Since last Friday three of our duck hunting group have had their barrels explode shooting these shells.
These two shot out of the same box. Winchester SXP and SX3 both running factory modified chokes. I don't have photos of the SB3 that blew up yet.
Kent rep is coming up to inspect. If you bought some then just hang on to them awhile, its unknown if it is just a few boxes or a whole lot # that are bad.
The only time I ever used Kent Fasteel I had three miss fires out of one box. Never used them again.

Damn that stinks.

UPPDATE!
One more report of a SB3 blowing up! That makes four

My buddy had problems with Kent Faststeel several years ago and since then he won’t touch them. We were talking about it the other night and he was willing to give them another try but thanks to your post neither of us will be tempting fate. There are a lot of options out there but for us Kent won’t be one of them.

Good luck to you guys! I hope you get a satisfactory resolution to your expensive predicament. Thankfully none of you were hurt and it’s only the shotgun that needs repair. I hope you’ll keep us posted on your situation and how Kent responds and resolves the problem.

Good luck to you guys. 👍

Are the blowups happening on first shots or subsequent shots. That looks like a barrel obstruction rupture there. A recall is coming I am sure.

DAYUM!!!

I'd go for PTSD,

Morgan and Morgan

Where are you in MN, Whackem'? I am in MN too and wondering if there was a particular retailer that may have had these or something? Thankfully, I bought Rem Hypersteel because it was on sale at Mills Fleet Farm. Thanks for the heads-up, and I will let hunting buddies know as well.

This would be the pertinent question. It appears that the wads from the previous shots are sticking in the barrels, then blowing up on the next firing.

Tag

To answer some of the questions,
I too first thought that a stuck wad caused the problem but that has not been the case.
The guns in the photos happened on the first shot of the day. Same box two different guns same time. The first guy with the SBE was first shot too.
Not sure yet on the other SBE.
Another guy has reported that on his first shot out of a new box the gun shot flames eight feet out of the barrel and almost kicked him out of the boat. His buddy said it looked like a giant roman candle going off. It ejected the old shell and chambered the next. He emptied the gun of the other shells and said that the action didn't feel right and is bringing his gun to a smith to have inspected. His gun was a Remington, not sure if ti was a Versa Max or a V3.
Notherner, Most of the reported shells have come from metro Cabelas, not the same store. One said he got his at the St. Cloud Sheels.

I called one of my sons because I know that he likes to use Kent because he gets them cheap. He said he just picked up five boxes of them. I told him to set them aside and not use them until we find out what is going on. He's pissed, said that having to buy more ammo is going to eat up his weekend beer money. I told him to swing by the house and I will trade him the Kent's for some Federal Blue box 3" #3's. I mainly shoot 3 1/2". I keep the 3" for back up and to lend to friends that can't shoot and burn through all their shells to fast.

They need to rename those things "Fast Banana Peel"! I wonder if some sort of fast pistol powder found its way into the loading machines?
Jerry

Dang that sucks. I love Kent's.

Man, and I was about to buy some of that stuff. Hope they get it straightened out without anybody getting hurt. To verify: Nobody got hurt, correct, or I assume the OP would have mentioned it?

I'll be very interested to see what caused these, as it looks from the two pics that the ruptures were nowhere near the muzzle/chokes.

whackem,

any chance of you posting a pic of the label on the box that shows lot #?

And any reports of it happening in other than the 3" size?


I'm passing a link to this thread on to a duck hunting fool of a friend as I seem to recall this is a brand he likes, but I think he sticks with 2 /34" for ducks.

Geno

I have used a lot of their lead loads for upland shooting, and really love them. I hope they can isolate this issue down and close the loop.

I shoot a lot of Kent and have been very happy. That is spooky!

The primers arent even close to flattened, no engraving of the extractor on the rim. No signs of overpressure on the shell. If it were a side by side I'd say for sure it was a stuck wad obstruction at mid barrel, but I'm not familiar with the pressure curve on these semi-autos. Are they gas operated? Keep us posted.

If you want the better-than-Kent replacement, just go get some:

Fiocchi steel 1 1/5 ounce, 3" 1550fps loads in whatever size you want. They are consistently faster, round equal-size pellets that are zinc-plated, have full payloads, and kill well. AND, they are much cheaper. Size #2 is my favorite.

Pretty sure the problem is the wad getting hung up from a previous shot.
There have been recalls for this type of thing before, one was a warning not to shoot a specific shell in below freezing temps because it caused problems with the wad.
I have a box of those shells somewhere, and think it was Fasteel.

To me it’s interesting where the blowout happened. Almost the same place in both barrels. If it’s 100% not the previous wad, I’d love to run a micrometer down a similar barrel and see what it’s doing there. And also it look s like they are using a new wad...maybe between the plating and the wad the shot column is not squeezing down. The camo barrel looks like it has a distinct plastic smudge right at the blowout.

The count right now is
1 pump SXP
2 Gas autos SX4 & Remington
3 Inertia autos SBE's
The photos of the guns were taken at a gunsmiths shop. There was no barrel obstructions in those guns.
First shot out of the box.
The SXP could chamber another round after a squib load but the SBE's would never cycle another round after a dud. The gas SX4 may try and cycle after a squib but it probably stove pipe.
There is no new news about the lot number or anything. I think the guy's lawyers told them to STFU and get off the internet.
We're down to phone calls and text messages.
Best advice, if you have some set them aside for now and buy a couple boxes of Federals (my fave but get something other than Kent or Rio).
So far there has been no serious injures other than shredded fingers on their left gloves and sore bruised fingers.
I find it scary, imagine being in a blind with your buddy. A small group of ducks circle your deeks, you give a call and they drop the flaps and drop in. You both shoulder your guns and tap the triggers and BOTH guns blow up!
Talk about fugging up your hunt and season. The move is on now and these poor guys guns are toast.

It reminds me of the German artillery battery at Brecourt Manor.

One would hope they have back up guns. Good to know they saved their fingers.

I agree, it can't be stuck wads in two guns or barrel obstructions in general - unless someone was effing with their guns somehow.

Thanks for posting this.

.."something other than Kent or Rio." What's up with Rio?

Yes, what's this about Rio? They're not manufactured at the same facility are they?
Geno

Tag

Scary that it’s blowing barrels on the first shot.
Found the shells I had that had a recall, it was Hevi-shot Heavy Metal, 3” 12 gauge 1 1/4 oz BB, 1500 FPS.
The wads would split on ignition, loosing enough pressure that sometimes the wad wouldn’t exit the barrel. Couldn’t find a date on the box, probably 10 years old or so.

If Lawyers are involved we can say goodbye to Kent. The vultures are circling.

No word today.
I should mention that our little Facebook group is only 168 hard core waterfowl hunting members. Nobody is a noob.
Six major problems out of only 168 people? I wonder how many other hunters this has happened to?

+3 on the "What's up with Rio?" Just bought a case of their steel #4's for duck season because they pattern well in my Benelli...

That is scary as hell, I reload my own lead for Doves. I guess you can roll your own steel shotshells??

One can and I have.
The problem is that even with special steel shot charge bars the drop with larger steel pellets is very inconsistent. You're best off hand weighing each load. The components are expensive. Special steel wads are crazy expensive compared to a AA target wad. The expense to put together a decent load is 95% of what a box of Winchester Super X, Federal Speed Shock, if you have good hulls. Add in the amount of time to roll up 10 boxes and it really doesn't make sense. I can use that time doing maintenance to my Deeks,waders, boat, motor, truck and the many other things that got fugged up on the last weekend hunt.
Federal and Winchester shot shell have never let me down.
I do hand roll 2-3 boxes of custom 20G ITX-10 #6 loads for my old 20 g SxS. It's fun dropping ducks with that thing like I did when I was a kid shooting lead #6

whackem,

Is this happening with just the 1-3/8 oz loads?

Jeff

While my group has been lucky enough not to deal with these extreme issues, we all pretty much abandoned Kent over the last couple of years as they’re an extremely dirty shell. Some of our guys have gone to the Rio shells, no issues.

Like DakotaDeer, I’m a fan of Fiocchi.

To be clear, I'm only a fan of a specific loading in the Fiocchi line:

1 1/5 ounce, 3" 1550fps plated steel
#3 for ducks only
#2 for mixed bag ducks, pheasants, geese

Sold by Runnings as "Dakota Country", by Scheels as "max" something or other, and by other retailers sometimes as "Warlocks".

Anymore info on this?