Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire In Your Opinion... What Happened? Ammo Detonation

OK, the bullet clearly has an impact so let me explain this scenario that happened to my buddy. Here's the gun.



We went to the range and he had a cartridge not fully chamber so he honked on the lever jamming it in the chamber really tight. It wouldn't completely close so he took it home and dropped a cleaning rod down the bore, with the action open, and tapped the cleaning rod to knock the stuck cartridge out. It detonated and blew the stock apart. Only thing we can figure is he detonated it from the bullet end by pushing the bullet into the case, compressing the powder against the primer anvil and setting it off with the tapping motion.

We discovered a small percentage of the ammo would not chamber although trimmed to the right length. Case diameter just above the rim is a little too large. He's going to need small base dies for that rifle.

Could this pistol ammo have detonated by dropping it on the bullet end, compressing the powder charge against the primer anvil? The cartridge would have likely been in the corner of the box to take the hit.

Just a thought.

Oh, and here's my buddies rifle after repair. All's well that ends well.






*No lawyers were notified in the aftermath of the explosion.