A bad morning at the range on Friday:
At this point I am not certain how much damage was done to my Kimber Eclipse Custom II gun other than the extractor being blown off the gun. I know the Wilson Combat magazine that was blown out is a total loss. I had probably fired about 30 rounds from the gun as body shots and decided to take a few head shots. I loaded the magazine with four rounds, took aim at the head and pulled the trigger, and then kaboom. Glad I was wearing glasses, as one always should, as I got sprayed in the face and got a few scratches as the extractor blew out at me and the magazine blew out the bottom of the gun. The bullet did leave the barrel but never made it to the target; I don’t miss head shots at 10 yards. After the gun stopped smoking we picked it up and found no bullet in the barrel, but a casing was stuck in the chamber. We rodded it out and the primer was gone and the case had blown out. Here is where it gets interesting. We found a dented bullet on the ground, along with the base plate and spring from the magazine. There was also a round on the floor and one hanging out the bottom of the magazine. There was an exploded casing in the magazine with no primer and no bullet – that was the bullet on the ground. It appears that the fired round somehow caused the next round to ignite in the magazine which blew away the extractor and forced everything out the bottom of the magazine.

 

Detailed pictures at https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirbinster/sets/72157644522879753/

 

 

 

 

 

was it factory ammo ?

glad your ok

Factory ammo or reloads?

WOW.. this could have been a lot worse. glad all you had are some scratches. 

I'm not going to say whose ammo it was yet just incase they make me sign a no disclosure, but they said they will reimburse me for repairs. Any idea what might cause something like this?

Just tell us if was new ammo or a reload

It was factory loaded using once fired casings.

That looks like a pretty classic case head failure from overpressure or a weak case head or firing out battery. The second case, how sure are you that fired? It looks to me it was torn but necessarily fired because it looks too clean, out of chamber burns can be very sooty.

Sorry to hear about the pistol.  But I'm glad you're getting okay! 

I think it was in battery as it was the first shot after I had racked the slide. As far as what happened to the second round I can't be sure. But I do know the primer was there when I loaded it and was gone afterwards. Also I am fairly certain the bullet we found on the floor came from that second round.

The primer being missing is a pretty sure sign of over pressure I think, the weak case wall would have probably not done that.

Yikes, glad you are ok

The primer was gone both from the casing in the chamber and the one In the magazine.

i have to assume these were reloads of some kind (commercial reloads)

Yea commercial reloads, not hand reloads.

Damn, glad you are ok. Also, nice meeting you.today!

Wow Glad your ok.   

Thanks Blake. It was nice meeting the people behind the avatars here

Holy smokes... glad you're okay Howard...

 

Hope this doesn't happen to anyone else. 

Looks like an overpressure load to me. Happened to my m&p and smith and Wesson screwed me. Factory ammo.

Wow..glad you are ok. As usual its a reminder to be careful of reloads and shooting other peoples reloads. Glad to see that the ammo maker is reimbursing you but it would make me rethink about ever reordering from them

I hear you. They are a reputable company and I have shot thousands of rounds of their ammo and never had an issue before. I think you can have an issue with any ammo, and this is just a reminder that shit can happen, a good reason to always be sure to wear your eye protection.

Maybe you should tell people in case they have the same batch of ammo as you!!!

Damn Howard, you are not have a good run lately.

 

Glad to hear you're OK.

Man.... Glad to hear you're okay...  I'm starting to trust own reload more than commercial reloads now.

That's about the craziest handgun failure I ever heard. It's hard to believe it not only set off a round in the magazine but that also cause additional damage. Don't get me wrong, I do believe you. But I can shoot at a pile of ammo and it won't go off most of the time. Just crazy.

Sorry to hear this. Glad you're ok.

 I'm starting to trust own reload more than commercial reloads now.

 

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 

... They are a reputable company ...

 

Care to share Manufacturer?

My guess is Freedom Munitions