Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire model 70 explosion

In my experience, failures occur at the point of greatest pressure and least resistance. In the case of an obstructed bore, this is typically immediately behind the obstruction.

If a chamber is obstructed at the throat (over bore projectile from incorrect cartridge), the over pressure will occur in the chamber area and take the path of least resistance.

Best advice has been given: Consult legal assistance and have qualified experts examine the evidence.

Prayers for the young man.

Additionally - I love the level of experience of some on this site.

Enlarging and color correcting..

Obstructed bores at the muzzle make the barrel peel like a banana, but obstructed in front of the chamber may not.

Sounds like the example actions in this thread run across 30-40 years of manufacturing. Three of the four examples involved pre-64s, two of which were rebarreled and one was confirmed wrong powder causing pressure to spike in excess of 150k PSI. ShootAI's example involved a late 90s Classic action. That was a mauser / pre-64 style action but made ~30 years later than the true "pre-64" variants.

Yeah... whenever analyzing something that failed and which has a history of not failing, the first question that should be asked is what changed.

Which should lessen the pressure, right?

Question. I don't own any magnum rifles, but would one of the short magnums popular now fit in a 7MM RM chamber? I know a .308W will easily chamber up in a .270W, because my favorite gunsmith had one delivered to him that had been fired at a drunken new years eve celebration. Actually the bullet swaged down the barrel and got out. Probably would not have in a .26-06.

No, it would spike...lesser case volume.

Saw similar pics at an LGS years ago. The shooter fired a 7mmRemMag cartridge in a 270 WBY rifle. UGLY!
Hoping the shooter in this case makes a recovery.

Myman04: I am saddened to the point of nausea over this incident/accident!
I just feel terrible over the loss of that young mans eye!
It is a stark reminder FOR ME to always wear my Zeiss shooting glasses when firing my Rifles and pistols.
Although with the severity of this detonation/explosion it may have harmed his eye anyway even if he had "shooting glasses" on.
My lifelong friend from Enumclaw, Washington was at the range last week sighting in his new Kimber Rifle in 257 Roberts - somehow in amongst his handloaded ammo came a 220 Swift cartridge and it went off but sounded/felt funny.
He is still bewildered how one of his handloaded 220 Swift rounds got in with his handloaded 257 Roberts rounds!
Luckily for him no harm was done to him or his new Rifle.
We are ALL human and are ALL subject to human error so extra care must be taken whenever we are using our firearms.
But I am also at a loss to explain the young mans Rifle's detonation - it will be interesting to learn the results of the ammunition inspection/analysis.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

“ if the action is determined to be defectively designed/manufactured”
So, who would this be if not Winchester? The smith certainly didn’t design or manufacture the action.

Like a few other have mentioned, if the problem had been a obstructed barrel then the barrel itself would have split. Also its very unlikely barrel was obstructed if the previous round fired ok.

That leaves a ammo mixup or a previously damaged action.

I took a guy elk hunting last year that missed two 75yd shots at a elk, shooting from a rest on a log. Both shots hit way high as I saw the 2nd one hit the mountainside behind the elk. Found out he was shooting 7mag ammo in his 300mag. Easy mixup as when he grabbed 4 boxes of Federal Fusion ammo off the shelf there was one box of 7mag mixed it and he never looked close, then the morning we went hunting he grabbed the wrong box. He and another friend found the mixup when going out the next day to check sight in and he shot a couple more before the mistake was discovered.

I can see where different ammo could easily get mixed up in the same box either intentionally or by accident.

Winchester doesn’t exist anymore.

It’s probably too late but If you do intend to have the metallurgy investigated don’t touch the pieces together by seeing how they match up.

I check the headstamp on every cartridge that I load, in every gun, ALL of the time.

My point.

I don't have anything to add as to why the rifle exploded, but it sure is a good reminder to wear shooting glasses. And they do work. I saw a gunner in Afghanistan who caught a bullet right between the eyes - it went through his eye-pro frame but just embedded in the skin above his nose and did not penetrate his skull (I think the bullet may have been a ricochet or came from a long distance). I also saw an insurgent bomb-maker who had a low-order detonation of the bomb he was making. He was captured and brought to a US field surgical team. They took a lot of metal out of his face and elsewhere, but he was smart and was actually wearing ballistic eyewear (same Oakley's that were issued to US troops) and he had no damage to his eyes or the areas of his face protected by those Oakley's. Made me a believer.

There were some articles on 270’s being fired in 7 RM chambers because they look very close to the 7RM and will feed, plus the OAL is close so with longer throats on a RM they will chamber. the 270 result in the case rupture that blows back powder & brass to the shooter but the rifle typically survives because the bullet can pass through. If that was done with a hard bullet in a 280 or 30-06 it can’t pass into the barrel. You can google 270 in a 7 Rem Mag and find them.

I’m not saying that’s what happened, but the 270 in a 7RM has happened to others, either way it’s a tragedy that happened to this young man, God Bless.

.

I'd really like to see a closer picture of what remains of that head stamp and in higher resolution. As others have pointed it out, it looks like there might be some discernable stamping on it.

ya i was just going to say the same thing. this comes from having a 243, 260, 308, 7/08, 338 fed and a 358 as well as a 270 and a 30/06 and 25, 30 and 32 remingtons.