Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Rifle Detonation by a reloading mistake

While it's good to hear all the reminders (and I have boo-booed myself a few times, though never to the point of shattering a rifle), we should also all realize that we don't need such a dangerous "mistake" load to blow up a rifle.

The worst blow-up I've ever heard about happened to a friend who was fond of red-lining every load. If he wasn't getting 100-200 fps more than the manuals called for, he was unhappy.

The rifle in question came totally apart from a load that had been fired hundreds of times before. Why? The action simply grew weary.

Steel's structure does indeed change drastically if we stress it too hard, too often. That extra 100 or 200 fps will not take your rifle apart on the first load, or probably even the 100th, but if you shoot it often enough, odds are you too can have a rifle disinegrate in your hands. It doesn't matter if it's an '03 Springfield or a Rem. 700.

I also own a couple of Springfield .30-06's. These days I load them to those darned wimpy facrtory specifications, around 2700 fps with a 180. But then again, I tend to do that with Remington 700's as well. There isn't an animal on earth that can tell the difference between 2700 and 2800 fps, but some rifles can.

MD

Friend of mine was a sniper in France during World War Two. He loved to pick on German tank crews because they had the 9mm loads (hot stuff for their Schmeissers) that he liked to use in his British revolver. With side-cutters, he snipped notches that raised burrs around the rims and headspaced like the rimmed cartridges that were the normal grist for that revolver.

One day soon after U S forces took Paris, he rushed into a Paris hotel in a hurry-up call to the latrine. Forgetting the revolver in his belt, he threw his field jacket open, unbuckled his belt, and undid his trousers to get into relieving action. The revolver tumbled to the tiles ...

... and shattered.

As MD has pointed-out, even the best steels sooner or later just get tired of handling overly hot "safe" loads. They resign with a flourish that can be down-right exciting. No one has any idea how many rounds of that hot Schmeisser ammo had been fired apparently "safely" in that revolver. The break surfaces of its shards and little chunks resembled the "facets" of a cube of sugar.

.

Those are two superb reminders of what exceeding safe loads can eventually do. Thanks, Mule Deer and Ken Howell.

I would say the Springfield must be a pretty good action or the shooter would have been seriously hurt or killed.

Ray, there seems to be something wrong with the e-mail delivery, I�ve got a message two times now that my mail to you has been delayed and then that i�ts undeliverable. So I send my e-mail this way now.

Thank you Ray!!
Good to hear from you and thaks again for the response.
No, the book is certanly NOT anti-firearm or anything like that, in fact shooting, hunting and reloading is what I mainly live for (besides my children).

I think the best solution (if you can manage) would be to scan the photo in some resolution above, say, 400 dpi and put on a CD and mail to me. A 300 dpi resolution will do if you can send it via e-mail. Please let me know,

my address is:
Bodvar Thorsteinsson
Tungata 47,
820, Eyrarbakki,
Iceland

bodvar@barnaskolinn.is

Thank you Ray, for your kindness. I will send you a copy of the pages where the pic. will be seen, when finished.

Regards,

I got mine behind me.Hope there are no more in front.I type too slow for all the details but back in early sixties a friend and I partnered on an old Texan progressive shot shell loader since we both shot 12 gage.
We loaded Red Dot the first season or 2 then switched to Unique.We had loaded several the 3rd season with Unique when I remembered we had the Red Dot bushing in.I wantedto throw them away.He tore them down for me to load back.After a few I noticed they weren't crimping right.We used cardboard wads back then.I tore one down and it had the R.D busing full of unique and the RD bushing full of Red Dot over that!
That time,I did throw them away.All but one.
I thank God that the little EIG double I was dshooting was well made.Doctor said it was the worst bruise he had ever seen without a broken bone.Still cant hear with my left ear and have a hearing aid in the right.
Handloading should be a solitary operation.
At the first hint of something amiss,clear your loading bench of all completed ammo.Trashcan it.
Most of the accidents you hear about had ample warning signs that were ignored.
Handloading is as safe as a man makes it.Make it safe,

Gene, I have also had one or two "almost's" when trying to 'team reload'.

No team reloading for me. I let my son help but its with complete supervision and I dont do something else while he's busy at the chore.

Yes and no, yep and nope, right and wrong, do and don't ...

I've done a lot of "team" handloading, for a lot of years, without any "almost" or complete "uh oh!" mishap.

The crux of the matter is first, system and second, rigid concentration. The culprit that so often creeps in and messes with you is not so much another person's presence as it is the distraction that comes with him, if you let it. This distraction is almost always conversation (Alas, I've never been distracted by the presence of anyone like Raquel Welch or Ann-Margret! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />).

My "team" handloading has always been on my equipment, using my system, with the other fellow just seating bullets in his ammo. Every operation up to the moment when I handed him a charged case went strictly according to my rigid system. There was never anything else � no TV, no coffee or Coke, no snacks, no alcohol, no tobacco.

... no distraction ...

... which can occur all too easily even when you're loading all by yourself.

.

I am still having some e-mail problem so I send the last message this way as last time:

Thanks again, Ray.
I don�t think there is any limit on my side when it comes to receiveing files but IF there is it is probably 10 mb. But again I dont�t think so. Of course if you ZIP the file it will be somewhat smaller. Let�s try.

All the best,

Bodvar



bodvar@barnaskolinn.is

One of the most thoroughly devastated guns that I've examined was a shotgun � about which I just posted this in another Campfire forum �
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Sometimes the bullet or shot column is the "bore obstruction" that doesn't move forward fast enough to lower the rate of pressure-rise.

I had a case like that � a 12-gauge Marlin "Goose Gun" that blew-up so violently, in such a brief fraction of a second, that the force of the blast was essentially all radial (i e, almost all in a "disc" of explosion, all outward, with no evidence of excessive force exerted forward or backward along the axis of the bore).

The lawyers for the insurance company didn't want me to submit a long, detailed report that they'd have to share with (and thus educate) the plaintaiff's lawyer, so I submitted a very brief statement of what I'd concluded from my examination of the destroyed shotgun �

... that the shell was a handload, with an extremely excessive charge of possibly the wrong powder, with the shot very probably buffered with flour ...

The lawyers told me later that they'd shared that statement with the plaintiff's lawyer, who'd shown it to his client ...

... who immediately dropped the lawsuit.

I've felt, ever since, that it must've seemed to that plaintiff that some kind of ESP had told me the truth � that I'd flat nailed the cause of that "catastrophic failure."

.

Hoo Boy!

Another reason that I stick with One Caliber, One Powder, and One Primer!

308 Win, Varget, and Fedearl 210M primers.

A guy simply cannot get enough Varget in the case to blow it up.

The Max load is 46 grains (+/- with 165 grainers) and that fills the case to the shoulder.

I am looking at adding a caliber and I suspect that I will choose one based upon the ability to use Varget (makes the 223 and teh 375 H&H good candidates).

Less room for error is a good thing.

BMT

I remember being told years and years ago when I was loading some highly reduced 30-06 loads and using a filler, that there were some materials that just weren't good filler choices. When compressed they begin to act like a solid, jam in the throat, and can disassemble a rifle in short order. Flour was at the top of that list. I used Cream of Wheat, Grits, or Kapoc and stayed away from the flour.

Only recipie I ever found for grits that was to my liking. 2000 fps grits. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />Thank you Ray, I have got the pictures and everything works great. I look forward to use them in my book along with the story you told about how it happened. If anyone was in doubt before about watching every step of the reloading process carefully, this will bring an end to that for sure!

Bodvar, Iceland

I turned one into a 9.3x64 and have been runing full house load's in it for years... the person just used the wrong powder
or double charged it.
Or used 56 grains of blue dot and a 180 grain bullet
that would be about 120 Thousand PSI