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Another thing: In the event of a case head failure, the design of the M4/M16/AR family of rifles funnels the force of the explosion down the mag well and out the bottom of the magazine. This blows the floor plate of the magazine off and spews the contents of the magazine all over the place. If the the magazine is being used as a mono-pod, that practically turns the magazine into a grenade...
This happened to me about 15 years ago. Twisted the bolt carrier in the upper receiver, bulged the sides of the upper and lower receivers, split the bottom of the bolt carrier, and vented all of those hot gasses down and out the bottom of the magazine. Magazine body was bulged out almost like a soda can, and blew the floorplate, spring, follower, and remaining rounds out the bottom of the magazine. I got a scrape and bruise on the inside of my support forearm as magazine contents made their exit, but that was the worst of it.
Tried mortaring the gun to clear it, and ripped off the end of the charging handle for my efforts. Actually had to remove the barrel nut to get the gun apart. Upper and guts were toast, but aside from bulged magwell, lower was fine. Squeezed the sides back together in a vice, slapped a fresh upper on it, and the gun ran fine. I probably have pics, if not that old trashed bolt carrier, still around here somewhere.
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