Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire ALERT! Federal 10 gauge EXPLODES in chamber

I had an early Ithaca Mag 10 and never had a problem with it shooting Remington or Federal 3 1/2' magnum loads.

Is your ammo storage facility climate controlled? There's an awful lot of humidity in those things when cement floors "sweat" as the frost is coming out in the spring, probably plenty of humidity in the summer months as well if there isn't AC to pull it out.

Not that it can't happen in other ways, but, the vast majority of shotgun case-head separations, especially w/semi-auto's are from the bolt not fully into battery causing part of the case-head to not be supported/surrounded by the chamber and giving 12-15K PSI somewhere other than down the bore to go. Very much like semi-auto rim-fire rifles having case failures.

Ruger1-V: Yes certain areas of Montana the meals and food are not just expensive they are very expensive!
My first ten years on this forum I ignored the pettiness and personal attacks - then I thought better of that and the useless posters who attack me (and others!) for NO reason are on a list and I take them to the cyber woodshed and humiliate them as best I can whenever I choose to.
It seems to work, though I wish it weren't necessary.
Again thankfully you weren't hurt. I am not much of a "shotgunner" only owning a handful of them, that I shoot, and never owned a 10 gauge of any kind.
Carry on - carefully.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

This is entertaining.

I shot 3 cases of non toxic this season.

Guess what? They make shells every damn day.

I think many missed the point of the entire post. First, I can well afford to buy shells. Second, I am 71 years old so I think I've seen a lot in those years since I have been hunting since age 9. VarmintGuy, thanks for the insight and support. Some people on this and other forums want to "prove" how smart they are by badgering or giving the aire of significant knowledge. In real life I fear they do the same because people that know them, know better.

The entire premise of the post was a WARNING that others may posses this or other ammo from Federal in #2 Shot Steel from the 2001-2002 era and could possibly suffer injury if the same thing happened to them. I am indeed lucky. I was a firefighter (Chief for 13 years) and paramedic for 27 years. I vividly remember gunshot injuries, purposeful, self-inflicted and accidental. One of my best friends was a LEO that fashioned himself as a quick-draw cowboy and ended up shooting himself in the lower calf of his right leg! (Needless to say his nickname hereafter was QuickDraw). I have witness a barrel explode while pheasant hunting with a group in North Dakota. LUCKILY the gun resembled a blunderbuss and the user was shaken up but fortunately not injured.

So, to the experts....if you have nothing constructive to say or to add to this post or any others, you can always kick your cat (as you most likely already do anyway)

Wow so many questions..

Climate control storage....I have three (3) 24-gun safes in my heated/humidity controlled "man cave" that are used solely for ammo storage. I have a vast collection of Ruger #1 single shots (168) of virtually every caliber that was made and a smaller collection of Ruger 77 (68) in various calibers. then comes the Sako's, the Remington's, Marlin's, etc. etc. etc. The factory rifle ammo is all in original boxes, catalogued and indexed with bar codes for easy identification. Safe #2 is all shotgun ammunition, including but not limited to slugs, buckshot, TSS, TSS Matrix, Steel Shot, Bismuth, etc. Again, it is sorted and easily identified and all in original boxes. Safe #3 is for reloads, reloading components such as powder and primers and "odd ball" collectible ammunition. Then I have two rolling work stations full of dies, projectiles, and just about anything for reloading ammunition. I do mine the old fashioned way of one bullet at a time. My son has all the automated Dillon presses for rifle, handgun and shotgun. Currently my home is undergoing a massive remodel and the man cave is off limits with the Visqueen and temporary wall so I cannot get into the safe with the shotgun ammo to verify if I have more of the Federal 2 shot (which I suspect I do).

What do I want from Federal? I asked if they had an issue in the past and there was dead silence. The conversation immediately turned to "20 year old ammo and the brass gets weaker with age (calling B.S. there). So I do not expect Federal to do a damn thing. That is why I posted here.


Customer inspecting my barrel? Of course I checked it as well. I had to load new shells so did a quick visual using my cell phone light to verify. Anytime we have a client have a magazine jam, or possible "dud" our guides are required to verify the weapon to be safe (steel pits with4-7 hunters) so we don't want steel shot ricocheting of walls, etc.


So, now the air is clear. Back to the purpose...WARNING if you have Federal 10 Guage #2 shot with the engraved goose on the shell base beware that I have had this happen twice.... and now for the experts..Federal did replace four boxes for me 10 years ago when this happened and the same rep that told me the brass weakened said that if the shells were only 10 years old they would most likely replace them.

So you had this happen 2x before, got 4 boxes replaced and didn't divest yourself of all the rest of your ammo in that lot?

Makes me wanna rethink some of my 16 gauge ammo!

A work mate that does garage sales bought a dresser that had a butt load of 16 gauge ammo in it.
He brought me one of those small, bathroom sized trash cans half full of Remington Hi-Velocity #7.5's and Rem Field Load #8's.
That was 1988, the stuff was probably at least 10 years old then!
It's 2024, and I've still got about half of that stuff!
I've even killed turkey's with the 7.5's! ....and that was 2017!

So you have a lot number for this? Thanks in advance.

"... I have a vast collection of Ruger #1 single shots (168) of virtually every caliber that was made ..."

😛 CAN I COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND DROOL????

I've been collecting for over 55 years. Own a few of Bill Ruger's guns and J.D. Clayton's as well. LOVE the Ruger No.1. This year in Illinois we can use straight wall single shot rifles for deer. I will be taking one of the J.D. guns in 45-70 out next season. Yes, it is overkill but it also has a very special meaning for me. You can read about the rifle in the bible for Ruger collectors "Ruger No. 1 Rifle" by Joe D. Clayton.

At last count there were approximately 70 "factory" chamber/calibers offered, along with a few special offerings through elite distributors. There are a number of variants of certain calibers as well.

Geez. Always something. BPS was the only one in the game at the time I bought it IIRC. Anyway I've no love for browning guns. Should have sold it the minute I could have gotten an SP10 LOL.

Not sure of your point.. Some of us prepare ahead of time and don't rely on a current supply. They make em every day. Maybe maybe not. But sometimes shells are hard to find.

FWIW brass weakening.. maybe maybe not. The 1918 45 acp we shot 1000s of rounds of about 15 years ago had no weak brass. Though one now and then would not go off.

Normally if I have "suspect shells" they get put in a baggie and shot out of one of my double barrel shotguns. This is quite easy for me to do with any 12, 20, or 16 gauge shell. Unfortunately the only 10 gauge double barrel I have is an old Remington Model 1894 manufactured in 1904 with modern steel barrels. I would not dare shoot any steel shot in this gun.

The debate could go on and on, but pure fact is that I have shot hundreds of rounds of shotgun shells that were 10+ years old without fail. I did have some Remington that did split the brass, but they fired and ejected. So to say this was a "fluke" was not factual as it happened before (I was able to provide box and lot number) and Federal immediately replaced the shells with no questions asked...but that was over 10 years ago.

Once again, the reason for this post is AWARENESS that these particular shells with the engraved goose on the bottom had issues as admitted by the Federal rep I spoke with. It is not up to me to police the matter or tell anyone not to shoot them (I shot several that day that did not explode). All it takes is one.................