I was at the range this weekend with my semi-automatic carbine model A UZI. I was shooting several different types of reloads that I had made. All seemed to go bang without problem. After 30 or so rounds, I pulled the trigger on one, and it sounded odd, and lots of smoke came out the gun. At first, I thought maybe it was a squib load, so I put the gun down, dropped the mag and cycled the bolt. When I cycled the bolt, a mangled, ripped up casing fell through the magazine well. I then pulled the barrel to check if it was clear, and it appeared to be. I put it all back together, while unloaded, and cycled the bolt and trigger several times. Everything seemed correct, so I loaded another round into the gun, and the same thing happened. (lots of smoke, mangled case). I called it quits, and went home. After checking the barrel with another one I had, I noticed that the bullet was not seating properly in the breach end barrel. When I loaded an inert round into the gun, I was able to see that the bolt wasn’t fully going into battery. After a close examination, I discovered that a casing had split perfectly and a portion of it was lodged in the barrel. I was able to get it out without damaging the barrel, but it was nothing like I had ever seen before. It was like someone took a case and perfectly trimmed a piece of it off.
I did some research and I soon learned about 9mm “stepped” casings. Apparently most 9mm cases are tapered, but some manufactures now do a stepped case instead of this taper. (costs savings?) This can cause the casing to separate at the step. This is what had happened in my case, and the model A UZI can fire out of battery (as mine did!) since it does not have the safety that the model b does. Has anybody else run into this, and was I close to a catastrophic failure on my gun or getting injured?
I did some research and I soon learned about 9mm “stepped” casings. Apparently most 9mm cases are tapered, but some manufactures now do a stepped case instead of this taper. (costs savings?) This can cause the casing to separate at the step. This is what had happened in my case, and the model A UZI can fire out of battery (as mine did!) since it does not have the safety that the model b does. Has anybody else run into this, and was I close to a catastrophic failure on my gun or getting injured?
