Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 22 LR case head separation right in my boy's face

There's nothing coy about it. I just didn't want to mention the maker before checking with the gang here and seeing if there were similar problems. The gun is not real old but has been fired a number of times with no problems. The ammo is fairly fresh and of a major maker. The gun is not a jam-o-matic like the 10-22 I mentioned. The chamber appears unblemished after the incident and appeared clean before I sprayed it out and wiped it down.

If I was more sure it was the ammo, certainly I would rat out the manufacturer.

Thanks for the kind words Dwayne. All I know is it sounded strange. I've never had one blow like that. I don't have a bolt action .22, but I've got a couple of levers. I may try some of it in them.

So,....ANSWER Bristoe's question, than, for starters.

COY ?,
....crap sakes you could be on stage doing a Chinese fan dance,

.......but that's just one man's opinion.

It's NOT an "Ammo issue" , the case shows CLEARLY that the arm fired out of battery.

That is not a "case head separation" it's what's properly called a sidewall rupture or unsupported case failure.

Blurry pics, lame apologies, and refusal to call out a # / Mfg. are not only COY,....they're somewhat half assed, and not just a little aggravating.

But by all means, ....carry on.

GTC

Happened to my cousin one time when we were shooting Aprillia .22 primer only loads. He was shooting a Marlin 39 lever action. We we taking careful shots, so know it did not happen on closing the bolt. It peppered his face good and dusted his right cornea with dots of powder from the primer and a few tiny flecks of brass. I held him down and irrigated his eye with a full water bottle and he did OK.

The fired case looked just like your pictures.

Made me a believer in always wearing eye protection.

Bud

The pics were as good as my wife could take them. I don't want to call out ammo when the problem may be my gun, as per my explanation. I asked what the problem may be and got several answers that allow for non-ammunition problems. The frick is your problem?

I'll be checking the ammo, most likely, in a different, non-semi-auto gun. If I encounter obvious ammunition problems, you can be assured I would not want somebody else hurting themselves, so I'd be posting it. What more do you want Chief?

No kidding on that eye protection. Glad y'all are okay. This was domestic, premium .22 ammo. Target-grade.

Answer Bristoe's question, maybe ?

regarding Win's re-call ?

Dancing Fans and a Kimono COY,.......do you think any major ammo mfg cares if you can't maintain a semi auto in safe, clean operating condition ?

Tech tip: BALLOON HEAD cases, by definition don't HAVE a "Case Head", therefor can't have the horsechit callout/ title you chose for the OP.

Glad that all eyes and appendages involved prosper. Not surprised in the least at your brain function / application applied thereby to this problem, either.

GTC

++1 And the rest of the action too. please

A buddy had something similar happen in a semi-auto that had received minimal cleaning.
Pieces of shell casing most painfully penetrated his thumb w/o pulling trigger ...

Calling into question another's "brain function" when you yourself can't catch that I already answered Bristoe's question in the 6th reply to my own OP is more than slightly lame. My weaponry is all functional.

As I said, I'll give it a thorough cleaning, but for having hung in the barn, it was already pretty clean. I've certainly fired guns that were tons grungier than this one. An average semi-auto .22 would be dirtier after a couple hundred rounds than this one was.

I forgot to say in the OP that I had to dig the case out...so the gun didn't extract it on its own.

Write all these surmises and suggestions on separate slips of paper.

Fold 'em neatly.

Put 'em in a hat (crown-down, of course!)

Shake 'em or stir 'em well.

Blindfold somebody.

Have 'im pick one.

Apparently, any one's as good as any other � right?

If not, how are you going to know which one makes the most sense?

Looks like you had a 22 fire out of battery, fired before the bolt locked.
I've had it happen several times and mostly attributed it to dirty chamber.
Other than being louder than a regular discharge, nothing happened to injure me.
I recall one, the last was with Remington ammo and a Remington 552 auto.

What evidence would suggest that the case burst on its way into battery position rather than when it was forced backward prematurely by excessive blow-back?

Here are some questions for which answers may help in dissecting the cause of the ruptured case.

Was the image altered (e.g. photoshopped) before posting? There's no detectable headstamp on the ruptured case shown.

Is there evidence of a firing pin strike on the case? The photos are so blurry on my monitor that it is not possible to detect this.

Did you directly observe the firing of the rifle when the cartridge ruptured, or was the rifle with the ruptured case brought to you after the rupture occurred?

For the case shown in the photos, did the cartridge fire in response to a separate pull of the trigger? Did the rifle fire as the cartridge was being chambered without a separate operation of the trigger?

Did the firing of the problem cartridge cause the bolt to be blown to the rear sufficiently to strip another cartridge from the clip and jam it against the fired case still stuck in the chamber? After the firing of the problem cartridge was the bolt face resting directly against the blown case?

How much of the damage to the fired case shown in the photo occurred as a result of digging the case out of the chamber?

From which shoulder was your boy operating the rifle when the incident occurred? If from the right shoulder, it's difficult to imagine how it happened "right in my boy's face". (The ejection port is on the right side of the action, correct?) Was the rifle being fired from the left shoulder? Was it being fired unshouldered, so the operator was facing the port? The answer may not bear on the direct cause of the rupture, but it will help in visualizing what was going on at the time of the rupture.

--Bob

Had that happen with a Wildcat in a Ruger Mark I many years ago

Glad your youngun is ok Mark. Scheit happens sometimes.

Glad to hear the boy is ok,
A fine example of WHY we wear safety glasses.
Even for a .22.

I would be contacting the ammo mnfg. for an explaination.
They will request a box or two of the offending amo for testing.
But will most likely send a brick in return.

Funny you ask about this.. Not a week ago the local sporting goods store had me look at a Rem M552 that would not allow a shell to chamber.. I tore it apart and found the casing (no head) of a .22 shell wedged in the chamber.. I don't recall that I've ever had one in the shop before. Centerfire? Yes.. Rimfire? Never...

Good to hear your boy is OK EE...

I didn't read every reply, but those I did offered sound advice and possible reasons for this happening. One thing I'll add, is the absolute necessity that everyone shooting needs to wear safety glasses. A $5.00 pair of polycarbonate safety glasses is cheap protection against a blinding accident.

Glad nothing bad happened to your boy EE. I have seen that happen but it hasn't happened to me since I quit making zip guns our of car radio antenna long years ago.