Xavier Thoughts: Buckmark Kaboom

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Buckmark Kaboom

Ammunition was Winchester Xpert .22 Lot# BK91M.

More information and head scratching here.

Labels: KaBooms

13 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Holy Crap! Might be that someone at Winchester loaded up the cartridge with too much powder?; 11:45 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm astonished by the level of ignorance indicated by some of the speculative posts in that thread.

Looks to me like an obviously overloaded cartridge.; 5:45 AM
Hyunchback said...: Great Gravy!

I would not have expected this.

Thanks for alerting us!; 9:34 AM
the pawnbroker said...: yikes...closest i've seen to this type of damage was soon after the little mim walther (by s&w)...customer bought the gun on a friday and on monday brought it in looking nearly identical to that buckmark.

turned out to be a fte with another round fed but not chambered that somehow went bang. no harm to him, walther replaced the gun no questions asked, but i never felt good about selling one after that, even though i never heard of a similar occurrence.

jtc; 11:09 AM
Crucis said...: I have several thousand rounds from all manufacturers through my Buckmark without any issue other than an occasion mis-fire you'll get with any rim-fire.

Something is not right here. The powder contained in a .22 isn't powerful enough to do that amount of damage. I, for one, just don't believe it. There isn't enough space in a .22lr case to do that kind of damage.

There must be something we're not told..; 11:13 AM
Rorschach said...: I went shooting yesterday myself with my new Ruger Mk II G-T bull barrel (well, new to me anyway.) and was shooting standard Winchester white box ball ammo and had at least four or five rounds that failed to fire even though the rim was clearly well crimped from the firing pin. (I still have them) In every case the shell refused to extract as if the case had swollen in the chamber and had to be pried out with a screwdriver through the ejector slot. Luckily in every one of my misfires, the bullet did not leave the case. I'm curious if this buckmark might be a case of a shell with an insufficient charge (or no charge and only primer pressure to work with) causing a stuck bullet in the barrel. The next round would then find a blocked barrel causing a sustained pressure overload.; 11:39 AM
Rabbit said...: Geez. I've decided when I get home I'm going to do a detailed disassembly and give mine a very thorough cleaning and inspection, but I'm going to speculate that there was a squib load immediately ahead of this round with the bullet still lodged in the barrel.

I've got a Weigand mount on my Buck Mark with a holosight on it, but I don't believe that it would prevent the top from bulging like the photos show the rear sight would. Rather, those fine screw threads would likely pull out under the pressure.

A detailed evaluation of the bore would sure be interesting to see.

Regards,
Rabbit.; 11:54 AM
Anonymous said...: hat? There are exactly TWO comments before caveman's and he's 'astonished' then proceeds to speculate himself?; 2:20 PM
GunGeek said...: Well, Winchester did recently issue a recall for several lots of Xpert ammo for (as I recall) having significantly more than the normal amount of powder, but not that lot number. Unless, of course, I've missed a recall and that one got added to the list or something.

I checked all mine right away and luckily I didn't have any of the potentially damaging rounds.

It's such a small cartridge with what seems like plenty of metal around it that it just seems odd to see a little bitty 22 do so much damage to a gun.; 2:29 PM
Murphy's Law said...: As the late, great Artie Johnson used to say: "Veerrrrry interesting....and puzzling."; 5:11 PM
Old NFO said...: Very strange- I'm wondering if we have all the story...; 8:41 PM
Ed said...: So - in the manufacturing of the loads the ammunition maker underloads one shell and then another shell gets a double load of powder then when the unlucky shooter happens to be unlucky enough to load a underloaded shell after a double loaded shell and then fires the weapon the underloaded shells bullet lodges in the barrel then (bad day) a double loaded shell is fired and the pressure release is not good all the way around. ( would the squib load eject properly?) I wonder if the screwed up manufacturing day happened to be a friday - everyone was in a hurry to get to the weekend or a machine malfunction. I wonder which manufacturer has the best track record and the best (most accurate) manufacturing - inspection process - can they add a weighing function test to the line??? I would find that info worth knowing. I like the Buckmark Field version with the metal rib all the way along the top of the pistol (I think I like it even more now) I wouldn't think that would bend - but with screws loose maybe move.; 9:15 PM
Anonymous said...: I find it hard to believe that there was a double charge of powder in a .22 case. It has been some years since I've done it, but as I remember back when I was young and stupid and pulling bullets from .22 cases just to see how they were made, I don't remember enough case volume to double charge one. I would be more inclined to believe sabotage by a powder switch than an accidental double charge. There are nuts out there folks.; 7:02 AM