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50 Bmg Blow up....

I think I will retire my name now.
That is some serious overpressure. I saw on another forum showing a comparison of his slap round and compared to some military rounds, and it's definitely different. It looks like he fired a counterfeit round.
Serbu's design needs to be tweaked to hold that cap better, more threads, more metal behind that cap. No reason to cut those rabbit ears, it could extend all the way to the buffer tube, and full height.
Now I need safety goggles that can work with prescription glasses.
 
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I think I will retire my name now.
That is some serious overpressure. I saw on another forum showing a comparison of his slap round and compared to some military rounds, and it's definitely different. It looks like he fired a counterfeit round.
Serbu's design needs to be tweaked to hold that cap better, more threads, more metal behind that cap. No reason to cut those rabbit ears, it could extend all the way to the buffer tube, and full height.
Now I need safety googles that can work with prescription glasses.
Or just buy a real 50, that can handle real pressure and doesn’t look like it was assembled from used drain pipes....
 
Like a Barrett. Those things are over built and you pay for it with the weight.
Weight sucks....but when you detonate 230 grains of powder and expect the 750 piece of lead to leave the barrel and it DOES its well worth it 🤪

My AR50A1 weighs 38 lbs. She’s a tank
 
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After buying my Barret M107A1, I talked to the Barrett rep in a trade show round table with other owners.
He emphasized to never use sabot rounds as they could lodge in the muzzle brake.
1 guy asked what about if you take the brake off.
Without missing a beat he said you need to do 2 things first: Hire a professional camera crew and line up a good orthopedic surgeon.
Then in all seriousness, he then said taking the brake off screws up the timing and is not advised.
 
You guys really shouldn't blame the rifle because it was the round that did it and it would have done that to ANY .50 cal. It's a sabotage round and did exactly what it was meant to do. That's the danger of messing with old military ammo from unknown origins.
 
Serbu barrel threads very close to M2 bmg barrel . Assume that damage could have happen in any 50bmg platform but injuries would have been much less in other designs
 
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Now I need safety goggles that can work with prescription glasses.
You can get prescription safety glasses (my dad uses them)
Worth finding an optician who will tweak your prescription for the intended use (dad was in their with a handgun to get the focus right so he could actually see the sights.)
 
Whils the smaller shrapnel was moving faster ultimately did more damage,
the entire lower receiver also goes flying at his head :(
... near miss
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So, SLAP-T and SLAP is still manufactured if I am correct. The problem with it is that you need to ream some of the chamber as the sabot on the SLAP round sits a little deeper. Not doing this will force the sabot into the chamber and you will see elevated pressures. I have chambered a SLAP-T round for schnitts and giggles into my .50 BMG (but never fired one through my rifle). It took a rubber mallet to close the bolt and the same mallet to open it (slightly the sadist), not all seat that tightly but it is a known thing. I wonder how he got the breach plug to close correctly with that SLAP round? I doubt he did, even though he said he did.

There was a number of .50 AR uppers that were made by various manufacturers, ferret etc.

I think about how bad it would be to have a bullpup design fail next to your face (but I still want a DT HTI). With that the Serbu's other .50 the BFG-50 seemed to be a solid design that has been around since about 2001.
The SLAP is also never to be fired on a gun with a brake...

A lot of fail in that video.

Sirhr
 
Grabbed this screenshot off gunbroker and it looks like they were designed with more than that. Maybe barrel is gradually loosening in its action/ sleeve?



comments above are spot on on the engineering of this thing. I had never looked at one until this thread. Not in any detail or even reall thought about one. The ar lower thing never seemed like a good idea.

Then adding a SLAP round? Dafaq?

But this thing should be recalled and ground up. Wtf. To paraphrase TheGerman: being poor with a .50 will get you blowed up.

Damn...

Sirhr
D8B6D7BA-8E82-4A53-ACF1-78113A3C4746.png
 
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In looking at both threaded portions (blowed up and gunbroker) looks like both have about 6 threads, but in the light hard to tell. Why looks like 4 I think is 5 or 6.

still not enough.

Then you have to take into account the major and minor diameters of the male and female. Were they a perfect lap fit? That will make them incredibly strong.

Were they loosey goosey and they were relying on shoulder contact to be tight? No strength there. did repeated firing stretch the cap? Barrel chamber area expands a tiny bit on firing... and that can, over time, potentially expand the cap beyond its elastic limit enough that it can loosen up.

In the Blowed up picture, the threads do not look healthy. They look worn and rounded. Just from firing that one round? Or was this thing high-mileage and the threads were tired.

Then (again) a SLAP round in a weak, tired, under-designed .50? That it has not happened before is remarkable.

Sirhr
 
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Grabbed this screenshot off gunbroker and it looks like they were designed with more than that. Maybe barrel is gradually loosening in its action/ sleeve?



comments above are spot on on the engineering of this thing. I had never looked at one until this thread. Not in any detail or even reall thought about one. The ar lower thing never seemed like a good idea.

Then adding a SLAP round? Dafaq?

But this thing should be recalled and ground up. Wtf. To paraphrase TheGerman: being poor with a .50 will get you blowed up.

Damn...

SirhrView attachment 7615260

Hi,

The simple fact that they actually have to list "Not Barrett" in that Serbu ad pretty much tells me everything I need to know about the customer base, lololol

Sincerely,
Theis
 
I know when we look at this the slap round needs the majority of the blame....however you have to KNOW that when your selling cheap 50’s that the people buying them will be running surplus whatever they can come across. I know these are expensive rounds but someone could easily load pistol powder into a common 50 cal brass/bullet combo and have similar results.

The design should be equipped to handle the failure by directing the shrapnel away from the shooter as much as possible. This one clearly isn’t designed to do that

He’s not the first person to fire these rounds out of a bolt 50. But thankfully he was shooting a video during the incident. Not only did it keep him alive having his dad there but without the video and extra person it would just be a dead guy laying next to a blown up 50 with a whole pile of questions to what contributed to the failure. He likely saved someone from doing this in the future
 
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First thing you learn in tool and die is to have the strongest possible engagement possible you need one and a half times the OD of the threads. Let's say the Outside Diameter is one inch, the cap should screw on one and a half inches.. I'm also curious about how hard the receiver is? It looks as if the cap threads onto the barrel? End of the day, he was shooting retard rounds through a poorly designed rifle. I'm curious about how my EDM Windrunner would do? I saw video of a Windrunner punching through a squib round. That's why I bought mine!
 
First thing you learn in tool and die is to have the strongest possible engagement possible you need one and a half times the OD of the threads. Let's say the Outside Diameter is one inch, the cap should screw on one and a half inches.. I'm also curious about how hard the receiver is? It looks as if the cap threads onto the barrel? End of the day, he was shooting retard rounds through a poorly designed rifle. I'm curious about how my EDM Windrunner would do? I saw video of a Windrunner punching through a squib round. That's why I bought mine!

Hi,

Let me reiterate for a brief moment...
Do NOT shoot SLAP rounds from your Windrunner either unless you have a chamber for them.
We use to shoot SLAP rounds from them all the time but we had specific SLAP barrels made for them.
Shooting SLAP from normal chamber is equivalent to shooting a 338NM in your 300NM barrel.

Sincerely,
Theis
 
It’s actually surprising to me that it took this long to hear of one of these things kaboom. I remember wanting one a long time ago just because I wanted a 50 before learning many you get what you pay for lessons and seeing how the cap goes on and thinking “that doesn’t look solid”.

Junk IMO.
 
I love those pics of dude in the hospital.

That neck wound was pretty impressive. I think reading the op note to see what all was buggered up would be quite interesting.
Some poor choices, but his immediate response and his dad jamming his finger in there for sure a part of dude living....

PRO TIP: DO NOT put a tourniquet on a neck wound unless an injured Antifa protester......
 
I have a Barrett 50 and never knew the dangers of that ammo. This thread has taught me a valuable lesson. Ive never shot that type of ammo, and thanks to this video and feedback from you guys, I never will attempt to seek out this type of ammo.
 
Hi,

The simple fact that they actually have to list "Not Barrett" in that Serbu ad pretty much tells me everything I need to know about the customer base, lololol

Sincerely,
Theis
Yes... Though that phrasing is a GB workaround that has the Serbu show up on searches for Barrett. So the seller is simply trying to bait in potential Barret owners with a cheap date. eBay banned that practice. But GB still allows it.

I actually have what was called a 'cheap' .50 and got a bad reputation after Internet folks claimed they blew up. It's called a Vulcan and was the 'cheapest' .50 on the market after the LAR Grizzly in the late 1990's. It's built like a brick outhouse but got a (I think undeserved) bad reputation in Internet forums where everyone said "they all blow up" but when you really look into it... noone really knows of one blowing up. They just heard from a friend... who heard it from a friend who heard from some guy at the range... blah blah blah. Its a 'removable bolt' but built like a brick shithouse. Accurate... yes! Very. But I like my Barrett M82 better. Though it's not as accurate.

And then there is the M2... which is a hoot. But can fire off a whole week's paycheck faster than you can say "That was fun" or "Take that, Jerry." (Not you AJ).

I also would never put a SLAP round in my Vulcan. Not on your life. Those things are playing with fire! I have one on my curios shelf. Not for firing... for looking at.

I had a friend with an LAR Grizzly as well. I shot it a few times. Also built like a brick outhouse... but I didn't like the form factor.

So I think there is some 'snob' value in .50's. Which is that Barrett rules and everything else is garbage. But most of that comes from people who never shot, much less owned a .50. There are some good ones in 'more affordable' price ranges.

That said, one look at the Serbu design (which I never looked at closely until this thread) and one can only say "WTF" are some people thinking?

Cheers,

Sirhr
 
You guys really shouldn't blame the rifle because it was the round that did it and it would have done that to ANY .50 cal. It's a sabotage round and did exactly what it was meant to do. That's the danger of messing with old military ammo from unknown origins.
This did have a kind of project eldest son apperance. Loading random rounds with HE to turn guns into grenades.
 
Yes... Though that phrasing is a GB workaround that has the Serbu show up on searches for Barrett. So the seller is simply trying to bait in potential Barret owners with a cheap date. eBay banned that practice. But GB still allows it.

I actually have what was called a 'cheap' .50 and got a bad reputation after Internet folks claimed they blew up. It's called a Vulcan and was the 'cheapest' .50 on the market after the LAR Grizzly in the late 1990's. It's built like a brick outhouse but got a (I think undeserved) bad reputation in Internet forums where everyone said "they all blow up" but when you really look into it... noone really knows of one blowing up. They just heard from a friend... who heard it from a friend who heard from some guy at the range... blah blah blah. Its a 'removable bolt' but built like a brick shithouse. Accurate... yes! Very. But I like my Barrett M82 better. Though it's not as accurate.

And then there is the M2... which is a hoot. But can fire off a whole week's paycheck faster than you can say "That was fun" or "Take that, Jerry." (Not you AJ).

I also would never put a SLAP round in my Vulcan. Not on your life. Those things are playing with fire! I have one on my curios shelf. Not for firing... for looking at.

I had a friend with an LAR Grizzly as well. I shot it a few times. Also built like a brick outhouse... but I didn't like the form factor.

So I think there is some 'snob' value in .50's. Which is that Barrett rules and everything else is garbage. But most of that comes from people who never shot, much less owned a .50. There are some good ones in 'more affordable' price ranges.

That said, one look at the Serbu design (which I never looked at closely until this thread) and one can only say "WTF" are some people thinking?

Cheers,

Sirhr
The slap rounds not for shooting, just for looking thru...
 
I have a Barrett 50 and never knew the dangers of that ammo. This thread has taught me a valuable lesson. Ive never shot that type of ammo, and thanks to this video and feedback from you guys, I never will attempt to seek out this type of ammo.
.50 Ammo collecting is kind of a neat past-time. There is a lot of cool stuff designed for the .50.

But much of it is a big no-no when it comes to firing from guns not specifically designed for them. An M2HB will handle about anything. Though there are some cartridges made for aircraft... or Gatling Guns... Or other 'stuff' that is a no-no. For example, 'special' rounds were developed (or handloaded by SF guys) during the VN war that were full of Bullseye pistol powder. Those were left in ammo cache's or left where they would get picked up and used by the enemy. Result... you destroyed a weapon... injured a VC... and now 'all' the ammo in a certain AO was suspect. "If I pull my trigger, will I kill that GI... or blow my face off." That is psychological warfare at its best. Bet some of those came home in footlockers? Like I said... be aware of what you have.

All firearms are a system. And ammo is a key part of it. Just like not putting a .38 Super in your 1902 Colt .38 ACP... that gets expensive and painful when it blows your pistol apart. Yet the rounds are physically identical.

Know what you are doing before just putting a cartridge in a gun! Most here do. But there is arcane stuff that one needs to be aware of.

Cheers,

Sirhr
 
I have a Barrett 50 and never knew the dangers of that ammo. This thread has taught me a valuable lesson. Ive never shot that type of ammo, and thanks to this video and feedback from you guys, I never will attempt to seek out this type of ammo.

Hi,

@madppcs

Here is quick reference in regards to SLAP chambers. Yes I know it is not a perfect line but best I could do with scroll pad, lol
And we not even refencing any of the "match" grade ammunition chambers

Sincerely,
Theis
Inked50calCollection-651x368_LI.jpg
 
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The Barrett M82A1 manual we (USMC Snipers) used in the 90s and 2000s very explicitly told us to never, absolutely never, fire a SLAP round from them. We had to memorize those warnings and be able to recite them verbatim for Urban Sniper, I very much remember it. There was an old sea story of a team that tried it on the range in the First Gulf War and was seriously injured from the sabot being blasted back at them. We used plenty of API in the 82s, had lots of MK211 of course, but it was a cardinal sin to even suggest using SLAP in a Barrett.

SLAP is for M2 machine guns, period. We had it on our vehicles when I was running a CAAT section when we invaded Afghanistan in '01. It's awesome shit up close, in a fucking machine gun, and we stitched the shit out of BMP-1 and BTR-60 armor with it that was old abandoned Soviet shit just waiting for us to use as a target. It does give one hell of a broad beaten zone and will make the gunner think they aren't controlling the gun the way they should be, but really it's just inaccurate as shit and worthless beyond a few hundred meters against anything more than a thin skin target or suppressive fire. After running it some, the only stuff I let my gunners have on the tray on patrol was API.
 
I love those pics of dude in the hospital.

That neck wound was pretty impressive. I think reading the op note to see what all was buggered up would be quite interesting.
Some poor choices, but his immediate response and his dad jamming his finger in there for sure a part of dude living....

PRO TIP: DO NOT put a tourniquet on a neck wound unless an injured Antifa protester......
This is the exact reason I carry some kind of IFAK/ aid bag in car.

Chest seals
Hemostatic gauze
Tourniquets
Pressure bandages

Never know when you will need it.

Doc
 
#1 Barrett really hit a home run with this add campaign without spending a dollar...

#2 Now you know exactly what rifle and round to give your shitty neighbor at the range next time... Hey buddy got plans for the weekend? Wanna go shoot my new Serbu with some slap rounds?
 
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I believe the shooter stated that he used a heavy barrel with a machine gun chamber was sent to him specifically for shooting the SLAP round.
 
I believe the shooter stated that he used a heavy barrel with a machine gun chamber was sent to him specifically for shooting the SLAP round.

Hi,

Where was that mentioned? I am half deaf so I might have missed it but I heard nothing of that in the explanation video.
So he saying he special ordered such barrel from Serbu specifically for the SLAP rounds and Serbu sent it to him with the muzzle brake on it?

Sincerely,
Theis
 
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Hi,

Let me reiterate for a brief moment...
Do NOT shoot SLAP rounds from your Windrunner either unless you have a chamber for them.
We use to shoot SLAP rounds from them all the time but we had specific SLAP barrels made for them.
Shooting SLAP from normal chamber is equivalent to shooting a 338NM in your 300NM barrel.

Sincerely,
Theis
I should have said, I wonder how a gun like my windrunner would have handled the exact same round. I cannot think of another gun on the market that has a similar design. Both my windrunner and 1919 have barrels that thread on, but it's on the other side of the receiver and a pipe bomb cap isn't used.
 
Hi,

Not really, lolol.....unless you are wanting one of those media endorsed/approved bolt action semi auto M82s.
Anyone that has spent time with one knows what I am talking about, hahahaha

Sincerely,
Theis
Hahaha true, maybe I should have said #1 Every other 50BMG Manufacturer besides Serbu really hit a home run with this add campaign without spending a dollar... Im scared to click on a picture of a Serbu on my computer right now I'm afraid Ill wake up in a helicopter on the way to the hospital.
 
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Hi,

I stopped wasting my time listening when he said he spoke with Mark and they estimated right over 80k cartridge pressures to rip the screw on breech plug....................

That makes me assume a few different things:

1. Serbu does not test each build with certified proof rounds.
2. Serbu does not have dynamic FEA on the design that shows exactly what the pressure would have had to be for the failures.
3. Why does that breech plug rely solely on threads and not any lugs??
4. Unless that is some cheap alloy the pressures were significantly higher than that...the 277 Sig Fury OPERATES at 80k, lolol


Sincerely,
Theis
Honestly many manufacturers do not poof fire their guns , while it's mandatory in EU to have CIP proof on every barrel,i always kinda wondered what kind of spaghetti of a firearm actually cracks upon the typical CIP proof load. As pressures are not that high.

Threads can and do work just as well as lugs but still need to dimensioned properly and made from the right materials.

Looking at Serbu designs and shop my money is on mix of bad materials and/or treatment and dumb fucks can always load up shit that is way overpressure or load mentioned SLAP rounds. Serbu firearms look like those from clandestine workshops in warzones not something some one would manufacture and sell in US.
 
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Hi,

Where was that mentioned? I am half deaf so I might have missed it but I heard nothing of that in the explanation video.
So he saying he special ordered such barrel from Serbu specifically for the SLAP rounds and Serbu sent it to him with the muzzle brake on it?

Sincerely,
Theis

I thought it was in the BLOW UP video but it is not, it was in another video.
Go to around 5:20 in the video below.


 
That gun that blew up reminds me of old gang zip guns.

when you’re a Jet you’re a Jet. LOL
 
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After seeing the shape he ended up in after that went up in his face, I think I could stop complaing about my finger.
I really hope he does not get an infection anywhere that’s where things got really bad really fast. It goes from hey I’m on the recovery to damn no good news and this is going to take a long time of anabiotic‘s IV
 

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