Overpressure Failure in a Colt M4 | WeaponsMan folks really need to understand how this can happen, and How to deal with it, WHEN it does....
and possibly Ammo loaded with Fast Burning Pistol Powder, instead of slower burning Rifle type Powder, as noted at the bottom of the article... ReLoaders might just take NOTE, here...
If he was firing "a couple of hundred rounds", I would suspect some form of fast firing. 1 Squib in that, and boom. Best guess with the info I have.
@AD1, Real funny...jerk. But, seriously, he was shooting .300 blackout then switched to steel casing stuff... I thought that Eastern Europe steel stuff was okay to shoot? And, why was he shooting .300 blackout? Will that cartridge even fit correctly? That seems like asking for trouble to me...lucky he didn't lose an eye or finger or his head. EDIT: I see now...the .300 blackout was chambered in the 5.56. Wasn't that blackout round developed specifically for suppressed shooting? Would that make it dirty or...? Great...just brought the damn Colt home not 5 hours ago and now this... Luck of the Irish! Rick
Squip wouldn't have cycled for a following shot. Looks to me like the chambering round detonated before in battery/
Yea the 30 cal round would not go into battery fully and certainly not travel down the barrel. Stay away from steel case stuff in your new weapon. Start collecting brass, powder, primers and bullets. Then a press, dies and the other stuff that will continue to drain all spare cash you have
OH YOU FUNNY GUY GI !!! I can see news now 'RUSSIAN WIFE KILLS AMERICAN IN HIS SLEEP FOR THREATEN TO PURCHASE MORE GUN GEAR' .... everything I am grooming off the net says Steel casing is okay for plinking. "30 cal round would not go into battery fully and certainly not travel down the barrel." He says he fired 200 rounds after the .30 stuff..........
If it was a 300 BO barrel he could,have. i did not read the complete article. I just dont run any steel stuff through my US weapons. I do run it through my russian AK/SKS 39¢/ rnd is not bad. I shoot for sub ¢30/ rnd when I buy unless there is a run on ammo. So buy what you can afford BEFORE the next crisis. Plinking is one thing, but ammo is $$$. Everyround that goes down range, should have a purpose. IMO You should shoot the same ammo(weight/MFG) all the time. My goal is to be as accurate as you can....know the weapon and ammo and how it works in the firearm. Not saying you dont change ammo, just know what each does as it leaves the muzzle. Now go out and toss some lead down range.
I agree, stay away from steel cased ammo. Yes it will work fine but, from what I have read in gun mags and been told by a gunsmith, it will drastically decrease the life of internal parts. I won't shoot any through my expensive weapons and it is always the first question I ask when looking to buy a used firearm.
About 35 years ago a friend of a friend called me on the phone with a reloading question. He had a Lee Loader with the powder scoops. He assumed that the scoops were proper with a given caliber regardless of powder. So he charged his .44 mag cases with the same volume of WW231 as he had previously done with WW296. I asked if he still had all his fingers. It turned one of the chambers of his Model 29 into an egg shape. He brought it to a smith who looked it over and declared that it was indeed repairable. He was lucky in more ways than could be counted. The discussion then turned to the subject of burn rates and by the time the call ended he had a pretty good grasp of just what had happened and why, which was what he was looking for. Never heard from him again. I hope he learned the lesson, sounded like he did.
Either that, or he didn't Learn, and has departed to that Extended Shooting Range in the Sky..... There are VERY Good Reasons that you NEVER load Rifle Cartridges with Pistol Powders, and it is a waste of effort, to load Pistol Cartridges with Rifle Powder. Many folks never really get a grasp on Powder Burn Rates Vs Barrel Lengths.... Most Loading Manuals ignore that issue, because they assume the Readers, will use an 80, or 90 % of one of there Powder Loading Tables, to start and them work up to a Good stabilized Loading for their Weapon. Loading isn't Rocket Science, but if one doesn't use a Good Loading Manual from a Powder OEM, then it might as well be, as the Math required to be safe, is not Trivial...
So, I ran this by my buddy back in Virginia (Gunsmith, FFL, over a 100 personal firearms) and he got interested and below is what he emailed me today... "Btw... I was talking to a buddy about that blown AR and we got curious so we tested it. You CAN get a 300 black round to chamber on a 556. It will slam the bullet deep into the case, but just releasing the bolt can be enough force to make it happen." So, I am betting that the young marine's story isn't quite right and he didn't shoot a bunch of 5.56 after the 300 Blackout and that this actually happened WHEN he was shooting Blackout.
From the link: "300 Blackout in the 5.56mm chamber" .300 (.3*25/4) is 7.62. The results were predictable.
Well, I am glad no one got hurt from stupidity and furthermore glad there is no failing in the Colt LE6920...especially since I own one. Kudos to @BTPost for bringing this to everyone's attention... Rick
@RickR Colt is an experienced manufacturer of the AR. Same as many others, barring human error or a double charge of powder etc. there isn't much risk. At the range someone was shooting an AK and it made a weird noise. The empty cases showed a 5,45 was inadvertently loaded. All it did was make a weird noise. Not that I would advise either, going the other way is a lot more dangerous. ~15 years ago, Williams offered an aluminum receiver for the FAL. Aluminum Upper Warning Scary, huh? A post by "Court in FL" is about the best read on the subject: Williams Arms Receiver - Florida Shooters Network
@Tikka I purchased a Remington 887 12 gauge when I first got back. Before I even got it out of the box, my buddy back East happened to hear that there was a fault with them. It would do what is called 'Slam Firing.' "Slam firing: A slam fire is a premature, usually unintended discharge of a firearm that occurs as a cartridge is being loaded into the chamber." So, when you rack the slide to chamber a round = bang. Luckily, mine had already been modified. I'm an engineer so, yeah, I like things to work as designed, when and how they are suppose to. I don't like surprises...not even on my birthday...but then don't care much for birthdays anymore either. So, yes, I am very concerned when I hear anything about any failure of a weapon I own until I am sure it wasn't the weapon's fault... and most the time is it not the weapon's fault but the operator.
