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M1A1 Bolt failure,Blew apart

The remains of the case appear to be painted all over the receiver. I had a case rupture in my Savage 110FP. It turned out my buddy was working up handloads for his 300 winmag . One of those loadings got in a 308 case. So basically, I touched off a compressed load . Fortunately, Savage had escape passages drilled in the bolt body to safely vent overpressure. It melted the extractor, ejector and firing pin tip. I told Savage customer service it was a handload. They said, no problem, those parts shouldn't fail, regardless. Asked if i was comfortable replacing them, or would I like to send it to a gunsmith. Savage took good care of me, but I'll never forget what the carnage looked like. Just like yours. I'll bet liquid brass got up around your firing pin as well. What does your boltface look like?
 
Forward this video to 0.35 to see what case head separation can look like. Every type firearm will have a different end result with case head separation depending on operating systems and calibers.

You'll see what looks like parts of the BCG fly out of the receiver and the bottom of the mag blow out.

 
conax said:
I learn something new every day. If that's the case the manual should have a red outlined box with bold print warning the user not to load .308 ammo in these rifles. I never knew there was that much difference.
Secrets in ammo specs are bad, mmmkay?
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In my M1A manual it says .308 Win or 7.62x51 NATO are both fine to shoot, but to keep the bullet weights between 150gr - 180gr. Sounds like a hot load made it through QA/QC possibly, if we are in fact going with the Ammo being the culprit, which has not been determined.
 
If memory serves me the owners manual for my M1A mentions .308 specifically and I can use 7.62 if I want. Going to read the manual again today. The gun did come with a lot of information on the possibility of detonation due to the nature of how the firing pin is known to have a light strike first on the primer during chambering then a harder strike when the trigger is pulled.
That being said no one got hurt and my bet is on Springfield replacing the gun after inspection.
 
ddeuce22 said:
In my M1A manual it says .308 Win or 7.62x51 NATO are both fine to shoot, but to keep the bullet weights between 150gr - 180gr. Sounds like a hot load made it through QA/QC possibly, if we are in fact going with the Ammo being the culprit, which has not been determined.
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A hot load is my thought exactly especially after his post on shooting the same ammunition without an issue then boom. Springfield will figure it out and do the right thing.
 
Keystone19250 said:
If memory serves me the owners manual for my M1A mentions .308 specifically and I can use 7.62 if I want. Going to read the manual again today. The gun did come with a lot of information on the possibility of detonation due to the nature of how the firing pin is known to have a light strike first on the primer during chambering then a harder strike when the trigger is pulled.
That being said no one got hurt and my bet is on Springfield replacing the gun after inspection.
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Manual says you can use .308 or Nato 7.62x51.
Though there is a potential of a slam fire with .308 commercial rounds with soft primers.
 
Classified said:
Problem is its a Winchester issue if that is the case. (No pun intended).
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Could go either way but OP mentioned he threw the box out so no information on lot numbers or anything else. Going to be hard to prove.
I stand by my earlier statement that my bet is on Springfield replacing the rifle as that makes for good customer relations.
 
KillerFord1977 said:
Manual says you can use .308 or Nato 7.62x51.
Though there is a potential of a slam fire with .308 commercial rounds with soft primers.
Click to expand...
Yes I remember reading that. Basically the firing pin is allowed to float so during the chambering of a round the firing pin can tap “light strike” on the primer. I also noticed that while breaking in my M1A some of the first rounds 20-40 didn’t allow the bolt to fully lock closed into battery, the more rounds I put through the rifle that issue went away.
 
Keystone19250 said:
Could go either way but OP mentioned he threw the box out so no information on lot numbers or anything else. Going to be hard to prove.
I stand by my earlier statement that my bet is on Springfield replacing the rifle as that makes for good customer relations.
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I hope so, I don't think it would be wise to try and replace the bolt without a full take down and inspection.
 
Classified said:
I hope so, I don't think it would be wise to try and replace the bolt without a full take down and inspection.
Click to expand...
Not much left to inspect on that rifle but Springfield will investigate.
M1A manual actually says not to do a full take down more then once a year as doing so will affect accuracy.
 
Keystone19250 said:
M1A manual actually says not to do a full take down more then once a year as doing so will affect accuracy.
Click to expand...
That's for the bedded National Match & Super Match models. Repeated take-downs would lessen the beneficial effects of the bedding.

Competitive M1A shooters would rebed their rifles after each season since even shooting during the season would weaken the bessing, even without any take-downs.
 
Talyn said:
None of mine needed that.
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I noticed it about 4 times in approximately the first 40 rounds shooting a mix of different grain weights. I found out quickly what my rifle likes to shoot, Sig 150 Gr. Elite Performance FMJ since I’ve been exclusively shooting that I haven’t seen the bolt issue.
 
Talyn said:
That's for the bedded National Match & Super Match models. Repeated take-downs would lessen the beneficial effects of the bedding.

Competitive M1A shooters would rebed their rifles after each season since even shooting during the season would weaken the bessing, even without any take-downs.
Click to expand...
Agreed but I’m following there suggestions with mine anyway
 
Keystone19250 said:
Yes I remember reading that. Basically the firing pin is allowed to float so during the chambering of a round the firing pin can tap “light strike” on the primer. I also noticed that while breaking in my M1A some of the first rounds 20-40 didn’t allow the bolt to fully lock closed into battery, the more rounds I put through the rifle that issue went away.
Click to expand...

I had similar issues with the first 40-60 or so rounds. noticed the op rod would not go fully forward when chambering a round from a freshly inserted mag. Don't really see it happen anymore, im roughly 200 rounds in on it now.
 
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