(duplicate posting from Savage Collector Forum)

Not mine, we'll just leave the person involved as nameless.... probably best, since I don't really know their name.

Don't expect to see this happen on a 22LR/410 combo gun. Ouch! No injuries, fortunately..

Thoughts on cause?

Bad reload? Hot .45-70 chambered in .410 chamber? Hard for me to imagine that this originated in the .22 chamber....unless somebody packed the barrel with dynamite.

Most of the 22 brass is still in the chamber, the 410 barrel doesn't really have any damage. Seems to be all 22LR related.

Wasn't there a recall on 22lr ammo? Winchester perhaps. It was some years ago, but there was a chance some were double charged in a certain lots. Not everyone follows that stuff, so it's possible.

Never heard of that. My thoughts were all running towards barrel blockage, maybe a squib?

22 mag in a 22 lr chamber?

I'd pull the brass and see if it's 22lr.

Kent

steel cleaning rod in and receiver slammed shut?

Looks like the pressure took the easy way out via the extractor cut. Ruptured case, bore obstruction? It had to go someplace, even only a .22.

Unless the factory cut an over-size .22 LR chamber, a .22 MAG cartridge won't chamber in a SAAMI specs .22 LR chamber as the .22 MAG has a slighly larger diameter. Same/same for .22 WRF not being able to be inserted into a properly cut .22 LR chamber.

Here’s another guess, maybe as good as any:
The fella was loading up some home-brew rimfire ammo, using primed 22LR cases he purchased from FedArm. He ran outa Bullseye and couldn’t find more. So, instead, he used just a pinch of C-4 from his “Nam souvenir” Claymore.

22lr can have near twice the PSI of 410s.................

Is there another rifle that has that LITTLE metal around a 22lr chamber????

While certainly not rifles, consider the thickness of the .22LR chamber walls of the steel cylinder on a tiny NAA mini revolver and the .22LR chamber walls of the aluminum cylinder on a Smith & Wesson 43C revolver.

The .22LR cartridge would necessarily have a far smaller cartridge case interior surface area against which pressure can act, compared to a .410 shell. Looking at the PSI numbers alone does not take this difference into account.

The thickness of .22LR rifle barrels is dictated by considerations other than just chamber pressure containment.

He was using up some 22LR ammunition made in the 80's, apparently. Nothing unusual in that, really. I'm sure I've picked up and shot 22LR that old and older at gun shows. Not sure if that would increase the chance of a squib round on a previous shot.. ??

The photos are not ideal for the purpose of diagnosis, but the fracture surface looks like that of a brittle overload failure. That is typified by a fracture surface which looks crystalline, and little evidence of plastic deformation in the fracture. That would lead me to suspect there might be an issue with the barrel, such as incorrect heat treatment, as a potential factor here.

A brittle barrel can survive quite well as long as loads are within its limits, but does not cope well with overload. One should expect that a barrel will bulge rather than crack on an overload - that is a lot safer, as the work done in bulging dissipates but contains the overload, where a brittle failure simply lets go with little work of fracture. Brittleness also does not cope well with stress concentrations such as sharp corners. It could have been as little as a ruptured rim, coupled with brittleness and the stress raiser at the apparent point of crack initiation, and there's your rifle buggered .

If it was me I'd be having a good hard look at hardness and microstructure of the breech end of the barrel. There again, given that it is an older rifle, out of production, and no-one was hurt, it is probably not going to be worth spending the money on any deeper analysis.

Now, we’re getting down to business.

in my misspent youth we made zip guns from radio antennae. it took multiple firings to bulge them, even unsupported on the breech end.
there is more to this failure than is being explained.

one will chamber in the old 24 Savage I have, that I inherited from my grand father's passing in 1968...22 LR on top and 410 on the bottom...

my granddad's favorite two "meals" was squirrel or rabbit... and being a typical WV hillbilly... cheap SOB..

is a very early Model 24....the 22 barrel is long since shot out when I got it...shot out enough, a 22 Mag round will drop right in there...

I used the 410 barrel and took a truck load of squirrels with it when I lived in Minnesota...

First off hello to the group.

I had a similar problem with a 24S-E, almost. Let my son shoot a hand full of 22’s at a 55 gal burn barrel. Put the shells on the ground and while picking up one it must of had a pebble on the rim. When he slammed it shut the round went off. I ran over to look at it and it looked like the barrel had I crack in it. Put it in a case and was in storage for about 10 years. Brought it out one day and took a good look at it and what I saw as a crack in the barrel was actually the rim of the 22 shell peeled back. Great little combo gun in 22-20 ga.

Yes, there was !! I had some of that ammo. I did not test for affect !!!!!

What Dan Oz says. Fracture looks like bad metal or fatigue.

Or there was maybe corrosion in the extractor cut that weakened the barrel. It doesn’t appear to have been well cared for with all the surface rust. Maybe corrosive old ammo over the years without proper cleaning.

I’ll have to check mine now.

only thing ever broke on my 24 22lr/20 gauge were some game laws.

once got a mallard double: drake with the 22 on the water and hen on the rise with the 20 gauge.. witnesses were not aware that shooting dux on water with 22lr was frowned on.

never did it before or since. but when can a kid impress a girlfriends father who just figured I was a good shot...

wish I still had that little thing,,...

the savage 24,,, still have the girlfriend... now married over 40 years,, and scores of guns later.....

Now for a different 24 problem. A 22 hornet over 3 inch 12 gauge and the 22 and 12 shot to different elevations when new.

Early on when I stood the gun up on the butt and it leaned against the wall, it slipped and fell down on the front sight breaking the weld between the two barrels. Bummer!
My gunsmith was able to weld them back so they shot to the same point of aim!

Still OK after many years.

Ouch

Is the receiver for sale with the wood?
Barrels are out there.

Bummer for sure.