Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

I found this on another forum I was browsing. Im glad this isnt my pistol nor my hand.

According to this guy, the FN FiveSeven has a pretty big design flaw in it in which the pistol fires out of battery then causes a big KABOOM when firing it.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=362563

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

Another good reason to have a steel framed gun rather than a plastic one.

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

Wow..........


That could have been really , really bad.
still dont know why it happened though.

T

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

Any firearm can fail catastrophically due to overpressure. If I had to choose, I think I would rather have a polymer pistol blow-up in my hand than a steel one...

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

What does firing out of battery mean?

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

Wellll,,,, :D

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

It means the pistols slide hasn't gone forward all the way causing an unsupported case

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

But notice how most of the force of the blast went down into the trigger area? Energy follows the path of least resistance. If you have metal on top and plastic on the bottom you are asking for it. At least with metal in both locations you have a better chance of having the top blow off.

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

I have had a polymer pistol (Glock .40) kaboom in my hand...the excess pressure caused the case head to separate from the cartridge body, blew the extractor out (never found it) and the magazine half-way out of the pistol...and stung my hand a little.

This was either the result of firing out of battery due to a defective (aftermarket) recoil spring assembly that the previous owner had installed or a PMC factory overload. The pistol handled this overpressure just as it was designed to, with most of the excess pressure being directed out the ejection port and down the magazine well.

I am not sure about the design strength of the FN pistol, but most other auto pistol (steel and polymer) kabooms I have heard about were similar to my experience.

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

I'm gonna go ahead and say it:

KB's happen with reloads.

I read the whole thing, and I believe that the guy is very capable and always cautious.....what he is not, however, is a machine.

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

5.7 ammo is difficult (if not impossible) to reload. There really is no "official" data available - just experimentation. I looked at getting a PS-90, but decided against it for this reason.

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

not a smart choice reloading that round

zero recovery due to voided warranty

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

Thats actually a manufacturing problem with the Glock and unsupported cases

http://www.thegunzone.com/glock/glock-kb-faq.html

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

One of Mr. Speir's solutions is to install a custom barrel...well, now...in my case it didn't help. The pistol in question was an older model G24 with a new MATCH CHAMBERED Bar-Sto Precision barrel. Case support was not an issue with this tight chambered barrel.

Reading the article, Speir admits the possible reasons are inconclusive. There are a number of kabooms with other pistols, namely the FULLY SUPPORTED (author's words) HK USP, not to mention the (steel) 1911's and "38 super face" (ouch).

But no one has thought to keep accurate records of these other than anecdotal comments. Why not, I ask? Does someone have an agenda? Maybe because there are a lot more Glocks in service (75% of LE) and that is why we see more instances. In my experience most cops are not particularly knowledgeable about their duty weapon or the ammunition they shoot, including my law enforcement stepson.

FWIW, I do believe Glock has tightened up the factory chamber specifications on the newest .40 caliber models.

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

This story has been cross-posted all over and resulted in a number of marathon threads, but a reasonable summary might be:

Reload with nonstandard heavy bullet + lengthened and embrittled case shoulder + finicky caliber = KABOOM!!

This is not a forgiving .38 Special shot from a revolver, but a picky delayed-blowback design where the pressure must be correct at just the right times. My guess is that the relatively heavy bullet (55-grain vs. 40-grain for the heaviest commercial ammo) sat around for a just a tiny fraction too long, building up pressure that blew up a weakened case.

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

Kaboom incidents mainly happen with reloads, case failure, or putting too much powder in, and are pretty rare with factory ammo. A polymer pistol is more likely to blow it's guts up, a steel frame pistol is going to sting a bit more, but will probably disassemble itself at high speed, and not shatter in the same manner.

With a dirty feed ramp, and moly-coated lead ammo we use, occasionally a round will hang up on the ramp and the pistol will fail to go into battery, or more correctly, the round fails to fully enter the chamber. A dirty chamber could also presumably hang a round up like this.

I have observed some cases at the range, one in particular was a .40cal with a substantial bulge in the case, I handed this one into the RO so it didn't get accidentally re-used.

It is good to set a limit on your brass and only reload it a certain number of times, I have heard between 5 and 20 times, so it really varies on the case type, loads used, and your personal aversion to having one blow up on you. Don't use range pickups that you can't be certain are once fired etc. as someone may have reloaded it 20 times and discarded it, then you come along and unfortunately blow it up in your gun.

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

I don't believe that I've ever seen a Kb with a steel framed pistol. The majority being plastic with the balance being some kind of aluminum alloy. Anyone have any pictures or articles about a steel framed handgun Kb?

Re: Wow, Now this is a KB!
 

Heres a KB on a Colt Anaconda

http://www.thegunzone.com/anaconda.html