Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Embrace The Truth - Catastrophic Gun Failure

Here is a picture of Brian's rifle that he posted on other forum. From what I understand the stock broke and the scope caused the injury. Then check this statement out:

So, the stock broke under recoil and the scope smashed into his face?

Somehow, that's T/C's fault in the design of the Encore action?

And yet, somehow the ONE cartridge case in question winds up missing?

How many blame someone else when they blow up a gun?

Unless the gremlin that boosted the case closed the action after he absconded, or plastic stock debris caught him, I wonder what happened.


A hypothesis:

The heavy charged gun actually caused the stock to fail, the recoil slamming the scope into his eye?


edit to add:



I guess you go first...

They don't blow up the gun. Hence the point. It wasn't going over published max that made the gun blow up. It was either the wrong powder or a mix of powders, headspace issues, or a faulty rifle.

I can't remember the last time I found pressure at max book.


It's no secret that Encores are a giant POS.

Doesn't appear the gun blew up, Calvin. The stock went; the action and barrel are intact.

I did answer these, please go back and read my posts.

For reference, THIS is a 'blown' up firearm.

The more I read this thread, the more questions I have.

I got my Encore in 1998, and my father got his around 2003. Both of us have loaded for numerous barrels, rifle and pistol. Both of us are very experienced reloaders, many years of experience precision reloading with numerous action designs. The Encore is not my favorite design, but like any rifle if used with it's design parameters can work quite well. I know the frame flexes with high pressures and large case heads, and we have gotten much better brass life by backing off maximum in those situations. However, never have I felt in any danger from the action itself.

I like many others here, would like to know exactly what part of the frame, locking lugs, barrel, or whatever failed, and how that was negligent in the design? Besides the stock breaking and recoil damage from the scope, exactly what else failed? Because a stock breaking has nothing that I can see to do with headspace issues.

Maybe I am slow (don't think so) but I am just not getting it.

Maybe I've missed it somewhere in this epic clusterfug, but what was the muzzle velocity of the 85 grain load?
What was the mv in the manual for their max load?
Surely it must have been chrono'd and been "slow", or why the heck would you keep adding powder after book max,without a clue as to what was really going on?

As to the two Encore frames and half dozen or so barrels I load for, only one has a "belted mag" size .515ish chamber diameter, a custom 300 H&H - I never felt the need to push it, my normal load for it is actually about 2.5 grains below max in the data I used. Call me crazy, that's where it grouped best at.

I grew up reloading with a Hornady manual that in certain higher powered calibers that might be encountered in drillings or other break action guns, cautioned to reduce book max charges by 10 percent. This was before the Encore came along, but I fail to trust it to be stronger than high end European break actions, so I've always treated the Encore with caution in the larger chamberings.


If I was worried about facing an angry bear, and limited to an Encore, I'd be a lot more concerned with a possible extraction problem from a "hot" load than that 200-300 less fps would make any difference to the bear...

It's a break action. What he said on the other thread was that it blew open and that's what caused the stock to break.

So, it blew open and somehow that caused the stock to break, but then it shut itself? Hmmm... I am not buying that one.

So the gun action blew open, the empty case flew out and struck the President, than sailed over the grassy knoll.

The gun fell and broke the stock as gravity and momentum closed the action?




Sorry for the jokes, but there's been 20+ pages and I have no clue what happened here.

I appears as though I owe some of you guys an apology, at first I thought some of you fellers were being a little hard on Brian but after seeing the picture it is apparent there is a little whining going on.

My apologies gentleman.

Excessive headspace is responsible for a broken stock, unless I'm missing something........hmmmmmm.

Since the .300WM headspaces on the belt, how exactly does the headspace get to be excessive?

I suppose if the frame stretched than there may be daylight between the barrel and the breech.

Happens sometimes on the old Handi-rifles.

I'm sure there are some that do, just like there are risk takers in all sports. I've never done so, and see no reason to. The slight velocity gains are not worth the risk. If your max load is going too slow for you, buy a bigger round. Don't try to turn it into something it's not. Instead of trying to boost a 300 Win Mag to higher velocity/unsafe pressures, he would have been better served to go buy a 300 Weatherby, a 300 RUM, or a 30-378 Weatherby.

Not if the barrel stretched first....unless it stretched forward trying to follow the bullet.

When that happens, the action will open and break the stock.

On the .300 WM barrel I had TC had reamed the chamber too deeply leading to excessive headspace. Also, with the large case head/high pressure rounds, the encore action actually will flex slightly (opening at the top of the action) which can exacerbate existing headspace issues. Various TC sites will talk about shimming the Encore action to help mitigate the headspace issues, but none of those things address a grossly overpressure round that somehow mysteriously vanished. Almost sounds like some of the tests done in bolt guns with bullseye where the brass "vanished" due to the insane overpressure they generated even if the action held together...(Accuratereloading has the pics for this if I remember correctly.)

For the OP, I think you need to rephrase your title as "TC stock broke when I loaded up a grenade"-whether TC should have made the stock stronger I'm not sure, but I shoot a .458 Lott and .416 Remington on my plastic stock Encore with no issues... I fail to see how based on the evidence you've presented the action actually failed as even on mine when the case ruptured the case head and body were still in the gun...

The barrel lug on an Encore will give out long before the barrel stretches.

Based on the pistol grip break away from the actual bolt/contact point, it almost makes me wonder if a lead sled wasn't involved where the tie down on grip becomes the pivot point during recoil???