stuffed it in a dresser drawer as "protection". Incidentally, we don't have that gun anymore.
Second experience was more spectacular. An area trooper purchased an AMT Backup in .357 SIG. It jammed the first five rounds and completely let go on the sixth, separating at the rear of the ejection port and sending the back half of the slide into his two front teeth. Cracked both teeth and took several stitches to sew him back up. That was about a year ago and litigation is still pending. Scary thing is that I put over 200 rounds through one without a bobble about a year before it happened while test firing one for the Department.
God bless to all.
 
Stupid reloading error by a commercial loader. He had this bad habit of repackaging pwder into bulk containers that he labeled himself. Loaded some 25-06 ammo for a customer but instead of H-4831 he filled the case with a faster poder. The barrel of the rifle actually looked like a banana peel. Blew the bolt out, blew the stock all to hell, out the shooter in the hospital...bad scene. Leave your powder in the original containers and never have more than one type of powder on the bench at a time.

BTW: I know you asked for handgun malfunctions, but this error can happen in rifle or pistol so I included it.

[This message has been edited by Ankeny (edited August 30, 1999).]
 
Although most accidents are caused by faulty loading techniqus or poor upkeep of the pistol, I will relate a true story form Kafji at the outset of the Gulf War. We awoke to find the Iraqi's coming across the border and the .50's opened on them immediately, some straglers made it through to cover and the Marines immediately pinned them in an old building, as we closed to empty it, my buddy had a jam in his M-16 and pulled his M9 as we were still taking fire, he fired 2 rounds into the structure through a doorway and on the 3rd round the slide just kept right on going off the back of the pistol. Hit him in the eye effectively removing him from action, fortunately we had the SAW right behind us who proceeded to pepper the door while I evac'd him. I contribute this to the poor quality of the DOD models of the m9.

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DOCSpanky
"Walk softly and carry a big stick, perferably one of the 12 guage variety!"
 
Ever see what happens to a Charter Arms Bulldog when some knucklehead manages to shove a tightly crimped .44 Magnum handload into the cylinder? Not pretty. Completely removed the top strap and top half of the cylinder. Guy spent a few hours in the Emergency Room having steel and brass picked out of his face. BTW, this wasn't an accident; he did it on purpose. He wanted to know if the Charter would stand up to his .44 mag reloads. Boy wasn't too bright. Of course this is the same guy who destroyed two Ruger SBH's in the course of a year from overloads....

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Mossyrock
I wasn't here. You didn't see me. Nobody can prove anything...
 
When the Ruger Redhawk first came out, a fellow brought one to the range and showed it off. First shot the barrel shot forward and down range. Looked like the threads were brittle. Factory replaced it without comment. Luckily, nobody hurt.
I once had a .32 Melior pistol fire while unattended in a jacket pocket. Firing pin face retained by the sear crystalized and sheared off, firing pistol. Next round jammed... Next day I bought a new jacket and a .32 Walther PPK.
Local indoor range has two magnum Smiths with blown topstraps, both caused by firing "baggie" ammo bought at a gun show.
Accidental discharge is caused by firearm malfunction. Unintentional discharge is shooter error. Firearm failure due to inherent defect is an extremely rare happening.
 
Ankeny. Yikes! An eyeful of slide. Was the failure of the M9 ever attributed to anything in particular?


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Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt
 
Heres a spectacular kb for you to see.

href="http://ericcom.com/glocktalk/Forum3/HTML/004728.html Sorry I can't seem to link this I guess firing line doesn't support html tags? You will have to copy and paste.

I hope this doesn't give the impression that glocks are prone to kb. They are not. Most are due to user error. Contrary to the author opinion I think this was a double charge.


[This message has been edited by Ready Texan (edited August 31, 1999).]
 
Most of the incidents described are ammo goofs (overcharges, & squibs) and not gun faults. The closest I ever came to that was when I had a dud reload (not a squib) shooting a Smith 25-5. Fired the gun, didn't see a bullet strike or feel recoil. Opened cylinder, held up gun. A nearly full load of yellow colored Unique poured out the barrel, & sure enough, there was a stuck bullet. Never did figure that one out, primer went bang OK, but the powder didn't ignite. After getting the bullet out of the barrel, I shot the rest of that batch of ammo w/o any problems.
The most dangerous glitch I've ever had came with a Springfield Defender I purchased new in '87. About 5 years ago, I fired a shot and the slide stayed locked back after the first shot. I automatically went for the tap/rack/bang drill, but the instant my hand touched the gun, the entire top end fell off! Seems the bottom retaining lug on the SA 2 piece barrel had sheared off. The link and lug were sitting neatly in the gun on the slide release pin, and the barrel had a bottom as smooth as a baby's butt.
I had a spare barrel, and was able to get the gun up and running the next day...or so I thought. I loaded up a 10 rd mag, inserted, chambered, and then depressed the trigger once...and three bullets fired out!!!! Needless to say, that puppy went immediately to the 'smith for a good working over. Came back just fine.
In fairness to SA, this particular gun had had about 30K rds of IPSC 180 power factor loads put throught it when this happened. Still, I would think that failures of this sort shouldn't happen that soon. Maybe somewhere past 50K, but not at 30. And no, I had never done any 'smithing work on it myself, just routine stripping and cleaning.

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Shoot straight regards, Richard
The Shottist's Center forums.delphi.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=45acp45lc
 
The most dangerous firearms accident I saw did not happen, but just by luck! In the early '70s, a friend got a brand new S&W M29 .44 mag with a 6 1/2" bbl. The problem was that the cylinder would take .44 mags, but the bbl clearly indicated that it was a .41 magnum. The factory promptly replaced the gun. Best to all.
 
I was about 20 feet away when a Glock 21 exploded. It hurt the guy shooting but not seriously.

I know two people who've had worn sears on their 1911s result in the hammer falling from the slide closing. BAM! Surprise!!

The worst malfunctions I've seen have been between the ears of people handling guns. Sometimes they don't hurt anyone. Sometimes they do us all a favor (in a way, they also hurt us all) and shoot themselves.

Once while ROing a pistol match, this guy is taking a dry sight picture and pulling the trigger. I say "Let's get your ears on first" and the shooter puts his muffs on, then goes back to dry firing one. I see no magazine in the well. OK. Double action auto. Hammer comes back....BAM!!! He left one in the chamber and forgot when he arrived. BIG bug-eyed look of surprise as he looks at me. 8-(

Don't handle guns unless your brain is engaged!!

Edmund
 
I once salvaged a cheap Spanish revolver of 1930s vintage by hammering a 16-lb nail flat and filing it into a firing pin shape. I was about 14 or 15, and didn't know the lockwork of S&W revolvers, which this one resembled.

Well, I stuffed it into the back pocket of my Levis once, and discovered that the rebounding hammer would flunk a drop test from 3 feet. No trigger slide, no hammer block. The cylinder was not quite aligned with the bore, and I got some lead shavings into my foot--not enough for a band-aid even.

Never did find the bullet nor any hole through which it would have escaped the room. Maybe I shot myself and God just kept me alive anyway?

Some revolvers are just load five and keep the hammer on an empty chamber.

The second most dangerous from a self-defense standpoint was a revolver round loaded with dies that either under-sized the case and/or over-expanded the neck. Click! JHP bullet jumps into the B/C gap and totally locks it up. We almost bent a cleaning rod hammering the bullet out of the forcing cone.
 
I suppose you'll not get too many people admitting stupid things that they've done. Still, ignorance isn't bliss, and my ignorance of a begging problem gave me quite an experience.

I'd owned my Colt Delta Elite 5 or 6 years, and put a lot of rounds through it, and I mean a lot of full power 10mm. The hammer started following the slide, this happened maybe 6-8 times before I became concerned (Thus the "ignorant" part.) A little help from the local gun store owner convinced me my recoil spring was weak, and needed replacing. I bought a new 22lb spring. Took the big 10mm to the range with my hot Norma ammo and opened fire on some pins when she went full auto on me. The whole line stopped firing and looked at me. I'm still not sure how many rounds I fired. I still swear it was only two, but the guy next to me is sure to this day it was four. Still have the Delta - nice new sear, trigger and hammer installed by someone who did know what the heck they were talking about.

A religious experience if I ever had one.

Tom

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Don't Tread on Me

Why 10mm beats .45 ACP . . .
www.greent.com/40Page/ammo/10/10mm-advoc.htm
 
The only one ive actually experienced was while shooting a eaa witness commander sized pistol in 45acp, it was store gun i was looking to buy and fourtunately they let me try it out first, the last mag of the day I was rapidly emptying when the entire top end launched onto the table in front of me....the last bullet in the mag was in the chamber, thank the lord that no firing pin struck it.....didnt buy that gun.
I was recently shown a full match garand with all the bells and whistle that had fired before locking in battery, the entire back of the receiver is gone, under the numbers, the bolt is missing and the op rod is warped and so is that side of the receiver, hey other than that a sharp rifle.....that was do to the brass not being sized properly.
...fubsy.
 
I had an old 3 screw ruger single six,
bad cylinder timing!! I got strafed with lead across my left hand!! not exactly a blow up but it was enough for me! went back to Ruger!
 
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