Friend's AR went KABOOM yesterday - Pics

[Benito]

This may be a dumb question, but is there any chance that the barrel is still usable?

[glocktogo]

Could weak/overworked brass have been a factor?

[Flankenstein]

Arrgh.

[elephantrider]

Could weak/overworked brass have been a factor?

I would assume that is one possibility, although I can't say how likely vs. other possibilities e.g. bore obstruction, or powder overcharge. Either way, the pressure was too much for that casing. Either from a spike above normal safe pressure limits, or the case was weak for one reason or another and could not handle normal pressure levels any more.

[Heavy Metal]

Did he remember clearing a malf before this?

Could he have had a bullet stuck in the leade of the rifling and then loaded a round behind it?

[thecolter]

Did he remember clearing a malf before this?

Could he have had a bullet stuck in the leade of the rifling and then loaded a round behind it?

That wasn't it. The round just before the incident went off without a hitch, striking the steel target.

[MistWolf]

Ka-Booms resulting from bore obstructions usually split or bulge the barrel.

Ka-Booms from over pressured ammo usually blow apart the action in a much more spectacular fashion than this.

A blown case head should not have caused that much damage. That much damage should only have happened if the Ka-Boom were the result of an out of battery event. Yet, there are failsafes in place to prevent them.

We are looking at the bolt and are assuming it was broken during the Ka-Boom. However, the only way to have an out of battery event is if the bolt were broken before hand. I think we should consider the possibility the bolt broke before the Ka-Boom and is the cause

[Singlestack Wonder]

Hmmm....gun games jp low mass bolt carrier group instead of mil spec plus BCM, Daniel Defense, Centurian Arms, etc, bolt carrier group.

[Edgethane]

Over the years, I've had 3 different KaBooms of M16s that were in my inventory.

The last was quite similar to this one. And the base of the case looks exactly the same - Blown out at the extractor, primer blown out from it's pocket and significant brass extrusion around the ejector. These are classic signs of excessive pressure.

'My' rifle was more damaged as the end of the BCG looked like a peeled banana, but since I'm not familiar with the strength of this gun's components, I can't comment on whether the damage appears more or less severe than it should be.

My particular KB resulted in a recall of that specific lot of M855 ammo. I never heard back if any testing had been done or the results of those tests, if any had been performed.

This gun's ammo was handloaded. There is no way to determine exactly how that round was loaded in comparison to any other round loaded at that time. The shooter had confidence that he loaded it correctly (or he wouldn't have been shooting it), but it's impossible to verify and there is no quality control standard procedure that must be followed other than what the handloader decides to do. And as the OP posted, the shooter could've used a range pick-up!


However, a handloader has advantages. He can inspect each component before it's loaded, not just a QC sample, and depending on what machinery he's using, inspect every round at each point in the loading sequence. But even a small lapse in concentration can have 'interesting' results.

All this is, is my opinion.

[Tarasdad]

I'd be tempted to suspect an incomplete powder dump, leaving enough powder in the case to detonate rather than a progressive burn.