looking for your opinion

[Philngruvy]

I am shooting a Glock 19 with 124 gr cast and 4.7 grs BE. Last night while shooting at a match, I had a round which fired with a normal sounding report but the case did not eject properly, jamming, and I got powder burns on my right hand across the top of my index finger and also lower on my index finger where it contacts the right side of the mag release. The mag was not blown out of the bottom of the gun but there was signs of stress where the magazine catch holds the mag. I was unable to recover the spent case because as I said, it was a match and in my haste to make safe the gun, I was not able to find the case in the piles of cases on the ground. You know, the match must go on! I am interested to hear your conjectures as to what happened. Thanks
Ron

[dubber123]

My guess is overcharge, or a boolit jammed farther down in the case on chambering. Either way, an overpressure. Many of the reports of actual catastrophic blow ups, the shooter reported a "normal" sound and recoil. The best guess I have heard is all the extra gas bled off through the ruptured case, so it didn't exit the muzzle, giving a "normal" report. The burns on your index finger tells me something dumped some gas through the magwell. If you could find the case, I bet it has a hole in it by the case head.

[9.3X62AL]

Funny this comes up at this time. 2 days ago, I was speaking to a long-time partner who still competes in a number of action pistol venues. He had a very similar occurrence a few months ago with his G-17, firing reloads with jacketed bullets. His magazine was blown out, however. His belief, after inspecting the pistol, was fatigued brass from repeated reloads failed (the blown case was in place in the chamber). I asked if he thought an "out-of-battery" ignition took place; he didn't think so, since the primer hit was centered on the cup and the primer was still in place.

FWIW. The guy is a certified Glock and SIG-Sauer armorer, in inland southern California. This sort of thing is more often associated with early-series Glock pistols in 40 S&W, but is certainly not limited to that caliber or to that make of pistol. We must bear in mind that the 9mm, 40 S&W, and 10mm run at relatively high pressures and may have chambers that do not fully support the entire case web above the rim. If this condition is present, it will be borne out by what I call "guppied" brass--distended areas above the rim produced by some combination of either unsupported case web--wide radial chamber radii--or both. (Note--I have seen this phenomenon with 1911A1 pistols in 45 ACP, but only under conditions of substantial overloads in lab testing at Cal-DOJ).

My belief--again, FWIW--is that "The Glock kB" is most often caused by use of reloaded cases that have been progressively weakened by firing in wide/unsupported chambers, then repeatedly run through sizing dies and therein having their distended sidewalls and webs ironed back into SAAMI form. This processing work-hardens the brass and weakens it. Murphy's Law gets no plea bargains, so--sure enough--a weakened case area indexes into an unsupported and/or wide-radiused section of the chamber--and fails, allowing high-pressure gas to flow through the pistol. Most of these failures have been at "6 o'clock" position within the chamber, when the casing was retained.

[Groo]

Groo here
If you are using an original barrel DON'T USE CAST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Replace barrel with an aftermarket with standard rifling....
The glock barrels are known to build up with lead and K-BOOM .

[MtGun44]

Groo,

I suggest you use the search function on this topic.

Bill

[dubber123]

Groo,

I suggest you use the search function on this topic.

Bill

Indeed. A fellow at my plates shoot routinely goes 1,000 rounds or more between cleanings in his Glock .40.

[jack19512]

Groo here
If you are using an original barrel DON'T USE CAST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Replace barrel with an aftermarket with standard rifling....
The glock barrels are known to build up with lead and K-BOOM .

No lead build up in my G26 yet. My new G37 showed no lead build up at all first time out. YMMV

[Philngruvy]

Groo,

I suggest you use the search function on this topic.

Bill

Thanks Bill and the other posters for supporting me on this topic. I carefully read everything I could about using lead in a polygonal barrel and my conclusion was that it worked. I don't think a leading issue was the problem. I inspected the barrel after the mishap and it looked good. No leading.

I really wish that I had had the composure to have saved the case for inspection but my frame of mind with the ah shucks with my hand stinging, I just failed.

So does anyone have any other ideas or suggestions.
Ron

[KYCaster]

I gotta disagree with Al. There have been plenty of documented cases of Glock failures while using factory ammo. That should be sufficient evidence to discount the use of reloaded "Glocked" brass as the sole cause of the problem.

Also, I don't think the position of the firing pin strike on the primer would be a good indication of an out-of-battery failure. The slide/barrel have to move a substantial distance before the locking lug on the barrel cams out of engagement with the slide. A dangerous condition would be reached long before the barrel moved down enough to affect the relationship between the primer and striker.

The powder residue on the top of the trigger finger would seem to indicate an out-of-battery condition that let gas escape between the barrel and breach face.

Anyway, that's my take on it. It seems to deviate from the normal Glock failure only in the severity of it. Consider yourself fortunate that it wasn't worse.

Jerry

[jsizemore]

Phil, If your brass gets mixed with other's at a match, you might have gotten somebody else's piece of junk...???

[Philngruvy]

The brass that hits the ground at the match stays there. I never retrieve it because the action is too fast, there is just not enough time to retrieve it. And there is too much brass all over which has been walked on and ground in. That is why I was unable to retrieve the faulty one.
Ron

[eljefe]

It could have been a blown/pierced primer. I had one this week on a 460 with
factory ammo. It had a pin sized hole in the center of the primer, and I had to
tap the ejector rod with a mallet to clear the brass.

I had a 38 super case fail last year that acted somewhat like your situation.
It was a case that had been loaded maybe twice...the side was blown out
just forward of the rim.

[Philngruvy]

eljefe, I think you are on to something with the blown/pierced primer. I have given it much thought and if the case had ruptured, the blowout would have been more violent. However, a primer failure would have been a less severe blowout giving the results I experienced. Man, I sure wish I had recovered the case.
Ron