Glock 22 KABOOM
This Glock 22 (.40 S&W) blew up while firing reloaded ammunition.
From AR15.com ...
Was at the range with some friends today, and a friends glock 22 grenaded with some commercially reloaded .40. This brand is really popular up here for idpa and ipsc as well as plinking.
The trigger, mag release, and slide stop disintigrated, but were recovered amongst the rubble around the range. The head of the case was found about 20 yards downrange. Also, the top of the chamber took a chunk out of the ceiling. not to mention the slide coming off of the rail on one side, and the frame being completely warped in that area.
his hand is alright, no cuts, but will probably be bruised soon.
[ Many thanks to jdun1911 for emailing me the link. ]
I’ve heard FOAF stories of Glocks in .40 ‘letting go’ even with good factory ammo. (No firsthand verification, no assurance that it was nothing but factory ammo, the plural of anecdote is not data, YMMV, etc).
It does look like the chamber walls on a .40 Glock are pretty thin when you consider there’s ~32K PSI held inside them (albeit for a short period of time). That said, I am not a metallurgical engineer; and the guys working at Glock are, and by and large seem to know their stuff very well.
I’m just wondering if the safety margins on .40 caliber Glocks are less than on some other models.
It’s things like this that make me want to stick to .45ACP and it’s comparatively low pressures.
Factory Reloaded… on a progressive reloader.
Got to say this kind of worries me. I just picked up the new Gen 4 Glock 22.
“commercially reloaded” ammo… what the hell is that?!? Sounds like the shooter bought “mystery surprise ammo” from some other bloke who reloaded it. Good luck with that.
Having said that, it is, like Redchrome notes above, noteworthy that the .40 caliber Glock barrels (and chambers) are the same external diameter as the 9mm versions.
Of course that doesn’t neccessarily mean the .40 cal Glocks are too weak. But they probably are more likely to blow up when using mystery ammo than the 9mm versions are.
Lesson: Use quality, brand name ammunition.
There been alot of problums in the local Sheriff’s deapart ment with there G-22s. The pressure from .40 S&W rounds is wearing out there Glock long before there suppost to. Rummor is there going to 9mm Glocks to replace the problum pleged G-22. It might be the bigger problum with .40 S&W.
An I thought it was Steves Glock like his AR a few months ago….. lol
Does Glock even acknowledge this is a real issue?
Lead bullets it looks like. That’s the classic Glock issue.
The 40 Smith is not “unsafe” but a lot of the safety margins were trimmed back from the original 10mm specs to make it fit into 9mm platforms. When tolerances in powder, charge weight, OAL, or brass quality get a little loose things go very bad very quickly. Glocks have more than their fair share of the problems from this because their chamber specs leave more of the base exposed and glock has made a ton of 40’s that find their way into high volume shooters hands.
I’ve seen evidence of a Glock 22 firing a round out of battery with similar results. I’ll stay away from the Glock in .40 S&W and stick to the .45 ACP as well. Glock makes fantastic guns, but this combination seems problematic.
Maigo,
All guns have a chance to go KB!. Firearms use contain explosion to lunch a projectile after all. There are always risks every time you pull the trigger on whatever firearms.
With that said, pistol KB! rarely lead to serious injuries or deaths.
The Glock KB! is probably due to reloads (double charge).
If you mess around with guns long enough, regardless of how careful you are, things will happen. With the amount of fact information given here, it’s illogical and unfair to blame Glock for this KB.
The fact is that there are more Glocks in service with U. S. LE than any other brand. Add to that the Glocks in service with U. S. civilians and throw in who knows how many more Glocks in service worldwide. Statistically, then it is a reasonable assertion that there will be issues with Glocks; however, some of the issues that are blamed on Glocks certainly impact other brands.
Glock has certainly stepped up to the challenge and is now on their fourth generation.
I JUST bought a used police issue G-22 from a gun show 2 weeks ago, and this news is slightly discouraging. Also I found out shortly after I purchased it that there was a problem with the frame rails on this model as well. *sigh*
I plan on keeping it clean and only shooting quality ammunition through it as well. I just bought some Federal Hydra Shock ammunition for it myself. I’m not cool enough to reload anyway.
I will Def. do more research before I make my next firearm purchase.
It should be noted that even ‘factory’ ammo from big-name brands can and does go wrong occasionally. Even some stupidly expensive stuff. It’s not common, but as was pointed out by Bud John, the odds do get even eventually.
It’s also entirely possible for the above reasons, that a gun which has not been abused, might fail anyway. Given enough opportunities, a part with a flaw in it might very well get out into the wild. Really, the quality control we see on firearms is amazing when you compare it to most anything else.
jdun1911,
Agreed, it can happen to any gun, but it seems to happen to non-9mm Glocks more often than it should.
Fear not, Caedis, your Glock is likely quite serviceable. The above explosion is a double charged round, and the fact that the shooter was unhurt is a testament to the Glock. That’s no regular metal fatigue, I assure you. It was bad ammo, pure and simple.
The early G22s were simply 9mm frames chambered in the new round, but when the frame rail separation issue started to appear, in as little as 3000 rounds according to some sources, Glock came out with a beefed up frame and has been selling them ever since, including on the 9mm. If your frame has two pins above the trigger, you have the new frame. Even most of the used, Police trade in Glocks on the market were sent back to Glock to get the new frames (which is why many departments got rid of them to begin with). If you don’t have two pins, send it to Glock and they will give you the new frame with the old serial number, probably gratis.
Maigo,
It happen more to Glocks because it is the best selling handgun in the USA behind the 1911. Glocks are more likely to be abused then 1911 due to the price difference. Also the marigine for errors is less on .40 S&W then in many pistol calibers.
I think it’s much more likely that the bullet was seated too deeply, and not necessarily at the point of manufacture. From what I’ve seen, the factory reloads (and there are a number of companies making ammunition using “once-fired” cases) for 40S&W have, until recently, almost always been 180gr.
If the bullet ends up pushed in a little too far it can drastically raise the pressure. Having a FTE and the next round being jammed against the empty shell can push the bullet further into the case. I had that happen to me, but managed to notice it before it was too late.
Go read a bit on how little setback it takes for the pressure to get too high:
http://www.greent.com/40Page/ammo/40/180gr.htm
My agency issued each officer a Glock 22 and a Glock 27 (to encourage off-duty carry). All of these weapons have had several thousand rounds of Federal 155 grain JHP fired thru them and not one had had any problem as mentioned above. I do not claim to be an expert but after almost 30yrs + of range instruction and training i have found most “ka-booms” are linked to faulty ammo (read that as aggressive re-load or factory oops). I know of one agency that loaded hot 9mm into one of their S+W 5906 pistols and got what they were looking for, a ruined pistol. But they were able to use that as a reason to upgrade to a better caliber/handgun. Not too smart but in the end all went well.
having seen 5 kboom’d glocks up close and personal , (is 2′ from me close enough?) and having bits in my leg from someones g22 letting go , i have zero confidence in the breed…
i have seen 9mm 357sig 40sw(2) 10mm and 45 acp kboom’d with factory ammo …
don’t need the risk or the grief…
i know the above statement totals 6 guns , but i only saw the 45 as they were getting ready to ship it off to glock , it was in 5 large chunks of plastic and steel…
the owner wasn’t very lucky either…
can we say ‘handburger’ ?
I was shooting some of the many “old maid” rounds one accumulates over time and had a factory Fed Hydro-Shock 135 gr “disassemble” my new GLOCK M-35. Called Federal and they advised that the ammo head stamp (FC) indicated it was early 1990’s mfg when they had some “issues” with ammo from that period. The case head totally separated and blew the extractor parts out. No parts were destroyed or broken, just forcibly disassembled.
Found all the extractor parts, put it back together and it has been working fine since.
If you are going to reload .40 s&w , You need a barrel that fully supports the case! Glock has supposedley fixed this by now with the new models. If you are going to shoot reloads in your .40 s&w, get a barrel that fully supports the case..for example a KKM precision barrel.
One more thing, .40 s&w is a good round, so is a .45, and a .357 SIG. Have you ever seen the Navy SEALS and the British SAS gripe about the 9MM ?
Am I imagining things, or are those bullets in the KB pic shiny gray LEAD???