Well let me tell you a story about a man named Fred
A poor engineer barely kept his family fed
Then one day he was shooting at some steel
And out from ol’ Fred comes a shout and then a squeal
Blood there was
And flesh wounds

His name isn’t Fred, but the rest of the story is true.

It happened in the mid 80s.  We had our Springfield M1-As out for some shooting.  Mine was a plain jane, his was a National Match with a glass bedded stock, nicely figured walnut stock, TRW bolt, the works.

He was shooting offhand, standing about 15 feet to my left.  I was seated on the tailgate of my pickup watching his bullet strikes about 100 yards away.  He started with a full 20 rd. magazine.  On the second shot I heard a WHOOMP, as chunks of wood flew past me, with a few splinters hitting my left side and shoulder.  I was startled to say the least, and I looked to my left to see Fred standing there with his rifle in two pieces connected only by the sling, and a stunned look on his face.  

He had some light burned powder freckles on his face, and a few small blood spots oozing through his t-shirt on his chest and belly.  He had eye and ear pro on, as we always did, so that was good.  He pulled up his shirt and I could see about a half dozen small injuries on his abdomen.  He was in a mild state of shock so I had him sit on the tailgate while I wiped the blood from his wounds.  I could see several small brass and steel fragments lodged in his skin, which I proceeded to remove with the blade tip and tweezers from my Swiss Army knife.  The surgery took about 15 minutes.  His right hand was a bit numb but all the fingers were there, as were his eyes.  Disaster averted.  At that point Fred was feeling a little better so we examined his ruined rifle.  The stock was completely split in half at the mag well and had splintered in several pieces.  The bolt was locked forward.  The magazine had ejected from the gun and was bulged and split apart.  The remaining live rounds littered the ground, and several were smashed and bent – presumably the top ones.  On closer examination, we could see that the bottom of the bolt had peeled back and downward, splitting along the ejector spring tunnel.  The bolt could not be opened.  The cartridge case head was partly visible and mostly missing.  The barrel appeared to be fine (not bulged), so a 1st round squib was ruled out.  Also, the first round ejected and the second round fed into the chamber, which also rules out a squib.

We surmised that the case head failed or the primer pierced, charging the ejector spring tunnel with high pressure gases, which peeled away the bottom of the bolt, blowing out the magazine and exploding the stock at the mag well.

I can no longer remember what kind of ammo he was shooting, but he was a handloader – a very careful one – so handloads cannot be ruled out.  However, the first round fired fine, and it’s hard to overcharge a .308 with powders usually used in that cartridge.  I don’t think it was ammo related, other than the aforementioned case head or primer.

He sent the rifle – what remained of it – back to SA and to their credit they replaced it.

Here’s what I think happened.  There may have been a primer failure, which sent gas into the ejector spring tunnel, which peeled off the bottom of the bolt along the ejector spring tunnel, and the rest of the damage followed from there.  
If you look at the bottom of a M1-A bolt, you will see a teensy tiny little gas relief hole going into the ejector spring tunnel.  You will also see that’s it’s almost completely blocked by the ejector spring itself.  It’s pretty much useless as a gas vent.  IMO this is a poor design feature.  Furthermore, there is not much metal between the spring tunnel and the bottom of the bolt – another weak point.

It was fortunate that a magazine was in place when the failure occurred.  I shudder to think what would have happened if the mag and rounds had not absorbed the case head blowout and the bolt failure.  Those chunks of steel and brass would have had much higher velocity when they hit him.  A hospital trip would have been the likely result.

Now, when I see High Power shooters supporting the M1-A on the bottom of the mag I think, “That’s a good way to lose a hand.”

I sold my M1-A sometime later.

Next time: FAL goes Kaboom!

No pics of rifle?  Boo...

This was 20 years +/- before cell phones.

Forty years ago Fred fucked up and double charged a case.

He blew up a nice rifle.

He isn't the first one and won't be the last.

You cannot double charge a .308 case.  You do not handload, apparently.

Cameras were invented a hundred years before cell phones

No way to double charge a casing with a standard load with powder made for that application. Most standard loads fill to about 80-90% of the case. A double charge would overflow and make one hell of a mess.

Pierced a .50bmg cartridge once. It was factory Olin/Winchester ammo. That was "exciting".

OK, Fred blew up his rifle with a reload.

Does that make you feel better?

Or are you now going to tell me that it is impossible to fuck up a .308 reload?

No, I don't reload because I value my health and my time more than money.

You are correct.  I have probably handloaded 5,000 .308 rounds.  A normal charge takes the powder level to approx. the bottom of the neck, give or take, depending on the powder.

People who say it was a double charge are ignorant.

Also, the first round fired fine, so it wasn't a case full of Bullseye.

Also, I don't remember if it was a handload or not, but let's assume it was.  A double charge is physically IMPOSSIBLE.

The rifle failed because the gas vent in the bolt is useless, and the amount of steel between the ejector spring tunnel and the bolt exterior is paper thin.  Look for yourself, don't take my word for it.

Does that make you feel better?

At least you admitted being totally ignorant about reloading, so there's that.

I didn't take a camera everywhere I went (pre cell).  Sorry to disappoint.

Factory Korean surplus grenaded my M1 garand.  Fortunately, it only split the stock.  New wood and an op rod spring and it was back in business.
Shot a bunch of my reloads in it too w/o issue.

Attached File
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When a case lets go like this the 55k psi is never going to be held back by the bolt head.

In a bolt rifle (every one I have owned), note the huge gas vent holes in the bottom of the bolt.  If a primer is pierced, it could still blow out the stock but it won't blow off the bottom of the bolt.

The M1-A bolt is a poor design.

Wow!!!! I didn't think the M1A could self destruct like that but it was naive of me!

Interesting report.

Multiple possibilities:

1) Primer failure.  Did you recover the primer?

2) Case failure.

3) Squib between the muzzle & gas port.  Unlikely, but possible.

4) Pistol powder.  Did your friend tear down his handloads afterwards?

I take it the rear of the receiver did not fail?

ETA:  #5 - under load - primer flashed across the entire powder load & ignited all at once.

Neat Post, thanks.



Intro diddy was pretty good, I have to say.  but really - THAT was your lead title/come-on line, right there!

As to what caused it kaboom, obviously I don't know.  And yes, it almost certainly wasn't a "double charge", and very unlikely an overcharge, as there is enough safety tolerance that an extra gr or 2 generally isn't doing that.

I will say, when I see a case-head separation in an AR15, my reaction is: "how annoying, bet the gun jammed".
 but there's a whole lot of brass there to still swell out and seal the chamber, so it's not really a big deal from a safety standpoint.

First time I saw a .308 case head separation in a .308, my reaction was Holy Shit, there's no case-wall left to actually swell and seal the chamber.
 

They don't always kaboom, but man there is very little left there to swell up and seal.

Other fun thing with M1A's, is they can OOB Kaboom.  Unlike AR's, which basically can't.  

Reloading for the M1A and M1 Garand is tricky.  If you make the cases too long, the bolt might not close, and you can get an OOB kaboom.  Not always, but it happens.   But wait, so if you're aggressive about sizing your brass to avoid that, it doesn't take many loadings before you get a case-head separation; and that brass design is such that it separates RIGHT above the F'ing case-head.  Which is another fun way to potentially Kaboom.

Or your friend did the classic mixed powder contamination error.  But I doubt it.  

We couldn't recover the primer because the bolt was locked forward and it was sent back to SA like that.

Possible case head failure, dunno.

Not a squib.  I saw the first round bullet strike.

Not pistol powder, or the first round would have genaded the gun.

Ruled #3 out, that's rare.

#4 doesn't need pistol powder in round #1 to grenade round #2.  Powder contamination might not get enough pistol powder in round #1, but enough in #2.

#5 - under load - primer flashed across the entire powder load & ignited all at once.

Case head failure...it happens....not many rifles will survive the case head/primer pocket failing and 55k+ psi venting into the bolt.   Case head failure should have also seen the bullet leave the bore...thus making the oprod move.  Wondering if the bottom of the bolt is what jammed it shut.  You "should" have been able to get the bolt open fairly easily.

On second thought...SA Inc DID have a bad batch of bolts that were failing around this time.  It's possible it was one of those.

It is easy to fuck up a 308 reload, but quite difficult to blow up a gun by overcharging.  Defective brass would be far more likely than too much powder.

You think people reload to save money?  

Had a CBC Brazilian 7.62 round split in my M1-A in the early 1980s. Rupture into the extractor groove.  A blast of gas in the face.

Fortunately, no damage to rifle or underwear.

Found out later that the CBC military stuff was known for it.

I reload because I know people are stupid and I do not trust them. If my rifle explodes it's my fault and nobody else's.

I work in a production environment where if we screw up people likely die. I trust me, no one else.


It's also cheaper and I can get ammo that has never been made by a commercial entity such as my brass case 5.45x39 with 77gr projos and my 147gr 7.62x25 mini whisper I'm currently working on.

Do you recall the condition of the firing pin?  Was it intact?

Had a recent "Kaboom" with a FAL.  Argentine parts on a early DSA receiver (actually made by LMT and reputed as some of the best American receivers).  I was function testing with steel Tula .308.  I was mostly testing for windage and setting the gas regulator.  After about 100 rounds through 3 different guns (once I got the gas regulator set, I put 3 rounds at a time in the mag and shot for windage) I noticed the bottom of the mag missing and the spring hanging out.  One of the three kaboomed, case failure in the extractor groove which is a known problem with Tula steel-case.  I think it was the second shot as one was louder, but it still shot all three and locked the bolt back.  I took everything apart, checked all the cases for primer flattening or other problems - none found.  Checked headspace - still spot-on.  Checked every major component on the gun, no problem found.  I had to press the bottom of the Austrian mag back together to reassemble.  Went back to shooting and finished my ammo.

The FAL took the shitty ammo (I had bought it to shoot through a PTR-91 I used to have).  It spit the gases out through the bottom of the bolt and the mag took the damage.  Spring was still mostly contained, enough to hold the bolt back.  No damage done to gun.  Austrian mag took the blowout like a champ

Which is kinda funny because I know there are guys out there shooting $20,000 Krieghoff shotguns who make reloads to save themselves $5 to $10 per box of shells.

That's a flaw in the area of the primer, could be the brass or could be a burst primer and traveling up the case. Doesn't look like a "pressure" problem, of course the gun may not think so.

Was he using the #34 CCI hard primers ?

Mid 80's would have been high quality GI surplus parts ?

The literature that comes with the rifle does not recommend shooting reloads FWIW .

Just some questions ,  you definitely know what you are talking about .

You could’ve made a sketch. People could draw back in those frontier days.

Not needed.

I make word paintings.

If that's the type of response you give for not reloading, it's probably good that you don't.

I don't even know for sure it was a handload.  But he is a handloader, and I would trust his reloads.  He's a meticulous engineer.  Almost anal-retentive.

It was a TRW bolt.  It was a full National Match gun and they got the best parts.  The walnut stock was very nice.

I have a FAL KB story that I will post hopefully soon.

Could not open the bolt, so we couldn't examine the innards.  He packed up the pieces as-is and sent it to SA.

I have reloaded MANY MANY THOUSANDS of rounds, never had a KB.  I reload rifle ammo for accuracy in a specific gun.  I bought one of the first Dillon RL550s that came off the line.  I use it exclusively for handgun ammo.  My rifle ammo is loaded on a single stage RCBS Rockchucker that is more than a half century old.

TRW bolt, not SA.  They are supposedly the best bolts made.

Hate to tell ya, but the 80s were a lot more than 20 years ago. I know, time flies and all that.

Twenty years, plus or minus, before cell phones. Assuming he meant the common cell phone era, so around the 80s, give or take.

This is correct.

Was going to suggest cracked firing pin . Forward half wedged forward enough to cause an OOB discharge .
Also I've seen some horrendous safety bridges on SA Inc rifles over the years .

SA Inc rifles were a crap shoot especially around that time frame .

The M14 bolt is NOT a bad design but plenty of rifles have been put together with fucked up parts even from Springfield .

Read up on the military testing with good parts and proper maintenance they are a very safe rifle .
Like any other machine they do however have to be built correctly .

On reloads in either 7.62 or 5.56 only 3 reloads then scrapping it.

Saving 20 cents on brass doesn't make sense in thousand (today's cost) dollar rifles.

The bolt was fully in battery, fully forward, so not OOB.

It was a National Match gun, so presumably it got extra attention.

I explained why I don't like the bolt design.  The gas vent hole into the ejector spring tunnel is completely useless, and the metal between the tunnel and the bottom of the bolt at that location is paper thin.  At the bolt face the metal is much thicker between the ejector and the bolt perimeter, but the bottom of the bolt is scalloped further back.  (IDK why they designed it that way.)  Putting 50k psi into that tunnel is a recipe for disaster.

It's fine until the case head fails or the primer is pierced, and then it isn't so fine.

@lazyengineer

What is the classic mixed powder contamination error?

Yeah, me too.  If it's classic, I probably would have heard about it.  I have been handloading for more than a half century.

I don't doubt that it's a classic, I'm just not sure how it happens. I've heard multiple times not to mix powder.

Me neither.  If you knew this guy, mixing powder would be the last thing you would imagine him doing.

Mixing powder was not the cause of this failure, 100% certain.

As in the classic kaboom story, due to cross contaminating pistol powder into the rifle by using common equipment or other handling errors.  For a while, before .300 BO, a good percentage of rifle kabooms were due to this error.  Based on OP's explanation,  doesn't appear to be the top suspect though.

Kabooms of FAL’s when using steel cased ammo are not that uncommon.  Just not a gun that tolerates steel cased ammo well…

Worst service rifle evar.

More specifically, was the tail of the firing pin still intact?  I don't need to know about the tip.

The overlooked mixed powder can be done by not getting all the powder out of a measure on the last batch of something.  Especially with a powder baffle in the measure.   Dump out powder back in to can but the baffle inverted is a trough that holds back some unless you reorient it and dump the trough.

odds are it was just a bad piece of brass.