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I volunteered to be a line safety officer for the Arizona pistol championships so I could get the feel of bullseye shooting before I jump into it next month.

A gentleman was shooting in the .45 service pistol competition and had his pistol blow.

He is alright, his hand was pretty stung(only word I could come up with).

He was shooting factory Federal ball match(I believe),just glanced at the box.

The grips were blown off, magazine in pieces, it took us about 15 minutes to get the gun apart.

When we got it apart, the barrel lugs were sheered off and the .45 case had blown out toward the rear at the 6'o clock position and the primer was blown out.

I have never seen one, but have read about this happening.

Bottom line is that he is okay and he packed it up and left after that(I do not blame him, would have done the same thing).

He was lucky, to say the least.(he left with all 4 fingers and a thumb).

Clarence;

Not good! I'll be interested to see how this event plays out. Sometimes reloads are in factory boxes and it would be nice to know if we are dealing with ammo problems,out of battery or ?

Sounds like the pistol fired out-of-battery. Several possible causes for this, so without an inspection it is hard to say exactly what happened. I've seen this a few times, mostly with reloaded ammunition that is not crimped correctly. One of the last pistols I saw blow like this was a S&W Model 52. The owner had the grips blow out, powder scorch marks on his hand, and some tender, red, swollen fingers. Are you certain it was factory loaded ammo? Sometimes people reuse commercial ammo boxes to carry reloads. I've also seen plenty of factory rounds with the case mouth dinged, and the cartridge didn't fit into the barrel's chamber properly. I always "drop check" my ammo before a match. Ensuring that there's no ammo related malfunctions is all part of my match prep.

R,
Bullseye

He said that he purchased it from Camp Perry this year.

I was thinking either it fired out of battery or else the ramp was cut or worn too far.

We will see.

I told him to collect the other fired brass and of course the blown one and see what Federal says about it.

Clarence;

An improperly throated barrel could have caused a similar failure as far as the blowout. Bulged cases would tell if the chamber was supporting the cases properly. Shearing of the lower barrel lugs typically means that the slide was not locked in the barrel's locking lugs.

R,
Bullseye

I have been told by many to do some sort of resizing "check" as a final step in .45 acp reloads. For example, the lee factory crimp die or just another resizing die.