PSA-type story here:

man injured when gun catastrophically malfunctions at range

Be safe out there guys ! fortunately he was wearing his eye protection -- (graphic pic at link)

https://www.wkrg.com/news/alab...k-accident-at-range/

Alabama man injured after gun explodes in freak accident at range

LEE COUNTY, Ala. (WRBL) – A Lee County family asks for your prayers after a family owned gun exploded in their loved ones’ face at a local firing range on Friday.

Megan Harman says her dad, Chris, was with family at the Firing Pin in Opelika when the gun he was shooting exploded in his face in a freak accident.

“He’s on his way to Birmingham now for them to try and save his left eye,” said Harman.

The accident happened just after Harman’s mom shot her Taurus 380. She had loaded the clip and fired six rounds when the last one jammed. She removed the clip and got the bullet out. Harman says her dad shot the gun next. The family recalls Chris loaded the clip and had fired three times when the gun exploded, and Chris went down.

Chris is on his way from the hospital via ambulance for surgery at a Birmingham eye clinic. He has blow out fractures in his left orbit, and the family is praying doctors can save his eye. The family is scared but very thankful Chris was wearing safety glasses when the explosion or the injuries could have been much more severe.

“Y’all, please pray for my daddy! He’s the rock of our family. This man does EVERYTHING for us! We need him. Please pray they can save his eye,” said Megan.

--------------------------------------------

Best wishes to him and his family. Good eyepro is essential, my wife was a Rehabilitation Teacher for the Blind working for the State of Virginia, she has seen some terrible accidents from not protecting your eyes. You DO NOT want to be her client!

Thanks for the article which is worth looking at because it has a photo of the gun. The slide broke in two at the rear of the ejection port and I’m guessing the rear half is what struck the man in the face. It looks to me as it was just a catastrophic failure of the slide. Although It’s hard to tell, I don’t see any damage to the barrel, and in typical out of battery discharges or other cartridge blow ups the grip/frame gets badly damaged as well.

I’m curious about the ammunition, but just based on the little information available (as usual), I would blame a defective slide at this point.

I agree, faulty slide, and look how narrow the slide sidewalls are at the ejection port.
It would also be interesting to know the ammo what with the "jam." Bubba loaded or nonexistent +P.

"Call me, Alabama!" (Billboard for leading ambulance chasing lawyer in the state.)

Experts -- is this possible?? :

could he have fired several rounds 'stacking' a couple of bullets in the barrel until the barrel is blocked enough to catastrophically force 90% of the ignition of the 4th bullet to break the slide like that?

it looks like the barrel 'might' be swollen a bit at the muzzle end.

could have just been slightly out of battery on a high pressure round also

so i agree the ammo may have played a big role. in this ammo-sparse environment there seems to be a lot of 'second tier' ammo for sale out there

just speculation on my part obviously

-----------------------------

The swell at the muzzle is the band that the barrel rocks on as it tilts to lock and unlock. Made that way.

I doubt we will get a look at the ammo box or recovered brass, followup on gun failures in the news is seldom seen.

I concur with the above. It definitely looks like this gentleman way have been the victim of Taurus Manufacturing. From the pics, it does not appear that the barrel is bulged to indicate a squib, and there is no evidence of damage to the frame, either, to indicate an overpressure round. from the sequence of events described, I wonder if the slide cracked causing the initial jam, then then the subsequent rounds were enough to cause it to let go all the way. I'm glad the gentleman was wearing eye pro...it could have been much worse!

We've had some discussions about gun cleaning here in the past, and many folks seem to think it is unnecessary to do so on a regular basis. I'd agree that most quality modern handguns don't require a lot of cleaning in order to function reliably, but there's something to be said for the inspection aspect of breaking a gun down after each range session. Sometimes doing so will catch a problem in it's early stages before it develops into something far worse.

Just a few weeks ago, while cleaning my Beretta after a range session, I found a crack in my locking block. The gun had run fine up to this point, so if I hadn't taken it down to clean it, I wouldn't have known. A failed locking block on a range gun is not the end of the world, but a cracked slide or frame could cause serious injury. Not saying that inspecting during cleaning would have necessarily prevented what happened here, but it's something to consider.

Another training element I've always been a little hesitant about is the immediate action drill. I get it...if your gun goes down in a gunfight, you need to get it back up ASAP without messing around. But the mechanical side of me says that if an otherwise reliable handgun starts exhibiting malfunctions, there's probably a reason, and the safest course of action for you and your gun is to stop, take a look, and figure out why.

The "swell" is a barrel design, and no, it's not possible that "several rounds stacked in the barrel" and then blew the slide in two without apparent barrel damage.

The failure occurred at the weakest point of the slide, with the least amount of material, and not splayed out, appears along lines of cracking on each side of the slide, at the rear of the ejection port, near the breach face. There does appear to be a piece of brass colored material protruding down from what would be the breach face, which raises the question of ammunition.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
[T]here's something to be said for the inspection aspect of breaking a gun down after each range session.

That’s a point I’ve made to my trainees for years. When is a problem more likely to occur, when the gun is carried around on duty or when it’s fired? The answer is obvious, and if we don’t inspect the gun after it’s fired, when will it be inspected?

And to reiterate, a catastrophic cartridge failure would almost certainly have damaged the plastic frame of a little gun like that. I don’t recall ever reading about an out of battery or overcharge pistol discharge that didn’t do something to the frame and grip.

I think we are all missing the real PSA. Friends don’t let friends buy Taurus.

I agree that any gun can fail but holy shit, that was crazy bad. In 380 to boot.

For the past few months, I've been volunteering with the local chapter of the "Well Armed Women". Every month we seem to get a few new shooters. It seems that the masks NY State requires for these gatherings tend to fog the safety glasses. And some of the new shooters take the glasses off in the range to wipe them down. While I understand the how's and why's, I feel I constantly need to remind the new shooters to put their glasses back on. I'd much rather they don't wear the mask in the point, even with an instructor present, but they've been programmed to wear the mask.

Next month, I'm going to have a bottle of Neverfog from the auto parts store on hand. I really hate being the killjoy, but I'd hate myself more if someone were injured on my watch.

quote:

blow out fractures in his left orbit

Most nasty. Sudden traumatic impact overpressures the orbital area, which then blows out the thinnest wall in that part of the skull, usually the side or bottom.

That safety glasses pic is scary. Hope they can save the eye.

Also reminds me to respect ALL firearm calibers and cartridges, as this horrible accident was caused by "just" a .380.

Wow. As stated above. That slide does look awful thin in the area of breakage.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Also reminds me to respect ALL firearm calibers and cartridges, as this horrible accident was caused by "just" a .380.

No, this accident more than likely was caused by a defective Taurus.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Also reminds me to respect ALL firearm calibers and cartridges, as this horrible accident was caused by "just" a .380.

No, this accident more than likely was caused by a defective Taurus.

yeah....but people are willing to use them as carry weapons!!

How many times have I heard, “but...I own a Taurus and never had a problem”...

What he just said. Save up for one more month and buy a Glock 42.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Also reminds me to respect ALL firearm calibers and cartridges, as this horrible accident was caused by "just" a .380.

No, this accident more than likely was caused by a defective Taurus.

I was using the word "cause" differently, in the sense of "powered by". Yes it was probably a defective slide. I don't believe it was an overcharged round, if that's how I came across (my bad). My point was that even a smaller handgun cartridge still packs a significant amount of power that a shooter must respect.

^^^ I know what you meant. I was just being an ass early in the morning.