Wolf ammo blew up my AK-47!

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Hey guys- Out of the hundreds of thousands (millions) of rounds that Wolf exports to the US, I had the unfortunate experience of having one of a few overpressurized rounds, outside of chamber tolerances.

I shot my Armory USA SSR85C-2 (AKM-47 clone) Saturday morning, and on one round, it actually made my thumb hurt (which was resting alongside the receiver.) I thought it odd, but the rifle re-chambered a round, so I continued to shoot. Well, that round was a light primer-strike (failed to ignite.) I worked the action, and put a fresh round in the chamber. This one lit, and it chambered a new round. This last round also failed to ignite (light primer strike.) At this, I set the rifle down, and had trouble working the action.

I took it straight to my gunsmith, and he showed me where the hot round had bulged the front trunion on both sides, and had damaged both my lugs and my bolt!!

After a word with my local gunstore (who I bought the rifle from, and who is a stocking dealer for Armory USA), I was speaking to Jimmy, the owner of Armory USA, and getting the matter resolved.

It ends up, Jimmy has a few rifles destroyed by improperly loaded Wolf ammo (which he suspects is all from a single lot.) As a whole, he doesn't believe current production Wolf to be bad, but there was one lot where rounds were getting the wrong kind of powder, or something.

Anyway, Jimmy is going to give me a completely new rifle, and is going to go after Wolf for the damages.  Jimmy is known for his customer service, and this case is no different. Way to go Jimmy!

I'm just glad my rifle was tough enough to "take" the overpressurized round, and didn't actually blow apart in my hands! No injuries, so I can't complain TOO much.

Not bashing Wolf, as I have shot (and will continue to shoot) a bunch of it, but I just wanted to share my experience.

This particular rifle has had about 500rds through it so far.  Not new, but not 'old.'

Here are some pics:

Here it looks fine.


But then you see this!  


From the top.  Notice the bulge!


Here's the front trunion.


Close up of the front trunion:


And the bolt was damaged too, but I couldn't get a good pic of it.  

got pics of the used wolf cases? any of them cracked or buldged?

lot number of the ammo you used might be helpful

i would not worried about wolf, they are usually pretty good about customer service

Sorry to hear that. good thing your ok.

Cody

just get a big hammer and you'll be fine

Glad you're ok. If indeed a bad lot of Wolf has gotten out it would be good if we could get a way to ID it (I don't remember if their boxes are marked by lot #).

Which ammo were you shooting? Poly, Military Classic, FMJ, JHP, etc?

Quoted: just get a big hammer and you'll be fine

Yeah, I don't know if "blew up" is the correct term here.  Just make some minor "adjustments" and I'm sure you're good to go.

(I'm sorta kidding)

Everytime I read about Jimmy, he seems like a very nice guy who takes care of his customers.  It's so unfortunate that I never get to meet with him.  Instead, I always end up dealing w/ Ron.  Who is this Ron guy?  Is he a co-owner?

Glad your Ok, please get us that lot number.

Quoted:

lot number of the ammo you used might be helpful



+1

Quoted: Quoted: just get a big hammer and you'll be fine Yeah, I don't know if "blew up" is the correct term here.  Just make some minor "adjustments" and I'm sure you're good to go. (I'm sorta kidding)

i would take out the rivets, bend the trunion and receiver straight with a hammer and pliars, get new bolt and reheadspace, then put it back together and shoot it no problem.

im not kidding

Thanks for the photos. I am glad you weren't hurt................

Is it possible that it was firing out of battery? Seems like even an overcharged cartridge would still be fine unless it is not fully chambered or the headspace is off.

Glad you weren't hurt. That 1.6mm receiver contained the explosion quite well.

The wrong grade of powder, as well as Underloading the case, can caused  these type of Catastrophic failures.

when did you purchase the ammo?
who did you purchase it from?
do you have any codes?

thanks.

Damn good thing that it wasnt built on a bent un-heat treated flat

Wow , never seen anything like that before. Make sure you tell uswhat lot# and what kind of wolf that was.

  Is that a Yugo, its supposted to have a bulge at the front of the receiver . - just kidding glad you are all right.  that sucks.

Quoted: Is it possible that it was firing out of battery? Seems like even an overcharged cartridge would still be fine unless it is not fully chambered or the headspace is off.

Looks like a headspace issue.

Wolf blew up one of my ARs. Cost $100 for Bushmaster to fix. New Bolt, BC needed. About a quarter of the case head blew off somehow.

I'm not the only one, and I know it's not BS. I started reloading after that happened.

This thread is useless without the ammo lot #.

Quoted: Everytime I read about Jimmy, he seems like a very nice guy who takes care of his customers.  It's so unfortunate that I never get to meet with him.  Instead, I always end up dealing w/ Ron.  Who is this Ron guy?  Is he a co-owner?

A couple of months ago I was told by one of the people at GT that Ron is no longer with them.  Hope it's the truth and they were not just teasing me

Agreed, need the lot number.  Now that you have people concerned about their Wolf ammo, IMO you should provide the lot number as a precautionary piece of information for everyone here that shoots the stuff.

Tag,
And yes it looks more like the round was fired out of battery.

Could the trunion damage really be caused by powder overload??

FREE

From the damage shown in the photos it appears that the bolt lugs were fully engaged

i was thinking along the lines of a headspace issue as well. a couple pics of some empty cases might show evidence of this. such as buldged or cracked cases


either way, you really should have stopped after that first malfunction and looked closer at what was going on. firing those next two rounds with slightly tweaked lugs likely cause alot more damage

those light primer stikes were probably b/c the bolt was not fully engaged and the hammer hit the back of the carrier, then hit the firing pin

Quoted: This thread is useless without the ammo lot #.

I include pics, and now the thread is useless without something else.  You people can't be satisfied!  

Guys, if I had the lot #, or knew ANYTHING other than it was Wolf, I would have said so.  Sorry for not saying that I didn't know.

You see, I have LOTS of Wolf ammo, and some of it is old, some is new.  I have a bucket.  If for some reason I need to unload a mag, I dump the ammo in a bucket.  When I want to reload the mag, I load it from the bucket.  Stuff gets mixed around in there.  On top of that, I might have had this particular mag loaded for over a year and stuck in the bottom of my safe, waiting to be used.  

The only thing I know, is that the rounds right AFTER the overpressured round were green laquer coated stuff.  It is "reasonable" to believe this round was also green laquer coated, but it is impossible to be sure.  I don't have any green laquer coated ammo still in boxes, so no lot #'s are available.  I've only got the new polymer coated stuff still in boxes.

Jimmy asked for the same thing.  He is also disapointed.

Too bad on not knowing the lot#.  Your post begged the question being asked.

Just glad you weren't hurt and Jimmy took care of you

Quoted: Quoted: This thread is useless without the ammo lot #. I include pics, and now the thread is useless without something else.  You people can't be satisfied!   Guys, if I had the lot #, or knew ANYTHING other than it was Wolf, I would have said so.  Sorry for not saying that I didn't know. You see, I have LOTS of Wolf ammo, and some of it is old, some is new.  I have a bucket.  If for some reason I need to unload a mag, I dump the ammo in a bucket.  When I want to reload the mag, I load it from the bucket.  Stuff gets mixed around in there.  On top of that, I might have had this particular mag loaded for over a year and stuck in the bottom of my safe, waiting to be used.   The only thing I know, is that the rounds right AFTER the overpressured round were green laquer coated stuff.  It is "reasonable" to believe this round was also green laquer coated, but it is impossible to be sure.  I don't have any green laquer coated ammo still in boxes, so no lot #'s are available.  I've only got the new polymer coated stuff still in boxes. Jimmy asked for the same thing.  He is also disapointed.

This is a nice thread, but a lot of us own wolf ammo too, if we knew your lot number and found we had the same lot number what happened to your AK may be prevented to ours.  That's where all the "what's the lot number?" questions are based on.

VERY interesting photos... I always thought that a "blow up" would affect the barrel - I see that I was totally wrong about that.  Thanks for posting this - for me, anyway, it points out where the likely failure points would be for an AK....

Quoted: I shot my Armory USA SSR85C-2 (AKM-47 clone) Saturday morning, and on one round, it actually made my thumb hurt (which was resting alongside the receiver.) I thought it odd, but the rifle re-chambered a round, so I continued to shoot. Well, that round was a light primer-strike (failed to ignite.) I worked the action, and put a fresh round in the chamber. This one lit, and it chambered a new round. This last round also failed to ignite (light primer strike.) At this, I set the rifle down, and had trouble working the action.

Sounds like two rounds contributed to the damage.  Sounds like the first round could have been overpressure.  Couldn't that have resulted in bolt and trunion damage and created headspace issues for the subsequent round?  The third round (the first one to go off after the round that made his thumb hurt) could have caused more damage even if it was not overpressure if the first round messed-up the headspace.

Tell Wolf you would like a new gun from Russia. Glad U are ok.

Quoted: I thought this sounded familar. last year at this time there where reports of KB's using wolf. It was isolated to 30 cases of ammo in ohio. Wolf 7.62 X 39 Lot Number F 512 - 05. some of which had been sold by Midwest Sporting Goods in Illinois. mmk

I'm glad to see someone saved that info. I'd been searching for that lot number for awhile.

Quoted: VERY interesting photos... I always thought that a "blow up" would affect the barrel - I see that I was totally wrong about that.  Thanks for posting this - for me, anyway, it points out where the likely failure points would be for an AK....

Me too.  I'd thought the chamber would be the weak link, not the lugs.  On second thought I guess they proof pressure all the barrels to ensure no problamo there.  Not sure how they 'proof' the lugs , if at all, outside of hardness testing of the trunnion in general.

One small insignificant thing to add, there are a couple of manufacturer's factories out there of laquered steel case 7.62x39. Saying that Wolf blew up you ak, w/o having a fired case for proof, IMHO is a stretch. I'm not trying to flame or blame you or anything, but from my own experience, I have couple brands lying loose around the house right now.
Some of my loose ones are 10 years old or more.

I recall back when Wolf was came in plain looking white boxes, the ammo wasn't head stamped with Wolf.

When I buy a case of wolf ammo, I immediately repack it into ammo cans and don't save the lot number off the brown carboard shipping box. Also Wolf does not mark each 20rd box individually.

I think in the future, I will start saving lot numbers and write them on the outside of my ammo cans.  

any chance you still have the magazine and know what kind it was?  not second guessing your failure, but  i had a bad (or lucky depending how you look at it) experience with a bulgy mag on a sar3 that misfed and jammed a bullet inside the casing. result was a locked up sar3 that literally flattened/fused the primer and shattered the casing.  thank goodness the rifle held together.  

the strength of the ak receiver is certainly to be appreciated and glad you made it out ok.

I;m sure glad I stopped using Wolf a year ago.

Well, I'm glad everything was resolved. It sucks to going bang-bang at the range, then you hear boom from your rifle and the "WTF" flag goes up on you.

THat'll really ruin your day.

Quoted: I;m sure glad I stopped using Wolf a year ago.

Im not so sure it was the Wolf in this case. Ive heard "stories" on the net about Armory having problems with their AK's such as Bad headspace and improperly cut mag wells, etc etc. But they seem to have good customer service so he IS getting a new rifle. So who knows what it could've been? It might be both out of spec ammo AND rifle. Need more info to really tell.

Headspace alone will not cause that kind of damage.  Usually it will cause case separation and a mini explosion in the chamber end of the receiver.  Can blow off top covers, blow out the sides of receivers (or crack and fail aluminum receivers), cause bolt damage, etc.

The taletell sign is the large area of plastic deformation of the lug surfaces which points to causes other than headspace being larger than spec.  Case separation probably compounded the destruction seen, but most likely is not the root cause of this failure  

Quoted: VERY interesting photos... I always thought that a "blow up" would affect the barrel - I see that I was totally wrong about that.  Thanks for posting this - for me, anyway, it points out where the likely failure points would be for an AK....

While there was no noticeable deformation of the barrel, Jimmy suspects that there IS damage to it.  He will not be repairing it, but scrapping it and giving me a new rifle for this reason.

Quoted: One small insignificant thing to add, there are a couple of manufacturer's factories out there of laquered steel case 7.62x39. Saying that Wolf blew up you ak, w/o having a fired case for proof, IMHO is a stretch. I'm not trying to flame or blame you or anything, but from my own experience, I have couple brands lying loose around the house right now. Some of my loose ones are 10 years old or more. I recall back when Wolf was came in plain looking white boxes, the ammo wasn't head stamped with Wolf. When I buy a case of wolf ammo, I immediately repack it into ammo cans and don't save the lot number off the brown carboard shipping box. Also Wolf does not mark each 20rd box individually. I think in the future, I will start saving lot numbers and write them on the outside of my ammo cans.

I've only ever bought Wolf ammo for my AKs/SKSs.  So, yeah, it's Wolf.  

Quoted: any chance you still have the magazine and know what kind it was?  not second guessing your failure, but  i had a bad (or lucky depending how you look at it) experience with a bulgy mag on a sar3 that misfed and jammed a bullet inside the casing. result was a locked up sar3 that literally flattened/fused the primer and shattered the casing.  thank goodness the rifle held together.   the strength of the ak receiver is certainly to be appreciated and glad you made it out ok.

The magazine is fine.  It is the ribbed variety, but I don't know where it was made.  This isn't a magazine related issue, but I did check it to be sure it wasn't damaged in the "kaboom!"

Quoted: <center><table width=85% border=0><tr><td width=100% class=textQuote><hr height=1px color=black noshade>Quoted: This thread is useless without the ammo lot #.<hr height=1px color=black noshade> I include pics, and now the thread is useless without something else.  You people can't be satisfied!   Guys, if I had the lot #, or knew ANYTHING other than it was Wolf, I would have said so.  Sorry for not saying that I didn't know. You see, I have LOTS of Wolf ammo, and some of it is old, some is new.  I have a bucket.  If for some reason I need to unload a mag, I dump the ammo in a bucket.  When I want to reload the mag, I load it from the bucket.  Stuff gets mixed around in there.  On top of that, I might have had this particular mag loaded for over a year and stuck in the bottom of my safe, waiting to be used.   The only thing I know, is that the rounds right AFTER the overpressured round were green laquer coated stuff.  It is "reasonable" to believe this round was also green laquer coated, but it is impossible to be sure.  I don't have any green laquer coated ammo still in boxes, so no lot #'s are available.  I've only got the new polymer coated stuff still in boxes. Jimmy asked for the same thing.  He is also disapointed.

No flame, but this is an argument for keeping the ammo in boxes.  Not much you can do about dumping a mag in a bucket with mixed rounds, but keeping a record of th lot numbers on the case cartons and/or the individual boxes is a good practice, IMO.

Glad you're not hurt, and that Armory USA is standing behind their product.  IMO, it's a testimony to the intrinsic design and Armory USA's workmanship that the weapon held together the way it did.  

Noah