Careful with ammo of unknown history (Kentucky Ballistics .50 incident)

[monkeylizard]

I didn't see this posted elsewhere. You Tuber Kentucky Ballistics was seriously injured when his Serbu .50 exploded with a .50 SLAP round.

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by monkeylizard

[Chucktshoes]

The theory that’s gaining traction about what may have contributed to things is that apparently SLAP rounds are not to be used in firearms with muzzle brakes. (It’s in the relevant training materials and manuals for their use.) The sabot can deposit material causing partial barrel obstruction and resulting in massive pressure spikes. 

Edited May 9, 2021 by Chucktshoes

[Snaveba]

I saw this the other day and almost posted it. He is very lucky he is not dead. Training and a cool head saved his life. 
 

If you go to the Wikipedia page for Saboted Light Armor Penetrator it references the incident. 

Edited May 9, 2021 by Snaveba

[Chucktshoes]

7 minutes ago, Snaveba said:

I saw this the other day and almost posted it. He is very lucky he is not dead. Training and a cool head saved his life. 
 

If you go to the Wikipedia page for Saboted Light Armor Penetrator it references the incident. 

I’d say another major contributor is the fact that Scott is an absolute unit. There is no doubt that his overall health and physical condition helped him survive. 
 

If you need another reason to hit the gym, there’s one right there. Somebody else (like me) in below average physical health/conditioning would not have survived. 

[KahrMan]

I can't believe he lived.  That's an incredible story.

[monkeylizard]

He seems to have a great attitude about it. He's even selling "Just Put A Thumb In It" shirts.

[Erik88]

7 hours ago, Chucktshoes said:

I’d say another major contributor is the fact that Scott is an absolute unit. There is no doubt that his overall health and physical condition helped him survive. 
 

If you need another reason to hit the gym, there’s one right there. Somebody else (like me) in below average physical health/conditioning would not have survived. 

I'm pretty sure his mindset and previous training also contributed to him living through this. But I agree with what you're saying.

[RED333]

Scott's Dad played a HUGE roll in Scott being alive.

[OldIronFan]

The primary factor may be ammo and/or partial muzzle brake obstruction but the gun is just a bad design overall. It is basically a pipe bomb that requires the user to detonate it with their face resting on the frame. This may be the only failure that has occurred with the design and it might be reasonable to blame it entirely on ammo but I am still not shooting one even with known ammo. Closed screw breech designs belong on black powder muzzle loaders not modern high pressure smokeless powder centerfire rifles, especially those with ~150+ grains of powder. 

The unknown history or provenance of surplus ammo is one of the reasons I only run new production, known manufacturer, and known component (projectile type and weight, brass, ect.) in my 50 BMG's. 

 

[Dirtshooter]

I will tell you I cringed at the video of the explosion. The Good Lord was watching out for Scott without a doubt. I hope everyone that watches this is mindful of every round they shoot. I don't think many people would have survived this accident.

[1gewehr]

SLAP stands for 'Saboted Light Armor Piercing'.  The important part is the 'saboted'.  The 'sabot' is is the light plastic piece that holds a smaller diameter bullet.  In the video, Scott says that the rounds immediately prior to the explosion were off-target.  This tells me that it is possible that pieces of the previous sabots were getting caught in the muzzle brake, and causing a partial obstruction.  It may be that the obstruction built up to the point where the final round slowed at the muzzle long enough for the pressure to exceed the strength of the breech.  As this ammunition has a muzzle velocity over 3900 FPS, it would not take long for the pressure to build.

Back when Remington sold sabot loaded hunting ammunition, they had warnings on the box to not use it in a rifle that had any kind of muzzle brake or flash-hider.  After a few incidents of rifle being damaged by split barrels from folks who didn't pay attention to the warning, Remington dropped that line of ammo.

[Prod951]

The firearm he was using has no vent port basically turn it into a pipe bomb.

[Danger Rane]

It was very common “back in the day” to delink belts of .50 ammo to shoot out of the Barret M107. The one exception to this was the slap rounds, for this exact reason. The M2 with its crowned barrel had no issues with them of course, but the M107 with its muzzle brake had known issues, and it’s the only round that I know of that was prohibited for use in the Barret. I recall there was even a picture up for awhile in our arms room of a left handed shooter that had been injured to the right side of his face from a catastrophic failure that had occurred after shooting a few slap through his Barret. There were also instances of spotters being injured by the shed petals deflecting back at them. Possibly another contributing factor at play in this instance would be the higher pressures that the SLAP rounds needed to achieve the velocities required for effective armor penetration. I don’t recall exactly but I recall there was a substantial muzzle velocity difference between the SLAP rounds and the standard FMJ round used in the Barret, something to the tune of 1,200fps difference.

Thankfully the guy in the video lived to tell the tale, and if nothing else it will hopefully spread the word and prevent others from this same dangerous mistake. It’s wild how we can get in our own bubble sometimes and think these things are just common knowledge/sense to everyone.