Alan Meek Posted July 14, 2005 Share Posted July 14, 2005 Years ago when we had our Gun Shop in CA a customer brought in his AR that he wanted to send to Colt for warranty repair. The Bolt carrier was missing pieces the Upper and lower were kinda bulged out. Seems when he was loading he ran out of the powder to load .223 and substituted blue dot instead. Needless to say Colt refused the warranty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted February 2, 2006 Author Share Posted February 2, 2006 Hey Alan - didja ever do the tests? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCK Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 Years ago when we had our Gun Shop in CA a customer brought in his AR that he wanted to send to Colt for warranty repair. The Bolt carrier was missing pieces the Upper and lower were kinda bulged out. Seems when he was loading he ran out of the powder to load .223 and substituted blue dot instead. Needless to say Colt refused the warranty. Obviously he wan't the sharpest knife in the drawer Normaly its the large pistol case calibers that have the low charge HUGE detonation problem. I have seen pictures of plenty of .44's and .45's with the upper half of the cylinder blown off and the top strap sticking up like a flag pole. I read up on this alot in the past and a guy by the name of Rick Jamison who is a VERY knowledeable and credible reloader/writer for Shooting Times, did everything he could to duplicate the scenario and create a kaboom, but was unable to. He readily admited that he could NOT duplicate it but he also said that he still believed it could happen. Its like UFO's in the reloading world, some people swear it exists and other say, "show me". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caspian38 Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 We use 115gr Zero JHP's with N350, You don't happen to ALSO LOAD N310 in your 40sw and use the same press or powder measurer do you? N320 might also do that much damage I don't know ... but VIT. should mark their bottles better! they are going to get someone hurt someday even if its not the problem in your case ... and I always make sure I rack the powder measurer a few times before switching powders. The only other gun I have seen do this happened on N310 with a double charge ... no way you double charged n350 ... if you have the n310 I would bet money that's what happened somehow! Glad no one got hurt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blkbrd Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 I would lay very good odds that under NDI inspection you will find Sulphur Oxide stringers forming elongated inclusions. These are a result of small amounts of free sulphur being added durring the steel manufacturing process to increase machinability. The sulphur is normally removed durring the hot forging process but sometimes some slips through in even the best steel. I have found this upon inspection of a few cracked and blown barrels of several different makes. Most makers use low sulphur steel to prevent this but you can't tell unless you HiRes Xray the barrel, which no one does. Given the statements I doubt the low charge detonation theory or the idea of 2 bullets being loaded in one case mistake. You should be able to get a replacement barrel from the maker, but may have a hard time getting the barrel manufacturer to replace all the other parts and pay for the labor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulW Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 Thats exactly what I was going to say Blkbrd. yeah, right! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now