My FN Five-Seven exploded

F

fair_chase

New member
Last week my FN Five-Seven blew up causing severe damage to my left hand (I am right handed). There are 6-8 pieces of shrapnel deep in my thumb and palm area which severed the nerves to my thumb and a portion of my palm. Surgery is required in an attempt to repair the hand by harvesting tissue from my leg. Wish me luck.

The “explosion” occurred on the last round of a 30 round mag loaded with the factory 40gr v-max stuff. On this particular day I only had three loaded magazines (70 rounds total) with me for the Five-Seven but had several other handguns to shoot after the Five-Seven. I began with a 20 round mag loaded with hand loads, then a 20 round mag loaded with factory ammo and finished with the 30 round mag with factory ammo. It was the very last round of 5.7x28 in my immediate possession that ruined my day ……. and a whole lot more!!

I have fired (600-700 rounds) both factory and hand loads through the pistol with zero issues since purchasing new in 2/2011. There are reports of the Five-Seven firing out of battery (OOB) which appears to be the case here but I am no weapons forensics expert. I am not a novice to shooting, handguns or reloading and have 20+ years of extensive experience with shooting and reloading.

I have been completely straightforward with FNH (i.e. Browning) so will now wait and see how they respond.

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Sorry to hear about the incident and injury....Looking at the damage to the pistol, I'd have to say you are somewhat lucky that the injuries weren't worse...

Hope the healing is quick and rehab goes well...It will be interesting to see FN's response...
 
Glad to read it wasn't any worse than it turned out. Once you've been around for a while, you'll have seen things like this happen. I'd be curious to see what FN or anyone else has to offer whether this one was a case of one round trying to pile-drive another or if it was a light powder load in the casing. I've seen both, though this one REALLY blew the gun into more pieces than I've seen before. Hope you heal and mend well.
 
i feel for ya....good thing it was the factory ammo that blew it up. they might of had something to say about the reloads. speedy recovery an hope all goes well for you.
 
I hope you have a rapid recovery. That is rather disconcerting, that is what I carry when I'm out hunting and I'll stop to shoot he occasional jackrabbit. Please let us know what the factory says. Again, I hope you feel better soon.
 
That is downright scary. Factory gun with factory ammo should make you feel confident that these types of things don't happen. I would be contacting the ammo manufacturer too.

Hope you heal up ok.

 
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