It was improperly reloaded ammo. Commenters were blaming it on the Serbu's design, but he was able to destroy a Barrett with an intentionally spiked round to prove it was the ammo
@@captin3149 I never heard anything like that. From personal experience chamber pressure can ramp up considerably even with a few grains over. I have seen pressure signs (flattened primers, ejector marks and split case necks,) but have never damaged a firearm. If faster pistol powder was used, every round would've performed like a grenade. Thompson Center's channel contains videos showing over pressure and smokeless powder used in muzzle loaders.
After Scott's detailed explanation, even Mark Serbu himself the creator of this rifle also gave his analysis and thoughts, I am more than okay and purchasing that EXACT model of firearm, even after this horrific accident. Mark Serbu took the time and went out of his way after one of his customers had an accident and tried his best to figure out what what happened to prevent it in the future. That is such dedication to customer service if I ever saw it
And not only that, Serbu provided another one of the same model for free knowing that Scott planned to blow it up in an attempt to recreate what happened to him.
85kpsi is just INSANE, and the fact that the barrel didn't split or warp with that kind of a pop, it's for sure good materials they're using. i was kinda skeptical at first when this came out, but after hearing what really went down, with the company's input as well, yeah, it was the round being a shit round, and damn we are all lucky to still have scott around.
So several content creators aka "guntubers" filmed videos to be posted on his channel while he was healing up. They wanted to keep the channel active and the income coming in to help Scott during his healing. They are a community and acted like it, came together to help.
Gee, who would have thought gun nuts are people too? ;) Jokes aside it was really nice to see everyone come together for Scott and make sure that not only was he ok, but his kids were ok and looked after and his wife could spend the time needed with Scott at the hospital. And huge props to Scott Sr for being a complete bad ass with ice in his veins during probably the most terrifying moment of his own life. I couldn't imagine the fear that man felt seeing his son bleeding to death so rapidly, but instead of panicking and asking god for help he calmly told his son "Put a thumb in it!", got the keys and hauled ass. The fact that Scott stayed calm enough and had the presence of mind to tilt his head to help in compressing the wound, along with his thumb is a huge part of his survival, fear is a wonderful drug and motivator, but it's the death of you in this kind of situation and Scott had what it took to over-power that fear and do what he knew he had to do, do what he'd been trained to do to other people who were injured and apply it to himself. Absolute unit.
@@mikesprigg5495I have a hypothetical exercise for you based around the typical liberal world view If Conservatives gain 100% control of the government and military and decide they need to "fix" liberals and the rainbow groups What do YOU as someone with a anti gun view do to fight against that?
I was going to comment this if no one else was. It's like when movies are filmed and on one take the stunt actors get hurt. You have to go with that footage. It's kind of the same thing with the Guntubers who actually are trying to science things out to an extent. The videos in which they get hurt but survive......there's some obligation to see what happened. Otherwise they got all that on camera for us to just say, "Nah, I'm not going to watch it. It sounds really unbelievable, but I'm not going to watch the evidential footage you have of it actually happening."
It was later determined that the very rare and expensive SLAP ammunition he was firing was actually Bubba's p*ssing hot reloads. The accident has since been duplicated by the manufacturer of the rifle (Who has his own channel) and they basically needed to get pretty creative with the ammunition in order to get a rifle to rapidly self disassemble in a similar fashion.
Going theory is whoever cooked up these rounds cutting the charge with pistol powder to get the chamber pressure up. Which is about fifty pounds of 'Nope' in a ten pound sack.
And Scott later bought a second Surbu just to fire the remianing bullets from that batch(via remote pull string for safety of course), and if I remember right he had to go through all of them to get another failure like that, so he was really unlucky pulling that specific round that day when only 2 in the whole set were that bad(though a few were spicy enough that it got the cap stuck to itself due to the overpressure pressingthe threads together, which would have been a hell of a red flag that something was wrong)
@RipOffProductionsLLC he went through all the remaining rounds without another rapid unscheduled disassembly (corporate paperwork term for explosion), and had to use a round that was intentionally overloaded to get a failure, but it failed in almost exactly the same way. Threads sheared off the cap, barrel was thrown forward, stock went backwards into where his shoulder would have been, the main difference is that the ears that make sure the cap is on all the way weren't sheared off, they were just bent to the side. That implies that the 190k PSI round that was used to recreate it was less powerful than the one that blew up on Scott because the ears shearing off in the event implies that the cap was moving faster than in the intentionally overcharged round, since those ears had tine to bend out of the way
@@RipOffProductionsLLC He was really unlucky to draw just that round becouse he couldent get the gun to fail with any of the other remaining SLAP rounds. However in the video he hade a hell of a time to get the rounds out of the chamber after they were fired and almost all of the rounds remaining hade a massive muzzle flash indicating they were very mutch overloaded or hot as he said. He did end up blowing the new gun apart but he hade to intentionally load it with a round that were so strong that it was guaranteed to break the gun.
All ammo here. This round was creating around 190,000+ psi (pressure extrapolated from his follow-up videos and experiments) Completely mental; so glad he’s still around.
The best part, besides Scott surviving, was how the rest of the community rallied around him. Guys like Demo Ranch, Donut Operator, Brandon Herrera, and others help make videos for him while he was recovering so he didn't miss a beat. Good Dudes across the board.
When I saw that shirt part after this happened back then, I knew for a FACT that Scott is a true gangster! After I lost my right leg below the knee I started wearing a T-Shirt that said “Break a leg” and had the ginger bread cookie guy from Shrek on it. I wanted one that said something better but it was the best I could find.
@@chadro_g1145 My oldest is a double amputee (both legs) and she has like ten different shirts that say things like it was a shark and I left my legs in my other pants🤣🤣
Scott has said in a more recent video that his eye doesn't fully dilate correctly, and the gums on that side of his face are still numb, but those are the only lasting injuries he still has. He's since gotten even stronger than he was at the time of this video, and he can now bench 400lbs, which he couldn't do before the accident
not to mention he also amped up his recoil tolerance lol its also great he (and adam post RPG failure) willingly makes fun of his own injury (+ one of the funniest T-Shirts ever), goes to show that such an injury will not stop him if he can pull through and survive it.
Scott put this video out for a reason. He wants people to see it, to learn from it, and hopefully never have to live through this. Same thing with the guys from High Speed Ballistics. They had a RPG explode on them. They released their video as well. Safety, safety, safety. They both want you to be safe while doing anything.
I mean, he says several time there really wasn't anything to be done to avoid something like this. So is he just saying wear your protective equipment?
@@HiIeric117Eye pro yes, but also what to do if this accident happens to you and how to give yourself the best chances of surviving it. Also to be careful with rare ammunition
Vanderbilt Hospital and Vanderbilt Childrens hospital are up there as two of the best hospitals in America. Scott was in great hands for an injury like this.
The inventor of the gun was super cool and got involved in this. A lot of business people wouldn't want to go near this situation but he felt the need to research why the gun he designed exploded. It turned out to be the shady ammo in the end, but the guy is good and honest enough to want to see if this is a risk to all his other customers too
There were a lot of people hate-mailing Mark Serbu and saying his guns are poorly constructed, bad QC, the works, which is demonstrably false. Serbu is a fairly small operation as gun mfg's go and they put a ton of work into their stuff in design and build. He took it on from a mfg's point of view and tested to make sure there was nothing wrong with the gun/guns. Fact is you simply cannot efficiently design and build to handle an explosion of this type, something that is waaay beyond the logical limits of over-pressure by accident. All his stuff met his designed and industry standards and this was simply that one case where the event exceeded all possible expectations. He replaced Scott's gun and even gave him one to purposely test and blow up with the remaining rounds, which showed the wild pressure variances they had. The final explosion with a purposely hot loaded round exploded in almost the exact same way at an estimated 95,000 PSI.
It’s cool to see how close their community is because while he was in the hospital guys like Brandon Herrera (The AK Guy), Matt (Demolition ranch), and Cody (Donut Operator) made videos and posted them to Scott’s channel so that he wouldn’t be dropped by the algorithm.
I saw someone comment on another video reacting to Kentucky Ballistics say that whoever made those rounds used pistol powder instead of rifle powder which caused the incident.
It’s definitely possible. Pistol powder does burn faster across the board on brands. It has less time, because of the shorter barrel, to burn completely. A lot of people aren’t aware that powders do burn at different rates, producing different pressures in the chamber. I reload my own ammunition. I shoot it, my wife, kid, close and extended family, and friends ALL shoot it. I reload for a lot of people. Because it is dangerous if done incorrectly, I use a method to keep it safe. I purposely pick a powder that burns slow enough that it requires more powder than can fit in over half the case. That way, if I were to accidentally double charge the round, powder would be falling out of it and be very visible. I also weigh the empty cases and get an average number. That number + the weight of the powder is checked against the weight of the ammo after the charge is put in. So, after weighing them again, if it deviates the amount the cases deviated, I consider it good, after a visual inspection that is. If it deviates beyond that amount, I dump the powder back into the hopper and start over with that one. I also keep a HUGE amount of notes and records on batches so I know what I’ve done, doing, and will do. Also, using pistol primers will yield a different result too, as far as peak speed, thus chamber pressure, out of a rifle round. The inverse is also true. Most gun manufactures in the USA go for a chamber pressure peak tolerance of at least 1.5 times maximum nominal pressure for a specific chambering. The chamber pressure, also referred to as “SAAMI” pressure, of an AR-15 shooting .223/5.56mm is ~ 55,000 PSI. That is a very standard amount of pressure too for most rifles, as it’s more about the failure point of the metal and not the round. So, a rifle failure at ~ 85,000 PSI is a normal expectation.
A sidebar to this video is orthopedic surgeon Dr. Chris Raynor also did a reaction video to this going over the exact injuries he sustained, the anatomy of such injuries, and how a Doctor/Surgeon would go about repairing the injuries and the physical therapy involved. Worth a look if you're interested.
It was the same rifle he used in the other video of his that you reacted to. After this happened a bunch of other guntubers made videos for the Kentucky Ballistic channel to help him continue getting views and income while he recovered and the videos are pretty funny when they pretend to be him.
By the way he also did an update video this year like it's his 3 years later to show what he's like now he is proud that people watch this video and can learn from it
For added context as well while he was injured all the other guntuber's made videos and content for his channel to help support him. It's an amazing community.
As an ER doc who's seen a lot of trauma. He's incredibly lucky to be alive. I've had a few patient's with similar injuries due to stab wounds. You need a vascular surgeon FAST and our community hospital doesn't have one. You have to start mass transfusion protocol, give TXA, drop a chest tube, and pray the helicopter arrives fast. If the weather is bad and the chopper can't fly you're screwed...
After the accident, the rest of the Gun Tubers stepped up and made videos for his channel while he was recovering. Scott is a legend in the sphere and a great guy. Glad he’s still with us.
What's crazy is the threads on the breach of that rifle are able to withstand 85000psi of pressure. It takes 163500 psi of pressure to shear the threads off.
@@craidiefin No, Scott and mark serbu, (Who made the rifle) later clarified the real extent needed to make the rifle have a catastrophic malfunction like this. Scott simply was mistaken about a lot of what he was saying, which is understandable due to his injuries, and many of the facts he said in the video he clarified either on his channel or on some other channels.
@@Adamjoko 85k to induce flow in the threads, which is just enough to cause visible damage. It's a point of engineering that slipped out and got lost on everyone else. The test round that was put together for the destructive testing video was around 190kpsi, and came up short of producing the exact damage. The 'hot round' was probably in the 200-300kpsi range, if not more; it had to not only accelerate the cap with enough force to flow the threads and shear the safety ears off the receiver, it had to have enough force and acceleration to do that AND propel them at ballistic velocities themselves.
I love Scotts content and was shocked when this happened, it was also heartwarming when a bunch of other guntubers helped him out by filling in for him and making their own spin on his videos while he recovered to help him keep revenue coming in to pay medical bills too.
We clogged Bunker Branding shirt production for several weeks with all the Put A Thumb In It orders. I believe I waited 3 and half weeks before my order was up for production.
Great reaction, see it wasn’t just a weapon going BOOM, he really took his time and explained the who, what, where’s, when and why’s of what happened & you did an outstanding job to reacting to what was presented.
To give a rough idea of the power here (I am not a physicist or a ballistician). A typical 50 BMG round is loaded with about 300 grains of smokeless powder, or a little under an ounce. These rounds were later determined to be improperly loaded and contained even more. An offensive hand grenade (non fragmentation type, used for clearing rooms) contain 3-8 ounces of explosive. This man had what was rapidly approaching the scale of a hand grenade, go off in his face. This also was sealed in a thick metal pipe, which allowed the pressure to build up to substantialy more than a grenade casing.
Not really a valid way to compare things. The reason I say that is because of the burn rates. Pistol powder burns extremely fast, but true explosives are so much faster. The difference between 300 grains of pistol powder and 300 grains of rifle powder - especially magnum powder which burns even slower then rifle powder - is vast. There's a reason reloaders are so anal about powders and load data. For example 5 grains of one pistol powder in a cartridge gets 30,000 psi at the chamber but it takes 23 grains of a rifle powder to get 49,000 psi in a rifle.
@@m2hmghb As a reloader I have strayed only slightly in terms of the published load data, and even that has only been in what bullet type and primer brand I use. When it comes to the actual charges I stick solidly within the min and max data. Too little powder is just as dangerous as too much. Never mix powders and ALWAYS check your charge volume. In almost 20 years of reloading I've never had a detonation and have only ever had one squib load (no or almost no powder in the charge). Process and consistency is key.
I love that you're in this circle of these creators like Nic, Brandon, Kentucky, Demo, and Unsub. Also love the new studio keep it up can't wait to see you on Unsub
This reminds me of my bypass heart surgery. I almost died after the operation. I was having trouble breathing and the nurses said don't worry you will be fine. I could only say one or two words per breath. Finally the doctor came in and listened to my chest. He found a tiny pin hole in 2 of the drainage tube's in my chest. They tube in my side was fine. He put tape over the holes and started draining my chest manually. After about 45 minutes to an hour I started to be able to talk a little better. The doctor was screaming at the nurses that didn't call him in. I was dizzy bcuz of the lack of oxygen. The fluid was actually filling my chest and crowding out my lungs.
The other gun tubers, like Demo Ranch all did their own 'Kentucky Ballistics' videos and sent to him to post on his channel to support him while he was unable to make new videos. They are HILARIOUS!! You need to check them out as well.
He's actually made more than a full recovery, as through his PT he managed to get back to and surpass his previous bench press PR. (He also has only fired BIGGER guns since then)
I came across Scott just after I became ill, which happened to be the same side that SLAP round took a pop at him, and he’s been an inspiration ever since!
I was a surgical technician for many years and he is "Blessed" to be alive. I worked nights so only did emergency surgery mostly and had a couple cut Jugulars and it was very touch and go. Just hitting the Jugular by shrapnel and into the chest could have bled out even with pressure. He is right about the 30 seconds. And yes a chest tube is extremely painful when put in. The jugular brings blood from the brain to the Superior Vena Cava. The Carotid Artery supplies O2 to the brain. If it hit the carotid very nearby the Jugular, he likely would not have survived.
I personally have a motto when it comes to situations like this, "panic solves nothing" This mindset saved me twice when I had strokes. I live alone and have to rely on my own abilities to survive. Scott embodies this mindset for me. Throughout that entire ordeal he kept relatvely calm and made good decision.
as a son of a paramedic, your training would kick in. My dad saved my life, no hesitation. Shit hit the fan and he was right into action. I trust you would be the same.
So Scott lives right down the road from me and I can tell you this that the fact that the local hospital was able to help him is insane. Our hospitals here in this part of Kentucky suck. He’s lucky they didn’t just give him an aspirin and send him home.
Ironically, the same helicopter crew and hospital used later when one of the guys in Ballistic High-Speed had an RPG-7 explode on his shoulder during a video. Also, his father is the cameraman in his videos, definitely the Rexxy character, too.
This is why every gun maker says to only use new factory ammo The other guntubers that made content for him in his downtime came up with some pretty funny videos you should check out
Btw, while he was down and healing, Brandon Herrera, demolition ranch, and others all stood in doing videos to stand in for scott for the channel, you should check them out
From what I understand after watching all the follow-up videos to his accident, the SLAP rounds were actually loaded with gunpowder formulated for pistols. It burns faster to improve the amount of gas produced in shorter barrels. That means at the amounts used for a .50BMG cartridge and barrel length of the firearm in the video, it was entirely too much pressure for the barrel to contain.
Been wanting this for a while! He's actually made multiple videos claiming how well he's healed. If you're curious, Scott has claimed that since the accident, he still has numbing in some part of his gums and I believe one of his fingers doesn't extend all the way out properly anymore. All in all, he's more than lucky, it's a miracle he's even speaking, not even mentioning all the different high recoiling guns he still shoots to this very day!
12:30 Remember that the majority of the energy is used in the shearing of the threads and the ejection of the cap. By the time it reaches his face: it's not at lethal energy levels anymore. Not comfortable by any means but still. 20:00 I have found that it's usually the other folk who are panicking and the person who is injured is usually just in shock and isn't capable of panicking.
During WWII the British .303 Enfield rounds were loaded by stuffing sticks of Cordite (nitrocellulose powder extruded in strands like spaghetti) then snapped off. I would be interested in the spread in velocity between rounds from this era.
I have fired a lot of that stuff over the years. Spec for the Mk7 cartridge called for a 37 grain cordite charge propelling a 174 grain bullet at 2440 fps. In my experience 80+ year old ammunition tends to be rather inconsistent, velocity deviations upwards of 100 fps are basically the norm, when the thing goes off at all.
Scott has healed so much that he is back and shooting huge caliber guns. His biggest rifle is a 4-bore and it is massive. He has 1 bigger gun, but nobody can fire it from their shoulder, which is a PUNTGUN. (barrel so big that you can stick the barrel of a 50.cal in it and have room to spare) He also has other ridiculous guns like the 577 Tyrannosaur and the 950 JDJ Fat Mac.
I think all of us here have already seen and liked the original video :) i already watched it fully twice over the years haha still gonna watch you watch it
No, jugular does not supply oxygenated blood to the brain. It drains blood from head back towards the heart. The Carotid artery supplies oxygenated blood to the brain.
I mean… yeahhh the guy is a gun guy not a doctor, but a jugular laceration is just as bad really.. Like in the long run different problems but still super deadly. That wasn’t the point of the video.
SLAP (Sabot Light Armor Penetration) rounds were first experimented with and introduced in the 1980's. So nearly 40 years had passed since inception to this point. However, since they're not used any more, people are basically reloading them for reuse. So because some chucklenuts was careless, they essentially made his rifle into a pipe bomb. The failure wasn't in the gun weakening due to wear and tear. It's more like the barrel, breach, and bullet all act as a pressure vessel for the expanding gases created from the burning of the powder (not the explosion of it.) With the correct amount, you can get the most energy transferred to the bullet while also burning the most amount of propellant. In Scott's case, the rifle couldn't fling that round down the barrel anywhere near fast enough in comparison to how fast that gas was expanding. So pressure did as pressure does and tried to find the next quickest viable exit. It wasn't through the breech, and the barrel was solid. The bullet wasn't moving fast enough, so the solution is EVERYWHERE. Gun barrels and breaches are only rated to withstand so much pressure before they fail and normally fail safeties are in place to make sure that should something akin to this happens, it takes out the gun and not the user. Unfortunately for Scott, the round was so stupidly hot that this thing went from a burning (as firearms should be doing) to an explosion. Because the rounds he was using didn't have any kind of manufacturer's guarantee for quality control, the SLAP rounds were really a game of FAFO roulette. Probably the most macabre, but weirdly true statement about all of this is that the moment he reacted from all of that, we could at least be reassured he was alive for the time being. If he had just slumped over.........that's the kind of video that doesn't ever see the light of day.
I'd recommend a few of his videos that follow this one. They basically were other Guntubers trying to "fill in" for Scott on their own video platforms and it's really heartwarming, hilarious, and great content.
One of two things happened 1) the old ammo drew moisture and contaminated the propellent causing massive overpressure or 2) Someone reloaded the ammo and double charged the cartridge. Either way it had nothing to do with the rifle or him. NEVER, EVER, mess with really old ammo, if it hasn't been carefully and properly stored it can be very dangerous.
You should watch Ballistic High Speeds RGP explosion accident. I don't like comparing life threatening accidents but I will say this one visual is less violent
KB is a truly awesome guy. he's kept up the beautiful chaos that is gunfire to the point of sometimes being silly. but he's damned good at what he does, and honestly the world is better off with him showing us that chaos in a great way. scott's a cool dude, and a ton of us US vets love his content
To somewhat answer your question his accident was on April 9th, 2021 and this vid was made on April 29th, 2021. I think it took him another couple weeks to get back into the swing of things but he still made content even during that time, just not as much of him firing guns.
We got to keep a great man that day! I was born and raised in Kentucky and have been around guys like him - They're pretty hard to put down. Dude is a badass!!
I am friends with Kentucky Balistics mother.... I have heard the complete, unedited, version of what exactly happened.... needless to say KB is lucky his father was on the set and rushed him to the hospital... if he hadn't been there KB would have died for sure...
Could you check out the General Dynamics/Lonestar RM277? It's GD's NGSW bid, which I think would interest a former SA80 connoisseur such as yourself. Probably the most innovative bullpup (perhaps even most innovative infantry rifle) thus far.
Back during the Vietnam war, the U.S military was circulating sabotaged ammunition to the vietcong. This was done with various calibres, including the SLAP. After the war ended there was still a ton of sabotaged ammunition in the country, and given the age and expense of the rounds Scott used, I'd say it's possible he had one of those in the chamber.
In case nobody mentioned the investigation after this video: The PSI number given in the video (85,000+) was an initial estimate. Mark Serbu, Scott, and others later determined that the pressures were reaching over 200,000 PSI; likely because Dumbass Bobby used pistol powder instead of rifle powder when reloading the cartridge.
It was wild and scott was lucky. The SLAP rounds arent always loaded with the proper amount of gun powder. It was a very hot load. Dude is a badass. After healing he went right back into it.
I'll never forget when this happened. April of 2021. I'll never forget it because I was in the hospital too, being treated for multiple sclerosis. That nifty autoimmune disorder where your immune system decides your spine and brain stem look delicious. In and out of the hospital four times over four months, then four months of living like an infant in a nursing home, which...it wasn't fun. By September though I was recovering, and I've nearly fully been at 100% ever since the end of that month, though I do have nerve damage from what my spine went through. Feet are less sensitive than they were but more sensitive than they were before, bladder control is a thing of the past and if I try and hold it too long I...leak. Other than that though, I'm going strong, recurring MS thankfully, I'd almost certainly be dead by now if it were progressive MS...Almost did bite it honestly, there were six months where my feet felt like they were literally on fire every waking moment. I was NOT a pleasant person to be around, but the people who were subjected to me at my worst were very understanding, I remember one day there was a newbie at the nursing home and a more experienced nurse pulled her aside and said "Look, this is the job you signed up for, this guy is literally in hell, suck it up or quit".
I'm in the army and I'm a 89A which is a ammunition stock control specialist. These rounds are super rare I had a bunch of these come to my asp. There not meant to be shot out of a sniper more for the M2 Browning. These rounds are made to punch through heavy armor. Sux we had to give them to EOD to destroy them.
Later testing by Mark Serbu (Manufacturer) showed it was likely multiple times normal pressure. They think someone replaced the rifle powder with pistol powder (possibly they were attempting boost velocity by making duplex powder rounds with the inherent mixing issues when blending powders which would account for the variation between rounds).
Scott's a legend. I've never seen anyone (especially himself) give credit to higher precautions when it comes to gun safety after his ballistic mishap, a lot more people would use cord/string to fire potentially explosive weapons and rounds on yt. Well, he makes jokes about it to this day when he does that but what I mean is it's not exactly a recognised standard so much as it is "we don't want to join the Ballistics Club". His injuries as shitty as it is, became a sort of PSA for other guntubers which is a solid silver lining
While I wouldn't wish this on anyone but from all accounts Scott is the world's biggest sweat heart. This is why of you're using reloads the moment you get a bad feeling stop shooting, if you're doing your own hand loads be careful, and have medical and medical supplies handy.
Scott is one of the only people who can say he had the best AND worst luck of his life on the same day. Miraculously surviving such a rare freak accident.
After this video was made, Serbu examined the gun that exploded and after some research determined the round that blew the gun up was actually closer to a pressure around 180,000-200,000 PSI, almost 4 times the normal rated pressure.
I saw this video years ago and thought he was EXTREMELY lucky, now watching it again im 100% convinced we witnessed a miracle on camera. There are SO MANY logical scientific reasons Scott should have died, but by nothing short of divine intervention hes thankfully still here. God is SO good, praise be to Jesus Christ 🙏
The reason the rounds deviated so drastically from the point of aim is due to them being extremely hot. +P ammo can sometimes be less accurate depending on the caliber. The more power behind the bullet, the more drastic the bullet is affected by various factors like barrel twist rate, how worn the rifling is, humidity, air pressure, and the wind. Wildcat cartridges from the 70s-90s had the tendency to go off target and disintegrate in flight thanks to the ridiculous amount of powder behind the bullet. KB had SLAP rounds that were spicy enough to be classified as small grenades had anyone noticed something was off about them, so naturally there'd be something wrong with their accuracy.
He did another video recreating the explosion. He explains how this happened. The manufacturer sent him one to destroy. He also destroyed a Barrett with the same hot rounds. He did it as safely as possible, pull strings, ballistic shields and hid behind a truck. He wanted to make everyone know it wasn't the manufacture of the rifle, that was the cause of the incident.
So, one of the things I haven't seen while looking over the comments: the reloader used a mixture of pistol and rifle powder. For those who don't know, pistol powder burns much faster and hotter. The mixture was estimated to cause over 235000 psi of pressure.
Being a former State Trooper (or police officer for that matter), Scott had undoubtedly received medical training on the treatment of traumatic injuries. While I cannot speak for every department, since the variations in requirements are not standardized, as "first responders" most police officers ans troopers are trained for such occasions. Not only did I receive basic medical and trauma training, it later became a requirement (for my department anyway) that we also received training and certification as "EMTs" (Emergency Medical Technician). My particular EMT training was 8 hours a day, every day, for over a 3 months. This is probably where Scott gained the wherewithal to remain calm, coherent and apply the lessons (and experience) he gained in Law Enforcement.
This was a Serbu RN-50 Rifle. The failure was not the fault of the rifle. What caused this was an improperly loaded SLAP round, that massively exceeded the pressures the rifle was designed for (The Serbu was designed with a wide margin over .50-cal pressure, which means the ammo was massively overcharged, causing the RN-50 to fail and grenade.)
This dude hade someone looking over him that day. I have seen a few medical ppl from nurses to surgeons look at this and all of them were pretty mutch equally suprised that he survived this.
After his recovery he took this and made a series out of it (the "When Guns Go Boom" playlist on his channel) by testing out what happens to guns when they fail, pulling the trigger with a string from behind cover for obvious reasons. His first one was to get another RN-50 and recreant this shot to see if it would happen again.
Scott was a strong guy when this happened, and if nothing else, came back stronger. He has bought some of the highest recoiling shoulder fired rifles in the world since then and just keeps upping the game. He and the others in his guntuber circle will make jokes from time to time. Thankfully, his dad is always there when videos are being made and he takes greater precaution with exotic ammo and untested platforms.
i was in the army in 1994, on the range in basic, we had a round not go off, and it shut every single range on the base down. They don't fuck with improper ammo. It can be multiple. It took them 4 hours on the range to clear it and determined it was just 1 round
The t shirt is absolutely legit. I bought one from him. Lol If a 50 cal does that much damage to a person on the back side of the rifle, a person hasn’t a prayer on the other end
When you're in a trauma unit, those people are tough as nails and soft as a new born puppy. Mine caught me trying to turn off the bed alarms with my IV pole several times. I needed to pull my cathode, so I needed to pee afterwards, he hands me this plastic bottle. "Nope" my arm is screwed, not my legs, get me to the head, I ain't pissing in a bed! I had a wound vacuum, IV, and a bunch of leads. It all went with me.
I'd like to mention that Scott is far more careful when firing any ammo that is off the beaten path now, and typically uses lead sleds when he fires anything... strange. So Scott definitely learned from the accident and applied that knowledge effectively.
Hey! I'm in the circular Venn Diagram.... I actually find it kind of funny you are JUST now getting to this.... was crazy when it happened. Other creators; Demolition Ranch, AKGuy, etc all jumped in and recorded "Kentucky Ballistics" videos for Scott to upload, to keep up with his regular posting schedule for the algorithm... it was very cool and they were pretty funny as they all did the cliche Kentucky ballistics things. If i remember right... he only missed like 1 or 2 uploads.. this was in fact like 2 weeks after the accident.
One of my uncles has a gnarly scar across the front of his throat. He got it from a fight overseas when he was, I think a teenager, other guy pulled a knife and sliced him right across his Adamsapple. With his brother he raced to a hospital with his hand clamped across his throat with crazy pressure. Needless to say. He lived...
Hi, Kentucky has a follow-up video explaining what happened. It was a poorly loaded round that was overcharged with powder. The follow-up video is very good at explaining and lessons to learn.
The maker of the rifle sent Scott a second one so he could destroy it as a test. Turns out it wasn’t the rifle, the round was loaded with pistol powder. Turned it from a bullet to a shrapnel grenade.
I can't remember how many times I've seen the "Exploded .50 cal" video and it just dawned on me that this is more of a horror story. Just hearing his story curls my toes.
The ammunition he was using was secretly tampered with at some point in its lifetime as its old ammunition that isnt made anymore and so isnt being sold by the original manufacturer anymore. Someone along the line likely cut it with pistol powder to take and reuse some of the other powder to make more ammunition to sell or to just sell the raw material itself for extra profit. The result of there being some of its powder replaced with pistol ammunition powder means it burned faster and provided a much higher PSI than intended for even a sniper like that.
You can actually see the moment his finger gets broken, in the slowmo you can see where the two arms for the pivot point on the lower comes down directly on his finger, not the stock on the tube like he thought.
It was improperly reloaded ammo. Commenters were blaming it on the Serbu's design, but he was able to destroy a Barrett with an intentionally spiked round to prove it was the ammo
Superhot overloaded SLAP round, blew two things apart - the Serbu AND Scott.
Although I think Scott's tolerances were a lot higher.
Didn't I hear somewhere that it was likely loaded with pistol powder? Which burns hotter and faster than rifle powder? Or was that a fever dream?
I’m also never going to fire a bmg without a buffer tube… I like my shoulder
@@captin3149 I never heard anything like that. From personal experience chamber pressure can ramp up considerably even with a few grains over. I have seen pressure signs (flattened primers, ejector marks and split case necks,) but have never damaged a firearm.
If faster pistol powder was used, every round would've performed like a grenade. Thompson Center's channel contains videos showing over pressure and smokeless powder used in muzzle loaders.
Came here as fast as possible to say this..
Clearly Not fast enough .... lol
After Scott's detailed explanation, even Mark Serbu himself the creator of this rifle also gave his analysis and thoughts, I am more than okay and purchasing that EXACT model of firearm, even after this horrific accident. Mark Serbu took the time and went out of his way after one of his customers had an accident and tried his best to figure out what what happened to prevent it in the future. That is such dedication to customer service if I ever saw it
Amen to that. If a client of mine ever has a breakage I want all the info possible to determine the fault and learn from it.
Props to Mark Serbu 👍
And not only that, Serbu provided another one of the same model for free knowing that Scott planned to blow it up in an attempt to recreate what happened to him.
85kpsi is just INSANE, and the fact that the barrel didn't split or warp with that kind of a pop, it's for sure good materials they're using. i was kinda skeptical at first when this came out, but after hearing what really went down, with the company's input as well, yeah, it was the round being a shit round, and damn we are all lucky to still have scott around.
Mark is good people... he response to this completely won me over.
@@Todrick451Agreed completely
So several content creators aka "guntubers" filmed videos to be posted on his channel while he was healing up. They wanted to keep the channel active and the income coming in to help Scott during his healing. They are a community and acted like it, came together to help.
It really was awesome to see them come together and show support, it shows how close they are as a community.
Gee, who would have thought gun nuts are people too? ;) Jokes aside it was really nice to see everyone come together for Scott and make sure that not only was he ok, but his kids were ok and looked after and his wife could spend the time needed with Scott at the hospital. And huge props to Scott Sr for being a complete bad ass with ice in his veins during probably the most terrifying moment of his own life. I couldn't imagine the fear that man felt seeing his son bleeding to death so rapidly, but instead of panicking and asking god for help he calmly told his son "Put a thumb in it!", got the keys and hauled ass. The fact that Scott stayed calm enough and had the presence of mind to tilt his head to help in compressing the wound, along with his thumb is a huge part of his survival, fear is a wonderful drug and motivator, but it's the death of you in this kind of situation and Scott had what it took to over-power that fear and do what he knew he had to do, do what he'd been trained to do to other people who were injured and apply it to himself.
Absolute unit.
Just what America needs, gun glorification...
@@mikesprigg5495 🙄get a job
@@mikesprigg5495I have a hypothetical exercise for you based around the typical liberal world view
If Conservatives gain 100% control of the government and military and decide they need to "fix" liberals and the rainbow groups
What do YOU as someone with a anti gun view do to fight against that?
Now we need a reaction to the Ballistic Highspeed guy (Adam?) whos rpg exploded and they caught it in slow motion.
I second this.
Third
Quorum
ironic part of that is they both got taken to vanderbilt
I was going to comment this if no one else was. It's like when movies are filmed and on one take the stunt actors get hurt. You have to go with that footage. It's kind of the same thing with the Guntubers who actually are trying to science things out to an extent. The videos in which they get hurt but survive......there's some obligation to see what happened. Otherwise they got all that on camera for us to just say, "Nah, I'm not going to watch it. It sounds really unbelievable, but I'm not going to watch the evidential footage you have of it actually happening."
It was later determined that the very rare and expensive SLAP ammunition he was firing was actually Bubba's p*ssing hot reloads. The accident has since been duplicated by the manufacturer of the rifle (Who has his own channel) and they basically needed to get pretty creative with the ammunition in order to get a rifle to rapidly self disassemble in a similar fashion.
Going theory is whoever cooked up these rounds cutting the charge with pistol powder to get the chamber pressure up. Which is about fifty pounds of 'Nope' in a ten pound sack.
to the tune of 225k psi or something
And Scott later bought a second Surbu just to fire the remianing bullets from that batch(via remote pull string for safety of course), and if I remember right he had to go through all of them to get another failure like that, so he was really unlucky pulling that specific round that day when only 2 in the whole set were that bad(though a few were spicy enough that it got the cap stuck to itself due to the overpressure pressingthe threads together, which would have been a hell of a red flag that something was wrong)
@RipOffProductionsLLC he went through all the remaining rounds without another rapid unscheduled disassembly (corporate paperwork term for explosion), and had to use a round that was intentionally overloaded to get a failure, but it failed in almost exactly the same way. Threads sheared off the cap, barrel was thrown forward, stock went backwards into where his shoulder would have been, the main difference is that the ears that make sure the cap is on all the way weren't sheared off, they were just bent to the side. That implies that the 190k PSI round that was used to recreate it was less powerful than the one that blew up on Scott because the ears shearing off in the event implies that the cap was moving faster than in the intentionally overcharged round, since those ears had tine to bend out of the way
@@RipOffProductionsLLC He was really unlucky to draw just that round becouse he couldent get the gun to fail with any of the other remaining SLAP rounds. However in the video he hade a hell of a time to get the rounds out of the chamber after they were fired and almost all of the rounds remaining hade a massive muzzle flash indicating they were very mutch overloaded or hot as he said. He did end up blowing the new gun apart but he hade to intentionally load it with a round that were so strong that it was guaranteed to break the gun.
All ammo here. This round was creating around 190,000+ psi (pressure extrapolated from his follow-up videos and experiments) Completely mental; so glad he’s still around.
God was really looking out for Scot that day.
Also; PSA:
Do NOT mess with SLAP rounds. Absolutely not.
Basically a grenade
If you load your own ammo this is why you NEVER get creative. Load the proper type of powder in the proper amounts
@@kylewhittington1060there is a reason why they discontinued them . and even the real ones weren't this bad
The best part, besides Scott surviving, was how the rest of the community rallied around him. Guys like Demo Ranch, Donut Operator, Brandon Herrera, and others help make videos for him while he was recovering so he didn't miss a beat. Good Dudes across the board.
Bunker Branding sells a "Just put a thumb in it" T-shirt
When I saw that shirt part after this happened back then, I knew for a FACT that Scott is a true gangster! After I lost my right leg below the knee I started wearing a T-Shirt that said “Break a leg” and had the ginger bread cookie guy from Shrek on it. I wanted one that said something better but it was the best I could find.
@@chadro_g1145 I've seen shirts that say "Two legs are overrated".
@@chadro_g1145 My oldest is a double amputee (both legs) and she has like ten different shirts that say things like it was a shark and I left my legs in my other pants🤣🤣
Wearing mine now!
Scott has said in a more recent video that his eye doesn't fully dilate correctly, and the gums on that side of his face are still numb, but those are the only lasting injuries he still has. He's since gotten even stronger than he was at the time of this video, and he can now bench 400lbs, which he couldn't do before the accident
not to mention he also amped up his recoil tolerance lol
its also great he (and adam post RPG failure) willingly makes fun of his own injury (+ one of the funniest T-Shirts ever), goes to show that such an injury will not stop him if he can pull through and survive it.
Scott put this video out for a reason. He wants people to see it, to learn from it, and hopefully never have to live through this. Same thing with the guys from High Speed Ballistics. They had a RPG explode on them. They released their video as well. Safety, safety, safety. They both want you to be safe while doing anything.
I mean, he says several time there really wasn't anything to be done to avoid something like this. So is he just saying wear your protective equipment?
freak accidents happen no matter how prepared but if he had skipped anything it would have been the end
@@HiIeric117Eye pro yes, but also what to do if this accident happens to you and how to give yourself the best chances of surviving it. Also to be careful with rare ammunition
Vanderbilt Hospital and Vanderbilt Childrens hospital are up there as two of the best hospitals in America. Scott was in great hands for an injury like this.
Absolutely top notch facilities
If anything happens to me in that part of the country I know where to go
The inventor of the gun was super cool and got involved in this. A lot of business people wouldn't want to go near this situation but he felt the need to research why the gun he designed exploded. It turned out to be the shady ammo in the end, but the guy is good and honest enough to want to see if this is a risk to all his other customers too
an investor is the kind of person who cares
inventer if I forget to come back can't edit on this device
There were a lot of people hate-mailing Mark Serbu and saying his guns are poorly constructed, bad QC, the works, which is demonstrably false. Serbu is a fairly small operation as gun mfg's go and they put a ton of work into their stuff in design and build. He took it on from a mfg's point of view and tested to make sure there was nothing wrong with the gun/guns. Fact is you simply cannot efficiently design and build to handle an explosion of this type, something that is waaay beyond the logical limits of over-pressure by accident. All his stuff met his designed and industry standards and this was simply that one case where the event exceeded all possible expectations.
He replaced Scott's gun and even gave him one to purposely test and blow up with the remaining rounds, which showed the wild pressure variances they had. The final explosion with a purposely hot loaded round exploded in almost the exact same way at an estimated 95,000 PSI.
Bolistic high speeds video of the rpg malfunction is also insane
That one's quite a bit rougher to watch to be honest
@thejerg oh definitely a rough watch
@@thejerg Most definitely
how do you manage to mistype Ballistic like that?
@headshothunt3r414 🤷♂️, I guess I depended on spell check and technology failed. I'm not a spell checker, just an old nerd.
It’s cool to see how close their community is because while he was in the hospital guys like Brandon Herrera (The AK Guy), Matt (Demolition ranch), and Cody (Donut Operator) made videos and posted them to Scott’s channel so that he wouldn’t be dropped by the algorithm.
I love that they all used Scott's sound effects in their videos. Matt's is especially funny cause he went a little overboard with them. Lol
They were bros being bros, not only did it help his channel also gave him a few chuckles and was we all know laughter is the best medicine
The unsubscribed/pepperbox family really is something.
I saw someone comment on another video reacting to Kentucky Ballistics say that whoever made those rounds used pistol powder instead of rifle powder which caused the incident.
It’s definitely possible. Pistol powder does burn faster across the board on brands. It has less time, because of the shorter barrel, to burn completely. A lot of people aren’t aware that powders do burn at different rates, producing different pressures in the chamber.
I reload my own ammunition. I shoot it, my wife, kid, close and extended family, and friends ALL shoot it. I reload for a lot of people. Because it is dangerous if done incorrectly, I use a method to keep it safe. I purposely pick a powder that burns slow enough that it requires more powder than can fit in over half the case. That way, if I were to accidentally double charge the round, powder would be falling out of it and be very visible. I also weigh the empty cases and get an average number. That number + the weight of the powder is checked against the weight of the ammo after the charge is put in. So, after weighing them again, if it deviates the amount the cases deviated, I consider it good, after a visual inspection that is. If it deviates beyond that amount, I dump the powder back into the hopper and start over with that one. I also keep a HUGE amount of notes and records on batches so I know what I’ve done, doing, and will do.
Also, using pistol primers will yield a different result too, as far as peak speed, thus chamber pressure, out of a rifle round. The inverse is also true.
Most gun manufactures in the USA go for a chamber pressure peak tolerance of at least 1.5 times maximum nominal pressure for a specific chambering. The chamber pressure, also referred to as “SAAMI” pressure, of an AR-15 shooting .223/5.56mm is ~ 55,000 PSI. That is a very standard amount of pressure too for most rifles, as it’s more about the failure point of the metal and not the round. So, a rifle failure at ~ 85,000 PSI is a normal expectation.
They used magnum powder .
@@kasag37 There's no such thing as "magnum" powder.
He comes back stronger than he was before
quite literally, lol.
2 Year after Accident
He Shoot Highly Recoil Gun Like 4Bore Rifle His Shoulder I 'm Fine
That's how you know Scott is the main character 😂
A sidebar to this video is orthopedic surgeon Dr. Chris Raynor also did a reaction video to this going over the exact injuries he sustained, the anatomy of such injuries, and how a Doctor/Surgeon would go about repairing the injuries and the physical therapy involved. Worth a look if you're interested.
Definitely a great video to watch. Dr. Chris is awesome.
His reactions to Garand Thumb's shenanigans are funny AF.
that was a great video it even pointed out a mistake he made explaining it
@@ImprovmanZero Kentucky Balistics isn't a doctor, you cannot blame him for making a mistake.
@@toportime I don't I am saying the doctor explained it better
The ammunition wasn't factory made. I was probably hand loaded from salvaged components.
It was the same rifle he used in the other video of his that you reacted to.
After this happened a bunch of other guntubers made videos for the Kentucky Ballistic channel to help him continue getting views and income while he recovered and the videos are pretty funny when they pretend to be him.
Mark Serbu the Owner and Manufacturer even came around and helped Kentucky ballistics, that's honestly good customer service and care
By the way he also did an update video this year like it's his 3 years later to show what he's like now he is proud that people watch this video and can learn from it
For added context as well while he was injured all the other guntuber's made videos and content for his channel to help support him. It's an amazing community.
As an ER doc who's seen a lot of trauma. He's incredibly lucky to be alive. I've had a few patient's with similar injuries due to stab wounds. You need a vascular surgeon FAST and our community hospital doesn't have one. You have to start mass transfusion protocol, give TXA, drop a chest tube, and pray the helicopter arrives fast. If the weather is bad and the chopper can't fly you're screwed...
His sense of humor about this is amazing. He talks about his neck scar itching its amazing.
He absolutely made that shirt. Such a humble man and just my type of humor
After the accident, the rest of the Gun Tubers stepped up and made videos for his channel while he was recovering. Scott is a legend in the sphere and a great guy. Glad he’s still with us.
What's crazy is the threads on the breach of that rifle are able to withstand 85000psi of pressure. It takes 163500 psi of pressure to shear the threads off.
55k psi normally. 85k psi to shear the threads off
@@craidiefin No, Scott and mark serbu, (Who made the rifle) later clarified the real extent needed to make the rifle have a catastrophic malfunction like this. Scott simply was mistaken about a lot of what he was saying, which is understandable due to his injuries, and many of the facts he said in the video he clarified either on his channel or on some other channels.
@@Adamjoko Ahh, sorry. I missed or forgot about that correction then.
@@Adamjoko 85k to induce flow in the threads, which is just enough to cause visible damage. It's a point of engineering that slipped out and got lost on everyone else.
The test round that was put together for the destructive testing video was around 190kpsi, and came up short of producing the exact damage.
The 'hot round' was probably in the 200-300kpsi range, if not more; it had to not only accelerate the cap with enough force to flow the threads and shear the safety ears off the receiver, it had to have enough force and acceleration to do that AND propel them at ballistic velocities themselves.
I love Scotts content and was shocked when this happened, it was also heartwarming when a bunch of other guntubers helped him out by filling in for him and making their own spin on his videos while he recovered to help him keep revenue coming in to pay medical bills too.
We clogged Bunker Branding shirt production for several weeks with all the Put A Thumb In It orders. I believe I waited 3 and half weeks before my order was up for production.
Yup!! They weren't expecting nor equipped for that influx of orders
do they still sell them?
@@ImprovmanZero not sure.
@@ImprovmanZero they do. Over at Bunker Branding, select Influencers, and Kentucky Ballistics, Tshirts.
Great reaction, see it wasn’t just a weapon going BOOM, he really took his time and explained the who, what, where’s, when and why’s of what happened & you did an outstanding job to reacting to what was presented.
To give a rough idea of the power here (I am not a physicist or a ballistician). A typical 50 BMG round is loaded with about 300 grains of smokeless powder, or a little under an ounce. These rounds were later determined to be improperly loaded and contained even more. An offensive hand grenade (non fragmentation type, used for clearing rooms) contain 3-8 ounces of explosive. This man had what was rapidly approaching the scale of a hand grenade, go off in his face. This also was sealed in a thick metal pipe, which allowed the pressure to build up to substantialy more than a grenade casing.
Not really a valid way to compare things. The reason I say that is because of the burn rates. Pistol powder burns extremely fast, but true explosives are so much faster. The difference between 300 grains of pistol powder and 300 grains of rifle powder - especially magnum powder which burns even slower then rifle powder - is vast. There's a reason reloaders are so anal about powders and load data. For example 5 grains of one pistol powder in a cartridge gets 30,000 psi at the chamber but it takes 23 grains of a rifle powder to get 49,000 psi in a rifle.
@@m2hmghb As a reloader I have strayed only slightly in terms of the published load data, and even that has only been in what bullet type and primer brand I use. When it comes to the actual charges I stick solidly within the min and max data. Too little powder is just as dangerous as too much. Never mix powders and ALWAYS check your charge volume. In almost 20 years of reloading I've never had a detonation and have only ever had one squib load (no or almost no powder in the charge). Process and consistency is key.
I love that you're in this circle of these creators like Nic, Brandon, Kentucky, Demo, and Unsub. Also love the new studio keep it up can't wait to see you on Unsub
I think at the start of the video he says he recorded this 2 week after the incident, Scott is on tough dude.
This reminds me of my bypass heart surgery. I almost died after the operation. I was having trouble breathing and the nurses said don't worry you will be fine. I could only say one or two words per breath. Finally the doctor came in and listened to my chest. He found a tiny pin hole in 2 of the drainage tube's in my chest. They tube in my side was fine. He put tape over the holes and started draining my chest manually. After about 45 minutes to an hour I started to be able to talk a little better. The doctor was screaming at the nurses that didn't call him in. I was dizzy bcuz of the lack of oxygen. The fluid was actually filling my chest and crowding out my lungs.
Dang that is so cool. Glad you are alive! God is good.
Let's go! this vid is insane most people would have passed away but not kuntucky, the man is a beast!
He put the fallout stats in Endurance his HP pool is too deep
The other gun tubers, like Demo Ranch all did their own 'Kentucky Ballistics' videos and sent to him to post on his channel to support him while he was unable to make new videos. They are HILARIOUS!! You need to check them out as well.
He's actually made more than a full recovery, as through his PT he managed to get back to and surpass his previous bench press PR. (He also has only fired BIGGER guns since then)
I came across Scott just after I became ill, which happened to be the same side that SLAP round took a pop at him, and he’s been an inspiration ever since!
I was a surgical technician for many years and he is "Blessed" to be alive. I worked nights so only did emergency surgery mostly and had a couple cut Jugulars and it was very touch and go. Just hitting the Jugular by shrapnel and into the chest could have bled out even with pressure. He is right about the 30 seconds. And yes a chest tube is extremely painful when put in. The jugular brings blood from the brain to the Superior Vena Cava. The Carotid Artery supplies O2 to the brain. If it hit the carotid very nearby the Jugular, he likely would not have survived.
So happy you're watching more Kentucky. Dude is a great creator
I personally have a motto when it comes to situations like this, "panic solves nothing" This mindset saved me twice when I had strokes. I live alone and have to rely on my own abilities to survive. Scott embodies this mindset for me. Throughout that entire ordeal he kept relatvely calm and made good decision.
Yeah, never panic, it only causes confusion, slows down your thinking, and slows down your reaction time.
@@roguehart Same during freesolo climbing
as a son of a paramedic, your training would kick in. My dad saved my life, no hesitation. Shit hit the fan and he was right into action. I trust you would be the same.
So Scott lives right down the road from me and I can tell you this that the fact that the local hospital was able to help him is insane. Our hospitals here in this part of Kentucky suck. He’s lucky they didn’t just give him an aspirin and send him home.
Ironically, the same helicopter crew and hospital used later when one of the guys in Ballistic High-Speed had an RPG-7 explode on his shoulder during a video. Also, his father is the cameraman in his videos, definitely the Rexxy character, too.
This is why every gun maker says to only use new factory ammo
The other guntubers that made content for him in his downtime came up with some pretty funny videos you should check out
Btw, while he was down and healing, Brandon Herrera, demolition ranch, and others all stood in doing videos to stand in for scott for the channel, you should check them out
4:25 'subun awryn fif-teh' classic
From what I understand after watching all the follow-up videos to his accident, the SLAP rounds were actually loaded with gunpowder formulated for pistols. It burns faster to improve the amount of gas produced in shorter barrels. That means at the amounts used for a .50BMG cartridge and barrel length of the firearm in the video, it was entirely too much pressure for the barrel to contain.
Been wanting this for a while! He's actually made multiple videos claiming how well he's healed. If you're curious, Scott has claimed that since the accident, he still has numbing in some part of his gums and I believe one of his fingers doesn't extend all the way out properly anymore. All in all, he's more than lucky, it's a miracle he's even speaking, not even mentioning all the different high recoiling guns he still shoots to this very day!
12:30 Remember that the majority of the energy is used in the shearing of the threads and the ejection of the cap. By the time it reaches his face: it's not at lethal energy levels anymore. Not comfortable by any means but still.
20:00 I have found that it's usually the other folk who are panicking and the person who is injured is usually just in shock and isn't capable of panicking.
Serbu himself proved it was a spicy round, he purposelly blew another rifle with a spiked round, and it failed in the same manner.
During WWII the British .303 Enfield rounds were loaded by stuffing sticks of Cordite (nitrocellulose powder extruded in strands like spaghetti) then snapped off. I would be interested in the spread in velocity between rounds from this era.
I have fired a lot of that stuff over the years. Spec for the Mk7 cartridge called for a 37 grain cordite charge propelling a 174 grain bullet at 2440 fps. In my experience 80+ year old ammunition tends to be rather inconsistent, velocity deviations upwards of 100 fps are basically the norm, when the thing goes off at all.
Scott has healed so much that he is back and shooting huge caliber guns.
His biggest rifle is a 4-bore and it is massive.
He has 1 bigger gun, but nobody can fire it from their shoulder, which is a PUNTGUN. (barrel so big that you can stick the barrel of a 50.cal in it and have room to spare)
He also has other ridiculous guns like the 577 Tyrannosaur and the 950 JDJ Fat Mac.
I think all of us here have already seen and liked the original video :) i already watched it fully twice over the years haha
still gonna watch you watch it
ive probably seen it like ten times with the amount of reactions there are on yt
Wait till you see the RPG accident by ballistic high speed Lmaoo
No, jugular does not supply oxygenated blood to the brain. It drains blood from head back towards the heart. The Carotid artery supplies oxygenated blood to the brain.
I mean… yeahhh the guy is a gun guy not a doctor, but a jugular laceration is just as bad really.. Like in the long run different problems but still super deadly. That wasn’t the point of the video.
Oh, well that's okay then. What's all the fuss about?
Jugular or carotid neither is very good when severed but I get ya
SLAP (Sabot Light Armor Penetration) rounds were first experimented with and introduced in the 1980's. So nearly 40 years had passed since inception to this point. However, since they're not used any more, people are basically reloading them for reuse. So because some chucklenuts was careless, they essentially made his rifle into a pipe bomb. The failure wasn't in the gun weakening due to wear and tear. It's more like the barrel, breach, and bullet all act as a pressure vessel for the expanding gases created from the burning of the powder (not the explosion of it.) With the correct amount, you can get the most energy transferred to the bullet while also burning the most amount of propellant.
In Scott's case, the rifle couldn't fling that round down the barrel anywhere near fast enough in comparison to how fast that gas was expanding. So pressure did as pressure does and tried to find the next quickest viable exit. It wasn't through the breech, and the barrel was solid. The bullet wasn't moving fast enough, so the solution is EVERYWHERE. Gun barrels and breaches are only rated to withstand so much pressure before they fail and normally fail safeties are in place to make sure that should something akin to this happens, it takes out the gun and not the user. Unfortunately for Scott, the round was so stupidly hot that this thing went from a burning (as firearms should be doing) to an explosion. Because the rounds he was using didn't have any kind of manufacturer's guarantee for quality control, the SLAP rounds were really a game of FAFO roulette.
Probably the most macabre, but weirdly true statement about all of this is that the moment he reacted from all of that, we could at least be reassured he was alive for the time being. If he had just slumped over.........that's the kind of video that doesn't ever see the light of day.
I'd recommend a few of his videos that follow this one. They basically were other Guntubers trying to "fill in" for Scott on their own video platforms and it's really heartwarming, hilarious, and great content.
Now you gotta watch High-Speed Ballistics RPG explosion
Recommending a shot or two of whiskey before hand it's gnarly
One of two things happened 1) the old ammo drew moisture and contaminated the propellent causing massive overpressure or 2) Someone reloaded the ammo and double charged the cartridge. Either way it had nothing to do with the rifle or him. NEVER, EVER, mess with really old ammo, if it hasn't been carefully and properly stored it can be very dangerous.
I wonder what the powder would do if it starts to decompose from improper storage.
You should watch Ballistic High Speeds RGP explosion accident.
I don't like comparing life threatening accidents but I will say this one visual is less violent
KB is a truly awesome guy. he's kept up the beautiful chaos that is gunfire to the point of sometimes being silly. but he's damned good at what he does, and honestly the world is better off with him showing us that chaos in a great way. scott's a cool dude, and a ton of us US vets love his content
To somewhat answer your question his accident was on April 9th, 2021 and this vid was made on April 29th, 2021. I think it took him another couple weeks to get back into the swing of things but he still made content even during that time, just not as much of him firing guns.
We got to keep a great man that day! I was born and raised in Kentucky and have been around guys like him - They're pretty hard to put down. Dude is a badass!!
I'm glad you watched this, and like I said on the last one you got to watch one of his more recent videos
I am friends with Kentucky Balistics mother.... I have heard the complete, unedited, version of what exactly happened.... needless to say KB is lucky his father was on the set and rushed him to the hospital... if he hadn't been there KB would have died for sure...
Could you check out the General Dynamics/Lonestar RM277? It's GD's NGSW bid, which I think would interest a former SA80 connoisseur such as yourself. Probably the most innovative bullpup (perhaps even most innovative infantry rifle) thus far.
if you don't mind doing another video like this thats more recent, ballistic highspeed has a similar video. that one is more graphic though.
Back during the Vietnam war, the U.S military was circulating sabotaged ammunition to the vietcong. This was done with various calibres, including the SLAP. After the war ended there was still a ton of sabotaged ammunition in the country, and given the age and expense of the rounds Scott used, I'd say it's possible he had one of those in the chamber.
In case nobody mentioned the investigation after this video: The PSI number given in the video (85,000+) was an initial estimate. Mark Serbu, Scott, and others later determined that the pressures were reaching over 200,000 PSI; likely because Dumbass Bobby used pistol powder instead of rifle powder when reloading the cartridge.
It was wild and scott was lucky. The SLAP rounds arent always loaded with the proper amount of gun powder. It was a very hot load. Dude is a badass. After healing he went right back into it.
I'll never forget when this happened. April of 2021. I'll never forget it because I was in the hospital too, being treated for multiple sclerosis. That nifty autoimmune disorder where your immune system decides your spine and brain stem look delicious. In and out of the hospital four times over four months, then four months of living like an infant in a nursing home, which...it wasn't fun. By September though I was recovering, and I've nearly fully been at 100% ever since the end of that month, though I do have nerve damage from what my spine went through. Feet are less sensitive than they were but more sensitive than they were before, bladder control is a thing of the past and if I try and hold it too long I...leak. Other than that though, I'm going strong, recurring MS thankfully, I'd almost certainly be dead by now if it were progressive MS...Almost did bite it honestly, there were six months where my feet felt like they were literally on fire every waking moment. I was NOT a pleasant person to be around, but the people who were subjected to me at my worst were very understanding, I remember one day there was a newbie at the nursing home and a more experienced nurse pulled her aside and said "Look, this is the job you signed up for, this guy is literally in hell, suck it up or quit".
I'm in the army and I'm a 89A which is a ammunition stock control specialist. These rounds are super rare I had a bunch of these come to my asp. There not meant to be shot out of a sniper more for the M2 Browning. These rounds are made to punch through heavy armor. Sux we had to give them to EOD to destroy them.
Later testing by Mark Serbu (Manufacturer) showed it was likely multiple times normal pressure. They think someone replaced the rifle powder with pistol powder (possibly they were attempting boost velocity by making duplex powder rounds with the inherent mixing issues when blending powders which would account for the variation between rounds).
Scott's a legend. I've never seen anyone (especially himself) give credit to higher precautions when it comes to gun safety after his ballistic mishap, a lot more people would use cord/string to fire potentially explosive weapons and rounds on yt. Well, he makes jokes about it to this day when he does that but what I mean is it's not exactly a recognised standard so much as it is "we don't want to join the Ballistics Club". His injuries as shitty as it is, became a sort of PSA for other guntubers which is a solid silver lining
While I wouldn't wish this on anyone but from all accounts Scott is the world's biggest sweat heart. This is why of you're using reloads the moment you get a bad feeling stop shooting, if you're doing your own hand loads be careful, and have medical and medical supplies handy.
Scott is one of the only people who can say he had the best AND worst luck of his life on the same day. Miraculously surviving such a rare freak accident.
After this video was made, Serbu examined the gun that exploded and after some research determined the round that blew the gun up was actually closer to a pressure around 180,000-200,000 PSI, almost 4 times the normal rated pressure.
I saw this video years ago and thought he was EXTREMELY lucky, now watching it again im 100% convinced we witnessed a miracle on camera. There are SO MANY logical scientific reasons Scott should have died, but by nothing short of divine intervention hes thankfully still here. God is SO good, praise be to Jesus Christ 🙏
The reason the rounds deviated so drastically from the point of aim is due to them being extremely hot. +P ammo can sometimes be less accurate depending on the caliber. The more power behind the bullet, the more drastic the bullet is affected by various factors like barrel twist rate, how worn the rifling is, humidity, air pressure, and the wind. Wildcat cartridges from the 70s-90s had the tendency to go off target and disintegrate in flight thanks to the ridiculous amount of powder behind the bullet. KB had SLAP rounds that were spicy enough to be classified as small grenades had anyone noticed something was off about them, so naturally there'd be something wrong with their accuracy.
He did another video recreating the explosion. He explains how this happened. The manufacturer sent him one to destroy. He also destroyed a Barrett with the same hot rounds. He did it as safely as possible, pull strings, ballistic shields and hid behind a truck. He wanted to make everyone know it wasn't the manufacture of the rifle, that was the cause of the incident.
Love to see you reacting to this
We Kentuckians are built different but he’s just built better. He’s a great man definitely should see more of his videos
So, one of the things I haven't seen while looking over the comments: the reloader used a mixture of pistol and rifle powder. For those who don't know, pistol powder burns much faster and hotter. The mixture was estimated to cause over 235000 psi of pressure.
Being a former State Trooper (or police officer for that matter), Scott had undoubtedly received medical training on the treatment of traumatic injuries. While I cannot speak for every department, since the variations in requirements are not standardized, as "first responders" most police officers ans troopers are trained for such occasions. Not only did I receive basic medical and trauma training, it later became a requirement (for my department anyway) that we also received training and certification as "EMTs" (Emergency Medical Technician). My particular EMT training was 8 hours a day, every day, for over a 3 months. This is probably where Scott gained the wherewithal to remain calm, coherent and apply the lessons (and experience) he gained in Law Enforcement.
This was a Serbu RN-50 Rifle. The failure was not the fault of the rifle. What caused this was an improperly loaded SLAP round, that massively exceeded the pressures the rifle was designed for (The Serbu was designed with a wide margin over .50-cal pressure, which means the ammo was massively overcharged, causing the RN-50 to fail and grenade.)
This dude hade someone looking over him that day. I have seen a few medical ppl from nurses to surgeons look at this and all of them were pretty mutch equally suprised that he survived this.
After his recovery he took this and made a series out of it (the "When Guns Go Boom" playlist on his channel) by testing out what happens to guns when they fail, pulling the trigger with a string from behind cover for obvious reasons. His first one was to get another RN-50 and recreant this shot to see if it would happen again.
Scott was a strong guy when this happened, and if nothing else, came back stronger. He has bought some of the highest recoiling shoulder fired rifles in the world since then and just keeps upping the game. He and the others in his guntuber circle will make jokes from time to time. Thankfully, his dad is always there when videos are being made and he takes greater precaution with exotic ammo and untested platforms.
i was in the army in 1994, on the range in basic, we had a round not go off, and it shut every single range on the base down. They don't fuck with improper ammo. It can be multiple. It took them 4 hours on the range to clear it and determined it was just 1 round
The t shirt is absolutely legit. I bought one from him. Lol
If a 50 cal does that much damage to a person on the back side of the rifle, a person hasn’t a prayer on the other end
When you're in a trauma unit, those people are tough as nails and soft as a new born puppy. Mine caught me trying to turn off the bed alarms with my IV pole several times. I needed to pull my cathode, so I needed to pee afterwards, he hands me this plastic bottle. "Nope" my arm is screwed, not my legs, get me to the head, I ain't pissing in a bed! I had a wound vacuum, IV, and a bunch of leads. It all went with me.
I'd like to mention that Scott is far more careful when firing any ammo that is off the beaten path now, and typically uses lead sleds when he fires anything... strange. So Scott definitely learned from the accident and applied that knowledge effectively.
Hey! I'm in the circular Venn Diagram....
I actually find it kind of funny you are JUST now getting to this.... was crazy when it happened.
Other creators; Demolition Ranch, AKGuy, etc all jumped in and recorded "Kentucky Ballistics" videos for Scott to upload, to keep up with his regular posting schedule for the algorithm... it was very cool and they were pretty funny as they all did the cliche Kentucky ballistics things.
If i remember right... he only missed like 1 or 2 uploads.. this was in fact like 2 weeks after the accident.
I also own a Serbu RM50. It's a great gun. Breach load screw cap breach.
One of my uncles has a gnarly scar across the front of his throat. He got it from a fight overseas when he was, I think a teenager, other guy pulled a knife and sliced him right across his Adamsapple. With his brother he raced to a hospital with his hand clamped across his throat with crazy pressure. Needless to say. He lived...
Hi, Kentucky has a follow-up video explaining what happened. It was a poorly loaded round that was overcharged with powder. The follow-up video is very good at explaining and lessons to learn.
The maker of the rifle sent Scott a second one so he could destroy it as a test.
Turns out it wasn’t the rifle, the round was loaded with pistol powder. Turned it from a bullet to a shrapnel grenade.
I can't remember how many times I've seen the "Exploded .50 cal" video and it just dawned on me that this is more of a horror story.
Just hearing his story curls my toes.
The ammunition he was using was secretly tampered with at some point in its lifetime as its old ammunition that isnt made anymore and so isnt being sold by the original manufacturer anymore. Someone along the line likely cut it with pistol powder to take and reuse some of the other powder to make more ammunition to sell or to just sell the raw material itself for extra profit.
The result of there being some of its powder replaced with pistol ammunition powder means it burned faster and provided a much higher PSI than intended for even a sniper like that.
You can actually see the moment his finger gets broken, in the slowmo you can see where the two arms for the pivot point on the lower comes down directly on his finger, not the stock on the tube like he thought.