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Vince Site Admin
Joined: May 25, 2005 Posts: 15718 Location: Brisbane AUSTRALIA
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Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 3:51 am Post subject: Eye protection reminder |
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Received this in an email today...
“I went to the shooting range to fire a couple of mags with my G17.
And the last magazine went Boom, Boom Boom, Boom BOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!! accompanied by a huge fireball. I thought someone would punch me in the face at full tilt (and I know how this feels like) and the pistol was ripped out of my hand.
Haha! At first I thought I shot myself. Everything felt numb for a second. But when I realized that I did not loose consciousness I recognized warm liquid running down my face. I went back to my friends and asked them where it came from. It was from around the eyes and some other spots.
Some minor spall hit the bone at the edge of the left and right eye. I was the luckiest guy ever because I didn´t wear Eyepro. This situation gave me a broad hint and I still can´t believe, how lucky I was not to loose my sight or get some severe injuries.
At first I assumed that the reason of the self-destruction was a squib load. Due to the fact that I couldn´t disassemble the pistol anymore, I went to the Glock Factory with it. They were able to put it apart and told me that they think that the Kaboom was caused by overpressure of the cartridge because they didn´t find evidence for a squib load. Hard to believe for a 9mm. But I talked to the ammo manufacturer afterwards and he told me that they were able to create a load with enough pressure to make this happen. Anyways.
The pistol could not be opened again because the rest of the cartridge jammed in it. The ejector was bended outwards unnaturally. The majority of the explosion went out through the magazine slot. The mag release button was ripped into two pieces and the opposite of the button was blown out and pushed my hand off the pistol. The rest of the blast was directed between the slide and the grip. This is, where I got the shrapnel from.
As every Glock owner probably knows, the chamber of a Glock is built in a way, that it doesn´t support the whole round. About the last millimeter or so is unsupported as a kind of a predetermined breaking point for an over-pressure caused by the ammo. A common 9 mm round produces about 2500 bar/36259,5 psi. When a round has more than 5000 bar/72519 psi it explodes in the area of the unsupported place and most of the blast goes out through the magazine (slot). At least that is the explanation the technicians at Deutsch Wagram gave me.
There are also other opinions that the cause of this gap is due to the angle of the feed ramp... (unintentionally) .
They estimated that the pressure of my round was up to 6000 bar/87022,8 psi. Not bad. And I think it was also luck that there were no more bullets in the magazine when the explosion occurred.
My Glock was unusable obviously. There was a hair-crack in the chamber, 2 hair-cracks in the slide and one broken out part at the slide.
The round was a Hirtenberger factory load 9mm (nickel plated case, bronze projectile). It turned out that this lot should have been destroyed and never hit the market. But it obviously did. Afterwards I got word that more accidents occurred with this ammo.”
Conclusion: ALWAYS WEAR EYE-PROTECTION !!!
_________________ Cheers, Vince
Illegitimi non carborundum
(Never let the bastards grind you down)
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.
"Nulla Si Fa Senza Volonta."
(Without Commitment, Nothing Gets Done) |
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slimjim Super Member
Joined: May 16, 2009 Posts: 8314 Location: Fort Worth TX
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Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 6:34 am Post subject: Re: Eye protection reminder |
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Thanks for sharing. Safety always pays!
_________________ "To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth." - Theodore Roosevelt
"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein |
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Elvis Super Member
Joined: Jul 27, 2008 Posts: 9256 Location: south island New Zealand
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Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 12:01 am Post subject: Re: Eye protection reminder |
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ouch..now I surely hope our Glock users go right away and check their ammo supplies to make darn sure they dont have any of those rounds!!!!
_________________ You shot it You pluck it !
Them who eats the most duck eats the most feathers! |
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MacD Super Member
Joined: Apr 08, 2011 Posts: 1052 Location: Canada
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Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 9:28 am Post subject: Re: Eye protection reminder |
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A little research will show that he was using surplus ammo meant for smg's. The other lesson here is know what you are shooting. The maker isn't responsible for misuse or resales by original buyers. I would not be standing next to this dolt on the firing line.
_________________ La a'Blair s'math n Cairdean
(Friends are good on the day of battle) |
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PaulS Super Member
Joined: Feb 18, 2006 Posts: 4330 Location: South-Eastern Washington - the State
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Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:25 pm Post subject: Re: Eye protection reminder |
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Mac,
It would seem to me that the ammo should have been marked if it was above the SAAMI standards. Maybe it was and he didn't think about looking.
If it isn't marked or the gun is not marked then it is a defect in my mind. My revolver can shoot any ammo made for it and the Colt 45ACP that I had could handle any ammo that chambered. Is this ammo that much above "standard" loadings?
_________________ Paul
__________________
Speer, Lyman, Hodgdon, Sierra, and Hornady = reliable loading data
So and So's pages on the internet = NOT reliable loading data
Always check data against manuals
NEVER exceed maximum listed loads |
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MacD Super Member
Joined: Apr 08, 2011 Posts: 1052 Location: Canada
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Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 3:41 am Post subject: Re: Eye protection reminder |
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From my research the ammo was designed for blowback SMG's like the British sten gun. These have heavy breech blocks and the rounds were designed to operate the actions under adverse conditions. The bronze bullet and nickle case were the first clues but here is an extract from an ATF warning from a number of years back. Hertenburger also makes 9mm +p loads. Firing a large number of these in a Glock with its unsupported head design is also asking for trouble in my opinion. The writer indicates he had fired a "couple" of mags and this was the last round. Nineteen fast fired rounds of +p and that barrell was getting pretty hot and the gun was taking quite a hammering. Make that +p+ rounds and I am surprised it didn't go sooner. I noted also we weren't shown a headstamp or the box the rounds came from. I suspect this was not an oversight. I cringe at some of the stuff people put in rifles and pistols. Some surplus military ammo for some soviet and chinese surplus weapons is truly bad yet people will shoot it like 22lr in semi guns and blame the gun when the actions jam or an extractor tears out of a rim.
Washington--The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) has beenadvised by Hirtenberger AG, Hirtenberg, Austria, that certain 9X19 mmcaliber ammunition produced by Hirtenberger is unsafe for use in anyhandgun. The ammunition, designated L7A1 and produced ln the years 1990 through1992, was produced for the British Ministry of Defense specifically foruse in submachineguns under adverse conditions. The ammunition was loaded to produce pressures far in excess of that intended for use in handguns. The manufacturer advises that up to 12 million rounds of this ammunitionhas recently been sold on the world surplus market. The ammunition can beidentified by the following head stamp located on the bottom of thecartridge case12 O'clock position: HP3 O'clock position: 90, 91, or 926 O'clock position: L7Al9 O'clock position: the marking of a cross within a circle
_________________ La a'Blair s'math n Cairdean
(Friends are good on the day of battle) |
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Suzanne Super Member
Joined: Jun 27, 2009 Posts: 3323 Location: Eugene, Oregon
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Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 6:44 am Post subject: Re: Eye protection reminder |
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It at first sounds like a Glock problem and turns out it's an idiot problem, stories like this (sort of bait and switch) seem to be prevailing on the internet. You never know what to trust so you don't trust anything. Almost as bad as viruses.
_________________ May the moon keep you centered,
May the sun keep you dancing,
And the stars shed light on your dreams. |
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SingleShotLover Super Member
Joined: Dec 26, 2007 Posts: 1005 Location: Illinois
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Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 4:53 am Post subject: Re: Eye protection reminder |
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MacD wrote: |
A little research will show that he was using surplus ammo meant for smg's. The other lesson here is know what you are shooting. The maker isn't responsible for misuse or resales by original buyers. I would not be standing next to this dolt on the firing line. |
Yep. I once owned a "first wave" import Glock 17 and inherited a lot of surplus 9mm ammo with it. Most was Israeli and Egyptian manufacture. Since I don't read either language and there were no English sub-titles, I ended up firing two rounds of the Egyptian surplus that I later learned was intended for SMGs. The first one blew the magazine out of the gun and stung my hand pretty well. The case was ruptured at the unsupported area of the chamber but did eject. Thinking that it was just a bad round, I triggered another with similar results. (Okay, slow learner.) It finally soaked in that maybe this ammo wasn't the best match for my gun. There was no damage to the weapon, which speaks highly of the sturdy nature of the Glock.
It does pay to check things out before disaster strikes.
_________________ If you can't hit it with one, you probably can't with two either!
The biggest problem with a closed mind is that it never seems to come with a closed mouth.
SSL |
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