Bad day at my range

Button Pusher said:
How about marking the primers in the tray with a Sharpie, Red for 300 BO before reloading?
Would be easy to see when loading magazines.

Metal magazine or plastic on your rifle?
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Was a metal aluminum GI mag. I use FDE colored pmags for the .300. None of those were present nor was a gun chambered in anything other than 5.56x45.

This wasnt a reload so wouldn't have been marked. My reloads are marked with red sharpie. The FDE mags even have little "wristbands" I bought that spell out 300AAC blackout

So I attempted to recreate the clambering with a dummy .300blk round I had. Took 2 chamberings to knock the bullet back .170 into the case where a 147gr FMJ would chamber. So not only was it a larger than diameter round it was also a severely compressed one. Bad deal.
 
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Oops! Like everyone else, I'm glad you and your son are all right! That could have gone so much worse and I'm so thankful it didn't.

I hope you keep the bullet as a souvenir! It definitely sucks that the upper assembly is junked, but that super-stretched bullet will be one hell of a conversation piece! Definitely an interesting reminder to always check your gear before use.
 
Did anybody shoot your gun at Billy"s? If so, they might have loaded the magazine?
 
Charlie said:
This is one of the main reasons I have not considered getting a firearm chambered in 300Blk. I would have thought that the designer of that round would have made it so that it would not chamber in a 223 chamber to avoid such situations. Would it not be possible to have done something like reducing the taper just a bit so it would not fit. It seems like a design flaw to me.

I have accidently shot a 308 in a 30/06 chamber, a 20 gauge in a 16 gauge chamber, a 44 Magnum in a 45 Colt chamber, and a 9mm Luger in a 40 S&W chamber. None were catastrophic. I have heard that an 8mm Mauser round can be fired in a 30/06 chamber without too much excitement. Shooting a 30 caliber bullet through a 22 caliber barrel, however, is vastly different.

I know there are several other rounds that can be made to work in a 223-size AR. Can those rounds also be chambered in a 223 chamber? If not, what keeps them from chambering in a 223 chamber? I have never tried but am pretty sure that ammo for my 450 Bushmaster will not chamber in a 223 chamber.

I am certainly glad that nobody was injured.
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Few people know the original designer was JD Jones and it was called the .300 Whisper. Over the years, it was "copied" and called other names, including .300 Fireball. I had one of those barrels. It was designed as a suppressed sentry removal tool for elite forces and to extend the range of the existing suppressed 9mm in use. It was built on a .221 Fireball case and spec'd a 220gr bullet.
 
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georgel said:
Few people know the original designer was JD Jones and it was called the .300 Whisper. Over the years, it was "copied" and called other names, including .300 Fireball. I had one of those barrels. It was designed as a suppressed sentry removal tool for elite forces and spec'd a 220gr bullet to extend the range of the existing suppressed 9mm in use.
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My 16” is a Whisper barreled upper.
 
You guys are all taking the wrong lesson from this, I’m hearing that if you try to shoot 300blk through a 5.56 barrel that you lose the gun but get to out with your friends that night. I might have to try this on Saturday, otherwise my evening will involve packing up Christmas stuff. <jk>
 
KnotRight said:
Did anybody shoot your gun at Billy"s? If so, they might have loaded the magazine?
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Just the wife and @Bahamadon I believe. I only brought 20rds as I was anticipating buying some. This wasnt one of those 20.

I still love the round. and the platform. Just like a 12ga and a 20 ga you have to keep them apart if you own both.

My son says he is never holding the magwell on an AR again [emoji38]
 
Woof. Scary stuff. I'm sticking to 20rd Lancers for .300BLK & 30rd GIs for 5.56. I prefer 20rd mags for myself, so I'ma hafta run down some 20rd GIs to keep from having a brainfart.
 
Just went through 8 300-BO loaded magazine to check them. Most of the time I reload what I shot so the magazine are never empty
 
Wow, glad to hear your son is OK and the only losses are your upper and you owing the wife for almost blowing her sons hand off ;).

Ironic that we were just discussing the topic of mixing up and positively identifying 300BLK here a couple weeks ago.
 
Wow.... the thought of what “could have “ happened is too gruesome to contemplate. Guns are just ‘things’..that can be replaced So glad the Good Lord was watching over that boy. This also reinforces the need for ready access to TQ/ and Trauma kit.
 
Perhaps that .300 round was on the table and got picked up?
 
All my .223 mags are blk and all my 300BO mags are green to match the green furniture on the gun. I knew if I didn't do it that way I would have an incident like this. Glad everyone is OK.
 
teamglock2002 said:
All my .223 mags are blk and all my 300BO mags are green to match the green furniture on the gun. I knew if I didn't do it that way I would have an incident like this. Glad everyone is OK.
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Same. I didn't have an FDE gun until I built a .300blk pistol. So I got FDE mags to match along with some of these.
https://www.amazon.com/Sighthound-Ballistics-Blackout-Magazine-Marking/dp/B07BLTKJ88

Shat happens. If this is the one and only time we blow up a gun I will be thankful. BTW I am investing in one of those speedloaders from RRS. They're small and seem sturdy unlike the wooden ones I have seen out there.
Plus it gives an easy visual way to homogenize the loadout in a mag
20170118_160941_1024x1024@2x.jpg
 
WOW ! As i told you at Billy's , I'm unfamiliar with 300 BO. Didn't realize that could happen. Very happy no one was injured. Your son must be a real trooper to be so unfazed. Sorry about your rifle but, looking at big picture , small price to pay for the reminder of caution. Ours is an exhilarating sport with little room for error.
 
Bahamadon said:
WOW ! As i told you at Billy's , I'm unfamiliar with 300 BO. Didn't realize that could happen. Very happy no one was injured. Your son must be a real trooper to be so unfazed. Sorry about your rifle but, looking at big picture , small price to pay for the reminder of caution. Ours is an exhilarating sport with little room for error.
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Normally a .300blk won't fully chamber unless it's been setback by repeated chambering. We think that was the case here, where my nephew's rifle FTF this round and he manually ejected into a brass catcher. When emptying the brass catcher the round was subsequently put back into an empty mag and rounds got stacked on top of it without realizing. 100% user error. Same as putting a 20ga shell into the chamber of a 12 gauge and then loading one behind. Every heard of a 12-20 barrel boom?
They taught us about that in hunter safety.

Also about my son: He's a tough SOB. All he said afterward was he had flashbacks to New Years Eve several years ago when a mortar went off on the ground. We even have it on video.....
 
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Well aware of the 12:20 barreled boom. This was from a friend's shotgun that he wanted me to repair. I had nothing to do with the Boom. The other is a rocket that went off and exploded about eight feet in the air. No one got hurt but good reminders of the potential of the things we love. These items are proudly displayed in my garage along with other reminders of near tragic experiences. Those that cannot remember the past...20200103_112214.jpg 20200103_112315.jpg
 
In my book ,The remnants of that rifle are definitely wall hanging material.
 
Bahamadon said:
In my book ,The remnants of that rifle are definitely wall hanging material.
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I emailed Faxon and heaped praises upon them for the strength of that particular barrel. Hoping they'll want it back for inspection and send me a shiny new one lol. But yeah if not, it will go into the reloading room.
We kept the elongated .224 120gr HPBT I'll probably make my son a necklace with it :D
 
At the range recently with a friend of mine who shot his 300BLK with his brand new Rugged Razor suppressor. Without changing the .22 endcap to .30 cal. Fortunately the .22 endcap aperture is a HAIR over .308 and the can was perfectly aligned with the bore. Not even a copper witness mark.

Using the end cap like a case gauge, the bullet will clear but the neck of the brass hits it. If the alignment had been off just the width of a gnats hair it would’ve hit.

Be safe out there guys
 
11B CIB said:
At the range recently with a friend of mine who shot his 300BLK with his brand new Rugged Razor suppressor. Without changing the .22 endcap to .30 cal. Fortunately the .22 endcap aperture is a HAIR over .308 and the can was perfectly aligned with the bore. Not even a copper witness mark.

Using the end cap like a case gauge, the bullet will clear but the neck of the brass hits it. If the alignment had been off just the width of a gnats hair it would’ve hit.
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Dang. I wasn’t even that lucky with a .30 end cap a couple weeks ago. It was tighter bored than I thought (~.350) and took a minor impact. :(
 
11B CIB said:
At the range recently with a friend of mine who shot his 300BLK with his brand new Rugged Razor suppressor. Without changing the .22 endcap to .30 cal. Fortunately the .22 endcap aperture is a HAIR over .308 and the can was perfectly aligned with the bore. Not even a copper witness mark.

Using the end cap like a case gauge, the bullet will clear but the neck of the brass hits it. If the alignment had been off just the width of a gnats hair it would’ve hit.

Be safe out there guys
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I have simply thrown the .22 end cap in a drawer and don’t even take it with me any longer. The slight decrease in performance is balanced by the “Tim proof” benefits.
 
EGADS! Glad everyone's OK, and sorry for the loss.
So far I've had no mix ups, the 300's only go in Magpul, the rest are GI.
the 223/5.56 is rarely fired, I'm going to pull the firing pin and see if a 300BLK will chamber, if so I'll test a tighter crimp.
 
Holy Cow! Glad everyone is okay.

I am now rethinking taking the 300 rifle to league tomorrow. Was planning to take the .223 pistol and the 300 rifle but, most of the ladies in our group could not easily discern the difference. I have too much invested in those guns to lose one or both of them. Or worse have an injury to one our members.
 
Got this email today:

From: Faxon Firearms <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 6, 2020 1:58 PM
To: somejackass@someaddress
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Thanks for making a strong product


Hi ikarus1,


Thank you for taking the time to contact us! We're glad to hear no one was hurt and those are some pretty amazing pictures! I would certainly hang on to that slug as it is pretty unique. I've never seen one outside of a cross-section. At this point, we won't need the barrel back, but, we'd like to send out a replacement barrel for you as well as some swag, both as a thank you for sharing with us and to help off-set the cost of building up a new rifle (or at least upper half).


If you let me know your preferred shipping address I can get it shipped out right away! Also, what size T-shirt do you and your son wear?


Thanks,

Martin

Customer Service

Faxon Firearms

On Thu, 2 Jan at 3:21 PM , snipped wrote:

Hello,


I wanted to tell you guys that your Gunner profile 18” 5.56 NATO barrel is probably the strongest barrel in it’s class. We inadvertently tested it at well past it’s proof pressure yesterday…..


I built a 5.56 NATO upper about 2 years ago that quickly became my favorite with it’s easy recoil due to rifle gas system and excellent accuracy. I didn’t skimp on the barrel or bolt because that is the heart of an AR.


Yesterday, on New Years Day, my family and I experienced an incident where my 15 year old son was the shooter firing the last magazine that we had at our outdoor backyard range.

He had fired approximately 100rds thru it during this time, but on the last round he experienced a catastrophic failure. The explosion sent gas thru the empty GI steel mag and blew out the floorplate.

The upper bulged, the bolt was locked into battery and the upper actually cracked. Stress fractures all along the top of the receiver where the optic mount was. The dust cover was bowed out and the bolt catch was broken.

When we separated the 2 rifle halves, we noticed that the bottom of the 9310 steel BCG cracked at the bolt gas vents, and it blew out the roll pin at the gas block (also a Faxon product).

However, the actual Faxon .625 lo-pro gas block and nitride tube seemed to be fine.


We knew it had to be a barrel obstruction, so I decided that since the upper was wrecked I had to find the cause ASAP. I probably should have sent it to you guys because I may have been able to salvage more.


Upon further inspection we discovered that a lone .300BLK round had somehow found it’s way into one of my 5.56 magazines, and it had chambered and fired.

Thankfully, there were no injuries to my young son, and I attribute this to the quality and strength inherent in your product as well as a strong Stoner rifle design and the HPT/MPI bolt from Alpha.


This could have been the worst day of my life as a parent, but when I did an inspection (with an angle grinder!) we found the 120 grain HPBT bullet had swaged down perfectly from .308 to .224.

This will probably become a very expensive piece of copper jewelry for me as a reminder. It had made it 4 inches past the chamber throat into the barrel and there was no sign of a BULGE in the barrel.


That is a strong product and it helped keep my son safe and intact. Thank you so much for making a quality product. Thank you many times over and I hope 2020 is a great year for your company.


This was 100% my error but if this helps someone in the future I will be happy to be a testimonial for your company! If you are interested in inspecting the barrel I will be happy to send it your way.


Thanks again,


ikarus1​
 
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The Faxon brothers own Arisaka, B5, C-Products, SLR, and Ergo. Not too bad for a couple of Eagle Scouts :D
They also own Superlative Arms as well and I can heartily recommend their adjustable gas blocks as being one if not THE best one on the market.
 
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Crazy Carl said:
That's class, right there. Reaffirms my decision to buy one of their .300BLK barrels.
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Arm or Ally has the Gunner 9 inch Match 5R barrel for less than $150 and free shipping. I would buy directly from them but it's out of stock on Faxon's website. This barrel has the NiB coating on the extension for smooth bolt locking. Pair that up with a NiB bolt and it's gonna be slicker than bacon grease thru a goose.

https://www.armorally.com/shop/faxon-300-blk-9-gunner-5r-match-series-barrel/
 
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When I shot my 300 blackout I do not and I repeat I do not even take a 223 or 5.55. chambered anything with me..... I don’t trust myself enough, just because of what happened here.
 
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