Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Guns you've blown up

As I posted in another thread, H335 is the main reason so many Montana pickups have cracked windshields. Some people think it's because Montana hunters drive so many gravel roads, but instead it's due to boxes of H335 handloads are left on the dash on warm summer days, when we're out shooting burrowing rodents. It doesn't take long....

I had one of those chain fire 2 or 3 cylinders. At least 2 cylinders went off. No damage to the pistol or me. I sold it shortly thereafter.

I guess nobody else has blown up a rimfire, so I'll tell my tale of woe. Being an enthusiastic but naive teenager, I thought it would be interesting to slightly flatten the nose of a .22 LR. When I started to squeeze it slightly in a vise, to my surprise the bullet receded all the way into the case. Foolishly shot it. Very loud, and the magazine from by beloved Remington 511P bounced off my forearm. No other damage, and what was left of the case extracted OK.

Same rifle I used for my ill fated shooting at a live round inserted an a medium fresh cow pie adventure.

Did someone neglect to grease all the chambers in the cyllinder, or was it something else?

I had a crazy potential near miss/blow-up with an 870 a few years ago. Actually, it had nothing to do with the particular gun and everything to do with the shell I used. I was shooting an old 'boat round', a 2 3/4" Federal shell which had a good bit of rust on the base. Evidently moisture had gotten in and partially defeated the powder. The primer lit the shell well enough that the shot-filled wad made it all the way to the choke, where the shot trickled out on the ground and the wad became stuck in the muzzle. Not realizing right away that I hadn't felt a normal recoil impulse, I pulled the slide to shuck the shell and load another. As I began to pull it back, the bolt was slightly stiff. As the empty shell became exposed, air must have gotten inside and re-ignited powder which hadn't burned correctly when the primer went off. The bolt came back quickly and the empty shell slammed backwards, the plastic slightly melted and crumpling in on itself and sticking in the port. That was enough to get me to stop and see what was going on. And that was the end of hunting for that evening. It could have ended in a much worse way.

I've never blown one up my self, but have seen a few mishaps of the years. My dad bought a Mec reloader, and set about loading some 20 gauge stuff for birds and bunnies. My brother spied a red squirrel out in the back yard and set about making life miserable for the little rodent. He came back in with a very bewildered look on his face, and the old bold action shotgun sporting a new and very large crack in the stock. 'Turns out when Dad put the loader together, he put the charging bar in upside down, which put about a double or triple load of powder in the shell. Oops.

I worked for several years as a rangemaster on the weekends for extra money, and the idiot factor out there was just incredible. Where shall we start?

How 'bout the guy that tried to run 303 Savage through an SMLE? Didn't work out too well. Blew the whole back end of the bolt out. How he didn't get killed is beyond me. We extracted bolt parts out of the plywood on the back side of the range building.

Then there as the nimrod that got the bright idea to run .270 Winchester through a .270 Weatherby Mag. That beautiful Weatherby wood really splinters when the entire magazine well gets blown out of the bottom of the rifle.

We had a Belgium Browning BAR out there with a peeled barrel. The range master was helping several people. He had a boresighter in the BAR and turned to answer another's question and the idiot got the bright idea to shoot the rifle with bore sighter still mounted to it. My understanding is that pieces of the bore sighter made it about half way to the 50 yard target frames.

The closest I ever came envolved an old full choked 870. We reloaded all our ammo, and we were out duck hunting and the action was hot and heavy. We called in a big flock of mallards, and I dropped one with my first shot, shot at another one, and was intent on getting off the third shot, but the second shot just didn't sound right, so I held up. Good thing I did-the wad from the second shot was stuck in the barrel right where it met the choke. Must have been a damp powder charge or something.

Still waiting to hear what it took to blow that Savage apart.

You useta be good looking.




P

I shared a reloading bench with a buddy and got enough 2400 in a 25-06 to have a place of honor on our gunsmith's wall!!

Case full of fast pistol powder would do it.

Photoshop, obviously.

None, but did take a torch to a POS amt hardballer.

In the 1950s an old friends brother in law took the tractor out to the range at the back of the farm. I don't why it happened but the SMLE he was using blew the action and he had a long walk as he couldn't drive the tractor with a large piece of his cheek and a small piece of his jaw missing.
Another chap at the range shooting handloads through a 2506 and a 270... yep 270 into 2506 doesn't go, blew the action (don't know what type) the friend of mine at the other end of the benches was peppered with shrapnel that had bounced off the tin roof.

I was firing prone rapid stage of the National Match
Course and out of the corner of my eye saw a cloud of smoke and a guy crab crawling backwards.
He was shooting a Garand that was loaded with pistol powder by accident.
He wanted to borrow a rifle from his brother and finish the match shooting the same handloads.
We voted NO!
whelennut

I blew up my first gun in 1963.
I fell down with a shotgun and the next time I fired the muzzle peeled back like a bannana.
We went to a gas station and borrowed their hack saw. The banana peel part of the barrel was sawed off my Winchester, and it made me a better hunter.

I have blown up:
9mm overload
32 acp overload
32 S&W long overload
32 S&W long overload
32 S&W overload
38 S&W Special overload
38 S&W Special overload
38 S&W Special overload
38 S&W Special overload
38 S&W Special overload
38 S&W overload
44 mag barrel obstruction Leading
7mmRemMag overload
19 Badger overload
19 Badger overload
7.62x25mm overload
7.62x25mm overload
223 bore obstruction
308 overload
7.62x39mm overload
410 overload

Most of those guns I repaired. Some are just a bag of blown up parts.


CZ52 barrel

I have never been hurt by a blown up gun, but I sure have been disappointed.

Your handle should be" Damn Lucky!!!"

or 'slow learner'.....

FWIW, I have on good authority that .308 Winchester rounds chamber quite readily in a .270 Win, but result in rapid disassembly of the rifle if the trigger is pulled.

This experiment has been independently verified by two individuals of my aquaintence, who are neither related nor aware of the other's mishap.

Given how common those rounds are at public shooting ranges, I was surprised to read the whole thread without that example being noted.

A Winchester push feed Feather Weight in 270 Win. came into my shop with the action locked up. I screwed the barrel off and there was a 308 case stuck in the bolt face. I pried the case out and reassembled the rifle. Headspace was still in check and no lug set back. I then fired 5 factory Federal 150 grain round nose rounds into my Savage bullet trap and all is fine. Owner is still hunting with that rifle 3 years later. He is a very lucky man.