Injuries as a result of catastrophic failure?

Status
Not open for further replies.
grampajack

grampajack

AR Junkie
Joined
Mar 31, 2016
Messages
1,714
I've never had a kaboom, nor have I seen one personally (knock on wood), but I've seen many documented. What strikes me as odd is that you see lots of photos of mangled hands that are supposed to be injuries from kabooms, but if you watch videos of kabooms actually happening, then you pretty much always see the person walk away without injuries, making me think people are going out and finding random photos of gory injuries and claiming they're kabooms.

I know that injuries do occur, but what are the odds, and what is the extent of the injuries that do occur?
 
I have wondered about this as well. When I was a kid, we had a band playing at a high-school talent show thing. One of the band members, in an attempt at pyrotechnics, took a 12 gauge shotgun and filled the barrel up with powder. This was 30 plus years ago. I don't know what powder he used but he primed a shotgun shell and, at the climax of their show, he pointed it into the air and pulled the trigger. Needless to say, the barrel pretty much blew up. He had some burns, mostly first degree with some second degree) and had a few small pieces of metal that lodged in the skin on his chest and arms. He walked away from it with everything intact except his pride.

I have also seen the aftermath of a guy who had his s&w 500 kaboom in his hands. He was singed and pissed but otherwise ok. I am sure serious injuries do happen but I have yet to see one personally.
 
I don't think people are finding random pics and attributing them to catastrophic failure. That's just kind of silly. I do believe it depends on the type of failure and what weapon was being fired.

A handgun failure will more often than not result in injuries to a person's hands. A rifle failure can result in injuries to the face and possibly the forward hand. But this is based on a catastrophic failure of a fire arm. You can blow it up but not have a catastrophic failure. Wearing proper shooting glasses will also protect the face during sure event. I have a friend that had a squib in an AR and blew it up. Upper receiver split but did not come totally apart. He is lucky JP makes such good stuff...

But yeah I don't really see people making this stuff up.
 
There is only so much chemical energy available in one of these events. Once the bulk of that energy has gone towards failing the specific piece of equipment expressly design to contain it, there is little left to effectively act upon the nearest human appendage. In explosive events, stand-off distance is your friend, and even an inch or two provided by the stock or grip makes a huge difference in the injury potential.
 
There is a difference between an out of battery ignition, and a case head separation.

The term "ka-boom" is being used to describe both events.
 
Most car accidents don't require hospitalization for any participants.

That doesn't mean car accidents aren't deadly sometimes.
 
I'm going to out on a limb about kabooms. I am going to opine that most of them are due to two factors: handloads that have been carelessly assembled. *or* modifications of the firearm. ( barrel obstructions and out of battery ignition not with standing) Stupid has to figure into the equation...

I witnessed one results of a kaboom. It was during a pistol match, .45 -1911, in 1976. The handloaded round in the chamber, suspected of being a double load, pierced the case head and shot gasses into the case of the next load in the magazine, and ignited that round also. The explosion cracked the walnut grips and bent the magazine. New grips and magazine were installed and the gun was back in action. Injuries to the shooter were minor. Obviously rifle failures will be much more energetic.

To me, shooting other people's guns and handloads are verboten! Trust is an issue, and knowing your friends handloading abilities are important.

Just some personal observations.
 
I had a kaboom with a .357 S&W Model 66 back in the 80s. I was shooting .38 factory loads and one of them was double charged. S&W Nyclad to be exact was what I was shooting. Blew the cylinder wall out to my right. I had a couple of minor scratches on my hand, my cat has done much worse and was glad no one was next to me when it happened.
 
Many years ago I had an M1 carbine blow--we never found the bolt. It blew on a foreign made factory cartridge.
The slide blew about 30' behind me & did not damage the
wood stock? It blew when I pulled the trigger.
No one was hurt---just lucky .
 
Based on what I've seen most of the time there are injuries, but they are minor enough to not need medical care. But sometimes really bad things happen. I don't think anyone is faking these.
 
The root cause of catastrophic gun failures is carelessness --either in gun handling, ammunition preparation (handloading), or gun manufacture. To the extent that gory pictures of the results prompt people to be more careful, they serve a useful purpose. Conversely, dismissing the possibility of physical injury to shooters does not serve a useful purpose.
 
I realize minor injuries are common, but I'm talking about stuff like this...

http://www.wideopenspaces.com/sunda...ails-will-leave-shock-warning-graphic-images/

That same hand is shown in another photo on the internet as the result of a motorcycle accident. Someone is lying, and my money is that it didn't happen due to a kaboom. I've seen other such photos of insanely chewed up appendages that were equally questionable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RPZ
I have seen some pretty ugly human damage but it's a lot more common to have firearms damaged or destroyed.
 
Had a breaching charge go off prematurely when raiding a dope house. Flash burns through my gloves.
527617_409816479083722_1920346524_n.jpg
155261_410467462351957_186188967_n.jpg
Had a weak case on a factory round blow out on me. Thank God it was a Glock, so it flexed and absorbed the energy.
The mag release blew out the side and bits of it lodged in my thumb, but five minutes at the bench and zero dollars in
parts from my parts bin had the gun up and running again.
1017272_554933087905393_1208289144_n.jpg
999715_554933147905387_542829906_n.jpg
Had some goober's Bubba Gump reloads go KABOOM in a 1911 next to me at a match...I caught shrapnel in my leg
155261_410467462351957_186188967_n.jpg
LEG WOUND.png
 
I had a squib (factory ammo, no less) in a 4" 44 mag at the SHOT show. I was smart enough not to try and fire it again, but I'm sure it could have been bad.
 
grampajack said:
I've never had a kaboom, nor have I seen one personally (knock on wood), but I've seen many documented. What strikes me as odd is that you see lots of photos of mangled hands that are supposed to be injuries from kabooms, but if you watch videos of kabooms actually happening, then you pretty much always see the person walk away without injuries, making me think people are going out and finding random photos of gory injuries and claiming they're kabooms.

I know that injuries do occur, but what are the odds, and what is the extent of the injuries that do occur?
Click to expand...

I can not testify to other "kabooms," but was up close and personal to one in which the shooter was injured. This happened around 1980 or 1981. I was a member of the Southwest Pistol League in Southern Calif. We shot IPSC every month, Sunday afternoons. During one course, I was standing directly behind a middle aged man, timing him. He had just got his Colt Govt. Model .45 ACP back from Clark of Louisiana, for a full "remodel" in the popular IPSC style of the time.

He pulled the trigger and "KABOOM!" The Colt came apart in his hand. The explosion blew the walnut grips off and splinters dug into his hands. The slide split with some bits of metal flying off and the frame was cracked. Several of those steel bits hit the shooter in the upper arm and went into his face. Fortunately, per IPSC rules, he was wearing shooting glasses, or he'd have lost an eye. His face was bleeding in several places, his upper arm was bleeding and both his hands were bleeding. All he could say was "I just spent $2,000.00 on this pistol and it's ruined, it's ruined!!"

As I was standing directly behind him, timer in hand, I felt the concussion but was not hit by any pieces of the blown up pistol. After some First Aid from a paramedic who was shooting with us, the consensus of us examining the pistol was that he had double charged the .45 ACP case with a hefty double dose of Bullseye powder. That's a dangerous concoction right there.

That was back before every person out there had a camera so there were no pictures of it, but I saw it happen.

L.W.
 
The article you linked seemed to have a distinct agenda, and not above agrandising.

Did you see the picture of the soldiers hand who used a 50BMG cartridge as a hammer?
 
I think CreakyOldCops pictures are probably par for the course. In MOST cases it'll hurt you but not disfigure or kill you.

Of course there are probably cases out there where there was more severe damage or even death, but I would think it safe to say that it's not a regular occurrence.
 
grampajack said:
I realize minor injuries are common, but I'm talking about stuff like this...

http://www.wideopenspaces.com/sunda...ails-will-leave-shock-warning-graphic-images/

That same hand is shown in another photo on the internet as the result of a motorcycle accident. Someone is lying, and my money is that it didn't happen due to a kaboom. I've seen other such photos of insanely chewed up appendages that were equally questionable.
Click to expand...
In this case you cite I have to agree. I have a friend who's son suffered a severe hand injury when a firework detonated in his hand this last July 4th. It split his hand wide open, worse than in the photo here. It broke bones, but his fingers were outwardly intact; burned some, but the skin not even broken.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

B
  • Locked
Embrace The Truth - Catastrophic Gun Failure
2 3 4 5 6
Replies
141
Views
13K
Robert
Robert
G
  • Locked
Member learns valuable lesson after range accident results in injury
2
Replies
35
Views
2K
jrfoxx
J
P
  • Locked
"Knock-down" effect of being shot?
2 3
Replies
65
Views
4K
JShirley
JShirley
O
  • Locked
Some observations on children and firearm injuries
Replies
18
Views
934
hso
hso
C
  • Locked
another Hi-Point thread
Replies
20
Views
2K
Deltaboy1984
Deltaboy1984
Back
Top