9mm Kaboom!
We've all been sick with the flu here. Nonetheless, we are still going full-tilt at our workload. It gets crazy sometimes. Since they are still sick, Earl and Kathy have been going home a little early. This afternoon Wendy and Caleigh went off to the gym to swim. Perfect, thought I, I'll take 1/2 hour and tinker with the PPSH semi that was mentioned a few posts ago. I have a new trigger/hammer assembly for it that mimics the experimental one that we made up here in the shop.
I grabbed my earmuffs, the rifle, and a drum that still had some rounds in it from last time and headed up to the back door where I could stand out on the back stairs and touch off a few rounds without trudging through the snow. I clicked in the drum, racked the charging handle to chamber a round, took aim and fired.
I was using Winchester White Box 9mm ammo from Wal-Mart, which is the best deal on commercial 9mm around, because the earlier version of the fire control group didn't have the "oomph" needed to set off the hard primers on most military surplus stuff. The new FCG has a better designed spring, so it shouldn't be a problem.
What was a problem was that the shell wasn't loaded quite up to par. Instead of having the power to push the projectile out of the barrel and cycle the action, it just pushed the round to a little over 3/4 of the way down the barrel. The rest of the gas pressure blew the unlocked bolt rearwards and attempted to eject the empty shell. The problem is that the shell was still under pressure and blew apart into my face. I got peppered with hot gasses, burning power, and shards of brass. The receiver was damaged in the process. Pretty exciting.
Here is a picture of the shredded 9mm brass cartridge and the slug that I drove out of the barrel. These are all of the brass parts I could find. Running my fingers along my forehead, I think I found a few more. The PPSH ejects straight up, so the gasses came straight back at me.
This is why it is always a good idea to wear safety glasses and my day-to-day glasses are polycarbonate, just like safety glasses.
The good news is that the barrel is fine. The receiver will need a bit of attention, but the gun isn't a total loss. It is still in better shape than when I got it. Interestingly, as I sit and ponder this, I think if it had been a more advanced design with a locked breech, there would have been a lot more damage to the gun, probably ruining the barrel. Since the breech block/bolt is a blowback design, it just blew back under pressure. If it had a locked breech, the pressure would have had to escape somewhere and would probably bulged the barrel just behind the slug. Once the slug stopped moving, it became an obstruction.
Gotta hand it to the WW2 era Soviets, they built a robust gun!
Now if Winchester could just remember to put ALL of the powder in their shells...
I grabbed my earmuffs, the rifle, and a drum that still had some rounds in it from last time and headed up to the back door where I could stand out on the back stairs and touch off a few rounds without trudging through the snow. I clicked in the drum, racked the charging handle to chamber a round, took aim and fired.
I was using Winchester White Box 9mm ammo from Wal-Mart, which is the best deal on commercial 9mm around, because the earlier version of the fire control group didn't have the "oomph" needed to set off the hard primers on most military surplus stuff. The new FCG has a better designed spring, so it shouldn't be a problem.
What was a problem was that the shell wasn't loaded quite up to par. Instead of having the power to push the projectile out of the barrel and cycle the action, it just pushed the round to a little over 3/4 of the way down the barrel. The rest of the gas pressure blew the unlocked bolt rearwards and attempted to eject the empty shell. The problem is that the shell was still under pressure and blew apart into my face. I got peppered with hot gasses, burning power, and shards of brass. The receiver was damaged in the process. Pretty exciting.
Here is a picture of the shredded 9mm brass cartridge and the slug that I drove out of the barrel. These are all of the brass parts I could find. Running my fingers along my forehead, I think I found a few more. The PPSH ejects straight up, so the gasses came straight back at me.
This is why it is always a good idea to wear safety glasses and my day-to-day glasses are polycarbonate, just like safety glasses.
The good news is that the barrel is fine. The receiver will need a bit of attention, but the gun isn't a total loss. It is still in better shape than when I got it. Interestingly, as I sit and ponder this, I think if it had been a more advanced design with a locked breech, there would have been a lot more damage to the gun, probably ruining the barrel. Since the breech block/bolt is a blowback design, it just blew back under pressure. If it had a locked breech, the pressure would have had to escape somewhere and would probably bulged the barrel just behind the slug. Once the slug stopped moving, it became an obstruction.
Gotta hand it to the WW2 era Soviets, they built a robust gun!
Now if Winchester could just remember to put ALL of the powder in their shells...
posted by MVTCoPete | 6:40 PM
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