Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Guns you've blown up

If that's all you got, you might get your handle revoked….

That fluting may have been mite too deep.

I've not blown up any rifle.

I began handloading in 1975 with no one to tutor me. I just READ and READ before attempting to start loading.

I have had 2 blown primers 3 yrs apart with different lots of H 450 that obviously ruined the cases. BTW the load was in a handloading manual. Since then I have designated H 450 to varmint loads in the 6mm Rem at mid-level.

Being an ardent fan of Bob Hagel and JOC with JRS sprinkled on top, I'm thankful I followed their advice to proceed with caution.

Only had one let go on me, and that's one too many.
It was a like new condition 70's vintage Rossi 12ga hammer gun with 3 ' chambers. Killed a turkey the day before with it. Clean barrel, no obstructions, using a major brand's 3' turkey shell.
A couple of magic pellets must have made it out the end of the barrel rather than the rupture as I killed turkey #2 when it blew up.

My thumb was under the blowout and the forend blew up as well. I count my blessings I didn't lose my thumb, or worse. Only some stinging and a bruise.

Just me, but I have never handled a Rossi anything since and I will not shoot the major brand ammunition I used that day ever again. That's just me.
I was very lucky in May of '08. This could have ended badly.
Did I mention it scared the [bleep] out of me ?

Oh, I see. When the heat's on somebody else, it's not on ME

I'd very much like to know how you managed that.

Yeah, me, too. I have been waiting patiently for the story...

I started handloading in 1971 and never so much as pierced a primer - until 2 years ago when I blew a sako 85 finlight to smithereens as I detailed in a previous thread.

I took a lot of shrapnel and the gun came completely apart.
You can see a picture of it in that old thread.

Don't recommend it to anyone.

I've got a collection of shrapnel in a big box back in my loading room. It contains many parts from blown up guns. I always grab the blown up stuff that comes in the shop if the owners don't want it, which is most of the time. I need to dig it out and snap a couple pics to put up. It shaped my opinion on some actions and is why I won't own certain models.

Only one I ever blew up was a Bushmaster Carbon 15 while I was in gunsmith school. Factory ammo plinking one night at the range and it aparently fired out of battery. I just remember a loud bang, a bright flash, and a burning in my forearm. It blew the whole side out of the upper and lower and embedded a bunch of pieces therof into my forearm and cheek. Luckily they had drilled into us at the school the importance of safety glasses. I'd never worn glasses to shoot before I went there and had only started a month or two before the incident, the right lense had stuff embedded in it and I was very thankful to have been wearing them.

For those who say they have never done it, never say never.

Two or three years ago I did it after more than 50 years of reloading. I had moved after living in the same house for 34 years. In the new house the location of my powder scale was offset to one side as compared to my former setup. Inadvertently I managed to set the scale to 5 grains heavier than intended. The powder was relatively fast for a .222. When I fired the bolt was damaged, the cartridge case ruptured and particles came back in my face. I had one small cut that bled all out of proportion to its size. The magazine (Tikka plastic)blew out of the gun. These magazines are made in two pieces and designed to be taken apart for cleaning. Later I reassembled the magazine and still use it.

Repairs cost me about $350 and I didn't begrudge a penny of it since I escaped with all body parts still functioning.

Some people like to complain about so called cheap construction of Tikka rifles but I can vouch for the fact they are stout!

I wasn't present but a friend who belongs to our gun club was shooting a vintage double barreled (approx. 100 years old) African rifle. Something happened and one of the barrels blew out the side where his left hand was holding the gun. He lost his thumb and I believe a bit more of his hand. At a later date he showed my the results and it was enough to make me more cautious than I have ever been.

I also saw a Weatherby rifle that a local gun shop owner had to blow up for a lawyer who was involved in a court case. That one came completely apart.

When someone advises you to exercise caution and not be disturbed when you are reloading they are giving priceless advice.

Jim

The only accident I ever had invoving handloading was with a cartridge that never made it off my bench, at least in one piece. Around 35 years ago I had purchased a full box of Rem-Umc .25-20 Single Shots, for the princely sum of $50 (quite a sum of money for a box of ammo back then but it was 40 year old long discontinued stuff). I needed it to make R2 Lovell brass to feed a Winchester HiWall varmint rifle I was playing with at the time. To salvage the brass I needed to tear down the ammo which was loaded with smokeless powder and cupronickel jacketed bullets and not having a proper bullet puller at the time I did it the hard way by clamping onto the bullet with a pair of pliers as it protruded above the open die hole in my press and raising the press handle to lower the cartridge against the clamping pressure of the pliers and thence popping the bullet out of the case. I didn't care a whit about saving the bullets. All went well with the exception of one bullet that didn't budge. Leaving it sticking up out of the top of the press I took and filed the mangled nose of that bullet flat, and put a small center punch mark on it to mark the center, fished out a drill bit of around 1/8" and proceeded to drill a pilot hole for a small Easy Out. I was by god determined not to lose the use of even one of those precious cases. The next thing I know "BANG". My ears were ringing, the padded pliers I was holding the case from spinning with landed behind me, and the case was peeled apart like a banana. No blood, no shrapnel in me. To this day I have no clue where the bullet ended up- I never found it even though it was effectively impaled on the drill bit. I figure friction heat set off the powder. I can't swear to it but I sort of remember the drill bit breaking through the bottom of the bullet- the hot tip of the bit must have provided the ignition. Phew. Talk about a dumbass trick. I made a tiny shelf on the wall behind my bench and glued that exploded case to it, as a constant reminder not to be an idiot and have moved that little souvenir to every loading station I have set up in my houses ever since. I'm looking at it right now.

My old man thought I was nuts when I told him what I had paid for that box of .25-20 Single Shots, and I think he wanted to spank me when I told him the rest of the story. The fact that I was 27 years old, married, and living 90 miles away was probably the only thing that saved me...

Oh yeah. The drill bit survived unscathed too, in case you were wondering. It went on to live a healthy normal life and sired many little baby drill bits.

A while back I bought a rifle from Shrapnel. It looks new and shoots great. Should I still be worried?

I did no blow up a gun but had approximately 2 lbs. of black power ignite. I got a flash burn over my face and left arm. My glasses save my eyes. I was loading a small brass cannon when something caused a spark which ignited the powder. It was a very hot and humid day in August about 25 years ago. The only thing that we could figure it to was that it was caused by was static electricity. I know longer have the cannon and am very carful when using my flintlock.

I will admit that the barrel steel on that rifle has been strained to it's limits...

Dang! I better take a closer look at that Kimber .22LR!

I blew up a FN built Venezuelan 24/30 carbine in 7x57 when I was 12. I somehow managed to plug the barrel with snow while deer hunting and when I shot at a deer, the recoil was ferocious. I tried to cycle the action, but the bolt was mechanically locked, so I trudged home and presented my broken rifle to my Father. We took it to Bill DeVaux's shop in Norwich, VT, where Bill removed the stock and noted that there was a wedge-shaped chuck of steel in the magazine box. Bill suggested that we take it to Creighton Audette in Springfield, VT, so we did that. Mr. Audette pulled the barrel and found that the case had hardly any head-stamp remaining and the primer was both flat and loose. He measured everything and, other than the loose piece of the bolt face, the action, barrel, and stock were all within specs. He welded up the bolt, reheat-treated the action and bolt and then fully sporterized it with a 22" McGowen 257 Roberts barrel, Brownell's bolt handle, Timney trigger, Buehler low-swing safety, D&T for a Redfield 1-piece base, and glass bedded it in a very plan walnut stock from Bishop. The rifle cost $37.50, I still have the dealer's hanging tag, and the work that Mr. Audette did cost less than $150. The rifle has since given another 40+ years of dependable service.

The dumbest unintentional blown up of a firearm that you just knew was going to happen involved a S&W 1917 where someone had bored the chambers out so that .45 Magnum rounds could be fired in place of the original .45ACP or .45 Auto-Rim. It held together for about 1/2 box of Winchester/Olin factory loads, but around round #27 blew the side out of the cylinder, bent the frame about 15-degrees out of line, and some high-speed steel took the shooter's pinky and 1/2 of his ring finger off in what I have heard referred to as a "traumatic amputation". IIRC, the medics said that the USMA Class Ring that he was wearing saved what was left of his right ring finger. He subsequently got tagged with the nickname of "Cubby", because his hand salute looked more like a 2-fingered Cub Scout salute than a military salute.

Never blew up a firearm, but I'm a cautious scaredicat when it comes to shooting. I use a string from behind a tree to fire every new-to-me firearm on it's first shot. Muzzle is taped whether I'm hunting in snow or not. I've never gone for speed in handloading but concentrated on accuracy and easy function. If in doubt, toss the brass, and with one of my rifles, toss it after four reloadings no matter what.

Mule Deer here at the 'fire saved me from excess the only time my loads grew dangerous yet did not "show" signs of pressure. It was a load that got more accurate the faster it went, and I was extrapolating loads since the book did not cover the bullet and weight I wanted. After MD's caution I backed off-- a lot.