Primer Blow Out

[JAS-SH]

This is probably not the forum because this happened with factory ammo but other forums on the site don't seem to fit this post either.

After shooting about 350 rounds of the same lot # of 6mm ARC Hornady 108 ELD factory ammo, on the third round of the morning I felt a bit of extra recoil and this happened:

The bolt locked up and lucky for me there was a very nice guy shooting next to me that had all the tools. We put a rod down the barrel and he tapped on it while I hit the bolt hard with my hand and the case finally came out.

The action and bolt had no damage (Defiant Machine), but I didn't know if there was more damage and on top of that we could not find the primer and didn't know if there was.

My friend said "no problem" and produced a bore scope. After a through inspection, other than tiny loose bits of brass in the barrel there was no damage. And then we found the primer. It had gone in the magazine and then fallen to the ground when I removed the magazine to clear the rifle.

One in a million? I sure as hell hope so!

 

[whatsupdoc]

Well let Hornady know could be a fluke but you never know. There was no damage to the bolt face?

Years ago there was a recall on CBC 7.62x51 made in 1975 where a bunch of rifles blew up
I put over 500 rounds of it through a M1A without an issue so you never know playing this game.
You may have just picked the short straw.

 

[alamo5000]

It could be a carbon ring or it could be the ammo. No way to tell from here.

 

[spife7980]

It could be a carbon ring or it could be the ammo. No way to tell from here.

^^
Clean your barrel.
How did it look as far as that goes with the borescope?

 

[JAS-SH]

It could be a carbon ring or it could be the ammo. No way to tell from here.

The barrel was meticulously cleaned before yesterday's shoot and it was obvious with my friends bore scope - no carbon or copper anywhere. I like my barrels clean. I call that a baseline. I clean my firearms after each shoot because I never know when I'm going to use them next.

 

[JAS-SH]

^^
Clean your barrel.
How did it look as far as that goes with the borescope?

It was spotless clean - like brand new. even after the first 3-rounds - I thoroughly clean my firearms after every use. See my post above this one.

 

[spife7980]

Hopefully just a failed piece of brass then.

I would take the firing pin out of the bolt body and make sure primer material didnt find its way in there when the pressure came through. If there is bits of material it can wedge itself between the pin and the bolt body and jam it up from inside. Blast it out with an air compressor or run a paper towel through etc. to be safe and sure.

Inspect the firing pin tip, make sure its smooth and roundy and not jagged and half melted.

Usually those issues come with primer punctures but blowing primers can still make a mess.

 

[Baron23]

This is probably not the forum because this happened with factory ammo but other forums on the site don;t seem to fit this post either.

After shooting about 350 rounds of the same lot # of 6mm ARC Hornady 108 ELD factory ammo, on the third round of the morning I felt a bit of extra recoil and this happened:

View attachment 8017560

The bolt locked up and lucky for me there was a very nice guy shooting next to me that had all the tools. We put a rod down the barrel and he tapped on it while I hit the bolt hard with my hand and the case finally came out.

The action and bolt had no damage (Defiant Machine), but I didn't know if there was more damage and on top of that we could not find the primer and didn't know if there was.

My friend said "no problem" and produced a bore scope. After a through inspection, other than tiny loose bits of brass in the barrel there was no damage. And then we found the primer. It had gone in the magazine and then fallen to the ground when I removed the magazine to clear the rifle.

One in a million? I sure as hell hope so!

Loose tiny bits of brass? From what? I can’t tell from the pic but did it blow your flash hole out??

 

[JAS-SH]

Hopefully just a failed piece of brass then.

I would take the firing pin out of the bolt body and make sure primer material didnt find its way in there when the pressure came through. If there is bits of material it can wedge itself between the pin and the bolt body and jam it up from inside. Blast it out with an air compressor or run a paper towel through etc. to be safe and sure.

Inspect the firing pin tip, make sure its smooth and roundy and not jagged and half melted.

Usually those issues come with primer punctures but blowing primers can still make a mess.

Great info! Thanks. Hadn't thought about that and will do that ASAP. Will have to buy the tool because I don't have one for that action. No big, I've had it on my saved list on Amazon for months...

 

[alamo5000]

The barrel was meticulously cleaned before yesterday's shoot and it was obvious with my friends bore scope - no carbon or copper anywhere. I like my barrels clean. I call that a baseline. I clean my firearms after each shoot because I never know when I'm going to use them next.

You just said you shot 350 rounds. That's more than enough to induce a carbon problem.

 

[JAS-SH]

Loose tiny bits of brass? From what? I can’t tell from the pic but did it blow your flash hole out?

Good point! I just grabbed a loupe and examined the case - looking into the inside of the case at a bright light. The primer flash hole on the case is definitely no longer round it has a straight edge about 1/4 the length or more of the circle's edge.

 

[JAS-SH]

You just said you shot 350 rounds. That's more than enough to induce a carbon problem.

Not the way I clean my guns, but that's a different topic. Suffice to say that I said 350 rounds from the same ammo lot. The rifle has ~500 rounds trough it and I was pleasantly surprised when using my friend's bore scope that it's like new, no carbon ring whatsoever and no fire cracking either.

I don't let carbon sit in there for more than a few hours nor copper for that matter - I clean all my firearms after every single use. My theory is that carbon builds up on carbon and then every time you fire over the build up the intense heat lights it up again and again into a smouldering furnace...

 

[spife7980]

Great info! Thanks. Hadn't thought about that and will do that ASAP. Will have to buy the tool because I don't have one for that action. No big, I've had it on my saved list on Amazon for months...

You just need a tennis shoe. I slide the firing pin under the shoe lace and pull away releasing the tension between the firing pin and bolt body and spin the bolt body out. Might take a few tries to figure it out but after a couple it’ll take you 10 second to have it apart. YouTube has plenty of vids on rem700 firing pin removal via bootlace

 

[Baron23]

You just need a tennis shoe. I slide the firing pin under the shoe lace and pull away releasing the tension between the firing pin and bolt body and spin the bolt body out. Might take a few tries to figure it out but after a couple it’ll take you 10 second to have it apart. YouTube has plenty of vids on rem700 firing pin removal via bootlace

hahaha....or maybe tie it to a door nob? LOL

 

[ACard]

You just need a tennis shoe. I slide the firing pin under the shoe lace and pull away releasing the tension between the firing pin and bolt body and spin the bolt body out. Might take a few tries to figure it out but after a couple it’ll take you 10 second to have it apart. YouTube has plenty of vids on rem700 firing pin removal via bootlace

I keep a loop of paracord in my range bag, you can loop it around damn near anything and use the other end to catch the firing pin to pull and relieve tension to unscrew the bolt assembly.

 

[JAS-SH]

You just need a tennis shoe. I slide the firing pin under the shoe lace and pull away releasing the tension between the firing pin and bolt body and spin the bolt body out. Might take a few tries to figure it out but after a couple it’ll take you 10 second to have it apart. YouTube has plenty of vids on rem700 firing pin removal via bootlace

Another great idea! Woke up early this morning, grabbed some paracord and it worked! Kind of a pain because my action doesn't have a slot to put a washer in it so I had to pull and turn at the same time. I got it done but I'm still getting the Fix-It Sticks tool. Already ordered it from Amazon.

And the firing pin is in perfect shape. Nothing went into the bolt body and everything is great shape there....

Thanks again!

Here's pics:

How I rigged the paracord - took the nylon strands out of it :

The firing pin tip:

Bolt all back together. The outside of the bolt is greased because interestingly, although Defiance Machine's actions are stainless, the bolt are polished steel on the white. Apparently they are stronger than stainless but they can also rust:

 

[918v]

I’m reading this as after the third round in a clean barrel the primer blew. How far from the lands are you? Is this a SAAMI spec chamber? Or some asshole’s idea what a chamber should be? Cuz factory ammo is designed to be shot out of saami spec chambers.

 

[Near miss]

I'd be looking to those 350 previous shot cases to see if there is something off about them.
Decapping them would let you know how loose the primers are.
I do not know what conditions are needed for that kind of reaction..

 

[BJames]

Hornady can have some hot rounds occasionally, not sure if it’s qc problem or what. It did seem isolated to a few series of lot #’s. I’ve seen it more with the precision hunter line than their run of the mill match. That’s only the second time I’ve heard/seen one completely blow the primer out but have had a bunch of pierced primers.

Edited to add; this was across a couple of calibers.

If it were me, I would do the due diligence and have everything checked out dimensionally inside your rifle. Clean the chamber. If all that checks, call hornady, they’ll give you a free box of ammo.

 

[JAS-SH]

I’m reading this as after the third round in a clean barrel the primer blew. How far from the lands are you? Is this a SAAMI spec chamber? Or some asshole’s idea what a chamber should be? Cuz factory ammo is designed to be shot out of saami spec chambers.

Well, if it was an asshole you'd have to ask Defiance Machine who the asshole was 'cause they built my rifle. They are in the top 3 action builders in the USA, probably the world. I had 500+ rounds without a single hitch on the rifle before this happened. Then after cleaning and checking everything out I fired an additional 37 rounds without a single issue.

We only found the primer cup, there was no flange or anything else left on it. We're really down to two issues here. An out of spec primer or a powder overcharge. And unfortunately I will probably never know.

 

[JAS-SH]

I'd be looking to those 350 previous shot cases to see if there is something off about them.
Decapping them would let you know how loose the primers are.
I do not know what conditions are needed for that kind of reaction..

Easy to do because I've saved every single piece of fired brass that has come out of the rifle. That said, after 500+ rounds down the bore, cleaning it after 20 to 60 rounds every time, I had no reason to look at them. This event expanded the case so much it locked the rifle action. Had to tap it open. from both ends using a cleaning rod and also tapping on the bolt handle. The case was basically stuck to the barrel.

It's a testament to the rifle build that so far there is no visible damage, taking the bolt apart and all. Time will tell if this event will affect the tack driver accuracy that the rifle was producing before this happened.

 

[JAS-SH]

Hornady can have some hot rounds occasionally, not sure if it’s qc problem or what. It did seem isolated to a few series of lot #’s. I’ve seen it more with the precision hunter line than their run of the mill match. That’s only the second time I’ve heard/seen one completely blow the primer out but have had a bunch of pierced primers.

Edited to add; this was across a couple of calibers.

If it were me, I would do the due diligence and have everything checked out dimensionally inside your rifle. Clean the chamber. If all that checks, call hornady, they’ll give you a free box of ammo.

All well and good but a $30.00 box of ammo is not something worth the trouble. It's the long $4k+ rifle (with scope) that I'm more concerned about. Shit happens, it's a probability thing in my book. As long as nothing is hurt rifle wise, which is still to be determined but it doesn't seem likely at this time, then there is no reason to ask for any kind of retribution.

A good friend of mine gifted me a nicely carved piece of wood with a saying that until then I didn't think I used that much: IT IS WHAT IT IS.....

 

[918v]

Well, if it was an asshole you'd have to ask Defiance Machine who the asshole was 'cause they built my rifle. They are in the top 3 action builders in the USA, probably the world. I had 500+ rounds without a single hitch on the rifle before this happened. Then after cleaning and checking everything out I fired an additional 37 rounds without a single issue.

We only found the primer cup, there was no flange or anything else left on it. We're really down to two issues here. An out of spec primer or a powder overcharge. And unfortunately I will probably never know.

OK then do you know what chamber they cut? Do you know how close to the rifling the bullet is? How much neck clearance you have? Because everything is pointing to the chamber being too small.

 

[Haney]

You got a junk round from Hornady , your rifle checks out so just shoot the thing . You are getting bad advice from folks that just can't help but show their lack of knowledge .

 

[Near miss]

Just from my own experience,

I shot multiple rounds with a bulk load that was getting pierced primers and only noticed it when once collecting brass and my eyes caught it. I did not reload back then. I actually learned from those what a pierced primer is..

By that time I had already shot hundreds and calculating from that day around 1 to 2% had it pierced. Not like badly pierced, but aint good either. Had them refunded ofc.

The FP lost some of the tip but is still rocking. Bought a spare one though, just in case..