AR kaboom, is the barrel salvagable?

Rock Knocker

Active member
Well, over the winter this guy I know *cough* my buddies ex girlfriend's 3rd grade class mate *cough cough* screwed up and mixed some longshot powder with his H335 and the AR took a major hit. Upper was ruined, bolt was cracked, ejector sent flying the whole thing needed a chop saw to take apart.

The cracked bolt was stuck into the barrel extension and finally was worked out with some marks on the inside of the extension. Would any of you have the extension replaced(know a guy that can do it) and try running the barrel again? 16" Black hole weaponry mid lenght 1-9" barrel.
 
Some small indents where the bolt had expanded and put pressure on the inside of the extension and some scratches from the abuse that was needed to remove the bolt.
 
Originally Posted By: Rock KnockerSome small indents where the bolt had expanded and put pressure on the inside of the extension and some scratches from the abuse that was needed to remove the bolt.

Well my opinion on this one is that your "friend" has a very high quality tomato stake now. If you had that much expansion then the chamber is probably stretched and the barrel extension/barrel mating area have more than likely exceeded the elasticity of the steel and would be highly suspect. Wrapping a new extension around it is not going to make it in spec again.

I've seen many uppers blown that just dumped the pressure back and that is no biggy but when you start swelling bolts etc. you are way past the pale IMHO.

Just my thoughts but this is one that I would use as a teaching tool.

Greg
 
Pretty much what I expected, I replaced everything right away but I've got this barrel sitting around with less than 200 rounds down the tube.

I will make sure to let him know
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I wish I was shooting over a chrony when it happened...
 
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The lower has been functioning fine. Barely noticeable, but the 30 round magazine had 27 rounds in it and a good portion of the blast went right into the magazine, blew the bottom out of the mag, ruined most the ammo and flared the sides out quite a bit, the mag well of the lower seems to have been opened up by .030".
 
Cripes. If it were mine, I'd write it off as totalled and move on. This guy that you knew got off [beeep] lucky the downward-directed blast didn't take his tweeter off about the time the exploding action took off his face. Now way would I risk firing with any of the major parts on that thing again.

Grouse
 
I was joking around when I said it was my buddies exgirlfriends blah blah. I did it. In fact I was laying prone on a frozen pond with my offhand wrapped around the magazine, I was lucky and had a set of mechanix gloves on underneath some big choppers. The hand that was wrapped around the mag felt like a firecracker went off in my hand.

I'm still not entirely sure how I got H335 and Longshot powder mixed together, I do all my loading on a gempro scale and weigh each round one at a time. My longshot and H335 are in 8lbs jugs so I pour them into a separate container to scoop from. I unloaded the rest of the 100 rounds I did in that batch and about half of them had a mixture of powders and the other half were all 335. The only thing I can think of is that I grabbed the container that had some longshot left in it and topped it off with 335... But after investigating I never found any mixed powders anywhere except in the loaded rounds, it was weird.
 
Originally Posted By: Rock KnockerI was joking around when I said it was my buddies exgirlfriends blah blah. I did it. In fact I was laying prone on a frozen pond with my offhand wrapped around the magazine, I was lucky and had a set of mechanix gloves on underneath some big choppers. The hand that was wrapped around the mag felt like a firecracker went off in my hand.

I'm still not entirely sure how I got H335 and Longshot powder mixed together, I do all my loading on a gempro scale and weigh each round one at a time. My longshot and H335 are in 8lbs jugs so I pour them into a separate container to scoop from. I unloaded the rest of the 100 rounds I did in that batch and about half of them had a mixture of powders and the other half were all 335. The only thing I can think of is that I grabbed the container that had some longshot left in it and topped it off with 335... But after investigating I never found any mixed powders anywhere except in the loaded rounds, it was weird.

Yeah you really had us buying into the "friend" deal..NOT....
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I grew up in Minnesota don'tcha know?

Greg

You got pics???
 
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Everything else got thrown in the trash but I kept the bolt, the end the goes into the bolt carrier got cut off when I chopped through the whole upper to remove the bolt so I could recover the barrel.



 
Thanks for sharing. Hopefully you saved one of us from doing the same thing. We all need a reminder once in a while. Sorry you had to be the crash test dummy. Glad your ok.
 
That is pretty interesting.

I know a guy who blew up his Adcor Defense AR-15. Just a few days prior to his Kaboom incident he was bragging about how he had 4000 rounds through his Adcor without a cleaning. The lower receiver survived but the barrel burst at the base and split the upper, his Larue mount busted in two peices, if I remember correctly his Aimpoin T1 was damaged as well. I think he finally came to the conclusion that his rifle fired out of battery. He cliamed to have been using factory ammunition.

Gratefully he wasn't injured. He cleans his rifles more often now in between range sessions.
 
I don't know.........this one still shot minute of pie plate at 50 yards!







....with some minor modifications!



JK man. You could have your GS take a cast of the chamber to see if it is out of spec, but if it were me, I would probably scrap it.
 
That is why I am so picky about the way things are done in my reloading room. When you reload, there is no room for errors. Lucky nobody was injured or killed.
 
Originally Posted By: GLShooterThat's tragic right there.

Greg

You're telling me! IIRC, it was round 173 down the tube. It wasn't even broke in yet.
 
Originally Posted By: Smokin BarrelOriginally Posted By: GLShooterThat's tragic right there.

Greg

You're telling me! IIRC, it was round 173 down the tube. It wasn't even broke in yet.

Did it stick a bullet?

Greg
 
I wish I could blame something but operator error, but it was all me.....laser bore sighter, unfortunately.

I used to use them on the crony after I shot one one day. I guy was quizzing me at the range on what the chronograph was. After he left, i thiught i removex it. I even looked down the barrel before shooting, but not well enough...obviously.
 
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