Winchester 22lr Ammo blows up in gun

lone ranger

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Unbelievable . I have been shooting 22lr for 51 years and never had this happen.

I bought a brick of Winchester 333 ammo the other day.
took my ruger 10/22 out to do a little target shooting.
Loaded 5 rounds in the mag.
Hit bullseye the 1st shot.

pulled the Triger again and a very loud "BANG" ......A bunch of crap and flames came out of the receiver
and hit me in the face. OUCH

It blew the action wide open.
after cleaning my face, I looked in the chamber and seen just the sleeve of the brass. The Back-End was Gone.

never seen this before. was it loaded WAY Hot ?
I looked through the barrel and it was clear.

the ammo-
100-0638.jpg




the 22 that blew up-
100-0640.jpg
 
Any chance of an out of battey? is your firing pin free? What does your bolt look like?

I avoid all other types of winchester ammo. .22lr might be added
 
I had this happen once when the cartridge didn't fully chamber. gun was dirty.

gun was cleaned from the last time I was out. clean gun.

checked firing pin..all is good.
bolt face has a lot of crap all over it Now from explossion.

cleaned now... looks fine.
 
Winchester had a batch of T22 ammo that did that back in the 70's... other companies over the years have had similar problems. I think it was bad brass at the root of the problem. It is the reason one wears eye protection. Some models of semi auto firearms have had protective "deflectors" installed to help save eyes... Remington 552 I think and the crap CIL (Anschutz) 300 series.
 
It's a problem of very minor issues with the brass being not quite perfectly annealed during the forming of the cases and the case rim.

If it did it once, it's bad luck, if it does it several times in a box of shells, it's worth complaining to the ammo maker.

The last cartridge that blew like that, for me, was a single round out of an old box of CIL .22 Short ammo, that made my ears ring, after I took a shot out of an old Cooey, that never did it again.

It happens. It's not much other than a reminder to wear some form of shooting glasses, at least most of the time, unless it repeats.
 
It looks like Winchester has some serious quality control issues. I bought a box of 1000 rounds of Winchester M-22 ammo a short while back - 20% misfire rate no matter what gun it was fired in. Rubbish.
 
I have seen the same thing from Remington's garbage a few times and Federal 525 at least once I can recall. Never caused any serious damage in my instances but it sure gets your attention!
 
I had a pack of Winchester 555 given to me about 10 years ago. Worst crap I have ever used. You could hear the difference between each shell. Some where slow enough you could see them going and landing in front of the target. I refuse to buy Winchester 22 ammunition.
 
I've not bothered with with Winchester 22 ammo since the early 70's. Had some pooey batches of Rem bulk stuff from Mexico in the 80's as well. Dirty stuff it was..
Never had a case separation issue though, but it's the luck of the draw with ammo that be poorly manufactured.
 
Years ago there was a computer acronym . . . GIGO . . . Garbage In Garbage Out.

The WW 222, 333, and 555 are normally what clubs buy for their youth programs.
It is poor economics as the consistency does not lead itself to learning skills.
Plus they wonder why the shooters in our competition rifles won't allow that copper to be used in our rifles.

This ammunition has a guarantee to go bang and when it doesn't the deal is off!
 
Just FYI, Winchester also makes all of the Browning ammunition. I learned that the hard way when I bought a bunch of Browning .22. It is hands down the worst .22 I have ever used. Split shells and wild velocity spreads, you know, typical Winchester .22 stuff from the looks of this thread.
 
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