Blew up my AR today. KABOOM!

.....but hey now that you're all scared to #### about Norinco ammo why don't you all ship yours to me, I'll dispose of it properly... BY SHOOTING IT.

I will go one further and offer to BUY your outrageously dangerous norc 223 ammo! Don't take a chance with it! Sell it to me now before it blows your whole range off the face of the planet!!!

I don't mean to make light of the OP's predicament, it sucks when sh!t happens and stuff gets broken - I really hope the place you bought the rifle/ammo takes care of you on this.
 
My guess is "out of battery discharge".

The base looks like it was expanded circumferentially due to lack of support from the chamber, then the pressure blew out the side.

GC

My guess is...it's a Norc...some are good, some are bad, all are cheap. You had bad luck when you acquired the bad Norc. Glad you're ok.

Please read enough of the thread to look like you know what's happening, otherwise you like those teenagers that arrive at a movie half an hour late and ask in a loud voice; "what did we miss"
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears that on both your cartridge base and the one in #130, that the brass has taken the imprint of the ejector hole. In #130 it's at the 5 o'clock position (coinciding with the + sign) and in yours it is at the 6 o'clock position. That is a sign of abnormally high pressure, when the brass starts to 'flow' into any available opening. I don't think that is just a weak case blowing out the side, but pressure so high that it is pushing the brass beyond its limit, and the best and biggest place it could go was to the extractor side.

The question is, what could/did cause such excessive pressure?
 
well it sure looks like an out of battery discharge, based on the bulge at the back

did the previous round cycle the BCG and loaded the 4th round no prob (ie you did not have to manually rack the charging handle after 3rd shot? - just want to confirm)

possible theory (if 3rd round not a squib, if we disregard that it was out of battery discharge):
4th bullet got pushed into the case as it was chambering, creating excessive pressure when the round was fired, unlocking the bolt slightly and allowing the bulge to happen as the round went out of chamber a bit and was still going off

not sure if that is even possible but what other explanation is there if not out of battery discharge?

but you also mentioned that BCG was stuck in the gun, was it stuck in battery or pushed back a bit?

how does your chamber/barrel look at the barrel extension area

next unlikely theory: barrel somehow separated from barrel extension, allowing full bolt lockup while not providing chamber support for the full length of the case

Here's what I've got now.
Shell casing on the left was the one I picked up off the ground. Shell on the right came out of the chamber.
My bolt was not that dirty before this. Some of the damage to the brass was possibly done during bolt removal.

cm8xYe2.jpg
 
well it sure looks like an out of battery discharge, based on the bulge at the back

did the previous round cycle the BCG and loaded the 4th round no prob (ie you did not have to manually rack the charging handle after 3rd shot? - just want to confirm)

possible theory (if 3rd round not a squib, if we disregard that it was out of battery discharge):
4th bullet got pushed into the case as it was chambering, creating excessive pressure when the round was fired, unlocking the bolt slightly and allowing the bulge to happen as the round went out of chamber a bit and was still going off

not sure if that is even possible but what other explanation is there if not out of battery discharge?

but you also mentioned that BCG was stuck in the gun, was it stuck in battery or pushed back a bit?

how does your chamber/barrel look at the barrel extension area

next unlikely theory: barrel somehow separated from barrel extension, allowing full bolt lockup while not providing chamber support for the full length of the case

Here we go again.

Should make it mandatory to read the whole ####ing thread before replying...
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears that on both your cartridge base and the one in #130, that the brass has taken the imprint of the ejector hole. In #130 it's at the 5 o'clock position (coinciding with the + sign) and in yours it is at the 6 o'clock position. That is a sign of abnormally high pressure, when the brass starts to 'flow' into any available opening. I don't think that is just a weak case blowing out the side, but pressure so high that it is pushing the brass beyond its limit, and the best and biggest place it could go was to the extractor side.

The question is, what could/did cause such excessive pressure?

If the case went through the anneal with the wrong end in the heater, as suggested earlier in the thread, it would be soft and maybe able to flow under normal pressures.

Without someone doing some hardness measurements, and a full competent examination of the chamber and the fit of the bolt lugs to the barrel extension, it's all pretty much a guessing game.

With the educated opinions of some here already though, it seems to fit that the case head was soft and blew out where it was supposed to in that circumstance.

It does look to me that the Norc held up about as well as any would.

Most guys would be really surprised at how much of the case head is unsupported in their rifles. Look up "Glock Bulge", WRT handgun ammo. Same deal. Unsupported area on the case. Handgun ammo is mostly running lower pressures than Rifle ammo, but the basic principles are the same, eh. Case seals and contains. Case must be of suitable construction, or bad things happen!



Cheers
Trev
 
REALLY????? no I didnt read the thread? really? how do you figure that?

read my post maybe

his initial pics show the BCG sticking out from the end of the receiver, and that the lugs are not fully engaged in the barrel extension, even though the BCG is stuck

Here we go again.

Should make it mandatory to read the whole ####ing thread before replying...
 
REALLY????? no I didnt read the thread? really? how do you figure that?

read my post maybe

his initial pics show the BCG sticking out from the end of the receiver, and that the lugs are not fully engaged in the barrel extension, even though the BCG is stuck

There is a few mm of of play there with the BC before the bolt starts to rotate....definitely not out of battery here.
 
Norinco ammo is not alone when it comes to faulty.
Multiply the odds of QC missing a bad round by the odds of bad rounds per batch equals the OP's unfortunate incident.
My brother had a squib 9mm round from a value pack of UMC ammo.
Went click, after clearing what he thought was a dud, was suprised to see just the casing extracted. Sure enough there was a bullet lodged in the barrel. Good thing my little brother has more common sense than a gun control advocate and decided to find the root cause of the problem!

And to the OP, I'd be inclined to listen to Moderator, or investigate further before minding all the bollucks.
 
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Just to catch up the latecomers - if the rifle had fired out of battery, the BCG would have blown back in the upper housing, it would not have locked up forward. The rifle is not the issue here, the ammunition is. Yes, the ammunition in this instance is Norinco surplus, but at least 2 posters have noted that this type of situation can occur with almost any ammunition. As an aside, if you doubt that US makers can make and ship crappy ammo, Goggle something like "Winchester ammo sucks".
 
Just to catch up the latecomers - if the rifle had fired out of battery, the BCG would have blown back in the upper housing, it would not have locked up forward. The rifle is not the issue here, the ammunition is. Yes, the ammunition in this instance is Norinco surplus, but at least 2 posters have noted that this type of situation can occur with almost any ammunition. As an aside, if you doubt that US makers can make and ship crappy ammo, Goggle something like "Winchester ammo sucks".

Also to mention (as it has through the thread) if it was an OOB discharge, the OP would've been injured more than just his hand being a bit numb for 30mins.
 
Am I the only one who noticed the actual cause of this issue? OP was CLEARLY using the wrong ammo. I've never seen a belted 5.56x45mm cartridge before, but looks like one snuck in somehow... cou: In all seriousness, glad OP is ok.
 
Just to clear up a few things for people.
I did fire all four shots without having to manually charge #4. There were 3 holes accurately placed on target. I may have "flinched" a little on the fourth. No idea where round #5 in the magazine went. Might find it in the springtime.
My 3rd pic in post #79 does show the bcg is back a little bit. That is because it was as far back as I could get it without the aid of a vice and a bigger hammer.

Not going to rag about Norinco ammo Because so much of it is shot trouble free.
I myself will be a little more selective about my ammo choice from now on.

Because If I ever have to tell you guys that I blew up the same d@mn AR using the same d@mn ammo, I will NEVER live it down! If I live that is!
 
Dunno if I missed it, but did the kaboom bullet exit the barrel?

Another possible angle - could a plugged gas block prevent impingement Keeping the BCG in battery? I hear Norc ammo is dirty and can be a hot round. What is, if any, free bore do ARs have? Maybe case was a tad long causing over pressure?
 
My god people... this is one round out of how many hundred thousand?

I bet if Rust didn't post this none of you would think twice about shooting your Norinco ammo and won't have any kabooms, but hey now that you're all scared to #### about Norinco ammo why don't you all ship yours to me, I'll dispose of it properly... BY SHOOTING IT.

haha I was thinking the same thing… I face palmed to half the comments in this thread from apparent Norc haters.

yes, we are aware that norc is a budget AR, however they are not all crap lol … ( spoken from a Norc & DD owner )

Id be curious to see what the ratio of Norc to Domestic ammo in canada would be… 10:1, 20:1 ?
 
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