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This is from a Glock failure. I'm not going into what caused the failure. Here's the thing, look at the gun.

Had that frame been steel might in not have come apart like that?

Now that's just gotta hurt!

did any rounds in the magazine go off? Just curious if the damage was all from the gun coming apart, or if other rounds in the mag were involved as well?

bet it was a .40

There are no specifics on the occurrence. Double charge, lead bullets, nothing.

It does look like a G19 or G23. Since both barrels have the same external dimensions and the chamber and bore of a 40 is so much bigger for the same pressure levels I bet you are right.

Yeah cause rifles and revolvers never blow up like that.. Insert a [bleep] of sarcasm

My first thought also.

Scary pic!

I reload for 3 Glocks, all with semi-supported chambers, don't run any lead thru em, mainly plated stuff. All loads get chrono'ed, when I do that I load 1 round and remove the mag, my thinking is a kaboom will vent somewhat thru the magwell.

Can't fault the pistol until you know the facts.

Of course they do. The question was in this case since it looks like a case head separation with no failure of the barrel itself, would a steel frame have likely mitigated the damage to a lower level?

This. And I bet the guy uses lead reloads in it.

My vote is split...

I'm thinking an initial squib load in a double-tap sequence.

Or...

An out-of-battery discharge.

Glocks tend to be susceptible to that.

Or the resultant combination of both.

Either way I suspect that any metal frame would have held together A LOT better and blown out the mag mitigating the damage to the operator muchly.

Plastic mostly sucks in any stress test, carbon fiber being an exception.

Still, that's about the worst Kaboom I've seen...



Pardon me while I give my Lightweight Commander some extra love...

Yep. Usually, Glock kabooms cut the hands a little, and cause some swelling. They don't typically take off thumbs and fingers like that one did. This fact, combined with the extreme rarity of Glock kabooms (about the same risk as golfing on a cloudy day), even with a .40 S&W chambered Glock, causes me little if any concern about shooting my 9mm Glock 17.

Run out and sell all your glocks. You see something stupid like this about once a week. Why aren't you going to share what caused the pistol to blow up?

Because the cause isn't given.

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

I seem to also recall seeing pictures of Elmer Keith 44 Special revolvers with the top strap & the top half of the cylinder blown off.

I saw a Glock .40 go kaboom with factory ammo a number of years ago during a "class". It was the instructors' gun whilst he was demonstrating strong hand when it cut lose.

The left side of the slide blew out around the chamber area but the frame appeared to be intact(full mag as well). If he had been holding the gun with both hands he may have had a f'ed up left thumb but I doubt it would have ended up like the hand in the OP.

On the other side I pulled the trigger on double charged cartridges in my 1911 twice in a row, when I first started reloading.

The first round sounded weird and had a different recoil pulse to it, but being young and dumb I pressed again. This time similar recoil except the gun unloaded itself through the bottom of the magazine as the over pressure popped the mag. bottom plate off and sent the rest of the ammo into the dirt, and spraying me with a small bit of crud in the face but no metal. The case has a nice crescent shaped cutout in the head area where the pressure blew it out( where there's no support in the chamber). I keep it on my reloading bench for a reminder. I also spent that afternoon pulling 200 gr semi wadcutters out of 500+ rds of the .45 ACP I had reloaded, to clear up anymore double charges that may have been left from my transgressions.

The 1911 is fine and still shoots to this day with no ill effects. YMMV.

That boy will be shooting left handed from here on out.

I hate plastic guns.

That is ugly! Think I will stick with my big heavy steel 1911.

In answer to your original question. I believe the outcome would have been a lot different if it were a steel frame and the shooter would be upset but not maimed for life.

Could have been a double charge of Unique powder too, hope the guy recovers to full health.