I went out this morning to do some more work with the Ruger American Target Rifle. I loaded up the first magazine and watched the first 8 rounds disappear into the same hole. When I pulled the trigger on the 9th and final round for that magazine, it blew up in my face! I had powder residue all over my face and arms, and the magazine was completely destroyed. The case is stuck in the chamber. I am sending the rifle and the magazine pieces back to Ruger for their analysis.


I had my shooting glasses on so no harm, no foul on the body. However, the skivvies I was wearing may never get clean! Scared the pee-wadding out of me.

I was shooting Aguila 22 Win Mag Silver Eagle, 40 grain bullets. The lot number on the box is: 02BG16. If you are shooting 22 Mags and have some Aguila on hand, please check it out and if it's that lot number, I'd urge you not to use it.

I will do a follow up on this as soon as I hear from Ruger and Aguila.

Glad you're okay!

Hope you have better luck with Aguila than I did with the Remington rimfires. I had 3 blow outs in 2 different weapons. When I reported it to Remington they basically told me I was full of it. And I wasn't asking for anything, just trying to warn them about an obviously faulty batch of ammo.

Dang!! Any chance you had a squib? It’s hard for me to figure that there could be enough powder in a 22 mag to do that kind of damage.

I guess a case head separation could do it, but that still seems excessive.

If you study the picture carefully, you'll see the case head sitting right next to the metal magazine lip piece. I examined it for firing pin piercing but there was no evidence of that that I could detect. I do believe it was a case of case head separation. As someone noted previously, I'm probably not going to get too much sympathy/empathy from Aguila. I don't want anything but to put them on alert that they may have run a lot of ammo that could create safety hazards for their customers.

Wow. Really glad your okay.. I had that happen with a 9mm round. Glock M17. Yes sir, pretty sure I needed an underwear change as well. Please keep us posted.

Thanks, Janie. My real concern is that a lot of folks think that the 22LR and the 22Mag are "whimp rounds," and allow their kids and other youngsters/beginners to shoot them without proper eye protection. While they're not as powerful as centerfires, they can really do damage to unprotected eyes if things go wrong with them.

Wow, glad your ok.

Any indication on what went wrong?

Not adding any salt to the wound but I never, ever shoot cheap ammo

No report from Ruger, since they haven't had time to examine the rifle. I was doing a test and evaluation of the rifle and was using a variety of ammunition to assess which brand or brands this particular rifle preferred. In my testing, I shoot everything from high to low on the cost-per-round scale because I know that shooters will be shooting them all. It may have been a case of case head separation; I just don't know and may never find out exactly what caused it.

I heard back from Ruger and they are saying that they could find nothing wrong with the rifle and their conclusion is that the problem was caused by head separation of the cartridge. They stated that they shot several hundred rounds of ammo through the rifle in their test lab without a single failure, and that all the "specs" on the rifle chamber and bolt were well within their guidelines. Since I found the separated head in the magazine debris field, I have no doubt that their conclusions are correct. They are sending me a new rifle. They did NOT, however, agree to replace my ruined skivvies. I have not heard back from Aguila, and quite honestly, don't really expect to. . .

Looks like Ruger did you right!

Some employee is getting a perfectly fine rifle, to take home I bet.

Glad you're OK...

Agreed! Glad you'll be getting a new rifle. That speaks volumes about Ruger. Aguila can go pound sand. Mike, seriously, I'd share this on other sites to get the word out. They screwed up and should have the cajones to admit they made a mistake.

Made in Mexico

Yes, on both counts!

I have, janie, and hope it helps Ruger's image and prevents some injury to someone using that lot of Agula ammo.

I'm glad everything worked out and you didn't get hurt. Ruger's stock just went up some more in my book.

That Chinaman was running those cheap shells on you again.

Glad you’re OK.

Ruger CS has always been top notch - not surprised at all.

Makes me proud to be a Ruger owner, thanks for the info about the ammo.