Pistol Blows up in Marshall County Deputy's Hand

WTRF-TV ^ | December 4, 2009 | Leigh Ann Towne

[Sam_Damon]

A Marshall County Sheriff’s Deputy is recovering after a pistol blew up on Tuesday (November 30 -- sd) during qualifications, according to Chief Deputy Kevin Cecil.

The veteran officer was using a Glock 21 .45 caliber pistol with out of country ammunition at a shooting range outside of Moundsville, Cecil said.

It’s believed the ammunition was bad, causing the receiver to blow apart in the sergeant’s hand.

[AnAmericanMother]

One of the things I really like about my old Government Model is that it neatly deposits all its brass within about a 3' radius circle. My husband says I should just put a plastic bucket off to the right before I start shooting.

My Officer's Model for some reason sends the brass straight up and back. I realized the problem with this while wearing a scoop-neck T-shirt on a hot August day. Thanks to my Daddy's early training, I neither squeaked nor jumped . . . but I still have a tiny little crescent-shaped scar . . . .

[MGBGUN]

Wow, the answer is somewhere in this thread! Love my 1911, never shot a Block, er, Glock before.
If this post had appeared on DemocraticUnderground I’ll be willing to bet they would have no idea what happened. Maybe 3-4 replies saying how ALL guns blow up or some such drivel. Conservatives have all the guns and knowledge, how does the left think the battle will end ?

[SJSAMPLE]

Components haven’t been very cheap for quite some time.

Still, I pick up powder, primers and bullets when they’re available. I’d rather have expensive components that none at all ;)

[SJSAMPLE]

You said it.

Years ago, I was one of the very first adopters (first 500) of the SIG P229 in the 357SIG cartridge. I was also one of the very first people to begin hand-loading for it, having obtained one of the first batch of RCBS dies.

Almost 15 years of experience with this cartridge left me very weary of new ones. Short case necks led to bullet setback and two KaBooms! (of minor damage).

While I really liked the power behind the bullet, the case had too many design flaws to continue using it. I’m back to 9mm, .40 and .45ACP for all my pistols.

[Tallguy]

I think you have it right. Glock pretty much says, “you’re on your own” if you do re-loading.

I have a Glock 23 (40 S&W, compact frame), and I’ve never had a problem with it.

[tgusa]

LOL, roger that!

[Tallguy]

I gather that even the “old problems” were mostly limited to the .40 S&W — unless the shooter abused the weapon (and we all know people that do).

Did Glock change the angle of the infeed ramp to give more support to the cartridge? I wasn’t aware that they did. Does it have any negative impact on reliability?

[ColdSteelTalon]

I have been using Sellier and Bellot for years with no problems.

[HighlyOpinionated]

with out of country ammunition

Glocks do not blow up in anyone's hand. Cheap ammo is the culprit.

[paulcissa]

The feed ramp on a .40 Glock is oversized so the case is not fully supported. Because the .40 S&W is a high pressure round, brass weakened by repeated reloading will sometimes result in a catastrophic head separation.

I had been given a few thousand .40 once-fired cases by a police sgt. friend when I discovered this phenomenon for the first time. What a shame. Most of the cases wouldn't size correctly without a roll-press (which I don't have).

I bet an overcharged .45 round would find the unsupported base and easy place to breach.

[Til I am the last man standing]

Happened to me over Thanksgiving. Shooting old reloads with my brother’s Glock .45. Knocked my thumb out of place (I shoot left-handed). Bent the slide and the receiver.

[volunbeer]

I have shot tens of thousands of rounds in Glock pistols. This has mostly been 9mm and 40. I also had a 21C that I liked very much. I was a police firearms instructor for a 300 officer department that used Glock and was a factory trained armorer. I supervised hundreds of thousands of rounds being put downrange so I have plenty of faith in Glock.

There are several plausible reasons for the malfunction here but the folks at the armorer school were very clear about not using reloaded ammunition in the pistol. Quality control is a serious issue with reloads and unless you do it yourself with great care I don’t recommend using reloaded ammunition in any modern semi-automatic firearm. Double charged rounds, squibs, primers not seated correctly, bullets that are too big, casings that are bulged, are the most common problems off the top of my head. Lead bullets or reloaded ammunition voided the factory warranty for a reason.

Glock is a terrific pistol no matter what you read or hear. Firearms are kind of like cars for enthusiast and everyone has their brand and a little suspicion towards others.

Pro Tip: You should always inspect your ammunition prior to using it looking for bulged cases, primers not seated correctly, malformed bullets, or anything else that does not seem right. I have seen flawed rounds from every major manufacturer but I have never seen a catastrophic malfunction with major brand ammunition.

Every firearm will wear out or break under heavy use but I still believe Glock is the most reliable firearm for the money.

Save your reloaded ammunition for large frame revolvers!

[griffin]

If I recall powder levels relative to casing, it’s hard to get a double charge in there. Bullet wouldn’t seat low enough. Possibly a very hot charge, but I wouldn’t think it would be big enough to blow the barrel. Could be mistaken though. My money would be on obstructed barrel or defective barrel material/processing.

[Hardastarboard]

I had a squib reload stick in my favorite 686 a couple of months ago. I looked up some information on getting it out of the barrel, and found one picture of a gun barrel that had been band sawed lengthwise that had like fifteen rounds piled up one behind the other (couldn't find it again, unfortunately). The barrel was of course destroyed, bulged, etc. It was enough to make you puke, that someone did that to a perfectly good gun, and that someone was that stupid.

[TalonDJ]

Unless he was in rapid fire mode and had already pulled the trigger while going "Huh?"

Highly unlikely in an auto unless he manually cycled the slide after the squib. Squibs don't have the *umph* to fully cycle the slide and load a new round.

[TalonDJ]

Wow! That is horrifying. Someone was more lucky than they deserved.

I had a sqib in a LCP a few months ago. The .380 just went *pff* and did not even twitch. It only made it about half way down that tiny barrel.

[ExSoldier]

In a Glock, the most common ammo related issues concern using lead instead of jacketed ammo. The octagonal barrel will shave lead dramatically causing barrel obstructions and increasing chamber pressure way beyond factory specs. I have seen the results of this several times and the accompanying noise is a KA-BOOM! A friend of mine nearly lost the fingers on his hand trying to save a few dollars on ammo. Trauma teaches.

[ExSoldier]

didn't know .45 auto came in +p or +p+ ... thought that was only for .38 special

A number of manufacturers make +P 45 ammo. IIRC (but not sure) Cor-Bon makes +P+ 45.

[Allegra]

Ping...

[AnAmericanMother]

As I noted above, I've had a .38 Super squib that ejected the round and reloaded the next one, although it didn't quite go into battery.

I heard the odd noise -- it was like a wet firecracker -- and immediately stopped firing to investigate. Wound up tapping the bullet out of the barrel with a cleaning rod and a rawhide hammer I happened to have in my kit.

Have never had that happen with my 1911A1, so I don't know if it would cycle the larger and heavier round. The .38 Super rounds are extremely hot (flowed primers are commonplace with standard loads) so maybe that extra oomph is what cycled it.