Garand blown to H&G, rifles fault? NO,

[Hummer]

This innocent looking cartridge blew a Garand in about five pieces. I did the malfunction investigation on it and luckily had all the evidence.

Rifle was built up for match shooting and owner went out and was zeroing rifle first time at the range and this failure occurred on the 7th round fired.

I obtained all the previously fired cases and headstamp indicates they were loaded in 1954 by Kynoch in England.

I gaged all the fired cases and all cases indicated correct headspace on the rifle. All were factory loaded. Note no sign of excessive pressure on primer.

Failure was charged to a "soft head" indicating the case likely went through neck/shoulder annealing upside down so the case head was softened up and not the neck shoulder.

Shooter was very lucky.

 

[mac1911]

Whoa, that sucks. Was Kynock known to be good ammo ?

 

[Hummer]

It is just one of those things. It has happened here as well. This is one reason I like once fired cases, it has already been proof fired ! ! ! ! !

 

[Hummer]

These are the failures you are likely to experience on brass. Above is a "L" split. This is why safety glasses are encouraged.

Failures of HXP above may be from incipient separation from expanding and sizing too many times. This is why I like nice tight chambers so brass won't move described in my post on MAXIMUM CASE LIFE 101

 

[mac1911]

I forget how many times this brass had been fired - probably 3x - but this happened in my 1903A3. Both times I was shooting offhand - made for a nice scare. Ended up culling out all of the HXP 63 brass I had.

cut that case in half the one on the left almost looks thin right at the crack? I have only had a few case heads separate. Was LC brass i forget the year but the web on those cases was "thin" compared to some other LC i cross sectioned and inspected. NOTE: The LC brass i had issues with was not once fired by me. I lost all those photos on my last PC crash.

 

[majspud]

Never had a failure with HXP, but have had three failures with M49 Yugo surplus - two '53 and one '56 I think. All split up from the base, about 3-5mm.

t

 

[jpm]

any pics of the damaged Garand?

 

[Sweeney]

I believe some Kynoch has a reputation for failures. I think it was primarily manufactured as 30 BMG ammo.

 

[mac1911]

I believe some Kynoch has a reputation for failures. I think it was primarily manufactured as 30 BMG ammo.

OK not knowing when the rifle was built? Why would they build a match rifle then shoot some old British ammo through it?

 

[Sweeney]

OK not knowing when the rifle was built? Why would they build a match rifle then shoot some old British ammo through it?

Sloppy machine gun ammo at that. I don't get it.

 

[Mountain]

Out of battery slam fire? Seen a few separated cases with no damage to the M1.

 

[jpm]

this comment makes me go huh? "I gaged all the fired cases and all cases indicated correct headspace on the rifle."

That's not the way a gunsmith checks headspace on a rifle. I think you may be able to say the spent cases don't seem to indicate any obvious headspace issues, but I don't know how you can determine the rifle has the correct headspace by looking at a spent case. To me this looks like it could be a case of excessive headspace coupled with a ruptured case head which caused a catastrophic event.

 

[Fixxah]

Did you read the thread he referenced about case life? He seems qualified to me.

 

[mac1911]

this comment makes me go huh? "I gaged all the fired cases and all cases indicated correct headspace on the rifle."

That's not the way a gunsmith checks headspace on a rifle. I think you may be able to say the spent cases don't seem to indicate any obvious headspace issues, but I don't know how you can determine the rifle has the correct headspace by looking at a spent case. To me this looks like it could be a case of excessive headspace coupled with a ruptured case head which caused a catastrophic event.

You can get a good indication of chamber head space by measuring a fired case,
I will assume not only did he have the spent shells I'm going to guess they had some unfired samples to put a gauge to.
I was told by a armorer that M1 garand headspace issues are from stretch receivers not wear of the chamber. Looking at the brass pictured by OP the brass was fully chambered long enough and the brass was supported well by the chamber walls making the only weak spot that little area around the extractor groove. The 9mm AR folks where/are having some of the same issues and seem to blame thin webs vs poor chambers

 

[dhuze]

this comment makes me go huh? "I gaged all the fired cases and all cases indicated correct headspace on the rifle."

That's not the way a gunsmith checks headspace on a rifle. I think you may be able to say the spent cases don't seem to indicate any obvious headspace issues, but I don't know how you can determine the rifle has the correct headspace by looking at a spent case. To me this looks like it could be a case of excessive headspace coupled with a ruptured case head which caused a catastrophic event.

Does this look like a headspace issue? These are .223/5.56 cases.

 

[mac1911]

Does this look like a headspace issue? These are .223/5.56 cases.

looks like wrong chamber issues
my buddy put 20 rounds of 308 through his 30-06 garand and did not notice until policing his brass and he shot 15 points over his average... everything seems ok?

 

[cockpitbob]

You can get a good indication of chamber head space by measuring a fired case,

True. As my dad used to say, with more than 30,000psi in the chamber, no matter what shape the brass had when it went into the chamber, it's coming out the same shape as the chamber.

 

[jpm]

You can get a good indication of chamber head space by measuring a fired case,

That's what I said, you can get an indication but its not the way you confirm proper headspace (otherwise we wouldn't need headspace gauges). And this is pretty clearly a case head separation so its possible the headspace was out of spec.

 

[mac1911]

That's what I said, you can get an indication but its not the way you confirm proper headspace (otherwise we wouldn't need headspace gauges). And this is pretty clearly a case head separation so its possible the headspace was out of spec.

OP picture is more case head failure vs separation.
Case head separation where the case splits above the case head generally is not very violent and most likely will not blow your rifle into pieces as the case head/web and bolt contain the pressure. Its all good and fun and a reminder of how things can go bad.