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

I got a box of 300 Savage superperformance from Mid South Shooters supply

Looked like they’d been passed around at a keg party. The box flap had been worked a thousand times it looked. Oooooh and ahhhhh, caterpillar diesel fuel finger smudges on the box.

You sure yours was a "pre 64 model 70"? From what I saw in the pics John just uploaded, that was a 6 digit classic.

After seeing the carnage and hearing the sad tale of the young Marine, I certainly would like to know what happened if it can be determined by forensic analysis... however, I'm thinking even analysis of this pile of metal is going to be a WAG by time it is done and legal action will be pretty much a moot point.

A couple points that keep coming to mind. Everyone says this has to be a rebarrel, but I wouldn't necessarily count on that unless I was to see the barrel markings. Just as is reasonably common to rechamber the Pre 64 30-06 rifles to 300 WM using the original barrel, I would think a 7 x 57 barrel could be rechambered to 7 Rem Mag- though the possibility is much lower in my experience... my feeling is one of the two theories floating around here on this thread are the correct one- either the gunsmith who did the work damaged and weakened the action by improperly removing the action or installing the barrel, or the mag case was loaded severely low, leading to an explosion in the case when ignited. This low loading issue has been a known issue with magnum cases for quite some time but I've never actually seen damage like this occur and blamed on this condition before.

Definitely hoping for some resolution in this case...

I'm curious.

The guy ageed to pay your medical bills but then welched on the deal and you didn't sue him because you were both in the gun business? The guy's in the gumaking business and doesn't have liability insurance?

No one determined what caused the blow up? That's important in order to prevent other blow ups, like just maybe the one that cost the young marine his eye.

I'm curious.

The guy ageed to pay your medical bills but then welched on the deal and you didn't sue him because you were both in the gun business? The guy's in the gumaking business and doesn't have liability insurance?

No one determined what caused the blow up? That's important in order to prevent other blow ups, like just maybe the one that cost the young marine his eye.

The common theme with the M70’s being discussed here is that they are all custom, re-barreled guns. Has anyone experienced a similar failure with an unmodified M70?

Sorry, but you need an image with some big red arrows pointed to the sign and the crowds finger fuqing the chit out of the ammo boxes or that isn't reasonable theory.

Exactly!!!

And way more overwhelmingly in depth conjecture that brought us the likes of, “I see a spent case in one of the pics, but I’m guessing that wasn’t the problematic cartridge,” and “recovering the problematic case, if still around, may shed a lot of light.”

Clear the floor, boys! Thomas phu ckin Magnum is here.

Whatever caused it - that would have been nasty to have been holding that rifle.

A guy I worked with ran out of ammo for his 243 the night before deer opener. Decided to load up some real quick and used pistol powder - ''cause that is what he had". Wanted to check the POI. Sat down behind the bench and touched off a round. The old Remmy 788 action held up pretty well, but all nine of the locking lugs sheared off the bolt and it drove thru his jaw and down into his collar bone. Missed any major blood vessels but beat the Hell out of him.

You're really proud of those red arrows, aren't you.

Did he get a Darwin Award ? If not, he should have.

I agree the action kind of looks like a pre-64 but the barrel does not. That and I'm pretty certain 7mm Rem Mags were never offered in the pre-64s Model 70s.

OP... any details on when and if the rifle has been recently re-barreled? Any other recent work done to it?

Well the extra gas relief hole probably didn’t do jack as far as venting but it didn’t seem to hurt either as that’s in an intact area of what’s left of the front ring.

The rear sight screws had nothing to do with it, else it would have blown before and they wouldn’t have been able to sight in or use the rifle for years as stated if the screws were creating a bore obstruction. Plus I’ve seen more than one instance where the rear sight screw holes were drilled into the bore. Worst that ever happened was the pressure stripped the screws and vented through the holes, sent the rear base up and forward where it lodged in the bay door of the shop behind the bullet trap.

Aside from riding this ride personally and having the Tshirt I’ve also examined many instances of catastrophic failures and even happen to have a Pre64 in my collection that looks remarkably similar to what happened with this one. The guy I got it from told me the story of how his father liked to use “hot” handloads for moose with his 270. He decided to try some new “duplex” loads and showed him how you should just put in a pinch of pistol powder and then the normal hot load of rifle powder. First round demolished the M70 and old dad was short 2 fingers and an eye, kid learned to drive a 3 on the tree right quick to get him to the Dr out in the valley.

One year I saw three unmodified factory rifles, 2 300WMs and one 308 that were either blown up or in the 308’s case locked up with the lugs set back .030” from one brand of factory “premium” ammo. One guy lost an eye and the other two were okay. In all cases the ammo maker provided the cost of a new rifle. Not sure how the guy who lost an eye made out but he obviously wasn’t going to settle for a new rifle.

Schit happens, even to good people. People who shoot rifles and even the people who work at ammo companies can make mistakes. The guy who screwed up the ammo that blew me up hadn’t checked the powder dispenser before dumping a new can of powder in when changing over to a different caliber and load. It apparently still had an amount of the wrong powder in it and the first two rounds got way too much of way too fast a powder. It was provable because the lab found the other round when they tore them down and were able to identify the powder. The amount lined up with the manufacturer’s data as to how much of the correct powder was supposed to be in them so it was a pretty easy conclusion after a quick check of ballistic modeling software to estimate how much pressure such a load would generate.

Hope the dude can adapt and heal up fast to have a normal life.

You have better eyes than me. I couldn’t make out squat.

I’d guess an ammo problem, that action flat blew apart due to a heck of a pressure spike. Out of battery or barrel obstruction would look a lot different. Wrong ammo or a bad round full of fast burning powder.

It was Professor Plum in the dining room with the candlestick...