So for those not on Facebook, 2A Tactical had a customer's Bear Creek Arsenal .300 BLK upper go kaboom.
I saved about 40 of the photos taken of the upper before and after the barrel was EDM cut. I also saved the video from 2A Tactical where two BCA uppers from the stores inventory were pulled and failed to close on a Forster .300BLK Go Gauge.
And before anyone gets their panties in a twist, they said they finally got in contact with BCA and it was productive, so we shall see...
I saved about 40 of the photos taken of the upper before and after the barrel was EDM cut. I also saved the video from 2A Tactical where two BCA uppers from the stores inventory were pulled and failed to close on a Forster .300BLK Go Gauge.
/// POST AUTOPSY ///
It took two of us over an hour using a lot of force and tricks to get this upper apart.
This was a COMPLETE Bear Creak Arsenal .300 BLK Piisstoll Upper Receiver. The customer had upgraded to a Geissele Ambi Charging Handle and a Nickel Boron BCG.
Please review each of the pictures for individual commentary.
Folks were asked if the customer somehow fired a 556 round or something other than 300 BLK through it when it had it's Catastrophic Malfunction. The cartridge casing that is still jammed in the chamber is clearly a 300 BLK cartridge. Also, the barrel is in fact a 300 BLK barrel and the customer had previously fired approximately 150 rounds of 300 BLK through it before the issue occurred.
The customer was ONLY using quality factory 300 BLK ammo.
So what did we discover? We we found something that we have never seen before. I (Rob) have been the NCOIC of countless Army ranges with hundreds of shooters over 27 years and I have never seen what we found.
The customer stated that he loaded up a fresh mag prior to the detonation and the BCG went into battery with no issues.
We scoped the barrel and then saw something amazing! (And we know this has happened before, it's just WE'VE never seen this yet!)
Approximately 1/3 the way down the barrel, from the chamber side, we found a nearly intact, albeit blown out, cartridge. The cartridge appeared to be the length of a 300 BLK casing, but we cannot yet be certain.
As we traveled further down the barrel we found the stuck casing in the chamber that you can see the primer side in one of the pictures. There is absolutely no bullet or bullet fragments in the barrel.
We took photos and video with our scope and will be posting them soon.
We are planning to have a nearby business cut the barrel length wise with an EDM machine. This will allow us to take additional measurements.
Everyone has an opinion and currently we don't want say what we think caused the malfunction. We have several strong theories and we will continue to update everyone on this incident.
Just remember folks, some would just toss this upper in a trash can, but we choose to treat it like a crime scene and dissect and investigate every bit of it until we can come up with the most plausible factor or factors that caused this incredible malfunction.
Ultimately something caused this, and we were blessed this time that no one was injured. If we can gain some knowledge from this incident and possibly avoid similar incidents in the future, we'll call that a win for all of us!
More to follow!
LASTLY - ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!!
-2A Tactical Team
UPDATE:
I'll keep this short:
I (Rob) just got off the phone with with a person at Bear Creek Arsenal.
The person was adversarial throughout the entire conversation. It was almost like I was talking to a robot that couldn't get off a script. The person did not express any worry about future incidents, despite me expressing my concerns many times.
I explained that we were taking back undamaged BCA Complete Uppers from customers that were not comfortable keeping them. The person advised that if we returned them to BCA, we would not get a penny in refund.
Regarding the two damaged uppers, this person couldn't even guarantee we would get replacements for them either, and this person seemed to really want them back... bad.
The bottom line, if I was the owner of this business, I would have handled this thing completely different. The person kept spouting off warranty and other rules and I just kept saying that all I really care about is the safety of my customers and my employees.
We purchased at dealer cost nearly $10k in products from BCA and we are willing and ready to take each and every one of those products back. Since they won't take them back and we can't say for sure if they are safe or not, we will be destroying each and every one of them.
-Rob Russell
Owner, 2A Tactical LLC
And before anyone gets their panties in a twist, they said they finally got in contact with BCA and it was productive, so we shall see...
Folks,
We are VERY happy to report that one of the owners of BCA reached out to us later today. We had a very pleasant and productive conversation and I see us and BCA working together, rather than adversarial, to figure this thing out, and most importantly to keep shooters safe!
Again, a BIG thank-you to BCA for calling us and hearing us out!
-Rob Russell
Owner
2A Tactical LLC
The barrel just came back from the EDM machine at Hagan Machine and Design in Newmarket and the precision that it was able to halve this barrel is incredible!
A number of small fragments fell out of the barrel during the procedure. We were able to locate the original position of each fragment by very carefully following the lans and grooves and other marks. It was akin to a very difficult jigsaw puzzle, but harder!
One small fragment of brass fell into the EDM machine and was unable to be recovered. We will address where the missing piece would have been located.
Many more pics to follow!