Had a KaBoom. Need some help with diagnosing...

[AC489]

Had a KaBoom this weekend. It was a .45 acp reload in a Sig P 220. Blew the top of the grips off, bruised my hands, powder burned the hands and buried a chunk of brass in my right cheek. The primer blew out too. Case stove piped after the kaboom. Magazine stayed in the gun. There were no bullets left in the pipe.

All wounds were superficial. Now I'm just p.o.ed.

After the incident, I cleaned the gun, and did not see any visible damage (i.e. bent or cracked parts) other than a few loose springs and blown out grips. I paid particular attention to the breach area. There were two springs loose, one on each side of the frame (normally they live underneath the grips). I removed them, but have them in a baggie. I noticed no missing parts. I did not see any rings on the inside of the barrel, and the bore looked bright, shiny and uniform.

It was a buddy's gun, and a buddy's reload. Above is a pic of the casing. He kept the casing. He also took the crappy picture, but it's the best I've got.

I would value informed opinions of what happened.

I've got three possibilities so far...

1. Squib on the previous shot.

2. Double charged (powder) cartridge.

3. Round fired out of battery.

Of the three, I think #2 most likely, as the damage (blow out) appears to have followed the edge where the chamber support was. The case also doesn't appear to be swollen, which would indicate it was fully chambered when discharged. The lack of any annular rings in the barrel suggests that there was no squib.

Am I missing something? Opinions would be helpful.

P.S. I learned much. Thankfully, I was wearing ballistic eye protection (not just sunglasses or prescription glasses). I also was wearing ear muffs.

From now on, I won't be shooting anyone's home brewed reloads and I will be using shooting gloves from now on. Thankfully, everyone was safe, but it could have turned out much worse.

Thanks for reading.

[tacticalcity]

Keyword: Reload.

Diagnosis complete.

I don't mean to be blunt, but 99.9999999999999999999% of the time bad ammo is to blame. Almost always a reload. While a flawed casing is possible with factory new ammo...or a laundry list of other screw ups...the odds are drastically higher with reloads.

It is one thing to shoot your own reloads if you have YEARS of experience reloading and are truly and expert. But if you're new to reloading or trusting somebody else's work (especially a stranger) then you risk a Kaboom. As you unfortunately learned the hardway.

I'm a snob about the ammo I shoot. I know there is still a slight chance I could have an issue. But it is drastically reduced by only shooting factory new ammo from brands experience has told me I can trust.

You got lucky man. I'm glad you're OK.

[Bill Steele]

Number 2.

[ojisan]

Number 2...with the caveat that the case did not have a clump of cleaning media stuck in it....which will increase pressure dramatically.

You (and everyone who reloads) really need to look into each and every case to check the powder level before seating a bullet.
Too high...find out why.

And...I much prefer powders that are bulky enough that a double charge will overflow the case.

[tbc]

Had a KaBoom. Need some help with diagnosing...

Another vote for #2. #1 would be a far fetched.


Sent from my VP9

[Chevy2Nova]

Could be over charged, but in my experience, a double charge with 45acp usually overflows and is very noticeable. Your buddy definitely wasnt paying attention if he had placed a bullet on top of a case that had just overflowed with powder.

[Bill Steele]

Could be over charged, but in my experience, a double charge with 45acp usually overflows and is very noticeable. Your buddy definitely wasnt paying attention if he had placed a bullet on top of a case that had just overflowed with powder.

Many of the faster powders favored in 45 ACP can be doubled + without over flowing the case, although most are still noticeable if you have a light shining into the case and are looking before setting the bullet.

[Carcassonne]

Number 2...with the caveat that the case did not have a clump of cleaning media stuck in it....which will increase pressure dramatically.

You (and everyone who reloads) really need to look into each and every case to check the powder level before seating a bullet.
Too high...find out why.

And...I much prefer powders that are bulky enough that a double charge will overflow the case.

Never thought about that.


.

[Deimos887]

#2 vote as well, as for reloading I don't think newbies (whom typically tend to be extremely cautious and thorough, branching out of their comfort zone) are most likely to F up a batch, its those who've been reloading awhile, grow comfortable and sometimes careless with the routine that have higher chances of something like this occurring.

[Bill Steele]

While this may not apply to the OP's friend as the kaboom didn't actually happen to him, in my experience, most people only have one double in their reloading careers. It usually is a permanent fix.

[sportDogger]

Dam now I'm scared to shoot my p220 stainless

[Trriemferent]

if barrel wasnt damaged ..... i say overcharge
tell your friend to pay attention before he Fing kills someone
glad you werent seriously hurt

[CockedAndLocked]

I only shoot factory ammo, yes its a few more dollars per box but in the long run is even saving $5000 worth the chance of losing a finger or worse?

imo, no.

[Capybara]

You guys are deluded, there have been plenty of kabooms from both squib and double filled factory ammo. Just because many of us slowly craft our reloads one at a time, triple checking powder measures while factory ammo is cranked out by the thousands per hour at high speed by mostly unmanned operation doesn't mean our reloads are more dangerous. Double fills can happen from reloads or factory ammo. Those of you who only shoot factory ammo, don't be lulled into a false sense of security. I find plenty of defective factory ammo out of the few thousand rounds per year that I shoot.

That said, I agree, probably a double charge. You should not shoot anyones reloads but your own. Nobody shoots mine but me. If I screw up like this, I deserve the injury, not a friend or relative.

[Springfield45]

That is a sign of serious over pressure. Were the hole is in the brass is not supported by the chamber and pressure went to direction of least resistance. Most likely cases are double charges or over max charges, wrong powder or the bullet was set or pushed back in the case to far. The 45 ACP can be very easy to screw up. A normal charge for 230 gr. bullets is usually only about 5 gr. but 10 grains can be loaded in the case if the re-loader does not pay attention.