Video on how not to disassemble a M1 Garand rifle

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mkrnel

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Wonder If anybody has seen this Youtube video before, disassembly takes place at 0.25


Cause was apparently a ruptured case head because of too slow burning a powder used in ammo.

Case was being extracted while powder still burning, common mistake when reloading/shooting for auto-loaders.

It has been reported by some on Youtube as an out of battery discharge, but firing out of battery is actually much, MUCH more uncommon to almost unheard of in either the M1 or M14 rifle. The safety bridge design in these rifles keeps the firing pin to the rear until it has lost enough momentum to set off the primer prematurely and there would have to be a problem with that along with a cartridge case/bullet combo that is too long. What is often incorrectly described as an "out of battery fire" is actually a "slam fire. This rifle was not destroyed because of a slam fire.
 
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I want to know if she is okay. A lot of the comments seem to lean towards pistol powder being used in reloads but it's impossible to tell without knowing the people directly involved.

Also, the guy in the shades comes off as super nonchalant if you pause and play the video repeatedly when the Garand explodes.
 
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I was reading about this incident on another forum that she is a member of and she said that other then some wood splinters, bruising and temporary pain over the next couple off days after the disassembly she luckily escaped any permanent injury.

As for the other guy, he probably was in shock from the explosion, as it is something nobody is expecting.
 
Seen this one posted here before, from what I remember she is ok (didn't lose anything, other than the rifle), pretty sure she had posted some comments on the youtube page about what happened afterward.

I don't know that he's acting nonchalant or just coming to realize whats happened, that and his reaction of WTF as a piece of the stock flew by.

Definitely a bad situation to be in.
 
If you notice the Garand that she is using is throwing it's brass farther and more forward then the guys one, also the 7th rounds case is not fully extracted after firing, apparently some experts on the Garand say this was because of dwell time because of unburnt powder still burning after bullet passing gas port and op rod trying to extract while pressure from combustion still too high in chamber causeing case to still grip chamber walls. The 8th and last round may have had a slightly weaker case head which was ripped off by the extractor.

But really without a full investigation we are all only really guessing from the sidelines about this one, that's why I used the word apparently in my first post. The above explanation does seem the most plausible as I know of the same situation with too slow burning powder destroying many other auto-loaders like Ljungman's, Hakims, FN49's etc. Some people think that because a certain loads works well in their bolt action hunting rifle that it should be fine in their semi-auto too, this is a big mistake and most reloading manuals have 2 sets of reloading data for cartridges like the .308, .30-06 etc. because of this situation.
 
There is a lot of info out there, incl quite a number of posts on this forum, about proper ammo selection and reloading practices for the Garand. It isn't just another .30-06. In spite of all the precautions, some people just have to find out the hard way. Lucky no one was seriously injured here. Put that down to the massively overbuilt Garand receiver.
 
Looks like partial out of battery. You can see she drops the hammer and no boom, probably an improperly sized case or something keeping the round from fully seating in the chamber. She then charges the rifle and the round doesn't eject, and hammers it again for the boom.
This was a members M1 from a case of pistol powder
 
Hitzy said:
Looks like partial out of battery. You can see she drops the hammer and no boom, probably an improperly sized case or something keeping the round from fully seating in the chamber. She then charges the rifle and the round doesn't eject, and hammers it again for the boom.
This was a members M1 from a case of pistol powder
Click to expand...

Actually you can also see her remove the partially extracted 7th rounds case and then drop it before she cocks and loads the 8th round before she then has the big surprise.

Only way a M1 or M14 will allow the firing pin forward is if the bolt is fully forward and in battery unless the tail is broken off the firing pin or the safety notch is very damaged in the receivers bridge, both not very common and easy to see when fully cleaning the rifle.
 
mkrnel said:
Actually you can also see her remove the partially extracted 7th rounds case and then drop it before she cocks and loads the 8th round before she then has the big surprise.

Only way a M1 or M14 will allow the firing pin forward is if the bolt is fully forward and in battery unless the tail is broken off the firing pin or the safety notch is very damaged in the receivers bridge, both not very common and easy to see when fully cleaning the rifle.
Click to expand...

I see her look at the case in the chamber, I don't see her picking anything out?
The notch provides enough clearance for the firing pin tail....plus a bit to ensure reliability. The bolt doesn't just rotate in at 90 degree angles, there is a bit of a caming action to the lock up. I suspect that there was some lug contact but not enough to completely chamber the round, and enough case head exposed at the bottom for the wall to fail. The safety bridge did the job the first time she hammered that round as it was too far out of battery to set it off. Then after slamming home the bolt again it was enough for the pin to clear the bridge, but only partial lock up of the bolt.
I would do this on a rimfire if a round didn't go off, but never on a center fire like the M1/14/carbine. I own several of each and load accordingly as well.

OK I can see her remove the case now....probably the same reason though, bolt was closed pretty gently...not enough force to fully seat.
 
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Hitzy said:
I see her look at the case in the chamber, I don't see her picking anything out?
The notch provides enough clearance for the firing pin tail....plus a bit to ensure reliability. The bolt doesn't just rotate in at 90 degree angles, there is a bit of a caming action to the lock up. I suspect that there was some lug contact but not enough to completely chamber the round, and enough case head exposed at the bottom for the wall to fail. The safety bridge did the job the first time she hammered that round as it was too far out of battery to set it off. Then after slamming home the bolt again it was enough for the pin to clear the bridge, but only partial lock up of the bolt.
I would do this on a rimfire if a round didn't go off, but never on a center fire like the M1/14/carbine. I own several of each and load accordingly as well.

OK I can see her remove the case now....probably the same reason though, bolt was closed pretty gently...not enough force to fully seat.
Click to expand...

Without access to the people and all equipment involved we are all just guessing from the sidelines, but your analysis is also plausible as well.
 
Whatever the cause of the failure, the most interesting part to me (and I watched it over and over again just now), was how elegantly, perfectly it failed - from an engineering standpoint.

All the debris flew almost perfectly directly to the either side or up and down. Very much an "engineered" failure - designed to keep debris away from the body of the shooter and their hands, so long as you have the proper hold - one hand behind the receiver with the finger inside the trigger guard, the other hand forward on the fore-stock, nowhere near the magwell.

I can't even remember who/when taught me about that, but virtually all auto-loaders are designed to "dump" energy through the magwell and in a few other directions around the receiver in a plane in front of the shooter (imagine a pane of glass running through the middle of the receiver and magwell area directly in front of you).

Drives me nuts to see people do "mag holds" on rifles, as it got ingrained in me a long, LONG time ago that that was just a plain bad idea.

Watch the video again and look for the energy dump, and you'll be able to see the effect. And you'll never do a mag hold again.

Stay safe.
 
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