Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hunter Got Hit IN Face By Rifle Bolt

Me neither.

Ditto what Canuck said!!!

Until you learn the real knowledge available here, gained through experience, learning, evaluation, might keep in mind, just might be pointing a finger at a truckload, intead of a bucket full.

Not mentioning any truck brand here, that's for each to figure out on their own. There are a bunch of truckfulls on this forum.
Think you will find among the buckets some wisdom also, .

Nothing wrong with questions of course. Have asked plenty dumb or in wrong way myself.

I gotta claim ignorance as my excuse for misunderstanding what Ken said. Would someone please explain in terms that I might be able to understand?

Will speak for myself.

I learned they were pinned from the forum with this thread. I have sighted in six of those rifles since they came out. Standard procedure for sighting new rifle taken here, check function of mechanism, clean bore, screws tight, etc.

But, I did not look over design of mechanism, just a quick check that everything worked as was supposed too.

However, I can guarantee I will be checking to see how those lugs are pinned before I ever FIRE another one, then make the decision if I want to shoot it or not. I chalk my mistake up to trusting to a brand name, and probably should have studied the rifle more as it was "new" on the market.

As for what Ken posted, good to ask him to clarify for you. Have found him willing to help those who approach in the right way, IMO of course.

fwiw,
My comment was that there are new action designs that have failed to lock into battery and came back to bite the shooter. I can find nothing funny about a SCLID (Sudden Catastrophic Load Induced Disassembly). In this instance we might change that to mechanical failure induced disassembly. I was at Sig Sauer earlier this month and was invited to shoot their LRS2 in .308 and .338 Lapua Magnum. Another R93 in .338 Lapua, more than a few years back, failed to lock into battery and seriously injured the shooter upon firing in Europe. I've heard various reports about the damage the bolt did to the fellow's eye, skull, etc. I'm not reciting this from a court deposition, however, we did cover the R93 failure at The Colorado Shool of Trades in 05'.

No doubt the folks involved in this case will contact Dr. Howell for expert testimony and maybe a few years down the road he will share the failure analysis. Until the word from on high is converted into tablet form use your frame of reference to draw your own conclusions...

As to finding humor in a mechanical or load induced weapons failure I cannot. I've seen many weapon failures on the range and have seen a few that left the shooter with minor injuries. Thankfully everyone so far has escaped serious injury through luck or protective gear.

Rick said a mouthful with "But for the grace of God go we"...

Regards, Matt Garrett
757-581-6270

Is the LRS2 similar in operation to a R93? Did you fire the rifles?

If you fired them how did you know that they were locked?

Savage 99,
The LRS2 is a Tactical R93. Yes I fired both rifles. Shot a group with the .308 and the Lapua once. As far as KNOWING the bolt heads were locked into the barrel extension, I did not. The bolt was worked with alacrity while one of the Sig Reps stood at my side. I shot the rifles because we were expected to shoot the LRS2s, the Sig 556, and several pistols. The one thing I came away with, before we headed to Wilcox, was a desire to buy a new 220 Elite with their new Short Reset Trigger...

In short I could not gracefully get out of shooting the R93s...

Regards, Matt.

Well said Matt. I would have done the same thing.

The only good thing I get out of this is that the lugs did not fail, they failed to engage. It would not take many instances of lugs failing and a bolt squirting into a shooters face for me to be unable to shoot a bolt action. I can/will avoid Mossberg.

I'll try.

I do not know exactly what design or mechanical failure caused the bolt body to "escape" to the rear. I haven't examined the rifle and don't know who did � or how thoroughly or carefully he did � or, indeed, whether anybody really did.

Therefore I can not opine about why it happened.

Some can.

I can't.

Until I know and know how I know, I can not form a logical, intelligent opinion. To some, that makes me seem dumber (OK by me!). But that handicap doesn't deter everybody, obviously.

Got it now?

WGM, your post came across as being awfully insensitive. (grin)

I do know that if the original post had stated that the guy was undergoing reconstructive surgery, you would not have made such a joke, so don't sweat apologizing to everybody. The mental image of a rifle going bang and the bolt harmlessly blooping out of the action is morbidly amusing in the same way as the video of the guy getting dinged by the .50cal ricochet or the fat guy shooting the 600Nitro handgun.

As they say, "It's all fun and games till someone gets hurt."

I think we all feel sorry for the poor guy and wish him the best. Talking to JWP, he made a valid point: If the bolt didn't get you, what about all that hot gas in the backblast? Gives me the shivers......

Stories like this make me appreciate the Mauser 98 that much more.

at least a few of you understand how I read the first post of this thread, and what I was likely thinking in my puny head ...

had I read JWP's original post on this matter (which I can only assume explained the severity of the incident), I can promise you my response would have been different ...

Guys, I think that we should not jump to conclusions and beat up WGM. I feel that WGM has explained himself and that's that IMHO.
I was making a follow up post the one one made several weeks ago and in hind sight should have started from the beginning. The man is lucky to be alive.
His uncle told me that he had gotten out of his stand and was walking to were one of the ones that he was hunting with had killed a Deer. On the way over he spotted a Deer and fired and was thrown backwards and hit the ground. The others saw this and ran over to him and at first thought that he was dead. He regained consensus and said "what the [bleep] happened". One of them replied " your face is gone and we've got to get you out of here". Without there help he would have surely died. His nose and lips appeared to be gone. As it turned out the nose and lips were blown under the skin on the other side of his face and the doctor was able to re-attach them and reconstruct his upper jaw as it was shattered.

Thinking ahead here, but (let's assume the pin sheared or dropped out) it would be possible to keep that failure from producing the kaboom, if the firing pin would be prevented from dropping unless the lugs were aligned properly with the bolt body? FWIW, Dutch.

How anyone could laugh at anything this tragic is beyond me!

Another point that I hope will make the matter easier to handle:

I referred to opinions and the easy flow thereof, not to persons, intellects, or motivations. Stupidly, I assumed that that was clear enough not to be misunderstood.

Gothca! Thanks

I was with you from the start.

Mr. Howell,

Never, ever, overestimate the intelligence of the average internet expert.

It brings to mind the photoshop experts who immediately condemn any unusal picture with talk of shadows and lighting and whatever else they remember from watching JFK.