• ODT Gun Show & Swap Meet - May 4, 2024! - Click here for info

My Serbu 50 Cal Exploded

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.
There is also plenty of reason to believe that there was not a spike in pressure. Too many variables to rule anything out. And no way to prove anything in this particular incident due to the fact that the rifle detonated.
 
I've seen and read multiple sources on this issue.

Slap rounds are notorious for being virtually unverifiable as Milsurp or "garage" reloaded.

One theory was that the slap rounds used were one of these bootlegged versions. Possibly loaded with pistol powder as opposed to standard rifle powder.

Either way, the blame for this horrible mishap is on the ammunition. Not the rifle or it's design. Standard 50 BMG loads would have shot out of that thing for eternity.

If you don't like it, fine. Don't buy it.

But if you load pistol powder in your 308 reloads up the bottleneck and your granddaddy's gun blows up in your face, I guess it's just a poorly made rifle....
 
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.
In regards to using ammo not designed within safe design parameters.... in pretty much every case (yes there are some super **** guns but this design isnt) of this happening or complete destruction of a gun design its user error or out of spec ammo....my point being from the beginning is that design is not the issue (threaded cap as well as locking lugs a redundant safety design) not to mention it wasn't the first of the questionable slap rounds fired but 3rd with a 4th API in between
 
In regards to using ammo not designed within safe design parameters.... in pretty much every case (yes there are some super **** guns but this design isnt) of this happening or complete destruction of a gun design its user error or out of spec ammo....my point being from the beginning is that design is not the issue (threaded cap as well as locking lugs a redundant safety design) not to mention it wasn't the first of the questionable slap rounds fired but 3rd with a 4th API in between
Those "locking lugs" that you like to refer to aren't really locking lugs. They are small ears with minimal mass. Not much to em. They are mainly there to prevent operation if the cap is not screwed down. A threaded cap has proven to fail numerous times as do threads under high pressure. Like I said in an earlier post, this is not a one-off incident caused by bad ammo.
 
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.
Interesting observation. I missed the C.U.P. instrumentation in that video.
 
Those "locking lugs" that you like to refer to aren't really locking lugs. They are small ears with minimal mass. Not much to em. They are mainly there to prevent operation if the cap is not screwed down. A threaded cap has proven to fail numerous times as do threads under high pressure. Like I said in an earlier post, this is not a one-off incident caused by bad ammo.
to "shear" along the long plane as well as strip threading smooth and to do both at the same time is not a design flaw ...mechanics of materials and the physics involved show this, the material was pushed beyond its safe design and past its yield point with the use of bad ammo and still withstood multiple rounds before failure evident it was a safe design otherwise it woulda pipe bombed the first round or even second
 
Holy cow what a crazy accident. He's lucky to still be here. Can anyone shed light on what are these "Slap rounds"? In the video he says he got an extra hot slap round that generated > 85,000 psi, which is what blew up the rifle.

The weapon he was using is a POS. Basically a screw together pipe bomb.
 
Those "locking lugs" that you like to refer to aren't really locking lugs. They are small ears with minimal mass. Not much to em. They are mainly there to prevent operation if the cap is not screwed down. A threaded cap has proven to fail numerous times as do threads under high pressure. Like I said in an earlier post, this is not a one-off incident caused by bad ammo.
And you may as well give up. Your arguments, while 100% valid are falling on deaf ears.
I thought artillery pieces also used threaded breach? Interrupted thread design, IIRC.
So a threaded breach is not neccessarily a weaker design, in principle.
If you saw the interrupted threads on a 155mm howitzer breechblock and then looked at the threaded pipe endcap of the 50 cal "rifle" in question, you'd laugh your ass off. And here I can speak with absolute authority.
 
to "shear" along the long plane as well as strip threading smooth and to do both at the same time is not a design flaw ...mechanics of materials and the physics involved show this, the material was pushed beyond its safe design and past its yield point with the use of bad ammo and still withstood multiple rounds before failure evident it was a safe design otherwise it woulda pipe bombed the first round or even second
Do you understand nothing of metal fatigue and stress?
 
Back
Top Bottom