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So I was talking with some buddies about major weapon malfunctions and it got us wondering how often incidents are and what causes them to happen. I'm not talking misfires, jams, or the like. What I am looking for is parts broken, explosions, or injuries and what has caused them.
My story is I was using my USMC issued Colt M16a2 while deployed as a designated marksman and our first firefight my first round sounded like a shotgun going off and I felt something burn my face, I knew something was wrong and inspected my weapon and found the ejection port cover was blown off, the upper receiver was cracked, the extractor on the bolt was gone, and my magazine expanded which blew the bottom plate off and all my rounds were on the ground. Before you ask no I don't have pics, it was 18 yrs ago. I was very lucky I didn't get hurt besides some burns on my face. The battle lasted for another 15-30 min or so and needless to say having a paperweight in a gunfight was not fun. I ended up just yelling fire adjustments and walking the saw and m60 gunners next to me on target by holding my nvgs up to my acog and watching their tracers, (it was night time and nvgs were only issued to 1 person per squad back then). Later after returning to our ship we found out that my company had 6 major malfunctions in that same firefight. One guy even thought he got shot but it was his extractor that hit his arm. They had armorers go through our weapons and ended up telling us the cause was bad ammo that had been sitting in the bottom of the ship since Vietnam. I have some doubts about that but we ended up dumping the whole lot of ammo into the Indian ocean.
I have taught quite a few people to shoot and most people think it never happens, I figure maybe some people can tell their stories and others can learn something from it and maybe prevent some possible issues/injuries.
My story is I was using my USMC issued Colt M16a2 while deployed as a designated marksman and our first firefight my first round sounded like a shotgun going off and I felt something burn my face, I knew something was wrong and inspected my weapon and found the ejection port cover was blown off, the upper receiver was cracked, the extractor on the bolt was gone, and my magazine expanded which blew the bottom plate off and all my rounds were on the ground. Before you ask no I don't have pics, it was 18 yrs ago. I was very lucky I didn't get hurt besides some burns on my face. The battle lasted for another 15-30 min or so and needless to say having a paperweight in a gunfight was not fun. I ended up just yelling fire adjustments and walking the saw and m60 gunners next to me on target by holding my nvgs up to my acog and watching their tracers, (it was night time and nvgs were only issued to 1 person per squad back then). Later after returning to our ship we found out that my company had 6 major malfunctions in that same firefight. One guy even thought he got shot but it was his extractor that hit his arm. They had armorers go through our weapons and ended up telling us the cause was bad ammo that had been sitting in the bottom of the ship since Vietnam. I have some doubts about that but we ended up dumping the whole lot of ammo into the Indian ocean.
I have taught quite a few people to shoot and most people think it never happens, I figure maybe some people can tell their stories and others can learn something from it and maybe prevent some possible issues/injuries.
I appreaciate the "cool story bro".
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