Quite frequently on the various forums here, I see fellows asking and discussing the ability of this action or that action and it's gas escape engineering provisions. AND making rifle build decisions with that as a factor. WTF is that all about? In 55 years of reloading, I can honestly say, I've never had anything more serious than a primer back out on an old lever action rifle with headspace problems. I shoot a LOT. I have a hundred yard bench shack in my front yard and a 700 yard clanger range in my back yard, bought powder by the keg until they started selling it in cases Do I need to perk up my load by substituting Bullseye for the same old 4831 or what? Get me some gas blowing back.

only gas problem i have is when the wife insists on cooking a big kettle of chili right in the middle of hunting season. thats a problem.
as far as gas problems in a gun i guess the engineering works but have ony ever had one ruptured case in 50 years of reloading and 60 years of shooting. and that was someone elses reload.

flintlocke;
Good evening to you sir, I hope this middle weekend of June treated you well.

With the understanding that we really don't know what happened here as this wasn't my rifle at the time. I have this in my possession.


Also destroyed was the fore end, barrel and butt stock. The hammer was never found. I want to say the nice Pachmayr push in swivel bases were fine.....

A good friend had a FN action Husqvarna blow completely up on him. The only part we were able to salvage was the safety, though it strikes me that the bolt shroud might have been okay too. All else was broken in the resulting melee. The extractor was never found on that one.

I've had an 8 lb caddy of what was sold to me as VV N160 go bad on me. I found this when I first blew a case on a Ruger No. 1 in .300 Win Mag and then had a case go on my Ruger 77 in .308 Norma Mag. let go. Both actions handled the gas venting admirably might I add.

After the second case failed in as many shots, I was obviously done shooting for the day, went home and promptly pulled the bullets. What I found was that the powder was reddish and caked solid in the cases. Some cases actually had cracked at the neck and a few at the shoulder.

The remainder of the caddy of powder was warm to the touch..

Here's a link someone put up for our edification last time we chatted about this on the 'Fire - though that may well have been a decade back or more?

http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread.php?t=157820

Anyway along with those, I can recall a couple .308 cases cracking at the web when I was new to handloading and hadn't figured out my dies quite yet. That wasn't too, too bad however as I recall, not nearly as bad as when the powder went bad on me.

This topic reminds me vaguely of folks' experience with black bears in that they didn't give me any problems either, until one did, you know?

As always that's just one guy's thoughts on the matter and there's lots of roads to the proverbial Mecca for sure.

All the best to you as we head into summer.

Dwayne

One of those things that you don't have to worry about until you have to worry about it. Sometimes stuff happens like you stick your muzzle in some mud but don't realize it or your powder bridges in your measure and makes an over load or you somehow get a pistol primer mixed up with your rifle primers or...
Can't say I ever bought or didn't buy a rifle because of gas handling though.

I’ve had a couple go. One blown primer and another case head separation. Had an old wwii surplus 8x57 round speedster as well. The first two I was shooting a 77mkii and felt nothing. The third was a surplus vz24. Again I felt nothing. Glad they weren’t Winchester’s that’s for sure!

I found pieces of a tikka action at my range onetime while checking targets. No idea on that!

Is it worthwhile to add vent holes to either the side of the receiver or along the bolt stem on actions that do not have them? Never blown anything. The chili is another story though.

I did split a target barrel on a Ruger mk II. I was surprised a 22 could split a heavy barrel. A friend was shooting it and I said wait something is wrong, he almost touched off a third round with the split barrel, that could not have been good. He was wearing glasses but not gloves. Had a no powder load go half way down the barrel and then stick and the next shot split the barrel.

I have had a couple case head separations with a improperly chambered barrel on my Accuracy International AX. It was very uneventful and I didn't even realize it until I ejected the brass.

Pierced primers on a 700 in .223 with handloads. Had a very sloppy firing pin hole in the boltface. Sent it to have it bushed and no more problems. Have done that on a couple rifles now.

Ok fellows, I guess it is plain to me now, you don't need to concern yourself about gas handling....until you do! Just because it never happened to me, doesn't mean it won't. I kind of couched my questions in a snarky half sarcastic vein. BC 30's picture is worth a thousand words and I'm a believer now. God knows I am famous for my frugality...never throw anything away, I have used powder that should have been plowed into the garden, my detractors (and they are legion) claim I'm a cheapskate, it's a wonder I haven't had an incident. I hold the Mauser brothers in even higher esteem if that is possible.

BC30 what action is that, a low wall? Can't tell from that angle.

Seen two incidents.

One was a P14 chambered for 7.92 Mauser (supposedly a valuable wartime experimental piece) that the owner fired a .308 in by mistake. I was a couple benches oner and got hit by a chunk of the extractor. The owner had some minor facial booboos.

The other was a pre64 M70 .30/06 my son bought where he worked. It had been re-chambered to some .300 mag, but not marked as such. He got some brass bits and powder grains in his face, but was wearing glasses, so nothing serious. That extractor was bent about 90 degrees and the floorplate bent into a shallow "V".

Neither rifle was seriously damaged.

I thought the GAS you were referring to was Gun Acquisition Syndrome which I think we all have.

Funny you mention GAS..I am currently undergoing therapy for that very problem...therapist advised to me to indulge the urge to the point where he predicts that I will lose interest in blued steel and walnut and the problem will cure itself without the use of those pesky psychotic drugs. Sound logical to you fellows?

Years ago, I had a case separate ahead of the belt in a push feed Model 70 .300 Win. Gas and burnt powder residue popped me in the face HARD. Like a dumbarse, I was not wearing any eye protection. Thank the Lord I was evidently blinking and took the hit on the eyelids rather than the eyes. I was at a very remote range and had things gone worse, I'd have been in a world of crap.

Saw the title and thought Gus was posting

Tejano;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the day treated you well and it's not too, too hot in your locale tonight.

The action is a Browning B78 built by Miroku I want to say. It was an octagon barreled .22-.250 too by the way.

We never were able to ascertain what happened - as in what the cause of the over pressure load was, but my goodness it let go in spectacular fashion.

At the same time in my reloading/shooting life, a good buddy had a B78 in .25-06 and we did our level best to make that 26" octagon barrel into a .257 Weatherby using the original batches of AA3100 that came up here across the medicine line.

Flat primers and spectacular chronograph numbers were all we got - well it did punch volley ball sized exit holes in the local coyotes too with the 75gr HP Hornady we were using, but otherwise we came out unscathed.

Hopefully that answers your query sir, but if not please ask and I'll do my best to respond.

All the best to you as we head into the hot portion of the year.

Dwayne

Never noticed anything with head separations - guess there was enough brass to seal the chamber.

Saw a pierced primer blow a magazine out of an M14, and disassemble the magazine and contents into separate pieces. The magazine went back together without any further issues.

Shooting steel cased Romanian ex-mil 8x57 out of my Turkish Mauser, I occasionally get puffs in my face. The loads are relatively light and the steel case doesn't always expand to seal the chamber - they extract real dirty too. Not sure how the gas gets around the bolt shroud. Luckily my Vergueiro has a tight chamber - it doesn't have a bolt shroud to block any rearward travelling gas.

flintlocke

No . Since 1975 I’ve had a TOTAL of 2 (two) blown primers. I do mean
BLOWN.

Both Remington rifles.
1 a 700, in 270 Win

1 a Mod Six in 270 Win
—————————————
Each a Different lot of H 450 powder.

NO gas or metal fragments felt.

Jerry

I've had gas in the face a couple of times that I can remember: at least once or twice with .22 rimfires where the rim's been pierced - so long ago I don't remember the details but I suspect that a combination of old rifle and old ammo was at fault. I also remember an old hammer SxS shotgun which pierced a primer and let me feel it, again a long time ago.

I've had the odd couple of case-head separations in Lee Enfields, though not for a good while since I found a way to avoid them. I'd have to say I didn't even notice until I went to chamber the next round and couldn't. I think that the rimmed case-head and the case pressing against the chamber wall confined most of the gas, and the L-E's venting did the rest. I've also had the odd pierced primer in one or two rifles, but again not noticed until I looked at the fired round.

What I haven't had though is a case-head actually failing. I suspect that this is where the gas-handling really comes into play. A bit of gas escaping into the chamber wall from a case separation, or pushing back against the firing pin through a pierced primer, is rather a different thing from a case head actually letting go, allowing gas to vent through, say, an extractor cut. I also suspect that this was a great deal more common a century or so ago, when the consistency of early propellant and brass was less. Having said that, a prudent designer still has to consider the possibility of these and of a whole range of what are sometimes euphemistically called "human factors" - from my time analysing various failures it is clear to me that there's no such thing as truly idiotproof. Given the choice I'd rather have a design that can cope with failure of whatever sort,but to be honest it is not something I spend a lot of time thinking about.

I had a Remington 303 British factory cartridge split on me one time. I felt a little jet of gas across the back of my arm. Nothing in my face. Whoever designed the gas-handling features of the No. 4 Mk I SMLE did me a favor that day.


Okie John

Replace factory Remington with WWII vintage Radway Green ball and you've got my gas handling adventure story.