Reading of Shrapnel's misadventures in another forum, I got the idea for a thread on blown up guns. Anybody who has been immersed in the game deeply enough and long enough would have encountered such a thing, if not actually had it happen to him too.
My incident involved a pristine 1920's vintage Colt Police Positive .32. Even though I did (and still do) handload the cartridge, I succumbed to the temptation to buy a baggie full of someone's old reloads at a gun show for like $5, thinking I would break them down for the brass. Shortly thereafter I found myself in a plinking session with a buddy and ran through all of my own loads for the gun. There being lots of shooting time left, I ran back in the house and said "what the heck" and grabbed the baggie of mystery ammo. Halfway through what seemed to be normal old fashioned mild .32 Long loads, one blew. The whole top half of the cylinder disappeared, and the top strap bent like a banana. It felt/sounded like a .357 had gone off in that little gun. My buddy and I frantically patted ourselves down checking for shrapnel wounds, but we were unscathed- but mightily scared. We put the guns away and retired to porch and dug out a bottle of scotch to dispel the shakes. I still have that blown up pistol 28 years later (minus some parts I cannibalized for another gun restoration) , kept as a reminder that one shall not trust a stranger's cheap reloads.
The only thing I can think of as the cause was there must have been one with a case full of Bullseye in it. Breaking down the remainder of the unfired ones didn't turn up any overloads.
Savage 110 300 Win Mag
![[Linked Image]](http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b297/Shoalcove/Savage/Part2.jpg)
Never have blown one up. Have occasionally flirted with disaster, and been scolded by wimmins...
![[Linked Image]](http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww127/tex_n_cal/smlebolt.jpg)
I hope this goes on for pages...
Never seen it happen. I did blow a new muzzle brake off that was a friends rifle sighting in for him. Turns out the factory was about to send recall as they had found this out just prior to my call... no big deal, send it back, they fixed it and replaced the brake and it was still the same sub moa 7stw it had been.
Had a high school friend who owned an old single shot 12 gauge and one day while small game hunting the muzzle peeled back about 4 inches after he fired it.
Man I do not have photos but I had just got a vintage 22 hornet/28 gauge and couldn't wait to fire the thing soooo took it to a gunsmith friend of mine - who went to Trinidad gunsmithing school with me and we did "all" the safety checks.....except firing pin protrusion and firing pin hole shape on the breech face. Seems as though the hole was/is enlarged and the firing pin pierced the primer allowing the gas to flow back into the action and blew the firing pin out through the stock. Luckily for me the firing pin was at an angle away from my face - if it would have been the upper 28 gauge barrel I could have had some serious issues
Did have a good shot though that hit right where I was aiming
PennDog
I've been around a few shotgun barrels getting peeled back.
SxS action I was working up 30-30 loads for.
A combination of powder used, and
I didn't bush the strikers.
You have been warned.
![[Linked Image]](http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n23/jlcpls/SDC11780.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n23/jlcpls/SDC11779.jpg)
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I witnessed a Remington 1187 that let go on the skeet range.
My friend was shooting doubles station 2 when on the low bird (second shot) their was to me 2 explosions. A pop then a boom. He got both birds, and the barrel let go destroying the fore-end and magazine tube. I have been shooting mostly left handed shotguns ever since. He was right handed right hand shotgun. A lefty might have gotten a face full of iron.
Glock 45 ACP, double charge
I've told this one before, but here goes anyway...
I used to frequent a public range located on the top of a "mountain" in a nearby WMA. The range attracted people from all over, including several nearby states as it was free and also went to 200 yards. One guy I used to see there a lot was a collector of military rifles. He used to park at one of the 200 yard benches, set up his targets, and just shoot.
One day, I was a couple of benches over and noticed he was shooting what I thought was a nice 1917 Enfield. I went over to get a closer look and he explained that it was a P14 the Brits had chambered in 7.92 during the war for experimental reasons of some sort and that he had paid $1100 for it. What provenance he had I have no idea, and why he would choose to shoot such a rare and expensive bird is a mystery.
I sat down at my bench and began shooting. One of his shots sounded strange, even through the muffs and something struck me and landed on my bench. It looked like a piece of an extractor. I looked over at him and he was sitting there looking a bit stunned. I went over to check on him and found him examining the rifle, which was a mess. The end of the extractor had blown off and flown over and hit me. The magazine box had blown out, bending the floorplate and rupturing the wood around it. The bolt was locked up solid. The shooter was okay, if a little shellshocked, and had just a few specks of blood on his face from powder bits. He was very lucky, as I can't recall ever seeing him with eye protection.
Some months later, I met him there again and asked if he had figured out what had happened. He said as far as he could tell, a round of the wrong cartridge, probably a .308 had gotten mixed in with his ammo, but his gunsmith wasn't sure. The rifle was being repaired, but was pretty much ruined as a collector's piece.
I blew up the first Kimber 6PPC every made. It's serial number was 6PPC-1.
I was sent to the range with the rifle and five boxes of Sako ammo. In my stupidity, I didn't tie the rifle to a tire and fire it by lanyard. I fired it from the shoulder and it literally blew up.
The receiver split at the top,the barrel landed about thirty yards downrange, the scope hopped up in the air and hit my head, the bolt stayed in the receiver, but the cocking piece literally blew up ... parts of it left in my right hand still.
The worst part was that the receiver had a gas relief hole in the bottom of the action, but nobody had thought to drill the heavy laminated stock so that the gas could actually escape.
When the gas hit the laminated wood, it opened up like a duckfoot. When the stock closed back up, a bunch of the skin of my left hand was squished and inside of the stock.
When the round went off, my face burned and I could not see. My face hurt and my left hand was on fire. The stock was stuck to my left hand.
My glasses were like sandblasted by steel and brass and there was blood flowing from my forehead and down my face.
Somehow, I got my glasses off and the blood out of my eyes.
At that point in time, Greg Warne and three potential investors showed up to witness the firing of Greg's newest wunderkind. When Greg saw me ... bleeding and helpless ... he blanched and suggested that the group retire to a nicer place.
I croaked, "Could one of you please take a screwdriver and open the laminations, so I can get my hand out of this stock?" They all looked blankly at me, got in Greg's fancy leased automobile and drove off.
Typical rich yuppie pukes.
I finally got the stock off my hand, the bleeding stopped and the rifle pieces gathered up. I took the sh1t back to Kimber of Oregon and dumped it on Greg's desk.
That was the last shot I fired for Kimber.
Reason for the blowup was simple. There were no gunsmiths at Kimber. When Clymer called to ask if the 6PPC reamer was to be "target" (meaning turned neck) or sporter (not turned neck), the secretary said, "Well, Kimber makes accurate rifles, to send us a target reamer, you silly
"
So, I put a non-turned cartridge in a chamber that was intended for a turned case neck. The neck had no expansion room and the bullet became a solid bore obstruction. Can you spell D.E.T.O.N.A.T.I.O.N ????
I'm lucky the blowup didn't kill me. The bolt could easily have blown back between my eyes and into my brain.
Might I state that the rifle was built by fools who knew very little about firearms? Anyway, that is my opinion.
Blessings,
Steve
Twice. An Anne Arundel county swat guy had a squib in his 45cal glock while doing double taps. The second round bulged the barrel. A few years ago I was doing double taps with my Springfield 1911. The first round was a squib. I noticed it was different just as I pulled the trigger a second time. Ruptured the barrel, otherwise no damage to me or the pistol. As gnoahhh said, if you're around this stuff long enough it will either happen to you, or to someone you know.
None so far, though looking at my handloading practices in retrospect I really tried.
Damn Remington 700's are too strong...
Savage 110 300 Win Mag
A classic Campfire moment.
Savage 110 300 Win Mag
A classic Campfire moment.
Would you take load advice from the guy that caused that ?? really ? Makes me think of the old phrase " stupid hurts" . I konw I know.... chit happens
Might I state that the rifle was built by fools who knew very little about firearms? Anyway, that is my opinion.
I DO like the .22LRs from that era, but knowing what a clown the owner was takes away a bit of their aura.
In
your opinion (lawyer hedge in place) didn't Kimber of Oregon fold because of a nose candy problem?
Glock 45 ACP, double charge
Did the gun "blow up" or case rupture at "unsupported" area and blow nmag out the bottom of pistol ?
I blew up the first Kimber 6PPC every made. It's serial number was 6PPC-1.
I was sent to the range with the rifle and five boxes of Sako ammo. In my stupidity, I didn't tie the rifle to a tire and fire it by lanyard. I fired it from the shoulder and it literally blew up.
The receiver split at the top,the barrel landed about thirty yards downrange, the scope hopped up in the air and hit my head, the bolt stayed in the receiver, but the cocking piece literally blew up ... parts of it left in my right hand still.
The worst part was that the receiver had a gas relief hole in the bottom of the action, but nobody had thought to drill the heavy laminated stock so that the gas could actually escape.
When the gas hit the laminated wood, it opened up like a duckfoot. When the stock closed back up, a bunch of the skin of my left hand was squished and inside of the stock.
When the round went off, my face burned and I could not see. My face hurt and my left hand was on fire. The stock was stuck to my left hand.
My glasses were like sandblasted by steel and brass and there was blood flowing from my forehead and down my face.
Somehow, I got my glasses off and the blood out of my eyes.
At that point in time, Greg Warne and three potential investors showed up to witness the firing of Greg's newest wunderkind. When Greg saw me ... bleeding and helpless ... he blanched and suggested that the group retire to a nicer place.
I croaked, "Could one of you please take a screwdriver and open the laminations, so I can get my hand out of this stock?" They all looked blankly at me, got in Greg's fancy leased automobile and drove off.
Typical rich yuppie pukes.
I finally got the stock off my hand, the bleeding stopped and the rifle pieces gathered up. I took the sh1t back to Kimber of Oregon and dumped it on Greg's desk.
That was the last shot I fired for Kimber.
Reason for the blowup was simple. There were no gunsmiths at Kimber. When Clymer called to ask if the 6PPC reamer was to be "target" (meaning turned neck) or sporter (not turned neck), the secretary said, "Well, Kimber makes accurate rifles, to send us a target reamer, you silly
"
So, I put a non-turned cartridge in a chamber that was intended for a turned case neck. The neck had no expansion room and the bullet became a solid bore obstruction. Can you spell D.E.T.O.N.A.T.I.O.N ????
I'm lucky the blowup didn't kill me. The bolt could easily have blown back between my eyes and into my brain.
Might I state that the rifle was built by fools who knew very little about firearms? Anyway, that is my opinion.
Blessings,
Steve
That's going to be hard to top! I'd have sued somebody.
Never blew one up, exactly, but did some damage and had a solid scare with a case rupture in the Taurus knockoff of the Beretta many years ago shooting some cheap range reloads.
Haven't gone near cheap reloads since.
My first reload ever…blew up my first rifle…a Springfield/Savage single shot .22. Split the bolt, ballooned the receiver (which was machined integral with the barrel, or else I probably would have sent the barrel downrange.
)
Savage 110 300 Win Mag
A classic Campfire moment.
Would you take load advice from the guy that caused that ?? really ? Makes me think of the old phrase " stupid hurts" . I konw I know.... chit happens
There was NOTHING unplanned about it.
Apparently your magnificent powers of observation missed the the string, which was of course attached to the trigger.
I didn't miss the string. It was pretty obvious.
Savage 110 300 Win Mag
A classic Campfire moment.
Would you take load advice from the guy that caused that ?? really ? Makes me think of the old phrase " stupid hurts" . I konw I know.... chit happens
There was NOTHING unplanned about it.
Apparently your magnificent powers of observation missed the the string, which was of course attached to the trigger.
Pretty poorly planned IMO. Obviously, the bungie you used on the fore-rest was too wimpy, else it would have held things better.
And, BTW, why didn't the chronograph make it into the pic? Any good overload deserves to have its speed recorded for posterity on the chrono.
What did it take to blow that Savage to bits?
36 cal. cap n ball, chainfire all 6 cyl.
Didn't happen to me, I was there as an instructor when a student blew up his .45ACP Colt 1911.
He had been shooting his Colt Delta Elite 10mm a few minutes earlier and switched to his carry .45ACP. He stuffed his mags with .45ACP, which was on the bench with his 10mm ammo. He was talking with other shooters around him and didn't notice that he stuck a 10mm round in the mag.
In the middle of a firing drill, his pistol went "click" instead of "bang", so he did a proper Type 1 malfunction clearance, chambering a .45ACP round.
The 10mm round had been stripped out of the mag and shoved into the chamber, and into the barrel, just out of reach of the firing pin, creating an obstruction.
Continuing the drill, he fired the .45ACP round, the bullet striking the 10mm round, which went off, inside the barrel just forward of the chamber.
The barrel was blown into three pieces, the barrel bushing went downrange, the slide blown up at about a 30 degree angle, the mag was blown out of the frame and both grip panels blew off, tearing the pistol from his grip.
Fortunately, no one, including the shooter was injured.
Ed
Never been that Stupid so far
Never had one blow up but I did have a Browning BT99 I bought used that had a choke tube peel up from the inside. It was an after market tubing done before I bought it. I've seen a few ruptured barrels from stuck wads so I always check before I drop the next shell in the chamber. After the last shot of a round of handicap I noticed an obstruction near the muzzle. The choke tube was caved in just like someone had stood it on end and hit the back end with a hammer. It unscrewed from the barrel just fine and the shop owner gave me a full refund for the gun. I'm glad I noticed it before I shot another round.
Savage 110 300 Win Mag
A classic Campfire moment.
Would you take load advice from the guy that caused that ?? really ? Makes me think of the old phrase " stupid hurts" . I konw I know.... chit happens
To answer your question............YES I would take his load advice.
Never has happened to me and I have been reloading since about 1964. Unless I know the person real well, I don't shoot other's reloads
Years ago I did pick up a decent Fox Sterlingworth that had the right barrel blown about 14" up. Wasn't the owner's fault as it appeared the reamer had walked one way at that point and the metal was very thin. I have since re-barreled that shotgun myself for a good shooter.
Only once have I seen one in person. Barrel peeled back on a rifle after the shooter forgot a bore guide was still in the muzzle.
Oops.
Nobody hurt, amazingly.
gnoahhh;
Good day to you sir, I trust that your Friday the 13th has been without incident thus far.
While I'm cognizant you've clearly stated guns that I've blown up, hopefully I can be forgiven for a posting these photos and details of one that is in my possession but I was not present at it's demise.
![[Linked Image]](http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x83/BC30cal/DSCN15092.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x83/BC30cal/DSCN15072.jpg)
It was a B78 chambered in .22-250, which at the time belonged to a now passed on single shot rifle enthusiast and hobby gunsmith.
As I inherited it from his estate the information I received was second hand, but I was able to view all the parts that were able to be found that day.
The fore end was shattered, as was the butt stock. The barrel was loose and had moved somewhat forward - we unscrewed it by hand with no effort. Strangely it looked OK?
The cocking lever/trigger guard was broken at the pivot points.
The drop block was visibly damaged as was the extractor.
The hammer was nowhere to be found.
The best guess was that the gentleman had somehow managed to chamber a .250 round in the rifle as he had both at the range that day and ammunition for them on the bench.
Thanks for the sobering reading your thread has provided sir and all the best to you this weekend. May we all go the remainder of our shooting lives without another such incident.
Dwayne
Witnessed a Ruger 45 ACP blow up, I figure it must have been a double charge. Bowed the slide, popped the magazine and the guts thereof out the bottom. The recoil brought the pistol up just enough to pop his nose...it was sore for a while (the nose and his pride)
Never did anything quite so crazy as blow up a gun, but there was a day when I flat made a mess of a 12.7mm gun with 7.62mm ammo.
I may have learned that from 'Flave.
I blew up the first Kimber 6PPC every made. It's serial number was 6PPC-1.
I was sent to the range with the rifle and five boxes of Sako ammo. In my stupidity, I didn't tie the rifle to a tire and fire it by lanyard. I fired it from the shoulder and it literally blew up.
The receiver split at the top,the barrel landed about thirty yards downrange, the scope hopped up in the air and hit my head, the bolt stayed in the receiver, but the cocking piece literally blew up ... parts of it left in my right hand still.
The worst part was that the receiver had a gas relief hole in the bottom of the action, but nobody had thought to drill the heavy laminated stock so that the gas could actually escape.
When the gas hit the laminated wood, it opened up like a duckfoot. When the stock closed back up, a bunch of the skin of my left hand was squished and inside of the stock.
When the round went off, my face burned and I could not see. My face hurt and my left hand was on fire. The stock was stuck to my left hand.
My glasses were like sandblasted by steel and brass and there was blood flowing from my forehead and down my face.
Somehow, I got my glasses off and the blood out of my eyes.
At that point in time, Greg Warne and three potential investors showed up to witness the firing of Greg's newest wunderkind. When Greg saw me ... bleeding and helpless ... he blanched and suggested that the group retire to a nicer place.
I croaked, "Could one of you please take a screwdriver and open the laminations, so I can get my hand out of this stock?" They all looked blankly at me, got in Greg's fancy leased automobile and drove off.
Typical rich yuppie pukes.
I finally got the stock off my hand, the bleeding stopped and the rifle pieces gathered up. I took the sh1t back to Kimber of Oregon and dumped it on Greg's desk.
That was the last shot I fired for Kimber.
Reason for the blowup was simple. There were no gunsmiths at Kimber. When Clymer called to ask if the 6PPC reamer was to be "target" (meaning turned neck) or sporter (not turned neck), the secretary said, "Well, Kimber makes accurate rifles, to send us a target reamer, you silly
"
So, I put a non-turned cartridge in a chamber that was intended for a turned case neck. The neck had no expansion room and the bullet became a solid bore obstruction. Can you spell D.E.T.O.N.A.T.I.O.N ????
I'm lucky the blowup didn't kill me. The bolt could easily have blown back between my eyes and into my brain.
Might I state that the rifle was built by fools who knew very little about firearms? Anyway, that is my opinion.
Blessings,
Steve
And I thought your blog was a good read! Dang brother, you got some stories to tell. Thanks for sharing that one.
[quote][ Guns you've blown up /quote]
Not a single one.....now let me find some wood to knock on.....
I was acquainted with one fellow who, on our first time out in the field together, held his 257 Weatherby between his legs to pry the bolt open after a shot. Apparently his reloading philosophy was to load it up till the bolt seized or a primer blew and back it off a half grain. I avoided going afield with him after that incident. I always figured I'd hear that he blew one up but I never did hear if he did.
I had to stalk the rifle I blew up. It didn't want to be destroyed. It was sitting on a rifle rest under the range canopy. It looked to be sleeping. I crept up on it slowly, hiding behind the roof pillars to avoid being seen.
When I got to within five feet of it, I thought that I'd been discovered. I dove down behind a shooting bench, to the right of the Remington bolt. At first I thought that it might have been blind on that side, but learned later from a Remington employee (Mike Walker maybe?) that bolt actions have problems seeing out of the right side (and the left side for LH rifles)because of the handles. They are also hard of hearing because of their triggers.
Anyway, I slid along the cement floor, slowly sat up beside the rifle, and jammed a loaded cartridge into its breech before it had the chance to slam its bolt shut.
Remingtons are probably the most skittish of all the bolts. You could tell that it was nervous. Mere seconds after I chambered the cartridge, it went off! Luckily I had crouched down below the table top. All I heard was KABOOM!
It was just a plain Jane ADL in 308 Winchester, but it looked like an art exhibit after 30 grains of pistol powder got 'sploded behind a 180 grain Core Lokt! As it expired, I heard it whisper, "Bastards..." And that was that.
The others came running over after they heard the commotion. Old Man Winger - we called him 'the Prospector' because he dressed in dirty, worn work clothes and carried a steel pan in his backpack - yelled,
"Ha! That will serve him right! Smug little rifle! No one can hurt me! I was made with a tough ring of steel!' Bah! Take that you domestic piece of sheit*!" *edited so it wouldn't get bleeped.
Later that afternoon, some short guy, smoking a cigar came over to our table and said, "You'd never do that to a Ruger No. 1."
And he was right of course. I have too much respect for them.
I see handgun anecdotes here, and centerfire rifles……I can't be the only one to have managed the simple feat of blowing up a rimfire?
I'd appreciate as many images as possible here, and perhaps permission to download the same as examples in our Hunter Education Classes. Keep them coming troops.
gnoahhh;
Good day to you sir, I trust that your Friday the 13th has been without incident thus far.
While I'm cognizant you've clearly stated guns that I've blown up, hopefully I can be forgiven for a posting these photos and details of one that is in my possession but I was not present at it's demise.
It was a B78 chambered in .22-250, which at the time belonged to a now passed on single shot rifle enthusiast and hobby gunsmith.
As I inherited it from his estate the information I received was second hand, but I was able to view all the parts that were able to be found that day.
The fore end was shattered, as was the butt stock. The barrel was loose and had moved somewhat forward - we unscrewed it by hand with no effort. Strangely it looked OK?
The cocking lever/trigger guard was broken at the pivot points.
The drop block was visibly damaged as was the extractor.
The hammer was nowhere to be found.
The best guess was that the gentleman had somehow managed to chamber a .250 round in the rifle as he had both at the range that day and ammunition for them on the bench.
Thanks for the sobering reading your thread has provided sir and all the best to you this weekend. May we all go the remainder of our shooting lives without another such incident.
Dwayne
afternoon, Dwayne - I recall a year or two back someone was parting out a modern Highwall on Gunbroker, which had been blown up. I want to say that one was a .25-06, however. Many of the parts were actually still usable.
Pretty fair trick to blow one, given the strength of a High Wall.
In my (nearest miss) case I learned that 1) headspace gauges were invented for a reason, and 2) before shooting a vintage action, one should inspect for missing features...such as bolt lugs
I will say, I never have heard of a Ruger #1 blown up, though I am sure someone has done it at one time or another.
I see handgun anecdotes here, and centerfire rifles……I can't be the only one to have managed the simple feat of blowing up a rimfire?
I've never blown up a rimfire but a friend gave me an old Mossberg target rifle that had a 12 inch long split down the side of the barrel about 6 inches forward of the receiver. I've no idea how the original owner managed to do that to that heavy a barrel. The fellow I got it from claimed it was given to him that way. I ended up getting a take off barrel from Jack First and used it for years as a squirrel gun.
Back in the 90's we tried to blow up a 6.5 Jap for a hunter safety course, only junk rifle I had laying around at the time. Loaded the case full with red dot. Tired her off to a tired and with a 200 foot string we touched her off. After the dust cleared and tire stopped spinning around we walked up and could not believe what we seen. Gun was still in one piece, extractor was missing, stock was cracked and we could not open the bolt up, tried with a dead blow hammer to the point we bent the bolt handle. Tried to remove the barrel but that was not coming off either. Got to hand it to the Japs they sure could make a strong action. I do have a video of it but don't have a camera to watch it anymore, if anyone wants to upload it on here I'll send them the video.
I'd appreciate as many images as possible here, and perhaps permission to download the same as examples in our Hunter Education Classes. Keep them coming troops.
You can download mine I posted earlier
The damaged there was caused by a ruptured primer venting back through the boxlock.
I see handgun anecdotes here, and centerfire rifles……I can't be the only one to have managed the simple feat of blowing up a rimfire?
I actually had a complete cylinder split with an old H&R Sportsman 22lr.
About the 5th round in a cylinder of 9 and there was a completely different sound. Sure enough, the cylinder had a crack the entire length of the cylinder, through and through.
I have no idea why.
I see handgun anecdotes here, and centerfire rifles……I can't be the only one to have managed the simple feat of blowing up a rimfire?
I actually had a complete cylinder split with an old H&R Sportsman 22lr.
About the 5th round in a cylinder of 9 and there was a completely different sound. Sure enough, the cylinder had a crack the entire length of the cylinder, through and through.
I have no idea why.
Obviously, it was due to your overpressure reloads.
I should have known not to fire long RIFLE ammo in handgun.
I've got some 22 Long Revolver ammo if you need some. It's kind of rare, so it's a bit pricey but it (probably) won't blow up your guns.
Might I state that the rifle was built by fools who knew very little about firearms? Anyway, that is my opinion.
I DO like the .22LRs from that era, but knowing what a clown the owner was takes away a bit of their aura.
In
your opinion (lawyer hedge in place) didn't Kimber of Oregon fold because of a nose candy problem?
Great to hear from you, my friend.
I never suspected a cocaine problem. But then, I've been very close to organizations that were up to their ears in drugs and I was blissfully unaware all the time (don't ask)
In my opinion (lawyer's hedge), My Warne had a girlfriend problem and that really didn't sit well with me. His wife and children were simply darling and (in my opinion
) they did not deserve the shoddy treatment.
I guess I'm just too straight-laced and stupid to understand stuff like that. In 50++ years of marriage, I have never cheated on my wife, not once ... but then, she is one hell of a rifle shot
Blessings,
Steve
I was working up loads at the range with my super duper field loading set, while at the same time, composing paragraphs in my head for an article I was fighting with.
Brand spanking new Lilja barrel in 22BR, on a Euro 98 sporter action of indeterminate, non-military lineage.
Shot a .261, my best group ever in my whole effing life, called that good and went on to the next bullet I wanted to try.
All the time, a voice in my head is writing paragraphs. So, I forgot to take the plunge rod out of the barrel after I measured the bullet for throat.
Loaded up a mild charge, seated the new bullet, closed the action, and fired.
Destroyed the action. Had to cut off two inches of the barrel, there was a crack in the chamber at the shoulder. The brass was pretty much melted. Had a little cut on my right hand where the extractor went by on its way to parts unknown.
I never did find that darn rod.
It was a heck of a way to torture test the 98's safety lug.
I eventually found another 98 action, and rebuilt the rifle cannibalizing what was salvageable. Even saved the stock, which got split pretty well. Shoots in the fours.
Lesson: DON'T THINK ABOUT OTHER STUFF WHILE WORKING UP LOADS, and DON'T BRING THE BULLET FEELER ROD TO THE RANGE.
I guess I'm just too straight-laced and stupid to understand stuff like that. In 50++ years of marriage, I have never cheated on my wife, not once ... but then, she is one hell of a rifle shot
CMU……………..crack me up! Obviously, stupid, you're not!
Might I state that the rifle was built by fools who knew very little about firearms? Anyway, that is my opinion.
I DO like the .22LRs from that era, but knowing what a clown the owner was takes away a bit of their aura.
In
your opinion (lawyer hedge in place) didn't Kimber of Oregon fold because of a nose candy problem?
Great to hear from you, my friend.
I never suspected a cocaine problem. But then, I've been very close to organizations that were up to their ears in drugs and I was blissfully unaware all the time (don't ask)
In my opinion (lawyer's hedge), My Warne had a girlfriend problem and that really didn't sit well with me. His wife and children were simply darling and (in my opinion
) they did not deserve the shoddy treatment.
I guess I'm just too straight-laced and stupid to understand stuff like that. In 50++ years of marriage, I have never cheated on my wife, not once ... but then, she is one hell of a rifle shot
Blessings,
Steve
I have it on very good authority that the girlfriend (and stripper) problem was a definitive, as was his "candy" habit.
Take that fwiw.
None, so far, not even a seriously stuck bolt or any issue with any handgun of which I load several thousand a year in 9mm & 45 ACP.
Been reloading since 1974.
MM
I blew up the first Kimber 6PPC every made. It's serial number was 6PPC-1.
I was sent to the range with the rifle and five boxes of Sako ammo. In my stupidity, I didn't tie the rifle to a tire and fire it by lanyard. I fired it from the shoulder and it literally blew up.
The receiver split at the top,the barrel landed about thirty yards downrange, the scope hopped up in the air and hit my head, the bolt stayed in the receiver, but the cocking piece literally blew up ... parts of it left in my right hand still.
The worst part was that the receiver had a gas relief hole in the bottom of the action, but nobody had thought to drill the heavy laminated stock so that the gas could actually escape.
When the gas hit the laminated wood, it opened up like a duckfoot. When the stock closed back up, a bunch of the skin of my left hand was squished and inside of the stock.
When the round went off, my face burned and I could not see. My face hurt and my left hand was on fire. The stock was stuck to my left hand.
My glasses were like sandblasted by steel and brass and there was blood flowing from my forehead and down my face.
Somehow, I got my glasses off and the blood out of my eyes.
At that point in time, Greg Warne and three potential investors showed up to witness the firing of Greg's newest wunderkind. When Greg saw me ... bleeding and helpless ... he blanched and suggested that the group retire to a nicer place.
I croaked, "Could one of you please take a screwdriver and open the laminations, so I can get my hand out of this stock?" They all looked blankly at me, got in Greg's fancy leased automobile and drove off.
Typical rich yuppie pukes.
I finally got the stock off my hand, the bleeding stopped and the rifle pieces gathered up. I took the sh1t back to Kimber of Oregon and dumped it on Greg's desk.
That was the last shot I fired for Kimber.
Reason for the blowup was simple. There were no gunsmiths at Kimber. When Clymer called to ask if the 6PPC reamer was to be "target" (meaning turned neck) or sporter (not turned neck), the secretary said, "Well, Kimber makes accurate rifles, to send us a target reamer, you silly
"
So, I put a non-turned cartridge in a chamber that was intended for a turned case neck. The neck had no expansion room and the bullet became a solid bore obstruction. Can you spell D.E.T.O.N.A.T.I.O.N ????
I'm lucky the blowup didn't kill me. The bolt could easily have blown back between my eyes and into my brain.
Might I state that the rifle was built by fools who knew very little about firearms? Anyway, that is my opinion.
Blessings,
Steve
And I thought your blog was a good read! Dang brother, you got some stories to tell. Thanks for sharing that one.
John, my brother,
The last blog, the one posted yesterday,
WAS a good read that was straight from the heart ... it was about as well as I've ever written.
Having said that, blowing up the first Kimber 6PPC was a bit of a trip. The looks on the faces of Greg's "investors" was priceless. Prying the laminated stock off my left had was maybe not so priceless
I still have lots of metal in my right hand. And my face was made a little more ugly
No matter.
My blessings to you, Mary and your incredible kids,
Your brother Steve
tex n cal;
Good afternoon to you as well my cyber friend, I trust that despite this being Friday the 13th you had a decent day.
More than once I compared the No 1 which used to reside in our safe with the B78 action and indeed the No 1 is quite a bit more robust.
I blew one case in the No 1 - long story of powder going off on me - and despite a lot of smoke appearing from the seams around the block not a bit went back into my face.
Based on a hunch and not much more, I'd guess that the barrel may come forward on a No 1 before the block comes back - but again that's a guess on my part and emphatically an engineer I'm not.
Having all the lugs present and accounted for on any action is definitely desirable and doubly so on something a bit different like an SMLE.
Under the heading of whatever doesn't kill us and all that I suppose?
All the best to you this weekend tex n cal.
Dwayne
I had to stalk the rifle I blew up. It didn't want to be destroyed. It was sitting on a rifle rest under the range canopy. It looked to be sleeping. I crept up on it slowly, hiding behind the roof pillars to avoid being seen..
Perfectly told.
Have never blown up any firearms, though some should have blown. Have probably come closest with Ruger No. 1's, but discovered through "experimentation" (not always intentional) that they will indeed take an awful lot, and it's a myth that the No. 1's lever will start to stick before a typical bolt action ties up.
The closest I've been to a firearm that really blew was on a prairie dog hunt about 3-4 years ago. One of my friends was a retired guy with a wildcat 6mm rifle built on a post-1963 Winchester Model 70 action. Being on a fixed income, he used each case as long as possible, full-length-sizing only when necessary.
On this shoot some cases were sticking in the chamber, and he'd bump them out by sliding a cleaning rod down the muzzle. After one shot he forgot to remove the rod, and then next round blew the barrel downrange, and blew the scope backward off the rifle, because the top half of the receiver ring came off.
The barrel traveled about 15-20 yards, with both the bullet and cleaning rod still inside. The rod was stuck so hard we couldn't remove it.
The scope hit him HARD in the left eye. Don't know if his sight in that eye could have been saved if we hadn't been two hours from the nearest hospital, but by the time another guy and I drove him there, and the small hospital decided they should send him to a bigger hospital, it was too late. But it could have been a lot worse, especially since he's right-handed and right-eyed.
One of the other guys on the shoot is an engineer who owns a company that makes firearms accessories. He did some calculating and came up with a rough estimate of at least 250,000 PSI.
Been there done that. I was loading ammo late one night after work and grabbed a can of imr4227 instead of another powder for the 222. I then proceded to load 24 grains of it in cases for my dads Remington 788 in .222 that was given to him by a buddy of his when he got out of the service.
One shot at the range the next day and I quickly found that I had to beat the bolt of that rifle open with a sledge hammer. The bolt and case each split into two pieces. Pieces of copper were even welded to the back side of the barrel.
Almost a year later I FINALLY found a bolt on ebay with a buy it now of 110 dollars. I think that I almost tore my shoulder out of it's socket trying to be the first to hit buy it now. A trip to the gunsmith and that gun with the stock barrel still shoots well under an inch at 100 yards. In fact I think that I'm going to take the old bushnell sportview off of that rifle and put a nicer scope on it. After all I put it through I think that I owe it something nice and shiny, right?
The strange thing is that the "weak" bolt on that rifle didn't even break off!
I'd appreciate as many images as possible here, and perhaps permission to download the same as examples in our Hunter Education Classes. Keep them coming troops.
![[Linked Image]](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee202/bridgershooters/rifles/100_0526.jpg)
I'd appreciate as many images as possible here, and perhaps permission to download the same as examples in our Hunter Education Classes. Keep them coming troops.
![[Linked Image]](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee202/bridgershooters/handguns/105_0110.jpg)
If that's all you got, you might get your handle revoked….
I'd appreciate as many images as possible here, and perhaps permission to download the same as examples in our Hunter Education Classes. Keep them coming troops.
![[Linked Image]](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee202/bridgershooters/rifles/Newbreak_zpsdf9cefee.jpg)
That fluting may have been mite too deep.
I've not blown up any rifle.
I began handloading in 1975 with no one to tutor me. I just READ and READ before attempting to start loading.
I have had 2 blown primers 3 yrs apart with different lots of H 450 that obviously ruined the cases. BTW the load was in a handloading manual. Since then I have designated H 450 to varmint loads in the 6mm Rem at mid-level.
Being an ardent fan of Bob Hagel and JOC with JRS sprinkled on top, I'm thankful I followed their advice to proceed with caution.
Only had one let go on me, and that's one too many.
It was a like new condition 70's vintage Rossi 12ga hammer gun with 3 ' chambers. Killed a turkey the day before with it. Clean barrel, no obstructions, using a major brand's 3' turkey shell.
A couple of magic pellets must have made it out the end of the barrel rather than the rupture as I killed turkey #2 when it blew up.
My thumb was under the blowout and the forend blew up as well. I count my blessings I didn't lose my thumb, or worse. Only some stinging and a bruise.
Just me, but I have never handled a Rossi anything since and I will not shoot the major brand ammunition I used that day ever again. That's just me.
I was very lucky in May of '08. This could have ended badly.
Did I mention it scared the [bleep] out of me ?
![[Linked Image]](http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l305/bucktales/mlf/IMG_5596-1.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l305/bucktales/mlf/IMG_5594.jpg)
I hope this goes on for pages...
Oh, I see. When the heat's on somebody else, it's not on ME
I see handgun anecdotes here, and centerfire rifles……I can't be the only one to have managed the simple feat of blowing up a rimfire?
I'd very much like to know how you managed that.
I see handgun anecdotes here, and centerfire rifles……I can't be the only one to have managed the simple feat of blowing up a rimfire?
I'd very much like to know how you managed that.
Yeah, me, too. I have been waiting patiently for the story...
I started handloading in 1971 and never so much as pierced a primer - until 2 years ago when I blew a sako 85 finlight to smithereens as I detailed in a previous thread.
I took a lot of shrapnel and the gun came completely apart.
You can see a picture of it in that old thread.
Don't recommend it to anyone.
I've got a collection of shrapnel in a big box back in my loading room. It contains many parts from blown up guns. I always grab the blown up stuff that comes in the shop if the owners don't want it, which is most of the time. I need to dig it out and snap a couple pics to put up. It shaped my opinion on some actions and is why I won't own certain models.
Only one I ever blew up was a Bushmaster Carbon 15 while I was in gunsmith school. Factory ammo plinking one night at the range and it aparently fired out of battery. I just remember a loud bang, a bright flash, and a burning in my forearm. It blew the whole side out of the upper and lower and embedded a bunch of pieces therof into my forearm and cheek. Luckily they had drilled into us at the school the importance of safety glasses. I'd never worn glasses to shoot before I went there and had only started a month or two before the incident, the right lense had stuff embedded in it and I was very thankful to have been wearing them.
For those who say they have never done it, never say never.
Two or three years ago I did it after more than 50 years of reloading. I had moved after living in the same house for 34 years. In the new house the location of my powder scale was offset to one side as compared to my former setup. Inadvertently I managed to set the scale to 5 grains heavier than intended. The powder was relatively fast for a .222. When I fired the bolt was damaged, the cartridge case ruptured and particles came back in my face. I had one small cut that bled all out of proportion to its size. The magazine (Tikka plastic)blew out of the gun. These magazines are made in two pieces and designed to be taken apart for cleaning. Later I reassembled the magazine and still use it.
Repairs cost me about $350 and I didn't begrudge a penny of it since I escaped with all body parts still functioning.
Some people like to complain about so called cheap construction of Tikka rifles but I can vouch for the fact they are stout!
I wasn't present but a friend who belongs to our gun club was shooting a vintage double barreled (approx. 100 years old) African rifle. Something happened and one of the barrels blew out the side where his left hand was holding the gun. He lost his thumb and I believe a bit more of his hand. At a later date he showed my the results and it was enough to make me more cautious than I have ever been.
I also saw a Weatherby rifle that a local gun shop owner had to blow up for a lawyer who was involved in a court case. That one came completely apart.
When someone advises you to exercise caution and not be disturbed when you are reloading they are giving priceless advice.
Jim
The only accident I ever had invoving handloading was with a cartridge that never made it off my bench, at least in one piece. Around 35 years ago I had purchased a full box of Rem-Umc .25-20 Single Shots, for the princely sum of $50 (quite a sum of money for a box of ammo back then but it was 40 year old long discontinued stuff). I needed it to make R2 Lovell brass to feed a Winchester HiWall varmint rifle I was playing with at the time. To salvage the brass I needed to tear down the ammo which was loaded with smokeless powder and cupronickel jacketed bullets and not having a proper bullet puller at the time I did it the hard way by clamping onto the bullet with a pair of pliers as it protruded above the open die hole in my press and raising the press handle to lower the cartridge against the clamping pressure of the pliers and thence popping the bullet out of the case. I didn't care a whit about saving the bullets. All went well with the exception of one bullet that didn't budge. Leaving it sticking up out of the top of the press I took and filed the mangled nose of that bullet flat, and put a small center punch mark on it to mark the center, fished out a drill bit of around 1/8" and proceeded to drill a pilot hole for a small Easy Out. I was by god determined not to lose the use of even one of those precious cases. The next thing I know "BANG". My ears were ringing, the padded pliers I was holding the case from spinning with landed behind me, and the case was peeled apart like a banana. No blood, no shrapnel in me. To this day I have no clue where the bullet ended up- I never found it even though it was effectively impaled on the drill bit. I figure friction heat set off the powder. I can't swear to it but I sort of remember the drill bit breaking through the bottom of the bullet- the hot tip of the bit must have provided the ignition. Phew. Talk about a dumbass trick. I made a tiny shelf on the wall behind my bench and glued that exploded case to it, as a constant reminder not to be an idiot and have moved that little souvenir to every loading station I have set up in my houses ever since. I'm looking at it right now.
My old man thought I was nuts when I told him what I had paid for that box of .25-20 Single Shots, and I think he wanted to spank me when I told him the rest of the story. The fact that I was 27 years old, married, and living 90 miles away was probably the only thing that saved me...
Oh yeah. The drill bit survived unscathed too, in case you were wondering. It went on to live a healthy normal life and sired many little baby drill bits.
A while back I bought a rifle from Shrapnel. It looks new and shoots great. Should I still be worried?
I did no blow up a gun but had approximately 2 lbs. of black power ignite. I got a flash burn over my face and left arm. My glasses save my eyes. I was loading a small brass cannon when something caused a spark which ignited the powder. It was a very hot and humid day in August about 25 years ago. The only thing that we could figure it to was that it was caused by was static electricity. I know longer have the cannon and am very carful when using my flintlock.
A while back I bought a rifle from Shrapnel. It looks new and shoots great. Should I still be worried?
I will admit that the barrel steel on that rifle has been strained to it's limits...
A while back I bought a rifle from Shrapnel. It looks new and shoots great. Should I still be worried?
I will admit that the barrel steel on that rifle has been strained to it's limits...
Dang! I better take a closer look at that Kimber .22LR!
I blew up a FN built Venezuelan 24/30 carbine in 7x57 when I was 12. I somehow managed to plug the barrel with snow while deer hunting and when I shot at a deer, the recoil was ferocious. I tried to cycle the action, but the bolt was mechanically locked, so I trudged home and presented my broken rifle to my Father. We took it to Bill DeVaux's shop in Norwich, VT, where Bill removed the stock and noted that there was a wedge-shaped chuck of steel in the magazine box. Bill suggested that we take it to Creighton Audette in Springfield, VT, so we did that. Mr. Audette pulled the barrel and found that the case had hardly any head-stamp remaining and the primer was both flat and loose. He measured everything and, other than the loose piece of the bolt face, the action, barrel, and stock were all within specs. He welded up the bolt, reheat-treated the action and bolt and then fully sporterized it with a 22" McGowen 257 Roberts barrel, Brownell's bolt handle, Timney trigger, Buehler low-swing safety, D&T for a Redfield 1-piece base, and glass bedded it in a very plan walnut stock from Bishop. The rifle cost $37.50, I still have the dealer's hanging tag, and the work that Mr. Audette did cost less than $150. The rifle has since given another 40+ years of dependable service.
The dumbest unintentional blown up of a firearm that you just knew was going to happen involved a S&W 1917 where someone had bored the chambers out so that .45 Magnum rounds could be fired in place of the original .45ACP or .45 Auto-Rim. It held together for about 1/2 box of Winchester/Olin factory loads, but around round #27 blew the side out of the cylinder, bent the frame about 15-degrees out of line, and some high-speed steel took the shooter's pinky and 1/2 of his ring finger off in what I have heard referred to as a "traumatic amputation". IIRC, the medics said that the USMA Class Ring that he was wearing saved what was left of his right ring finger. He subsequently got tagged with the nickname of "Cubby", because his hand salute looked more like a 2-fingered Cub Scout salute than a military salute.
Never blew up a firearm, but I'm a cautious scaredicat when it comes to shooting. I use a string from behind a tree to fire every new-to-me firearm on it's first shot. Muzzle is taped whether I'm hunting in snow or not. I've never gone for speed in handloading but concentrated on accuracy and easy function. If in doubt, toss the brass, and with one of my rifles, toss it after four reloadings no matter what.
Mule Deer here at the 'fire saved me from excess the only time my loads grew dangerous yet did not "show" signs of pressure. It was a load that got more accurate the faster it went, and I was extrapolating loads since the book did not cover the bullet and weight I wanted. After MD's caution I backed off-- a lot.
I'd appreciate as many images as possible here, and perhaps permission to download the same as examples in our Hunter Education Classes. Keep them coming troops.
That is one of the saddest pictures I've ever seen...Hope nobody got hurt.
A few years back I blew up a Mexican Mauser that was rebarreled to 284 Winchester. I bought it years before at a gun show for a hundred bucks, over the years the barrel wore out and I was going to have a new barrel put on it but realized that the handloads that I had on hand might not work or even fit in the new chamber. I decided to shoot all those loads rather than pull the bullets and save the powder. It was a hot Nevada day, about 90 degrees, I had 60 rounds to shoot and fired about 40 from the shoulder, shoulder got sore so I switched to shooting from the hip, had six rounds left, pulled the trigger, something hit me in the chest and my right hand began to sting, dropped the rifle on the ground. I picked it up and noticed black soot around the gas holes on top of the receiver, bolt would not open.
Took the rifle to a gunsmith, he called me the next day and told me to come down to his shop, I received a lecture and then he showed me the bolt, the front of the bolt was missing, one of the lugs was cracked, he told me that I was lucky the lug did not let go, I told him I was shooting from the hip when it happened, he said that instead of losing my face I would have lost my manhood. What happened in his opinion was that the barrel got so hot that it shrank and the chamber was so hot that it caused the powder in the case to change it's chemical make up, I am assuming that he knew what he was talking about.
I didn't blow one up but should have.
I was new to reloading (40 years ago) and was at a buddies. We had jointly purchased some reloading equipment. He was the "expert" as he had reloaded with others equipment in the past. We had a new scale 10-10 and were loading 38's for a security six 357.
We went outside to try one of the "new" loads and it sounded strange, much bigger bang and recoil than we had previously experienced. We looked at each other with astonished surprise and went back inside to check the scale. Sure enough an overload for a 38, luckily not so much so that the Ruger 357 Security Six couldn't handle.
We and the pistol were unscathed but once again experience can be a good thing. We learned how to properly read and double check that scale.
I also have a replica 1861 44 cap and ball with a bulged barrel that was given to me by my BIL, I never did get the story of what happened with that one. Only evasive answers. It shoots without incident and is accurate.
Savage 110 300 Win Mag
I noticed the lens cap appeared to be still on the scope and wondered what the story was.
It does appear you were successful in your endeavors.
I once had a ramrod stuck in a ML and shot it from a distance using a string with no incident. It don't remember the ramrod being usable afterwards though.
What happened in his opinion was that the barrel got so hot that it shrank and the chamber was so hot that it caused the powder in the case to change it's chemical make up, I am assuming that he knew what he was talking about.
I'll have to call BS on your gunsmith. If barrels got so hot the chemical composition of the powder could be changed, belt fed machine guns would be blowing up every time they went into combat. Also, anyone who has any understanding of the properties of metals (which most gunsmiths should) would know that steel expands as it gets hotter so the chamber couldn't shrink. I'd find another gunsmith.
I'd appreciate as many images as possible here, and perhaps permission to download the same as examples in our Hunter Education Classes. Keep them coming troops.
That is one of the saddest pictures I've ever seen...Hope nobody got hurt.
And yet he seems so proud of himself.......
36 cal. cap n ball, chainfire all 6 cyl.
You didn't rub lard on your balls!!
And that's why I don't shoot black powder!!
What happened in his opinion was that the barrel got so hot that it shrank and the chamber was so hot that it caused the powder in the case to change it's chemical make up, I am assuming that he knew what he was talking about.
I'll have to call BS on your gunsmith. If barrels got so hot the chemical composition of the powder could be changed, belt fed machine guns would be blowing up every time they went into combat. Also, anyone who has any understanding of the properties of metals (which most gunsmiths should) would know that steel expands as it gets hotter so the chamber couldn't shrink. I'd find another gunsmith.
Yep, I seriously doubt that barrel got hotter than a machine gun barrel. Steel most definately expands as it heats up.
It would have molecularly debonded from the heat and side stress. The resulting violent sub-particle shifting would have caused an anti-elastic disassociation of the metal. Crack!
As an aside, I wore out three trigger fingers and two hats. But it happened in the European southern hemisphere, so I didn't bring them back. I should have.
Had a barrel split at the chamber on a 1927 Sistema Colt 1911. Blew the magazine out and bulged the slide.
Here's some idiots blowing a cap and ball with what looks like smokeless.
https://youtu.be/WgVRMUGzm24
I've been present when 3 blew up and I guess one was my fault. An old neighbor bought a 99 243 and asked me to load for it. I was loading 243 in a rem 600 and wanted to shoot the same load. Worked up from 5 grains below and saw no problems. Decided ti sight it in with new scope and also see how many loads the brass would stand at the same time. If I remember correctly the load was Sierra 100 grainers with 45 grains of h4831. The ww2 surplus stuff. The 5th round split the but stock and halfway opened the lever. No harm to me. The gunsmith had never seen a 99 come apart but said it was ruined. Sides bulged on action etc. in his opinion it would be impossible to put enough 4831 in a 243 to blow it up. He had no idea why it blew.
My cousin and I were shooting rabbits and I heard a really loud crack. Looked over and the floor plate was on the ground the stock was split and he had blood and powder and brass flecks all over his face. Pre-64 model70 243 was the weapon and the problem was a guy had given him some powder. The can said h380 but had been replaced with h110 and written lightly in pencil on the top of the can. Sure soured me on opened powder.
The third incident was a Mauser 98 rebarreled to 7x57imp. Barrel split from muzzle through the receiver ( no harm except to barrel ). No cause was ever determined
Back in thew early 90's I managed to explode a Ruger Security Six. I had loaded 12 rounds of 357 to try some Accurate Arms powder. he first 3 fired fine, the fourth sounded really loud. I went to check it out and found half the cylinder was missing (never found it)the top strap was hooved way up, and the front sight was rotated about 1/8 of a turn to the left.I had been loading for about 20 years without incident. and thank god have not had another since. As near as a trusted friend who has loaded a lot more than I have always thought I had undercharged one and got a detonation with the fast burning powder I was using. Certainly does leave the knees weak in the aftermath of kaboom like that.
Bill
Never had one go to pieces but have had to hammer the bolts open a time or two.
Well come to think about it i did load some 40 grain 22 cal bullets in a 223 case just to see how fast they would go.
Back then i had to send the 788 to get an extractor installed and in the brother in laws mini-14 the trigger group came out in his hand.
glad i only loaded a few up.
Been a whole lot more careful after that.
Never blew up a gun, but had a case let go in a 1911 once, blew the mag out and the grips off. No blood, new grips and mag catch and it was g2g. I did witness a military Mauser 98 letting go once, split receiver, launched barrel and splintered stock. Near as the owner could figure, he had IMR 4227 and IMR 4350 on the loading bench at the same time and he got his powders crossed. Luckily only minor damage to the shooter.
Blew a primer once, never a firearm.
I've seen a Ruger Hawkeye in .204 blow up, the action was ruined and the shooter got pieces of case in his face. Still don't know what caused that, and there was a gunsmith there too.
I've blown a few primers and beaten a few bolts open but never had a full-on blow-up.
Worst was working up loads for my new at the time Kimber Montana in 243. Can't recall which powder I was working with @ the time but somehow there were a few .257 diameter bullets in with the .243 partitions I had been working with. You'd think that when I scraped all of that jacket material off upon seating the bullet that the warning sirens would've gone off. But, I'm sure I was in a hurry at the time and dismissed it as a case that wasn't chamfered well. I recall it was a partial box that had been given to my dad by a friend of his and when I heard where it came from I wasn't surprised. The guy who gave him the bullets was well known for several times firing 223Rem ammo in his 22-250 B78.
I've seen a Ruger Hawkeye in .204 blow up, the action was ruined and the shooter got pieces of case in his face. Still don't know what caused that, and there was a gunsmith there too.
ssssshhh.....
![[Linked Image]](http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c124/huntsman22/guns/b1b4c810.jpg)
Only had one let go on me, and that's one too many.
Had a LC Smith, I was standing besides throwing clays for, do that one afternoon with a friend. I was throwing for him and all of a sudden the barrel peeled back like it was made out of tissue paper. Might have been a stuck wad, but we were both certain he hit the bird on the previous round. Not damascus, either. The gun was his Dad's and his Dad was a gruff one. That took the urge to shoot away for the day.
I never blew a gun up, but I did lock the bolt on a 460 Wby tight enough to need the 2x4 stub and mallet treatment. I was trying to find a load for a box of 600 grain Barnes I had bought that weren't made anymore, and data for the thumpers was nowhere to be found. So, at the wise old age of 25, I thought I could "back into" it using data for the "common" 500 grainers. In hindsight, I probably wasn't too many grains off from backing into a lot more than I bargained for. But, undaunted, I verified the rifle was visually undamaged, dropped the charge 10 grains, and worked up to an accurate load. Never really enjoyed shooting 600 grains out of that gun, all that much though. I saved those for the guys at the range that wanted to shoot just it "just once".
I melted a barrel on an M60 in the Army...
had two rounds blow and mess up a rifle... both loads were 25 grains of H 335 and a 55 grain bullet, in 223...
one reason I don't trust H 335..
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....
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....
36 cal. cap n ball, chainfire all 6 cyl.
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.
36 cal. cap n ball, chainfire all 6 cyl.
Did someone neglect to grease all the chambers in the cyllinder, or was it something else?
Only had one let go on me, and that's one too many.
Had a LC Smith, I was standing besides throwing clays for, do that one afternoon with a friend. I was throwing for him and all of a sudden the barrel peeled back like it was made out of tissue paper. Might have been a stuck wad, but we were both certain he hit the bird on the previous round. Not damascus, either. The gun was his Dad's and his Dad was a gruff one. That took the urge to shoot away for the day.
I never blew a gun up, but I did lock the bolt on a 460 Wby tight enough to need the 2x4 stub and mallet treatment. I was trying to find a load for a box of 600 grain Barnes I had bought that weren't made anymore, and data for the thumpers was nowhere to be found. So, at the wise old age of 25, I thought I could "back into" it using data for the "common" 500 grainers. In hindsight, I probably wasn't too many grains off from backing into a lot more than I bargained for. But, undaunted, I verified the rifle was visually undamaged, dropped the charge 10 grains, and worked up to an accurate load. Never really enjoyed shooting 600 grains out of that gun, all that much though. I saved those for the guys at the range that wanted to shoot just it "just once".
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.
I've seen a Ruger Hawkeye in .204 blow up, the action was ruined and the shooter got pieces of case in his face. Still don't know what caused that, and there was a gunsmith there too.
ssssshhh.....
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!!
Still waiting to hear what it took to blow that Savage apart.
Case full of fast pistol powder would do it.
I've seen a Ruger Hawkeye in .204 blow up, the action was ruined and the shooter got pieces of case in his face. Still don't know what caused that, and there was a gunsmith there too.
ssssshhh.....
You useta be good looking.
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
![[Linked Image]](http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx220/ClarkM/ClarkEricFritzpheasanthuntingWarden1965c.jpg)
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.
![[Linked Image]](http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx220/ClarkM/cz52burstbarrel2small.jpg)
CZ52 barrel
I have never been hurt by a blown up gun, but I sure have been disappointed.
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!!!"
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.
The only one I blew up myself was a .22 long rifle bolt action. After watching my dad reload, I got the bright idea I could make the .22 go faster by pulling apart 2 shells and putting all the powder in 1. I did, and it did ... sorta. It was some sort of Springfield bolt action with extractors external to the bolt. Blew the extractors off the bolt but the bolt held, ruptured the case at the rim, and I got an eye full of powder soot and brass pieces. Since I'd done a dumb I couldn't tell my folks ... I walked around basically blind for about 3 days before my eye recovered. I was probably 7-8.
This was only one of at least a half dozen instances of my father teaching me HOW to do something without any explanation of why or why not, from both safety and morality angles.
Others I've been around ...
1) A friend blew up a .375 H&H bolt action. It was carried to the range in a soft case. In the case was later found 4 .221 fireball loaded cartridges, 1 short of a full mag and the box of 50 had 1 unaccounted for. The barrel was 'unwound' starting at the muzzle. The only thing I can think of is one of those cartrdges his son had thrown in the "rug" when taking the .221 home had somehow gotten into the muzzle and my buddy forgot to check his bore before starting to shoot.
2) One day at the range I saw a guy fighting with a 1911 clone, had "montana" in the name, maybe "montana armory". It was a 10mm. The barrel had split inside the frame bending the slide upwards and locking all the parts together.
3) The same guy was shooting a S&W 19 a bit later. I was keeping an eye on him as I shot and he had an odd way of firing the gun so i went over to look. Turned out he'd bulged one chamber with an overload and had to open the cylinder to move it past that one bulged chamber to fire the rest.
Yes, you read right, a bulged cylinder and he was still shooting.
"Bye ..."
3) An acquaintance of mine was known for blowing up a gun about every 2 years. He was really old. The last I heard of before he quit shooting was a Ruger .22-250. It appears he grabbed powder off the shelf over the loading bench without paying attention and got H110 instead of H380. 38 grains of H110 under a 52 grain Sierra HPBT. Boom.
There's a lot of ways for things to go wrong. Not paying attention is a good way to find them.
"Handbook for shooters and Reloaders Volume II" P.O. Ackley 1966
"a few causes of blow ups"
My synopsis:
page 23
1) obstructions
page 26
2) overloading
page 28
3) wrong powder
page 30
4) wrong ammo
page 34
5) soft brass
6) double charge
7) faulty chambering
page 37
8) faulty barrel
page 38
9) cartridge design
page 41
10) gunsmith alterations
Ones I have seen:
12 gauge barrel peeled back coming out of a dove field.
270 win will fit in a 7mm mag and detonate.
45 acp come apart when the ramp was shortened, magazine ejected out the bottom, side plate came off, round went of below the chamber. Shocked look on shooters face.
Ones I have seen:
270 win will fit in a 7mm mag and detonate.
![[Linked Image]](http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx220/ClarkM/270%20ammo%20in%207mmRemMag%2010kpsi%20and%2075kpsi%20loads.jpg)
Here I have shot 270 in a 7mmRemMag at 10k psi and 75k psi Quickload.
I do not consider that a blow up, as it requires no repair.
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.
if you've really blown up 19 guns with overloads, it might be wise to stop handloading, unless you were trying to do it deliberately for some reason.
Never blew one up but I've had s couple of close calls.
1. I was trying to get 2200 fps with a .458 and 500 grain bullet. The Hornady manual had a load that got that velocity. My first shot was loud, stuck the bolt so I had to hammer it, and the chronograph read 2376. I guess they means you should not start with the maximum in the manual. BTW: 2200 is easy to get.
2. I had a German made .300 Wby. The maximum load of H4831 in both the Hornady and Sierra manuals was 80.7 grains so I loaded some. This grouped about 8" at 200 yards. A call to Weatherby elicited the advice (what else?) to only shoot factory ammo. I had some old 150 grain factory ammo. The first shot blew the primer and made a shiny spot on the case head.
3. I loaded 24.0 grains of Varget in my AR15 with both 69 and 80 grain Sierra Match Kings. This is a typical practice and not particularly hot. After about 1200 rounds, the 80 grain began to leak gas around the primer and even blew a couple. I thought this was due to carbon buildup in the chamber so I brushed it out with JB, but that worked only partially. Finally I cut the 80 grain load to 23.2 grains.
I don't think any of these instances were mistakes but such things happen. I also once saw a .308 case fired in a 30-06 M1 Garand. All it did was to produce a straight case with just a bit of taper where the 30-06 shoulder started. Looked like a .45-08. Of course the shooter fired a miss.
The only one I blew up myself was a .22 long rifle bolt action. After watching my dad reload, I got the bright idea I could make the .22 go faster by pulling apart 2 shells and putting all the powder in 1. I did, and it did ... sorta. It was some sort of Springfield bolt action with extractors external to the bolt. Blew the extractors off the bolt but the bolt held, ruptured the case at the rim, and I got an eye full of powder soot and brass pieces. Since I'd done a dumb I couldn't tell my folks ... I walked around basically blind for about 3 days before my eye recovered. I was probably 7-8.
This was only one of at least a half dozen instances of my father teaching me HOW to do something without any explanation of why or why not, from both safety and morality angles.
Others I've been around ...
1) A friend blew up a .375 H&H bolt action. It was carried to the range in a soft case. In the case was later found 4 .221 fireball loaded cartridges, 1 short of a full mag and the box of 50 had 1 unaccounted for. The barrel was 'unwound' starting at the muzzle. The only thing I can think of is one of those cartrdges his son had thrown in the "rug" when taking the .221 home had somehow gotten into the muzzle and my buddy forgot to check his bore before starting to shoot.
2) One day at the range I saw a guy fighting with a 1911 clone, had "montana" in the name, maybe "montana armory". It was a 10mm. The barrel had split inside the frame bending the slide upwards and locking all the parts together.
3) The same guy was shooting a S&W 19 a bit later. I was keeping an eye on him as I shot and he had an odd way of firing the gun so i went over to look. Turned out he'd bulged one chamber with an overload and had to open the cylinder to move it past that one bulged chamber to fire the rest.
Yes, you read right, a bulged cylinder and he was still shooting.
"Bye ..."
3) An acquaintance of mine was known for blowing up a gun about every 2 years. He was really old. The last I heard of before he quit shooting was a Ruger .22-250. It appears he grabbed powder off the shelf over the loading bench without paying attention and got H110 instead of H380. 38 grains of H110 under a 52 grain Sierra HPBT. Boom.
There's a lot of ways for things to go wrong. Not paying attention is a good way to find them.
I guess thats one way to blow up a .22. Someone else here said they did one too, but not sure how. Question for you guys. There is a fellow at work who is typically FOS about almoost everything he says. He also claims to have blown up a .22 by pulling the bullet and putting in "rifle powder" instead. Didn't specify which powder though. I was under the impression .22 was loaded with a fairly quick burning powder, perhaps even a pistol powder. Would it be possible to blow up a .22 with any of the common rifle powders?
I've not ever blown up a gun. I've had a single near miss with almost loading pistol powder in a rifle cartridge. 57gr of HS-6 should be a hot load in 30-06 brass. I didn't get a bullet seated. I haven't let spectators chat with me during reloading since that day.
I did shear a lug on a Browning A-Bolt in 223 WSSM. I have thought so long and hard about that. I had a middling pressure load of R-15, 36 gr, Fed210, behind Sierra 63's that would cluster so tight that I had to shoot a few before I saw more than a single-caliber hole at 100. It was crazy-accurate. And then one day I went to the range, set up, shot 2, and the 3rd sounded funny. It hit 8" from the other 2. I got thoughtful. The bolt wouldn't open. It would rotate a tiny bit, but not beyond that. I smacked it hard, and it popped open, but with a tinkling of metal. And the case was still in the chamber.
When I got home, I tapped the case out. It didn't take much: the palm of my hand on the cleaning rod. Looking at the lug that broke, there isn't much metal there after they drilled a hole for the spring piece, and opened to bolt face up for the Wizzizzum. I know that the throat had become as rough as asphalt. I know that I likely left oil in the chamber after cleaning it last. Still pissed about that whole thing. And still haven't done anything with it.
I suspect the mix of the super-short, super-fat case and the way the A-Bolt lug set-up is designed, that action doesn't lend itself to WSSM's. I plan to turn it into a .483" casehead something that will fit into the 2.36" action. And since I'll need a new barrel, I'm thinking 6mm BR or Dasher. The other thing that would be very cool would be a 450 Bushmaster on that action.
I had some close ones, working with guns for years, but never had it happen to me. Some of the worst I have seen were in the military. About 10 years back there was a guy killed on a range not far from me. According to the coroner report, he took a piece of the receiver ring in the head. If I remember correctly, he was using/reloading for one of those Danish Krags. That may be wrong, it has been a while. Blow ups are nothing to fool around with.
I've never blown one up, but have put together some, uh, overloads and fired them in my rifles, which didn't like them much.
Did hear about a guy who blew up a rifle, supposedly with a load I published in a magazine. Was contacted by a reader who gave me link to another forum. Seems the guy had saved for years to buy a 6mm Lee Navy rifle, an original military model. About the time he got the rifle an article of mine about handloading for my own Lee Navy Sporter appeared, and he claimed one of "my" loads had blown up his rifle, and he posted that he was going to contact both me and the magazine.
Turned out there two problems with his claim: First, the load he used has apparently been published in every edition of CARTRIDGES OF THE WORLD. I had only tested the load in my rifle, where it worked with no problems.
Second, I had used necked-up, new Winchester .220 Swift brass. Instead he somehow bought some cases converted from .30-40 Krags, with the rim lathed off, then a new rim and extractor groove lathed into the case head. The first round shot fine, with no sign of any problems, but the second blew the action. The case was apparently still in the chamber, and had blown out one side the new extractor groove.
Never have heard from him, and neither has the magazine.
I haven't blown one up myself. I've had several face-palm incidents as well as lucky breaks on some loads. Had a friend that gave me some of his reloaded 25-06's to 'try out'. I took them home but didn't have time to shoot them.
Couple of weeks later we were chatting and he said his reloading method was to simply pour IMR-4831 into a bowl and scoop the case full, then just 'crunch' the bullet down. He stated that he used magnum primers to make sure every grain was ignited.
I went home and pulled everyone of those cartridges and never shot anything he loaded.
Not idea what it would have done to my rifle but I wasn't going to find out.
Upon graduation from college I got a job with a sporting goods store in Conroe, Tx. We had a customer come in with his left hand bandaged up to his elbow. Seems he'd been riding along on his ATV on some back roads when a little buck bounced out into the road. He pulled is Mod. 100 Winchester out of the scabbard and let one go. Seems there was about 12" of mud in the 18" barrel and the barrel, fore end and part of the receiver let go as well. The wood from the fore end as well as part of the barrel nearly took his thumb off as well as his pinkie. His buddies found the pinkie and put it on ice and hurried him to the hospital to get everything sewed back on.
He was bringing us the rifle to show people not to carry their rifle in a scabbard in the east Texas mud.
![[Linked Image]](http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx220/ClarkM/ItalianmagazineCZ52failure.jpg)
This is a page from an Italian police magazine explaining how I detructively test guns. I can not understand Italian, but I still get emails in English from the author on Italian Resurrection Day.
I've been shooting center fire rifles and pistols since 1967 and reloading since then too. I started out with a 357 Mag Colt Trooper (A real piece of junk) and a Marlin 336 in 44 Mag. I had those before my Dad would even let me get a 22 LR. I shot them every afternoon after school and the only way I could do it was to reload. A local Sheriff's Deputy got me started loading 357 Mags then the 44 mag. It just got worse as time went on. Every rifle or handgun had to be reloaded. I don't even know how many different cartridges I have dies for now.
I've read this whole thread and kind of feel like I'm the only one that hasn't blown something up. In almost 50 years of reloading not once have I had anything worse than a loose primer. I've got to be doing something wrong!
Me either & '67 was a very good year!
Last year I watched a high school kid blow up the bottom of his AR. He brought 2 AR's to the range chambered in 5.56 and 300 BLK. He had shot the 300 BLK 1st before switching to the 5.56. Using the same mag, he missed the one 300 BLK round still in the mag when loading his 5.56 rounds. He fired his string and on the last shot the bottom of the AR blew out (luckily he was not holding the mag). Here's what the 30 cal bullet looked like when it was extracted from the .224 bore.
![[Linked Image]](http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/gausi641/My%20Rifles/300%20BLK%20blowup%20in%205.56_zps30advyny.jpg)
A lesson in why you shouldn't run cheap range reloads as there may be a reason they are cheap. Buddy A let me borrow his 1911 45 to go the range and do some shooting. I went with buddy B and purchased a few bags of the ranges economy reloads. buddy B was firing the aluminum frame 1911 when the slide came back so hard that it blew the mainspring housing out of the frame. Buddy A sent the pistol back to the manufacturer and had the frame replaced. It was 20 odd years ago so I have no idea what brand of 1911 it was.
A good friend has loaded for many people for decades. He is one I would let load for me if I didn't do it myself. He always used IMR 4350 for everything he loaded, then he got a 222 and bought 4198. He loaded 3006 for a friend. Friend and son were checking zero and Dad's gun sounded funny and smoke came out ejection port, tried second round and action locked up. He set the rifle down and said "let's set how these shells work in yourgun". Ruined two 760's. Luckily another father son duo didn't try their 708 and 7 mag that had just been loaded. Fellow who did the loading was mortified and tried to pay for the rifles. I try to always follow the common sense rules and not get distracted, but these things can happen to anyone and I try not to judge others mistakes. However when you have just locked up a rifle......
Dang wonder what the BC is on that baby.
Last year I watched a high school kid blow up the bottom of his AR. He brought 2 AR's to the range chambered in 5.56 and 300 BLK. He had shot the 300 BLK 1st before switching to the 5.56. Using the same mag, he missed the one 300 BLK round still in the mag when loading his 5.56 rounds. He fired his string and on the last shot the bottom of the AR blew out (luckily he was not holding the mag). Here's what the 30 cal bullet looked like when it was extracted from the .224 bore.
Wow. I can't figure out how the .300 blk round chambered though. Did it fire out of battery?
If he had enough air space in the case to allow the bullet to set back and he slammed the bolt home, it would chamber.
Never did anything quite so crazy as blow up a gun, but there was a day when I flat made a mess of a 12.7mm gun with 7.62mm ammo.
I may have learned that from 'Flave.
This 12.7mm gun Dan? (I might bump your old thread, it's a great read)
Low stayed, slow was out the window. 80-100 knots(that's faster than a buzzard) now, down the hill, up the hill, and about 250 meters away there lies a freshly dug pit for another 12.7mm. Entrenching tool still laying on the bottom of the pit. Whoops again, call the lead Snake and babble about stock picks, real estate, and cat hunting for a few seconds while I think "Whoa" to my trusty steed and get it turned around for another quick pass back to Hill A. Much to my chagrin as I fly over Hill B, the entrenching tool is gone, and I reported that before telling them that there was now a tripod set up at Hill A and my stuff is getting decidedly weak. Yes, Cobras can duke it out with .50's, the LOH cannot, and .50's will chew a new anal orifice in a chopper...chop chop!
As I went over the position I broke left toward Tiger Mountain and the guns rolled in on Hill A. A tactically awkward situation for me as they were my cover and life line, yet the gun had to be hammered, pure and simple. I knew full well that Hill B probably was set up or very close to it, I was pinned between the Snake's GT line and the mountain, the only path out being over Hill B. Yuckee-poo. The good news was that I had a brand new, never been fired GE Mini-gun hangin' on the left side, and a full load of ammo. I was also below their line of sight for the moment. Any attempt to climb to altitude would have put me in their sights sure as sunrise and voided any advantage I held at the moment. To paraphrase the old Indian saying, 'It was a good day to wet your pants'. I had long since learned that the best defense is truly a good offense, and since I was in the Cav, and certifiably insane since I'd volunteered for this crap, I did the only thing I could do. Charge! I have a long history of being offensive.
Not only can choppers do what planes do, they can do more. And less. A lot of less. Their advantage is that you can literally drag your skids through the grass and even at a leisurely 120 knots you go by pretty quick to a ground based observation. We were almost up to that speed when Hill B reared up a couple of hundred feet above us, a saddle on either side that blocked earthbound view of low level ingress. I used one of those "little less" tricks, called a cyclic climb, or simply pulling back on the stick to trade speed for altitude. Zoom Zoom! The Mini-gun on the LOH was flexible in elevation only, azimuth controlled with the foot pedals, and in the circumstance I'd fully depressed it as I expected to be looking at them through the chin bubble when they came into view. Further, I planed to go negative over the top and hopefully keep the gun on target until nearly overhead at which point I woud dive once again for the safety of lower elevations. Up the hill! Time for one of those famous "time standing still" moments.
The gunner was waiting, his azimuth about 20* off to my left, the other varmint was crouched low with an ammo can at the ready. He fired as he began to swing the gun, and as I replied.
Couple of points on this: 1) The 12.7 has a cyclic rate of fire in the range of 500-700 rounds per minute, it also has a huge hour glass shaped muzzle flash, visible even on bright sunny days. One in five rounds is a tracer, and if anyone asks what they look like, just give 'em your best steely eyed stare and say "basketballs". Big round red basketballs. Every time one goes by you hear a deep sonic crack, then you get 4 more audibles before the next light show. It is REALLY impressive. Tracers don't seem to move really fast when they are heading right at you BTW. At least not until they go past, ZIP-CRACK! They do not go "whoosh" or "whiz" like in the movies. 2) Mini-guns in US Army versions, have a selective fire rate of 2000 or 4000 RPM. At that time they were noted for jamming often when fired at 2000rpm, so that mode was seldom used. Both rates had a 3 second burst limiter, meaning that you got to shoot for 3 seconds, then your water hose shut down. Again, 1 in 5 was a tracer, crackety-crack, I'm sure it looked impressive from the wrong end too, but I never saw that. Effective range was touted at 1100 meters, mostly because the splash of bullets was visible at that range.
Up close they churn the earth, creating a rooster tail effect of earth as the rounds sought their target, usually a serpentine path of mauled dirt, trees, whatever got in it's way. Inside of 100 yards it is impossible to shoot somebody less that 6 times with one that is on low rate fire. God, what a beast!
My first rounds impacted about 20 yards low and left, a bit of back pressure on the stick, a bit of right pedal, and the dirt dragon began it's journey to the pit. Range at this point was about 60 meters. It was the OK Corral. High Noon. I was Matt Dillon, they were the guys in black. And only because the sound of my chopper had distorted in the hills and they didn't know precisely where I was going to show up, my vomit of lead got to them about 1/2 second before theirs got to us. I was able to hold on target for most of the remaining 2 seconds of burst, flew on over them and down the hill as planned.
Though I seldom reconned a .50 position that had been engaged by Snakes, I knew for certain the condition of this one. I went back, did one u-turn overflight then ran back down the hill, built up speed and then climbed out to higher altitude. The gun was mangled almost beyond recognition, and that was enough for me. Enough was enough. Neither the Oscar or me could talk for about 5 minutes afterward, and when I finally told the team lead I got a bad case of the shakes. Back at the club that night I got a really bad headache with a 6 hour delay fuse. Best thing I know of to cure a hangover is adrenaline. Down collective, pedal right, hope I am alive tonight...
Yep, I investigated it with my .300. If you just drop a .300 BO round into a 5.56 chamber, it stops well short of letting the bolt go into battery. But if the bullet sets back enough, it can let the bolt go into battery, and fire an AR.
The Blackout usually shoots better with bullets at mag length, instead of the recommended 2.08 OAL, FWIW, which buys a little more safety margin.
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Wow. I can't figure out how the .300 blk round chambered though. Did it fire out of battery?[/quote]
I have a video of it that someone filmed with their cell phone, but can't get it to download. Basically, he fired 4 shots while standing and then on the 5th shot you see a puff of smoke and the mag and bottom of the AR blowout directly towards the ground. Luckily he was holding a vertical grip further up the forearm. This is the only other pic that I have of the chamber after the accident.
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Also found a pic of the 5.56 and 300 BLK rounds he was shooting.
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I had a Norinco M14 fire out partly of battery due to the bridge safety being cut so sloppy that it was possible. The portion of the lug recesses that caught were torn out, the lugs on the bolt were wrecked, extractor is probably still flying, the magazine blown out of the receiver and apart, bolt driven into the back of the receiver which miraculously held, firing-pin broke, Boyds heavy target walnut stock split and the handguard hit the roof over the range firing position. Other than that its cherry. The side of the case was blown out showing that the action was open at the point of peak pressure.Primer looked normal. I wasn't hurt, more through good luck than good planning. I went home to consider my next move and concluded that the one step program of staying away from junk would keep me safest. Mess with junk long enough and it'll try to kill you. As life lessons go it was cheap one.
Boy, between some of you and that fellow with the T/C I gotta wonder about how some reload, none of my family nor I have ever blown up a firearm, I guess it could happen, but even using that old unstable W785 powder I never got to where anything let go.
Wanted to try Winchester 760 with 60 gn bullets in a Ruger 77V, .220 Swift. Too cheap to buy a can of powder for an experiment, I borrowed a can from my dad. Went BLOOEY with a starting load. The floorplate broke, stock split into kindling, bolt stop was stuck open but still present and the extractor is still in orbit. The front of the rear scope mount was brass-plated. When the barrel was removed one could see that the base of the case had dissolved. The bolt lugs were not damaged but the action recesses were very slightly set back.
Worst of all a friend was shooting the rifle. Without glasses. He had a cut on his nose, several small cuts on his face and both corneas pitted like the surface of the moon. Wore patches over both eyes for two weeks. Fortunately he recovered completely with no loss of visual acuity, a scare neither of us would want to repeat. I was standing a bit behind the shooting bench and was severely mortified.
Turns out dear old dad, who stored all of his powder on the loading bench, had been loading .44 Magnums and when finished emptied his powder measure into the 1/4-full can of 760.
That cured me of borrowing powder.
Some folks should have taken up golf!!
I've had a couple case-head separations in 1911s, .38 Super and 10mm. I had Pachmayr grips on both pistols, and lost the magazines, but nothing else damaged. Pachmayr 1911 grips are rubber covering steel, so I didn't get hurt, stung a little, but not hurt.
That cured me from reading anything more that DickeyBird Metcalf wrote about. He wrote for Shooting Times Magazine and had listed that 10mm load that blew up the Delta Elite in an article.
The .38 Super cases were range-pickups, and had been loaded with "Major Caliber" IPSC loads, and who knows how many times. My loads were modest, probably no more than any cast-bullet 9mm loads. No damage there, either, the magazine was recoverable, in fact. New spring and follower, and back in business.
I've loaded ammo for 45 years starting at 13, and haven't blown a primer, much less blown up a gun, and I shoot at least once a week.
I've blown two guns. One I should have known better, one was mostly misfortune.
I had a Walther Model 4 .32 ACP that I carried in a pocket on the side of the "dog house" next to the seat in my semi tractor.
I had read enough Skeeter Skelton to know his advice that guns carried day in and day out - especially in vehicles - should have the ammo in them replaced at frequent intervals because all that vibration causes the gunpowder in the cases to lose it's retardant coating and possibly even break down the granules into smaller, faster powder. Nonetheless, I did not heed that advice. I had a friend who had never shot a gun and wanted to learn. I got that pistol out of my rig and started to demonstrate shooting it.
I think the cartridges in that pistol had probably experienced about 150,000 miles of intense vibration. The first shot made a more dramatic boom than I remembered .32 ACP making in the past, and I felt a number of pieces trickle over my hand out of the extended slide. Darn! It took some searching to find replacement parts for that old relic, but I was able to put that pistol back in working order.
Less my fault was a Manufrance pump 12 ga. I don't remember whose name was stamped on it, several American companies resold this gun in the '50s or 60's (?). A friend gifted this gun to me with a couple of extra barrels. I make little use of shotguns except for deer hunting, so I got the bright (honestly) idea to make it conform to the dimensions of my 870 slug gun. My slug gun was scoped, so I figured an essentially identical gun with iron sights would be great for still hunting and the scoped gun for stump hunting.
I had the butt stock cut to the dimensions of the 870 and a pretty much identical recoil pad mounted. Then I took one of those extra barrels to McGowan and had it shortened to the length of my slug barrel and Remington rifle sights mounted and fitted with fiber-optic inserts.
My BIL called and said "let's go shooting, do you have something to shoot?" I said "Yeah, if we can go by St. Anne I'd like to pick up my new barrel and try it out." We got to an Indiana state range and my 'new' gun was everything I had hoped for. I could just whip it up and snap shoot into minute-of-paper-plate at any reasonable slug-hunting distance with those Fire-Sights. I was pleased.
BIL says "Let's shoot some clay birds." So I swapped barrels and walked over to the traps. Now for me to try to hit a moving target with a shotgun is futile, always has been, and is great entertainment for observers. This time was more entertaining and futiler! I had fired 5 or 10 shots when a shot felt much different! It felt like a very warm and fuzzy gerbil had rushed up my right sleeve, both hands stung and there was smoke around my face - at the wrong end of the gun!
I held the gun away from me to get a look at it, at the same time that my wife - who had been throwing the birds - was saying "What the...? The barrel fell to the concrete with a clatter. The pump forestock was shattered in my left hand. The loading gate had blown out and bent back to strike the fingers of my right hand. The bolt was blown back into the receiver so hard it is still just riveted in there. (My BIL, card that he is, says "Claude, it's like falling off a horse, you have to get right back on. Get another gun out.")
An inspection showed that the locking lug on the end of the barrel had cracked off, allowing the bolt to blow back with the full force of the shot. The cracked surface of the broken lug was partly fresh and bright and partly dark. Obviously it had been cracked for some time before it let go.
I learned something from this that I think is fundamental but I about never hear it taught: Guns have a failure mode and you need to understand the likely vectors of failure. Some designs are much safer in a failure if shot right-handed than if shot left-handed. If my left-handed son had experienced this failure he would have gotten a face full of action parts and shell debris. For me it only resulted in a cloud of shrapnel flying past my ear.
Nowadays, I will not let someone I am responsible for shoot a shotgun from the left shoulder if it has a right side ejection port. That's what Ithacas are for! I am also now outspoken about shooting M1s and M1As from the left shoulder. I have seen too many op-rods dismount violently to the rear to want to see what that does to the shooter's face.
I've been around a few shotgun barrels getting peeled back.
I've only seen this once with an LC Smith. My budddy's dad was not happy.
No other guns were injured or destroyed in the posting of this post.
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