.22 LR round exploding

[bmt99]

I searched the historical topics and could not find anything on this.

My brother in-law and I were shooting a Ruger 10/22 to test a new shusher and see what it sounded like. First three rounds were fine although the action didn't seem to close quite right at the second fire. On the 4th round it was LOUD and smoked. Horrible ringing in both our heads, blew the magazine out the bottom. No damage to the suppressor and doesn't appear to be any barrel obstruction.

Is it possible the slide/bolt didn't close 100% and still fired?

Ammo problem? The ammo was high velocity winchester 40 grain around 1400 fps if that helps.

I am a little hesitant with the gun now and likely going to have it checked out. The gun is about 6-7 years old but maybe 200-300 rounds is all through it.

Thankfully I am pretty good about always having eye protection. This could have been worse as both of us got hit in the face with something. Normally pretty good about hearing protection but really didn't think it was needed for what we were doing. Wrong...

 

[D4570]

No Idea, but did you know in the upper work it says you should never shoot "High Velocity" ammo in your 10/22

 

[wtrfwlhunter]

I don’t know either.

There has been other threads that mention this, but I’ll reiterate it. I’ve never had problems with any ammo until the last couple years. I think there has definitely been some QC issues and I don’t even go through a ton of ammo like some people. If anything it should reinforce best practices of range safety and from
now on before I load any ammo for hunting or bear defense I’m visually inspecting the rounds before they go in the magazine.

 

[bmt99]

No Idea, but did you know in the upper work it says you should never shoot "High Velocity" ammo in your 10/22

No, I did not know that. Manual says (bolded by me as this is the ammo I am using):
The RUGER® 10/22® CARBINE and 10/22® Rifles are chambered for, and designed to properly function with, only the 22 caliber Long Rifle rimfire cartridge, standard, high velocity, or hyper-velocity, manufactured to U.S. industry standards.

 

[BrentD]

Because your ears are ringing, you know that sound came out of the action and not out of the muzzle there.

More than likely, you ruptured a case. Did you find the spent brass? I have done this twice, and it was painful on my ears both times. The fault was a broken ejector/extractor that allowed the case to be unsupported.

If your bolt was not completely completely locked, the same thing could happen. But it should not fire if the bolt is not fully in battery

 

[bmt99]

Because your ears are ringing, you know that sound came out of the action and not out of the muzzle there.

More than likely, you ruptured a case. Did you find the spent brass? I have done this twice, and it was painful on my ears both times. The fault was a broken ejector/extractor that allowed the case to be unsupported.

If your bolt was not completely completely locked, the same thing could happen. But it should not fire if the bolt is not fully in battery

Unfortunately, shooting in a field. Finding the brass would've been nice. I hadn't even thought about a ruptured case. I will check the gun closer on the ejector/extractor. Thanks.

It definitely came out of the action. First rounds sounded so nice and I was initially excited.

 

[Barret04]

Sounds like a powder overload or wrong powder in the case, but this gotta be an amazing mistake by the manufacturer

 

[COEngineer]

Help me understand, what would the ruptured case show? If the round exploded before it was seated in the barrel, of course it ruptured, right? I thought the same as above - the firing pin should not work if the bolt assembly is not all the way forward, right? Sounds more like a gun problem than an ammo problem.

 

[BrentD]

Help me understand, what would the ruptured case show? If the round exploded before it was seated in the barrel, of course it ruptured, right? I thought the same as above - the firing pin should not work if the bolt assembly is not all the way forward, right? Sounds more like a gun problem than an ammo problem.

"should" being the operative word. The fired case would tell you where it ruptured and that may tell you a lot about the problem.

If it was my gun, I'd tie it to something and fire it a few more times with a string, until it ruptures again. The case may also show some serious bulging, even if it does not rupture. That may be sufficient to locate the problem.

I'm sure it's a gun problem. But which gun problem?

 

[Gravelyctry]

I’ve had cases rupture in a 10/22 with Armscor brand shells. Probably 1 out of every 10, but I stopped after the second one ruptured.

The shells were ruptured just forward of the rim.

 

[BrentD]

I’ve had cases rupture in a 10/22 with Armscor brand shells. Probably 1 out of every 10, but I stopped after the second one ruptured.

The shells were ruptured just forward of the rim.

At the extractor I imagine. I don't know anything about 1022's, but I suspect the shell is poor supported there.

 

[338BearHunter]

I’ve had cases rupture in a 10/22 with Armscor brand shells. Probably 1 out of every 10, but I stopped after the second one ruptured.

The shells were ruptured just forward of the rim.

I've heard nothing but nad things about Armscor ammunition. Its the Kel-Tec of ammunition. Stay away.

 

[338BearHunter]

No, I did not know that. Manual says (bolded by me as this is the ammo I am using):
The RUGER® 10/22® CARBINE and 10/22® Rifles are chambered for, and designed to properly function with, only the 22 caliber Long Rifle rimfire cartridge, standard, high velocity, or hyper-velocity, manufactured to U.S. industry standards.

Ditto on this. I just got a 10/22 last Christmas and they explicitly state the gun runs fine with high velocity ammo.

 

[220yotekiller]

I’ve had cases rupture in a 10/22 with Armscor brand shells. Probably 1 out of every 10, but I stopped after the second one ruptured.

The shells were ruptured just forward of the rim.

when did you have the ruptures... l just bought some and it shot very well out of our bolt guns, don't want to use it if it isn't any good.

 

[Gravelyctry]

It was a few years ago, shooting in a 10/22 with a Kidd barrel.

 

[Salmonchaser]

I got a 10/22 for Christmas back in 1967, I dont shoot it as much as I used to but still get at least 500 rounds a year through it. Been running cci mini mags for decades. I’ve never had a problem. Finally cleaned it about 7 years ago.

 

[44hunter45]

I bought my first 10/22 in "The 200th Year of American Liberty". For you youngun's all Ruger guns made in 1976 had this stamped on the barrel. I have had as many as three in safe at once, now down to just one again. I pull a bore snake through them occasionally, and pull the action every couple of years and spray it with Brake-Kleen until it runs clear. (Do not do this with the plastic trigger group, Brake-Kleen will melt it.) I've never had a 10/22 that didn't feed whatever I put in the mag. I have run literally 10s of thousands of rounds through them. I have seen a few FTEs over the years, but never an out of battery fire.

Cans do increase pressure in blow-back guns. I've heard of extractors being blown off many times. There was a thread a while back on the Walther Forums about threaded PPK/s blowing extractors with cans on.

I have one question. No, two:
- You say the second round didn't "close right", but you didn't stop and check that out?
- Why run supersonic ammo through a can? Anything over 1125 FPS at sea level will give you a sonic boom crack. You really won't know what your can is capable of in terms of "shush".