an out of battery detonation (or excess headspace detonation) always blows the cover off as the caseing explodes outside of the chamber the pressure from the expanding gas has to go somewhere it always tries to go up first, the smoke and dull exposed boom tells ya the round exploded before being secured inside the chamber its a familiar sight with those of us who'v actually spent much time with F/A weapons, if not properly maintained ya will end up getting an out of battery detonation, the cover is popped free of the groove in the rear sight block 45,000 PSI of pressure will always take off that dust cover....... when the same thing happens in an M-16 the solid receiver top does not allow the pressure to exit up so it goes down blowing the magazine apart instead while the AK usually suffers no structural damage to the gun itself from an out of battery detonation (usually clean out the debris, clean the bolt and reassemble with straightened dust cover) the M 16 usually is taken out of action as the force of the contained explosion trashes the receiver, the dust cover of the AK is usually flipped up at the front releasing it and the shooter gets dinged but very seldom any serious injury as the dust cover acts as a venting cap while being released directing debri and gas upward while sheilding the shooters face from the debris
heres a video of an idiot with an M 16/AR 15 not bothering to actually inspect his weapon either after its trying to warn him of impending doom, just keeps hitting that forward assist and cycling the action, he got real lucky, but I suppose we can just put it off as Cr@ppy American junk aluminum guns right?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=481_1181023978&p=1
the "bad primer" is the bolt not going into battery most commonly from a dirty chamber but is ignored by the inexperienced un trained shooter till it kabooms on him..
Only the extremelly inexperienced could watch the AK Kaboom and come up with comments blaming the gun or its design for a failure thats very clearly operator error, those defending that operator.......... please never serv as a range master as you will very possibly get someone killed due to your inability to properly recognize such a blatant operator error not recognizing that operator error will mean you will not act to immediatly take that shooter off the line preventing injury to himself or others.
Most of these "contractors" jumping on the chance to go to Iraq don't get any actual weapons training at all and generally have very little actual experience outside of basic target plinking, I deal with ALOT of them, they get about as much training as you would if ya take your shiny new AK/AR down to the local shooting hole and just walk up to the first guy ya spot wearin BDU pants and ask em to show ya how to shoot your new gun......... thats it regardless what any of ya wanna fantasize about bein mercenaries in Iraq etc...... they don't know cr@p outside of what most learn while hunting or playing video games.....
...Andy, the "click" was outa battery very common with the AK when the fireing pin is dirty and starts sticking the fireing pin gets stuck forward preventing the bolt from going into battery, (only been building em and repairing em for 23 years) the "kaboom" was the result of an out of battery discharge, again based on over 30 years of dealing with these guns...... no working backwards bud, rather 9 years of service 4 years of that evaluating weapons related accidents, am currently used frequently as a consultant on such matters and get paid to review such videos from range cameras etc.. The "bad ammo" goes out the window (if ya actually know anything about the AK platform) with the fact we can witness the actual kaboom, very nice indeed as when a hot round is discharged in an AK while in full battery nothing really happens other than a big boom and bent up metal seldom the amount of gas exhausted at the chamber seen here, the bolt lugs may or may not be destroyed, the dust cover does not get blown as the blast force travels down the feedramp blowing out the magazine which in this case was uneffected, an out of battery detonation such as demonstrated in the video is very common with SKS or AK as well as many others with free floated firing pins when the firing pin gets stuck forward most commonly a result of neglect and not properly being cleaned, the round is detonated as its stripped from the magazine, which is what happened here, if it had detonated as it was closed into the chamber but lugs not yet locked then the force blows the bolt hard rearward slammin the bolt carrier into the rear trunion un-impeded in most cases releasing the recoil assembly and allowing the rear of the bolt carrier to lift upward and partially out of the receiver however in that case the dustover is released at the rear and has no momentum..........
