Cool. Watch your powder charges this time.

Funny what a little publicity will do

What about his medical expenses?

You want to explain what "out of battery" means?

@PaperBoy: In simpler terms, the cartridge wasn't pushed into the barrel far enough when it went off.

This is actually pretty remarkable for a manufacturer to do this when a reload was used. The reload may not have caused it, but it's good of them to take it on without knowing exactly what happened.

For non-gun folks, think of it like Britta replacing a water pitcher that leaked after you emptied and re-filled the filter yourself.

@Elvisisdead: So basically the bullet fired but got caught in the chamber?

Why would you want a second one if the first one exploded in your hand?

'...will be sending him a new handgun free of charge.' Which he will immediately sell or give away to someone else if he has any sense.

I'm not anti-gun. Actually I have a few myself including a CCW. However, if a gun did this to me, I would find something else to shoot.

@Diet-Orange-Soda:
No, the bullet may or may not have made it all the way down the barrel, but in any case that's not relevant. "Out of battery" means the slide wasn't completely forward and as a result, the shell casing was not completely supported (surrounded) by the chamber. Without this support, the brass casing is not strong enough to contain the expanding gases (which would normally push the bullet out of the case and down the barrel). So this unsupported area ruptures and some/all of the pressure is redirected that direction. Because this area (where those gases go) is not designed to contain that kind of pressure, pieces start breaking, and injury can result.

The bullet may or may not make it out of the barrel after an out-of-battery incident. If it does, it won't have nearly the energy that it normally would.

Regardless, the Five-seveN is a reliable gun that is used by SWAT teams across the country.

@loueloui:

"I'm not anti-gun. Actually I have a few myself including a CCW. However, if a gun did this to me, I would find something else to shoot."

It wasn't the gun - it was the ammo round that he reloaded himself.

So, perhaps he should try to crawl back into his mama's vajayjay...

\Read TFA - it helps with the foot-in-mouth issue

Wait, they're sending him a new gun despite the fact that it was probably his own damn fault it blew up in his hands?

Does anyone else foresee a future Darwin Award winner?

@theblackdog: Yep.

I dunno. I sent a link to this story to a lot of my shooting friends, some reloaders, etc. This is a very surprising ending to this story. I guess the media attention, including Consumerist, made FN Herstal want to end this as soon as possible, and the price of a single firearm was not worth the potential bad press. Even the people on that guy's forum - who sounded leery of FN's customer service - probably spend more with them annually than the value of one firearm. Clearly, after a short while, the calculations became clear, and they ended it cheap.

I can tell you right now, if you were Joe Shmo, and this happened to you, and you hadn't posted bloody pictures of yourself on the internet and gotten the attention this guy did, your story would be different. Once you 'fessed up to shooting reloads, the conversation would be over. We are definitely seeing some "observer effect" here.

@Erskine: What a polite and charming reply. I can't imagine why people think of gun nuts as undersocialized and overcompensating.

@Kajj: Don't own a gun - just hate morons who reply before they read.

Also dislike pedantic losers who attempt to use sarcasm but fail because they don't know their subjects.

\Points at Kajj like evil closet monkey

The company name isn't "Five-SeveN," it's Fabrique Nationale Herstal (FNH) - a firearms manufacturer originally out of Belgium. They make all sorts of guns used by law enforcement and military's around the world.

@Erskine: I agree, if you can't afford factory .57 ammo don't shoot it.

So the argument is that the slide didn't fully close because the reloaded cartridge caused the problem?

Sounds like maybe the weapon should be designed so that it won't fire without the slide completely closed.

@Erskine: You can attempt to educate me on sarcasm when you learn to communicate without resorting to antiquated chat conventions like some mid-90's "haX0r."

\Idiotic Family Guy reference

Something tells me that I'll be sticking to my Browning for a while...

Law enforcement might like the Five-seveN, but the M1911A1 still fires true and faithful toward their targets, and has done so for decades.

An oldie, but goodie. It's worth it's weight in gold.

He shoots, he scores?

I had done research on this story after a friend of mine wanted to get a FiveseveN but then was scared off by this story and folks who didnt check facts.

To make a long story short, the guy did his own reloads of a new ammunition that specifically states do not do reloads as it also voids the warranty of the gun itself.

Not only did FN apologize and respond to him, he got himself a new replacement gun to boot no questions asked. Regardless of the fact that he had voided the warranty himself by using reload rounds in the pistol.

If anything that fellow is lucky to have his hand intact after having seen the various photos he had originally posted.

Also most of the more level headed FN users / gun enthusiasts do agree that the user here was more at fault than FN.

Then from there things just totally snowballed out of control making it look like the FiveseveN was some sort of defective monstrosity that explodes on contact with users. Just becuase people do not want to dig on their own and fish out the real facts.

Thank god for other responsible gun owners who spent the time to share their knowledge with others and clear up the whole mess in general.

Also FN still did not have to answer to the man mainly based off the fact that he was using reloads. Which once again voids his warranty on the gun itself.

If this occured with him using factory ammunition and the out of battery issue with the pistol would have been a case that would be really worthy of being plastered all over the internet. The guy kinda discredited himself as others have said once he stated that he used reload rounds.