Not mine...as I don't own any firearms made out of melted down outdated Barbie Dolls

Was at the USPSA match yesterday and one of the people in my squad had a Kaboom right in front of me.

Lucky for him there was no damage to his hand and no significant damage to his gun but the magazine blew out of the magwell pretty fast as did the piece of brass that was fired.

I chatted with him quickly just to get an idea of what he did. Someone chime in if my observations are not correct....

The piece of brass in question is Geco 9mm. (I toss any Geco brass I find) It blew out right at the web of the brass. He was using an aftermarket fully supported barrel using this load:

147gr FMJ bullet
mixed brass
4.2!!! grains of Clays (way too much in my opinion as 124gr bullet with Clays is only supposed to be 3.7 gr)
no clue on the primer

I looked at the 5 or so books and the Hodgdon website and there's no recipe for 147gr bullet with Clays so I think he's way overdoing it. He was going to dump the whole lot of ammo into the trash so I took it off his hands (that's how I measured 4.2gr of Clays). I'm pulling the bullets to reuse and I'm thinking the powder might be salvagable but I will probably use it as fertilizer instead. Would you reuse the powder or toss it? I know powder is cheap enough...His primers also appear to be pretty poor. Some are uneven, some are crushed into the miltary crimped brass and others are just dented in from obvious flakes of powder on the priming mechanism.

in all my years reloading beginning in 1984, I have blown up 3 guns.......all due to MY MISTAKES of double charging (I suppose)

I blew up a G21 around 1990. Glock said I cracked the bbl, and I bought a new one from them. Mag blew out the bottom like you observed. and a shard of brass sliced into the mag lips. I save that magazine as a reminder.

As I said, My Fault. must've gotten distracted somehow and threw a double charge. Easy to do when only using appx 5.5gr of 231. It doesnt' make the bullet go twice as fast, but it increases pressure EXPONENTIALLY as was explained to me by an RCBS ballistician.

To me it looks like, from your description of his other rounds, piss-poor reloading techniques and I wouldn't want to risk my health and guns on his powder storage or identification either. Of course I always err on the side of caution.

Almost done pulling the bullets...Now i have to figure out what to do with about 400 piece of primed brass....Anyone have a suggestion?

dump them in a can of used motor oil and never think of them again. 400 pieces of brass isn't worth it. Sounds like he did a crappy job priming them in the first place. I'd toss the powder too (who knows if it's even Clays?).

I'd only keep the bullets unless he screwed those up too (overcrimping or something like that).

quote:

Originally posted by psychephylax:
He was going to dump the whole lot of ammo into the trash....

+1

I'm with everyone else. I would not get anywhere near that brass, primers, powder or even bullets for that matter. Bad JuJu!

How many times has the brass been reloaded - and as important with 4.2 grains of Clays?! Could those be magnum primers?!?! Is it even Clays???????????????????

One word: flush.

Eek! Run!

ps glad no one was hurt.

9mm loads made with 147 grain jacketed bullets and Clays/Titegroup... If I had a dime for every time I see KABOOM mentioned with the above mentioned terms.

Clays has got to be the absolute least forgiving propellant I know of or use, (not in 9mm). It gets spikey real fast, and makes Bullseye seem like burning coal. We already have a bullet very deeply seated to begin with, and say there is a bit of setback? I really don't see a double charge could happen unless you are a zombie, but it is possible aside from too much to begin with, that some bridged in the measure, and one round got a bit more. It seems some folks will go with the lowest charge weight (fastest propellant) to save maybe a penny a round, but IMO and experience this is folly. Dang, hot loading Clays and jacketed 147's is ASKING for trouble.

Rats, i forgot to meausure the OAL on these! That would have been a good piece of information to have as well.

If there's any sign of a crimp you could figure it out. But I'm still hearing Monty Python in my head "run away! run away!"

Pulling the bullets, dumping the powder, removing the primmer all can be done. But it sounds like someone was trying to meet major with a 9mm. If the brass looks to be good, dump the primer. Keep the powder if needed but I would use it a fertilizer. Primers not knowing what they are, oil soak them. You end up with maybe reusable brass and bullets.

I'm cheap

I'm not going to turn down 315 or so free bullets. The minor indentation from the collet puller isn't going to make much of a difference for putting holes in paper. And I weighed them and they are all about 147 grains


I think for fun I'm going to go to the local range and run some malfunction drills with the primed brass and then toss it into the recycle bucket. And toss or burn the powder.

quote:

Originally posted by Blue68f100:
Pulling the bullets, dumping the powder, removing the primmer all can be done. But it sounds like someone was trying to meet major with a 9mm. If the brass looks to be good, dump the primer. Keep the powder if needed but I would use it a fertilizer. Primers not knowing what they are, oil soak them. You end up with maybe reusable brass and bullets.

That is what I thought too trying to make major power factor with a 9mm which I have read in these forums can be done. I would save the bullets and look carefully at the brass. that is a lot of clays.

quote:

Originally posted by 2tonicP220:
9mm loads made with 147 grain jacketed bullets and Clays/Titegroup... If I had a dime for every time I see KABOOM mentioned with the above mentioned terms.

Clays has got to be the absolute least forgiving propellant I know of or use, (not in 9mm). It gets spikey real fast, and makes Bullseye seem like burning coal. We already have a bullet very deeply seated to begin with, and say there is a bit of setback? I really don't see a double charge could happen unless you are a zombie, but it is possible aside from too much to begin with, that some bridged in the measure, and one round got a bit more. It seems some folks will go with the lowest charge weight (fastest propellant) to save maybe a penny a round, but IMO and experience this is folly. Dang, hot loading Clays and jacketed 147's is ASKING for trouble.

I completely agree. Besides his load beign about 15% over max, Clays gets really freaky pressure wise as you push max. Why people insist on pushing uberfast powders to the firewall is beyond me. To what, save 2/10 of a penny, just stupid, but glad he is unhurt. Powders much faster than WST should be used for mild target loads only!