HELP! AR exploded...

[Twystd1]

I just popped open a Miwall round. I poured the powder back into the brass. It filled the brass up. My Miwall round with the powder that I found in it. Can't be double loaded. Period. Your pic looks like it fired out of battery. That may well NOT be an ammo related issue.

I roll my own most of the time. And I haven't used any powder that doesn't dam near fill up the .223 / 5.56 brass relatively close to the top. I typically use varget for both .223 and .308.

It is still very possible to overload a round with dam near any powder. I have done it and blown out primers and broken parts as well.

Can you take a few more high res pics of the offending round and post them up?

Question: Does your barrel say .223 or 5.56 or Wylde? And what ammo did you use? Mil spec or .223?

Most of all. I am stoked you are OK..!!

Cheers,
Twystd1

Thats is my experience. Yours may well be different.

[xenophobe]

Glad you weren't hurt.

That looks like it was fired OOB and may not even be related to the ammo.

What trigger group are you using?

What does the barrel extension look like... sheared/broken?

[Peter W Bush]

So who else read the title and thought it was the guy loading .223 77gr SMKs with 25 grains of TAC (or whatever it was)???

[voiceoftheright]

I've run about a thousand rounds of Miwall's .223 thru my evil black rifle. While it's not the tightest grouping most accurate ammo I've ever used, it is reliable. I've used their rifle and their pistol ammo with no regrets.

Me too. All I shoot are Miwall reloads. Seriously. And by the looks of the handcarts stacked up on the way out the door of every gun show on the West coast, I'm not the only one. Bad ammo can happen with ANY type of rounds, factory or reloads. I inspect any ammo I load into my magazines just to be sure. You take a certain amount of risk with any firearm using any ammo.

[johnthomas]

I am curious, is there a way miwall will know they were their reloads other than your word? I'm sure you are being truthful but a business may want some other proof.

[ronas]

Case head separations are caused by excessive headspace and/or brass which has been used too many times and develops a thin ring just above the case head.

Could the case head separations be caused by the OAL of the brass being to long? In other words it need to be trimmed before it was reloaded.

[Jaxpire]

From everything I have read the AR's BC design can not fire out of battery. A protruding primer can ignite on the bolt face.

[goodlookin1]

Here's my guess:

The round before the blowup had a case head separation and only ejected out the base of the case. In comes the next round into the chamber, going in partially but not fully because the rest of the last case was still in the chamber. The BOOM round went in far enough to actually be fired, but not far enough to clear the excessive headspace, resulting in a blowup.

Have you inspected the chamber/barrel extension? Does it look like a round hit the throat or anything, or did the bullet lodge in the barrel?

Really, the only other thing that could have happened was that the case was overfilled, creating WAY too much pressure. This might even be the more likely scenario given that they were reloads.

Consider this a cheap lesson learned: I say cheap because you were not injured. I would suggest to learn to reload on your own so you can do all the inspecting to ensure proper bullet assembly. Otherwise, you're always gambling with any reload/retail round made by someone else.

Glad you're okay.

[Nathan Krynn]

I agree with those saying it fired out of battery. The first picture shows that the round was not fully chambered when it went off (hence the expansion at the case head). This could be due to a primer that was not fully seated (most likely; as others said, dont trust other peoples' reloads), or your firing pin sticking for some reason. I could be wrong here, but this is what the evidence tells me.

As for whoever said it may have been a double-charge, try double charging a .223 and tell me that you don't notice it: it will easily overflow. Double-charges are more common with pistol ammo if I am not mistaken...

I have seen 12 rifles that blew up from an out of battery shot and it looks just like this, some even blow out the side of the upper.

[goodlookin1]

I have seen 12 rifles that blew up from an out of battery shot and it looks just like this, some even blow out the side of the upper.

How can this happen? Scares me to death....I shoot lefty!

[Diabolus]

Could the case head separations be caused by the OAL of the brass being to long? In other words it need to be trimmed before it was reloaded.

I'm not an expert reloader, especially for .223, but I would assume he was shooting 55gr and I don't think that bullet is long enough to have issues with OAL and engaging the throat to cause this failure. If shooting a higher grain bullet, then that could be an issue, but I would think that would be something you would notice when loading a mag as it might not fit properly.

Not trimming a rifle round could lead to this issue.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

[swerv512]

i've shot thousands of miwall reloads but only in pistol. interesting enough i do get occasional hang-fires from their reloads....

[sonnyt650]

For those who say OOB try to push your AR bolt in as if it was chambered, then note that only when the bolt is twisted completely does enough firing pin show that the rifle would fire. Without the bolt carrier being all the way forward I don't think you can get an AR to fire where even a stuck firing pin wouldn't extend past the bolt face. Since the really thick case head is split in two lengthwise, something else happened before the case head separation.

[M.45]

I've used Ammo Bros reloads for a while and had one really nasty head case separation... now I don't shoot anyone's reloads anymore.

Though it's worth noting the head case separation I experienced did not cause any damage to my AR. I thinks the OPs problem most likely was an out of battery detonation.

[sargenv]

I've had this happen to me.. in a mini 14.. case head separation.. ammo was a bit hotter than it should have been.. was a near max charge of IMR 4895 under a 55 fmj. It looked pretty much just like that. I think it was a case of max pressure combined with a weak case that lead to a case head separation.. chalk it up to experience and buy better ammo.. In my case, it ruined my Mini 14, and I pretty much gave up on fixing it. At least in an AR, you can replace just about anything since there are so many aftermarket parts available.