Ohhhh FUCK! Weapons Expert Shooting .50 Cal Sniper Rifle Has It Explode In His Face, The Aftermath Was Not Pretty AND OTHER CRAZY NEWS

The exploding rifle could have a variety of causes:

1. Barrel blockage

2. Some reloader used the wrong powder or too much

3. Oversized projectile, although that would be rare

#2 is the most common cause of such explosions

He's lucky to be alive.

Dang!

If you watch the full video on Kentucky Ballitics yt channel, he clearly explains what happened. The round, a discontinued SLAP round that was old, had excessive pressure (probably around 80,000 psi). The pressure shredded the threads from the chamber cap and caused major damage. Dude is absolutely luck to be alive, saved by his own action of putting his thum into the woulnd in his neck and slowing the bleeding from his artery.

Last Edited by MovesLikeJagger on 05/01/2021 06:49 PM

Daauum ! Cool dude still in good spirits

he thinks it was a hot load.

This is the best analysis I’ve found on this yet:

Gun still didn't kill someone

I’m going with reloading error. Cartridges for 50 cal are expensive and he probably had a buddy reloading and used weak brass or some substandard components.

I’m all for reloading but have never touched it because I know it will take years to get the skills to produce consumer grade safety.

It was a loaded round - loaded with TNT and procured from abroad. Old school battlefield tactic.

Are you a reloader ?

I reload. I operated a gunsmithing shop for many years. Over the years, I have made 100's of thousands of rounds, including 50BMG. What you saw in that video was a classic case of over pressure from too much powder or using the wrong powder.

The only other common way is by shooting a standard cartridge after having a squib round end up stuck in the barrel. Even then, after firing a squib load, the barrel usually only bulges. (shotgun barrels usually split and peel back.)

What surprises me, though,is that it failed the way it did. I would have expected better proofing of the design from Mark. As an engineer, he knows better. Proofing it to failure pressure and examining the results should have guided the final design to mitigate the damage to the shooter. It is STANDARD in firearms design to do so.

That's not true that it is difficult to produce safe reloads.

Double check your shit. Be organized. Scrutinize everything.

Unfortunately, the actual reason this happened is because the serbu rn50 design is by no means safe!

In another better built 50 caliber gun even a significant overpressure event would not have potentially lethal consequences like we see in this video.

The breech cap on this gun is a glorified fucking pipe cap with coarse acme threads with less than 4 full thread rotations holding the entire pressure of a round that sends A 700 grain projectile down at nearly 3000 fps and a normal round generates between 50 and 55,000 pounds per square inch peak pressure with every shot!

Even if what mark serbu said is right and that slap load for some reason peaked out at 85k psi that's BARELY 10k psi over proof load levels which are 75k psi your gun should still be capable of failing gracefully.

The RN50 turned into a fucking pipe bomb that blew steel "safety ears" back into the shooters chest and neck severing his carotid artery (to say nothing of the breech cap breaking 3 bones in his face despite him wearing safety glasses!)

Without those safety glasses or if he had been shooting alone or if the two people there had been anything less than trained in combat lifesaving this guy would be fucking DEAD!

He's very lucky he didn't die anyway even with the whole deck stacked in his favor.

There's a whole bunch of ass covering going on here but as someone who's been around the Industry for years all Im going to say is that cheap and 50 caliber rifle are not two things people who value their lives utter in the same sentence much less buy and shoot!

Things like the RN50 and the single shot "Shell holder" 50 bmg guns are unfortunately fairly well known for catastrophic failures bad enough to extremely severely injure the shooter.

If you absolutely need a bargain 50 check out the safety harbor line, they have some that at least won't fucking maim you if they fail.

You're right... Go take a look at the serbu rn50 design though...

It's not a safe design.

4 rows of acme thread on your glorified pipe cap for a breech cap is just straight up a pipe bomb with extra steps!

That is not an acme thread, but still too few threads on that plug and breech. I have to wonder what, if any heat treat on them, what alloy, and the thread fit tolerances.

Shit people do for a click is getting dangerous