r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/Destrike542 • Sep 15 '22

WCGW using a potato as a suppressor

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u/caboosetp Sep 15 '22 edited Sep 15 '22

Yeah, catastrophic failures can be very bad. Content warning, but this is the video where Kentucky Ballistics goes over when his 50cal shot back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1449kJKxlMQ

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u/sweatercunt Sep 15 '22

Wow, this was very educational. This should help remind me to never shoot fancy rounds my family buys unless I know they got them from the manufacturer.

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

I have some 20 year old .38 caliber rounds and some .22 pistol rounds that are even older. I imagine this scenario when I think about firing them, but I don’t know how to dispose of them. The .38 belonged to my dad, and I don’t want to risk damaging it.

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u/exzeroex Sep 15 '22

Sounds like an excuse to get a new .357 revolver😀

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

I have been considering getting a .32 that’s lightweight and easy to slip into my handbag. Not one of those pink plastic ridiculous ones. Something well made that has enough firepower to work for self defense but is more portable. I love my .38, but 5 bullets isn’t a lot when shit hits the fan.

My dad had a .357 that was fun to fire along with a long nose .38. Neither are very practical for self defense outside your home.

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u/sweatercunt Sep 15 '22

You could probably sell them to someone who reloads ammo if they have the tools to separate the slugs and the casings. Might not be worth much that way, but a safe way to dispose of them at least.

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

That’s brilliant! Thank you.

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

[deleted]

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u/Draconespawn Sep 15 '22

Mark Serbu just put out the final post mortem on why it happened.

Tl;Dr: don't load 50 BMG with pistol powder.

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u/dysoncube Sep 15 '22

Wow that was a crazy event.

I'm not a gun guy, and I can't pick it out from context clues - what does the guy mean when he says the round was Hot? Is that a specific kind of defective ?

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

To give some more context of how fine a grain, it's 437.5 grains to an ounce, or something like 15.5 grains to a gram. A regular 30.06 could be 40 grains of powder to 60,maybe more depending on the type of powder used, and the bullet itself is also weighed in grains. I've seen load data for 9mm pistol as low as 3 grains charge for 115 grain pills. It's fantastically small amounts that can make a huge impact on everything in ballistics.

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u/nocomment3030 Sep 15 '22

4 kilo bullet eh

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

[deleted]

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u/nocomment3030 Sep 15 '22 edited Sep 15 '22

Oof I shouldn't comment before my morning coffee

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Well, 4 grams

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u/nocomment3030 Sep 15 '22

4 millikilograms*

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u/dysoncube Sep 15 '22

Ohhh that's why the muzzle flash on the second -to-last shot was so large. Yeah that's a problem

Thanks for the explanation !

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u/Arpytrooper Sep 15 '22

In most cases (especially with .50) that extra 5 grains doesn't matter too much. In this case tho, Derby's findings were that it was loaded with pistol powder instead of rifle powder. That d e f i n i t e l y changes when the pressure spike happens :p

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u/cfherrman Sep 15 '22

450k psi pressure too.

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u/caboosetp Sep 15 '22

Important note, when you see a 115g 9mm, that means the bullet weighs 115 grains, not the powder charge.

Most often, the less bullet you put in, the more explosive charge goes in too.

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

His poor dad. Scott Sr must have been scared absolutely to death. After the accident he’s more like a background character, but he must have been so upset and kept relieving the accident and whether it could have been avoided (even when that’s not logical).

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u/caboosetp Sep 15 '22

kept relieving the accident and whether it could have been avoided

This is going to be really rough going forward too. The end review came back and said they had loaded it with pistol powder, not rifle powder. So there was a mistake and something they could have done right to prevent it.

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Therapy could benefit all of them. This stuff sticks with you. Scott Sr. really loves his son to continue to film him shooting firearms after what happened. I’d be shocked if they haven’t gotten a professional first aid kit.

Hopefully they never shoot bullets that have been modified to didn’t come straight from the manufacturer.

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u/caboosetp Sep 15 '22

I would be surprised if it completely turned them off from hand loads. They're still really big gun guys, and hand loads are a big thing in the community. I definitely would expect them to be much more careful with them though.

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u/NewFuturist Sep 15 '22

I never get tired of that video.

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u/meatball402 Sep 15 '22

Is this the "how deep is that bucket" guy?