I was doing some cleaning today and I opened all my plastic Glock boxes and took a look inside…
Those of you (in most states) that have bought a new Glock might recognize the following picture as the envelope and casings from 2 spent rounds that are included:
Their are some states that require the two casings to be retained by law enforcement and entered into a database as a way to fingerprint your gun. I talked about the failure of one of these ballistic identification systems in in New York in a prior article (HERE).
Everything looks normal… A CCI Blazer .45 caliber aluminum cartridge casing. Good looking primer strike. The round obviously fired.
But wait! What the heck happened to the side of the casing?
Looks like a blow out!
Sure enough, it goes right through.
CCI Blazer aluminum is definitely one of the cheapest lines of ammunition you can buy. I’ve put many boxes of it through my Glock since without incident, but it definitely doesn’t inspire confidence when one of the two rounds that Glock included are blown out. I’m assuming the wall of the casing was incredibly thin, or else bent in at that point causing it to expand and blow through when fired.
I suppose the money saved by using CCI Blazer aluminum over a cartridge with a brass casing ends up saving Glock a lot of money over all the guns they sell.
Comments
16 responses to “Glock Blown Out Spent Cartridge From Factory”
I dont know. I’ve never seen a case blow out like that. Typically in 45 you’ll split the neck. Less typically you’ll blow them out in the webbing area where the feed ramp doesn’t support the case.
Given the size/shape of that hole I’d guess there was something in the chamber that cut the case; a little bit of left over metal from a machining operation or something. If it was sitting in the chamber, it might have cut through when the brass expanded against the chamber and subsequently been expelled.
Interesting theory Jared! I am inclined to think you are correct, over my original theory of a thin or bent cartridge casing prior to firing.
No Glocks, no way, no how!
1911s or Smiffs, but no Glocks.
heheh yea when I saw that I was ready for the collective gasp from GlockTalk
I replied to your post in glock talk.
I had the same ammo CCI Blazer, in the same caliber, 45acp. Do the same thing to me once in a 1911.
Here is a link to the pic of it.
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x12/CynicX/blazer.jpg
When it happened the breach was opening so there was a huge flame that came straight out of the top of the gun, about 6-10″ in height. Spilled powder onto my shooting hand (just stung, no burning or anything serious). And the bullet barely cleared the barrel, dropped about 5 feet in front of me.
I admit, I never heard of this happening with a Glock. Its a shame because the price of that ammo is pretty good. Oh well, I’m not using it anymore, esp after this blog…
Holy that picture is scary! Glad you are alright.
I think that picture solidified that I will never shoot Blazer aluminum again!
its not just blaser , i’ve seen it on range brass as well , and strangely enough its almost always accompanied by a gluck firing pin strike…
another good reason to avoid gastons hugely overpriced toy…
why have we never seen a hi-point or a pos taurus with these unending problems?
I don’t really follow the hi-point or Taurus forums, but your right if it hasn’t happened on those guns that would be odd.
actually there is proof 2 posts above you that it happened on at least on 1911
Is that a normal firing pin strike? It looks like the firing pin dragged across the primer the whole time it was being ejected
I just looked through a handfull of my brass and the appearance of the primer strikes seem to vary. Some look closer to the picture I posted, and others just looke like a small dot with a lightly depress rectangle around them. Maybe it is due to slightly inconsistent factory loads on the cheap ammo I use?
redeux, you obviously did not read the post right above yours, where it happened in a 1911.
oh, but i did …
the fact is that taurus autos (as bad as they are) seem to not suffer from kbooms is one of the mysteries of the universe…
i have never personally witnessed a taurus auto letting go..
nor a highpoint for that matter…
taurus revolvers blow up in all sorts of strange ways as a search will quickly show…
the case failure shown above is very common, esp in revolvers of less than quality manufacture…
much more common is lengthwise case failure from just above the base towards the case mouth…
nickeled brass seems to suffer the worst with this problem…
as for the ‘1911’ mentioned, unless it was a genuine gvt issue 1911 or 1911a1, any dammed thing could happen with the crap 1911’s that are churned out nowadays…
what is interesting is when the case separates below the bullet and tries to follow the bullet down the bore.
no TRB will fix that failure…
Well, they were using brass cases when they shipped my ’17L. I may have the envelope somewhere around here still; but I’m not sure.
I *do* have a couple of empty CCI Blazer in 9mm around here more or less as curios; they appear to have fallen into my range bag after a day at the range. Both of them and a Winchester case I have show a centered oval dimple and a very light long rectangular strike on the primer.
The CCI Blazer cases look almost like they’re plastic, amusingly enough
I want a 17L!
I guess Glock probably just uses whatever factory ammo they can get a deal on. All my Glocks have CCI test cartridges, but maybe it is just a coincidence and they are not exclusive to that company either.
Yea that blazer aluminum is pretty unbelievable…. Those casings weigh almost nothing.
Well, you can’t have mine! :)
It’s one of the later ones withouth the ported barrel. The main difference between it and the current long-barreled 9mm (G34?) is the slide still has the oval cutout for the ported barrel. Makes it a little lighter I suppose, but literlly the only Glocks I have habdled have been G17Ls, either mine on my pistol instructor’s