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Really screams buy me. Most of the cheaper 50 BMG guns look pretty scary, but this one is towards the top of the list.Originally Posted by hollohas
Kind of like a giant polished Zip gun!
I wonder if in the history of man, a person with a 'sploded gun has ever called the manufacturer and they have done anything other than blame the ammunition.
On top of everything already contributed...
If we play a little game, and say it was in fact designed and tested for 60,400k PSI (the max rated pressure of 50 BMG), and the manufacturer expects it to not just fail, but completely explode into a pipe bomb if the pressure is just 29% higher at 85K PSI when it is brand new, and it entirely relies on tiny ass threads for it's only safety mechanism... well.
Screws threads are far stronger from shearing force than extraction force to top it off, and this is entirely an extracting force, and those are some very fine threads for such a task. When you account for manufacturing tolerances and wear, that's a mighty fine system right there with some guns likely expected by the mfg. to explode if they are just 10-15% overpressure! Imagine the difference in failure from just slight variations or wear to the threads. The way they are designed they may very well all fail eventually even with regular 50BMG rounds. And maybe, they fully realize that, but expect shooters to fire so few rounds that they won't explode while SERBU is still in business.
The other risk too is any metallurgical defect of any kind with those threads probably leaves it incapable of safely shooting even standard pressure '50. Even slight variation in heat treatment would have dramatic effects.
That serbu rifle apparently works just fine nearly all of the time. What's concerning is the main failure point is directly towards your face. One thing fails (those breech threads) and that's it. There is no failsafe. And as stated above by fox, the failure point is not much higher than the design standard if what Scott said in the video is correct. Failures may be uncommon. Maybe this is the only one. (Serbu himself said it's the only one out of 14,000 guns). But that's really not great odds IMO.
I've witnessed guns fail because of overpressure. Here's a picture of a buddy's bolt from one such instance that I witnessed. Overpressure was enough to sheer the lugs right off the bolt. But the bolt didn't come out the back of the gun. Explosive gases have somewhere else to go instead of only sending things straight back.
Yes, it appears the ammo was the problem. And even Scott at Kentucky Ballistics says it wasn't the gun. But I'd be real curious to see if he ever shoots that rifle model again. I wouldn't. And I bet most others won't either. I predict that Serbu model doesn't have long after this.
Schedule-80 PVC pipe would've been cheaper.
Glock replaced a member's gun because of a kaboom that I know of. G21, if I remember correctly.I wonder if in the history of man, a person with a 'sploded gun has ever called the manufacturer and they have done anything other than blame the ammunition.
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