Bushmaster ACR KABOOM
Bad ammunition cracked a bolt and blew out a magazine of a Bushmaster ACR, showering the users hand with small pieces of copper. Otherwise the rifle was unharmed, which bodes well for the ACR design.
The user does not know the origin of the ammunition. It belonged to his friend who cannot remember where or when it was purchased. What is known is that it came from a old white Winchester box and that the brass had a Twin Cities headstamp.
More photos of the rifle are here.
[ Many thanks to Bret & jdun1911 for emailing me the link. ]
That poor ACR…….
It was either old, badly stressed brass or, like Hrachya suspects, a major powder snafu from whoever loaded the round.
And it does speak well about the safety of the design that it was able to vent those gases in a manner that did not do serious harm to the shooter.
So the “ammunition……belonged to his friend who cannot remember where or when it was purchased.” Yeah right. Purchased it from his own garage!!
Maybe they’ve reloaded the cartridges with pistol powder (fast burning) ???
Texasplinker- ‘My em won ayyy woulda never blown up. There ain’t nuthin’ it cain’t handle!’ How is that?
It amazes me that people screw up reloads, and I’d almost assure you that reloads are responsible here. I’m sorry, but when I’m working with things that could kill me (gunpowder, large capacitors, ect) I tend to pay attention. It’s also a good idea to use the old bullet puller on every 10 or 20 reloads and verify that your powder measure metering didn’t get bumped up…
It was probably somebodies old/bad reload!
What? No exploding plastic gun comments?! Was that a pig flying by my window…
No gun is safe from bad ammo.
Impressive and cr@ppy at the same time.
Man. People need to be more responsible with their expensive toys.
Since Winchester never operated Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant, these are likely someone’s reloads. The head stamp on the blown case doesn’t look to be Twin Cities either.
Like I said on IRC while linking to this.
Sounds like a “jimbob wtf you doin’” moment.
Ouch!