My Kimber blew up :(

[Howard 538]

I have shot thousand of rounds of that ammo, and have a huge amount of it sitting around, so that would be a "very" good guess

[RS1200XL 4]

Such a sad sight for a beautiful gun. Glad to hear you're okay!

[alec.mc 180]

friends dont let friends by kimbers

 

http://njgunforums.com/forum/index.php/topic/68437-kimbers/

 

didnt you read that thread?

 

Duh!

 

glad you didnt get hurt howard. 

[PK90 3,570]

friends dont let friends by kimbers Freedom Munitions Ammo

[Howard 538]

friends dont let friends by kimbers

 

http://njgunforums.com/forum/index.php/topic/68437-kimbers/

 

didnt you read that thread?

 

Duh!

 

glad you didnt get hurt howard. 

Yea I know people like to hate Kimbers.  It could have been worse, I could have been shooting a Block - then who knows what would have happened.  At least this was a solid metal gun with metal magazine.

[Barms 98]

About how and was the impact of shrap to your face? Like do you think if someone was wearing reading glasses as eye protection they would have broke? Was is that hard?

[Old Dog 19]

Last week I bought and used reloaded .380 ammo to break in a new pocket gun. This is the first time I bought ammo other than new. I had three hang fires. The first time it happened, I tilted the gun so that the barrel was pointed towards the ceiling of the range so that I could better see if there was a double feed. It was then that it fired and put a bullet into the ceiling tiles. I will never buy reloaded or even hand loaded ammo again. Every gun I ever saw that blew up was shooting reloaded or hand loaded ammo. I am sure that some new factory ammo can do the same but not in my experience.

 

 

[Howard 538]

I think reading glasses probably would have been ok. It was mostly dust and smoke but could have been worse.  The only hard thing that hit me was the external extractor which broke and hit me in the cheek.  Got a tiny cut that was not as bad as cutting yourself shaving.

 

As for someone else's hand reloads I would be concerned as well.  But this stuff came from a big outfit and the only difference between this stuff and factory new is that the casings have been used, other than that it is made on the same production equipment as new ammo.  You can have new casings fail just as well as used ones, I really don't see much difference.  This stuff looks pristine.  Just this Saturday someone saw me loading my mags and commented on how bright and shiny this ammo was.  Here are two pictures of the ammo:

 

 

[alec.mc 180]

With wet tumbling you can make the grimiest oldest cases that have been fired 20 times look brand new.

 

how shiny it is has nothing to do with the structural integrity of the brass

[jvheitz 5]

Starting???    What do you know about commercial ammo -- reloads or not  

 

I trust my reloads way more than anything made in bulk

 

My reloads have a hand inspected case, a new properly seated primer, the correct amount of powder, a bullet seated to the proper depth and crimped properly

 

Every one of my reloads is handled and inspected by me -- more than once

 

 

Can anyone say that for any factory ammo?  

 

 

Howard -- glad your OK --  Factory don't mean squat for reliability

THIS

[Barms 98]

He even makes ammo pictures beautiful!! Only Howard would be thinking about aperture and lighting for taking a picture of rounds.

[Howard 538]

With wet tumbling you can make the grimiest oldest cases that have been fired 20 times look brand new.

 

how shiny it is has nothing to do with the structural integrity of the brass

That is a good point Alec. Besides being shiny the stuff has no visible nicks, dents, chips, cracks, etc....  The flip side of it is you can have structural problems with brand new casings too.  At least something that is used once has proven itself in the real world   I guess the bottom line is each person has to do whatever they feel comfortable with.  Fortunately they said they will stand behind their product and cover any expenses I incur to fix the gun.

[Howard 538]

He even makes ammo pictures beautiful!! Only Howard would be thinking about aperture and lighting for taking a picture of rounds.

Thanks, but they are really just quick and dirty snap shots.  I even did them with just the pop-up flash!

[gunguy1960 2]

Fun hobby, saves money vs. Expensive explosions, to each his/her own.

[Cache 0]

That sucks but I'm glad you're ok. 

[pbkid6974 1]

Glad you're ok. But this is why I stay away from external extractors on 1911s. The design was not meant for it.

[Howard 538]

Glad you're ok. But this is why I stay away from external extractors on 1911s. The design was not meant for it.

Curious, what do you mean that the design was not meant for it? What is the issue between internal and external?

[silverado427 10,720]

My guess is Freedom Munitions

that would be my guess also. 

[bry@n 195]

S&W makes an external extractor 1911 and I have never heard of problems with the gun. Their 9mm 1911 is a sweet gun.

[Howard 538]

S&W makes an external extractor 1911 and I have never heard of problems with the gun. Their 9mm 1911 is a sweet gun.

Yup here is my other .45 1911, its a S&W performance center and it too has an external extractor.  Note - not my photo just hot linked to one I saw on the web  

[Steve_G 51]

Kimber has had problems with external extractors. Mostly extraction issues, not any safety problems. S&W went with an oversized external extractor and they seem to work quite well. I have not had any issues with my 9mm 1911 with well over 5k through the gun.

 

Glad you're ok Howard.

[T Bill 649]

External extractors are a perfect example of a solution looking for a problem.  External extractors are difficult to get to work, either they do or they don't. No real way to tinker to fine tune their performance.  Internals can be worked to perform better.  Kimber externals are known to be a problem. 

 

Glad your safe.

 

I would make sure that firearm does not have a problem with out of battery firing.  I know of two Kimbers that did.  Both with similar results.  Seems they may have a "sweet" spot where they are not quite in battery, but firing pin still drops.  Both that I know where returned to Kimber for repair. One more than once. 

 

I would get a max case gauge and use it often.  If you were rolling your own you would, so checking somebody else's work, just makes sense to me.  A commercial reloader that takes brass from anybody and reloads it is just not on my goto list.  I do use their sister's bullets and like them however.

[pbkid6974 1]

Curious, what do you mean that the design was not meant for it? What is the issue between internal and external?

I mean JMB did not design the 1911 with an external extractor for a reason. It is an inherently weak design and not as strong as the original intrenal extractor.

[Howard 538]

Well I got the word today from Kimber that the gun is toast, a total loss.  The frame is cracked and the slide is bulged.  They offered me a new one for 30% off which I passed along to the ammo manufacturer.  Here are the picture of the damage that they sent me:

 

Frame crack

 

Slide damage:

 

 

[Gunnz 49]

Does kimber have the "authority" to make you the same model with the same serial number , so you wouldn't need to go through the permit process?

 

I would think they could.... But then again, logic isn't always lawful....

[Howard 538]

Don't know, but my guess is they will give me something off the shelf. Even if they could give me that serial I would think it would take a long time to do that. Just so happens I went in this morning to renew two permission slips that were to expire tomorrow.

[Vlad G 345]

Well it did its job. It kept the rapidly accelerating  bits from becoming rapidly decelerating bits in your flesh. I call it a success even if the gun is a total loss.

[Howard 538]

I'm with you on that for sure !

[bry@n 195]

Vlad's right. Could have been worse

[Wolfy 51]

Anytime a gun goes kaboom and you didn't require a trip to the ER you should consider yourself lucky.

 

 

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