My Serbu 50 Cal Exploded

[User170512]

Bolt gun explodes

.50 Cal Blows Up in Shooter's Face

A 50 cal rifle suffered a catastrophic failure and the bolt blew back out from the rifle and embedded itself in the man's neck.

www.military.com

 

[rumrunner55]

Call it what it is. A 50 BMG for the poors. Stupid design. It's a pipe bomb with a hole in one end.

You can literally say that about any gun…one end closed one end open that’s how it works…they’re literally all pipe bombs and one little change in powder or bolt gap and kabloom but whatever…haters gonna hate but physics don’t lie safe design is a safe design within spec

 

[Shags]

Reminds me of those old Vulcan .50 bmgs. The two lug version killed two guys by shooting the bolt into their neck. Company redesigned to a three lug and I had one for a period, I never would shoot it.

 

[palmettomoon]

I've seen poor designs (where the bolt handle had to be worked with a mallet) and I've seen(owned) good designs (Barrett). A threaded end cap is a ridiculous method of containing those pressures. In the thousands and thousands of rounds of 5.56, 308, 30.06 and 50 BMG I've fired over 37 years of shooting, I've never had an "overpressure" milsurp round. Never. Dud primer? Yes. Bad powder? Yes. Moisture damage? Sure. Little bomb in my face? Never with U.S. made ammo.

 

[User170512]

I've seen poor designs (where the bolt handle had to be worked with a mallet) and I've seen(owned) good designs (Barrett). A threaded end cap is a ridiculous method of containing those pressures. In the thousands and thousands of rounds of 5.56, 308, 30.06 and 50 BMG I've fired over 37 years of shooting, I've never had an "overpressure" milsurp round. Never. Dud primer? Yes. Bad powder? Yes. Moisture damage? Sure. Little bomb in my face? Never with U.S. made ammo.

There was speculation that shooting a sabot round with a brake like that could have caused the issue.

 

[palmettomoon]

There was speculation that shooting a sabot round with a brake like that could have caused the issue.

That could be however the fact remains the threaded end cap failed to contain the pressure.

 

[rumrunner55]

That could be however the fact remains the threaded end cap failed to contain the pressure.

same same…..

 

[palmettomoon]

View attachment 3598715
same same…..

No. Not at all. But there's no point in discussing it with the "My Palmetto State AR is jess as gooder as a Colt!" mentality. There are reasons that 50 sells for less than $1,500. A.) "it's jess as gooder as a Barrett" & B.) "the High Point is an excellent gun for the money."

 

[ReservoirDawg10]

View attachment 3598715
same same…..

How is this at all the same? Like, even remotely?

The Serbu is a bad design. There are plenty of instances of these and other, similar rifles, detonating.

 

[whiskerz]

There is a thread about this failure on another forum and the rifle as it sits does not fail until over 85,000 psi and the 50 bmg spec is 53,664, 54,923 psi. This gun experienced over 50% higher than the max spec.