Split a .22LR case

[Scarecrow Repair]

This was an American Eagle AE5022, 40 grain solid .22LR fired in my Bushmaster 16" upper. Looks like there was an old fashioned can opener at work. It shredded the top of the magazine, even the spring was weakened enough that it can't even push the empty follower to the top.
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Good and shredded magazines.
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[Harbinger]

These things happen.

I've had several cases split (from various brands, but most were AE) on my 10/22 with no apparent damage, other than a thrown extractor and spring.

Mike

[Scarecrow Repair]

maybe thats what happened to mine, the top of my magazine looked like yours, and smoke was pouring out of the rifle.

That was my first clue, all that smoke, then pieces of plastic fell out when I removed the magazine ...

[Stanze]

How'd that happen? Bad ammo? Out of battery firing? Headspace issue?

Sucks that happened.

ETA: This guy on arf.com also .22LR kB'ed his rifle with a conversion kit,( http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.htm...f=118&t=296332 his hand was slightly injured. The gun/chamber in that link looks dirty as hell, how clean was your gun?

[shinigami]

Does this happen on conversion kits? How about the dedicated .22 uppers?

[AJAX22]

the problem is that on most .22 AR's there is nothing that prevents the hammer from striking the firing pin when out of battery, it can happen on the 9mm or .45 pistol cal uppers as well, any straight blowback design which doesn't have a rotary head which interupts the firingpin's forward motion is subject to this kind of failure.

its a good reason to wear shooting goggles

[ivanimal]

Crap that looks like it was out of battery when it went off. The bolt was not fully closed sending the pressure back out of the chamber as well as forward. I had a mini 14 blow the bottom of a mag off like this once. It cracked the bolt and destroyed the firing pin. Not to mention scared the crap out of about 6 of us!

[Scarecrow Repair]

Q: How'd it happen? A: I dunno

I was just shooting thru a chrony and it wasn't the first round or the last. Nothing out of the ordinary until it happened. Nothing odd looking when I took it apart, other than the pieces of magazine which fell out when I removed the magazine. I don't have much idea at all what caused it, unless it was simply a bad case. The case split doesn't appear to start where the firing pin hit the rim. A big mystery to me.

I ran out of time and haven't had a chance to shoot it again, and won't until next weekend. I also haven't disassembled the bolt for a thorough cleaning, and I will do that first.