My FN Five-Seven exploded

[FAIR CHASE]

Last week my FN Five-Seven blew up causing severe damage to my left hand (I am right handed). There are 6-8 pieces of shrapnel deep in my thumb and palm area which severed the nerves to my thumb and a portion of my palm. Surgery is required in an attempt to repair the hand by harvesting tissue from my leg. Wish me luck.

The “explosion” occurred on the last round of a 30 round mag loaded with the factory 40gr v-max stuff. On this particular day I only had three loaded magazines (70 rounds total) with me for the Five-Seven but had several other handguns to shoot after the Five-Seven. I began with a 20 round mag loaded with hand loads, then a 20 round mag loaded with factory ammo and finished with the 30 round mag with factory ammo. It was the very last round of 5.7x28 in my immediate possession that ruined my day ……. and a whole lot more!!

I have fired (600-700 rounds) both factory and hand loads through the pistol with zero issues since purchasing new in 2/2011. There are reports of the Five-Seven firing out of battery (OOB) which appears to be the case here but I am no weapons forensics expert. I am not a novice to shooting, handguns or reloading and have 20+ years of extensive experience with shooting and reloading.

I have been completely straightforward with FNH (i.e. Browning) so will now wait and see how they respond.

 

[thecrittergitter]

holy crap batman! Hope for a full recovery, thats crazy!

 

[gman82001]

wow... hope you get better quick thats crazy

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

Holy Bat Crapman! I hope everything goes well for you and your recovery! John

 

[huntbux]

Wow, best wishes on the recovery.

 

[schmalts]

Hope things go well with the hand.
I was thinking about buying one of those as it is an interesting gun. When I was at the SHOT show I talked with a couple FN reps and they were very open about the fact that they do not recommend reloading for this gun and it will void the warranty. They said the necked case being so short is too risky to get sized correct.
Did this happen on a reloaded catridge?

 

[WV Hunter]

Hope things go well with the hand.
I was thinking about buying one of those as it is an interesting gun. When I was at the SHOT show I talked with a couple FN reps and they were very open about the fact that they do not recommend reloading for this gun and it will void the warranty. They said the necked case being so short is too risky to get sized correct.
Did this happen on a reloaded catridge?

First thing I thought but after reading it all the way thru he says it was a factory 40 grn V Max load. Best of luck, hope your hand heals.

 

[noharleyyet]

Ouch, that looks nasty.

 

[Randy49er]

That is a serious Dammit! Hope all goes well with the hand.

 

[Goldtip]

Best of luck with good healing with the hand.

 

[emrah1028]

Sweet Jesus! Glad it didn't take out an eye or something. What do you think happened? You think a hot handload got mixed up with the factory stuff?

Emrah

 

[sweetnectar]

I shot that caliber at the range once this year in a Belgium model of some sort.... Very accurate and I fell in love but now that I see what it did to your hand makes me want to wait until glock makes one in that caliber.

Looking at the pictures it almost looks like the round was detonated when it wasn't fully chambered??

 

[FAIR CHASE]

Sweet Jesus! Glad it didn't take out an eye or something. What do you think happened? You think a hot handload got mixed up with the factory stuff?

Emrah

I will need to let the experts tell me what happened.

 

[NChunter]

I hope all goes well with your recovery.

 

[noharleyyet]

I will need to let the experts tell me what happened.

I trust you've retained an expert to represent you? (not an innanet expert)

 

[MTbowhunter84]

Ouch, best of luck on your recovery!

 

[KyleK]

After seeing this, I may be trading mine this weekend.

Hope recovery goes well!

Kyle

 

[fishing4sanity]

Here's wishing you a complete & speedy recovery. Good Luck!

 

[FAIR CHASE]

Surgery is scheduled for Feb 27th and will use nerve tissue from my leg to repair the severed nerves to my thumb and outside palm area.

 

[MN Public Hunter]

Wow, I just bought my first hand gun and this one scares me. Hope all goes well with the hand and be glad it did not take an eye out. BTW - FN was on my list , but went with a S&W M&P 40 compact instead.