M60 Catastrophic Barrel Failure

[Aaron in Mohnton Pa]

For educational purposes...Video from our YouTube channel below capturing the moment an M60e4 barrel had a catastrophic failure. Round blew out the side. My first thought was a squib round. But the failure point if behind the gas port. So if the squib is behind that the gun would not have cycled to send another round into. Could also possibly be a chunk of the bore came loose and caused the failure. I have barrels here missing chunks of the bore..... My friend Bob at Desert Ordnance suggested this may be due to excessive heat cycles and a failure to allow the barrel to return to ambient temperatures. Always change you barrels out every 200-400 rounds to ensure longevity of them. 

Aaron - Mohnton, Pa

Sales@BeltFeds.Com

Edited July 26, 2025 by Aaron in Mohnton Pa

[johnsonlmg41]

We call that an "intelligence failure".    There's a physics lesson and engineering from the 60's that ground ammo cans hold 200 rounds and helicopter cans hold up to 400 and why you don't use helicopter cans on the ground.  

All of that info is in reports from the early 60's that is......I guess..... not available "on-line".   Have the minigun heat studies from GE as well, with color photos.  All very interesting info.  I also used to watch live experiments like that at the creek, but I was many bodies away from the actual action when possible.  Overall, M60 barrels are probably the worst design ever in the world of firearms?  

Cool video!  Too bad you can't see the expression on his face and the audio when he figures out what happened....priceless.

[Aaron in Mohnton Pa]

@johnsonlmg41 I agree … very good points…. Not that this makes it any better, but this is a company gun and they are torture testing a printed suppressor made from Iconel … running it through excessive heat cycles … Still, a good visual of why to not run the guns through extreme firing cycles if you can avoid it. 

[MPFiveO]

Judging from the color of the can I'd guess that the barrel was probably approaching the state of plasticity and the bullet found a way out short of the muzzle. All of the adults here understand that just because it's machine gun doesn't mean that it will run until the pallet of ammo is gone. To paraphrase, "A man's gotta know a guns limitations."

Extreme firing cycles can always be avoided... Except for when the enemy is overrunning your position or testing and evaluation. Because science!

[mattnh]

Figured I’d add a picture of a failed mk43 DuckBill flash suppressor to this m60e4 barrel thread (apparently it was well known design issue with them and they went back to the e3 cage-style flash-hider)