Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Cowboy Action Shooting Uberti replica injury

Anyone know of any issues with uberti levers . I just returned home from the hospital after surgery to remove shell case fragments from my abdomen. This rifle disharged four of five rounds in the tubular magazine when I cycled the lever to load a round. Blew shell brass fragment into me requiring immediate surgery. The shells went off as the lever closed without chambering a round.

Seen it happen but never any of them go off, scary stuff.

I've seen them fire out of battery, never rounds going off in the tube.

Were you using flat nose or round nose bullets?

DF


Edited to ask, which Uberti are we talking about?

Flatnose cowboy ammo

Was it a Henry replica? Or another model?

It was a yellow boy.

The lifter cams the rounds back into the magazine tube as the lever is closed. So the stack of rounds is being moved ever so slightly forward by that action. You must have had an unusually sensitive primer.

Do you reload and were all the primers seated fully? I've seen reloaders seat them so that they're not recessed into the primer pocket. A slightly protruding primer may be more vulnerable to such action than one completely seated. One going off could ignite others, I would think.

DF

If you read my post i have mentioned it was factory cowboy action ammo
And also that the chamber did not receive a round in the cycle of the lever.

Must have not read the OP carefully enough.

I would contact the ammo manufacturer.

DF

No, I don't see where "factory" ammo was mentioned. It was a good question. Almost all of these occurances seem to happen due to poor reloading practices. I have had factory ammo both back out bullets and primers under recoil in a revolver. You would think that unlikely with cowboy level recoil in a rifle.

About the only remote possibility I can see is protruding primers. Even then, Flat nosed shouldn't have done it to the remaining rounds. I have heard of it with roundnose bullets. You would think the light recoil of cowboy loads would make it even less likely.

Maybe, a protruding primer was pinched when the action was cycled? I've seen the aftermath of it in revolvers.

Was it only the tube that went, or did part of the receiver go as well? It might help the diagnosis if we could determine it was completely in the tube, or on it's way to the chamber.

Were you able to retreive the remaining cartridges to ensure they went off as well, or were they destroyed by the detonated cartridge?

Do you have pictures of the damage?

One way or the other, I wish you a speedy recovery. That must have been quite an experience.

I, too, would love to see pictures and any evidence that could be put together.

We all learn and benefit from such info.

DF

Foogle,

When you wounds heal up and you're feeling better, how about a follow up on what you learned.

We all benefit from such information.

Thanks,

DF

A number of years ago a shooting buddy had a couple of rounds go off while loading. This was Yellow Boy that loaded from the muzzle. He was using factory cow boy ammo.
It's my guess that the dead soft lead molded to the primer of the cartridge of the round in front. Eventually the lead worked like a firing pin.
All of the rounds that did not detonate had their bullet nose reformed to conform to the primer in front of it.
The detonation blew a 3/16ths by by 3/8ths piece of brass from the inside of his thigh towards his knee.
My shooting buddy still calls me Dr. Mengle. I had to do some pants cutting close to some pretty important parts, poured ice cold water to wash off the blood, stuffed a couple brand new clean 45 caliber bore patches into the hole, then his finger. We were 45 minutes from medical care, so I told him to keep his finger holding the patches in, because if he bled out I was going to drape him over the hood of the truck like a trophy deer.
Lessons learned don't load soft lead bullets in magazine that loads from the muzzle with any elevated free fall distance. Don't load with rifle between your legs.
Keep a packet of clean patches in you range bag. Ice cold water does not endear you to the patient.

Jim

Thanks for the replies,,factory lead flatnose, action was closed on discharge, chamber remained empty, discharged remaining rds in lower action and in tube magazine. 4 of 5 disharged. Ammo was purchased with the rifle.

You'll probably develop a flinch after this. Get ready for some finger pointing from the rifle's importer and the ammo's manufacturer. Get a lawyer before sending the rifle or ammo off for inspection, and don't "play" with it in the mean time. I have a hard time with the "soft lead bullet" theory. This type of firearm was designed for use with lead bullets, however the Henry round was a rimfire. Get well soon.

Timbo , thanks, this was a 45 lc, 5 rds in maazine, follower closed slowly and gently. Rounds were in the magazine with follower spring against them for a while before i levered the action and had them discharge on closing the lever.chamber remained empty. Blown rounds are in the tube and in the bottom of the action.

Are you healed up?

I must have spent 20 minutes examining one of those at a LGS the other day. I just can't visualize it happening.

Were you trying to close the action without a round, or was it a failure to feed?

In the end a primer must have somehow detonated.

I'm thinking maybe a foreign object in the magazine?

I read a static discharge theory for unexplained detonation once.

It's a mystery.

With the one experience that I'm familiar with, the dead soft factory lead bullets formed to fit the primer/primer pocket.
My buddy learned not to not have such an angle on the rifle as it was loaded.

Jim

Did you drop any rounds on the ground at all?
I was talking to a few guys yesterday and mentioned this, the consensus was that it was highly unlikely without a combination of things.
Operator error, dropping the follower or pushing back hard on it.
Dirt/grit of some kind in there pressing between the primer and the round behind, and even then it would require some sort of force applied to set the primer off.

It may be possible if something hard was between the carrier block and the rounds in the mag, a piece of stone or some such wedged into the carrier block causing the primer to crush.

Since there were five rounds in the magazine, do we know witch one fired first. I think we have been assuming it was the round against the follower or the lifter, but it could have been one of the other three.