Bolt Gun Explodes at Gun Range

[Sigfan220]

I wouldn't think necking up or down would make any difference. You can shoot a 25-06 out of a 30-06 just fine, just don't expect to hit anything more than a few feet away. The problem would be sticking say a 308 into say a 280 chamber. I know there are certain combinations for short action and long action that will allow such a combination to be chambered and fired(once). The results would be grenade like. Talk to the guys up at Federal about some of the stuff they see from customers.

[photogpat]

I will say that .223 chambers and fires in 7.62x39. Don't ask me how I know that though...

[photogpat]

Just make sure your shotty doesn't have an OOB.

Or your AR...

[Sigfan220]

An OOB?

[photogpat]

An OOB?

Out Of Battery discharge. Mossberg 500 unlocks the slide/bolt upon trigger pull. Hang fire on a round and the whole shabang goes back into the receiver very quickly. I don't have a picture of the receiver unfortunately...but I'm fairly certain the bolt was imprinted on the rear.

[Sigfan220]

Ouch - that will wake you up!!

[Mauser98]

I got some 44 Automag cases that say 308 Norma, and some 440 Corbon Magnum cases that say 50AE on them...

I don't know squat about the 44 automag. Does it run a belted case, or are the belts turned down? 308 Norma Mag is a belted case.

If they run belted cases that's unique, and I'd have to see if I can find one, I like obscure things like that.

ETA: Got it. Using 308 win brass, Norma branded? Still an interesting pistol.

Sent from somewhere in MN, ND, WI, or even SD

[Seismic Sam]

To answer the "Why is reloaded ammo always getting blamed for Kablooeys??" questions, I merely need to point to all of the totally clueless reloading n00bs we get in here, and if you figure the percentage of F*&KED UP ammo that that noobs make up during their 1st go at reloading and then come in here to ask what's wrong after AFTERWARDS (like 10% of all n00bs), versus a factory eff up, which has to be 5 or 6 sigma mistake (literally 1 in 1,000,000) for the ammo company to be able to retain any insurance at all, and it's painfully and embarrassingly obvious that the real stink is coming out of our OWN nest and not the ammo companies. That's part of why I'm the Official Reloading Troll. I take it personally if some yahoo is trying to make me as a reloader look like a complete idiot and incompetent, and I will gladly ruin his day by calling him out for his laziness, ignorance, stupidity, being uglier than Tootsie and a bigger fathead than John-Boy's pet hippopotamus.

So while I might get honked off over this too, it's simply a total waste of time and emotion, and you might as well expect to stop a train by spitting on the railroad tracks.

Oh, and ANOTHER n00b kablooey story, from OGC while I was Lead RSO. To keep the story short, I'm just relating incidents as they happened in time, and not as I found out about them. Club member, and a reloading n00b, shows up on Sunday with a SWEET .223 that he was going to use in 3-gun (cost: $2,000+!) with some new loads he had made up. First round jams in the throat and barrel won't close, so he uses the brass rod to knock out the bullet, and goes home with the statement that he will be back Monday (the next day). I'm Lead RSO Monday, and get a phone message from Al Leirness if I know anything about the kablooey on the comp range that just happened. So I go trucking over there expecting blood and pieces, and the range is SPOTLESS. WTF?? Found the actual witness to the event, and a member came in with a new .223, and fired about 7 or 8 shots, and there was a detonation, and the whole right side of the receiver ahead of the ejection port went bye-bye! Witness aid the guy was pretty shaken up. Talked to Pinnacle about it later, and he assured me that a too-long round that keeps the bolt from rotating shut will result in a CATASTROPHIC destruction of the gun. Walked the range where it happened, and there is NOTHING left. No brass (intact or fragments), no pretty blue receiver pieces, no blood spots, no nothing!! The range was dead nuts SPOTLESS, like it had never been used. Gee!! What are the chances that you would have new high end .223 blow up in your hand, and you would still have the presence of mind to clean up the range, with your right hand throbbing in pain?? Obviously, this guy had screwed up royally on two consecutive days, destroyed a brand new custom gun, and didn't want anybody in the club to fined out about what am idiot and train wreck he was. That's why the old geezer in original the story GTFO first, and then went to the ER afterwards when nobody was following him.

[Seismic Sam]

dupe, sorry...

[LePetomane]

WOW!!!!! A double rant.

[yuppiejr]

I am not so convinced about factory ammo, my brother in law had problems with some Winchester factory .300 WSM ammunition splitting case necks when fired out of a bone stock Winchester model 70. We called Winchester asking them to take a look at the combo and they basically told him to pound sand, it was fine, blah-blah... one gunsmith agreed with Winchester, another shrugged and told him "it's your face" but both verified headspace was fine on the gun. Gun was traded in at the first shop on a Savage model 116 stainless in 7mm RM.

Same guy shoots a box of factory Remington Core Lokt 175's in his new Savage this weekend getting sighted in for deer opener. The fifth round he gets a split case and gas out the side of the receiver... I didn't even know what to tell him, the ammo was brand new from Fleet Farm on the way to the range...

The only split case necks I've personally experienced involved me doing dumb things with some .308 reloads in overworked cases... and a batch of Russian steel case surplus ammo that had been Mexican matched before the term existed. However having seen this recent spat of bad luck with my brother in-law I'm wondering if the rush to get product out the door recently has led to an erosion of quality standards in some factory ammunition or it's just a freakish unlucky streak on his part.

[benny]

Oh I guess the guy who fired 300 win mag in the 300 weatherby , or the guy who fired the 7mm 08 in the .308 , or the guy who fire the 7mm muaser in a 7mm rem were all flukes and that couldn't never happen? Well sir I personaly saw it happen, just this weekend I had a guy come in asking for a bore rod to get a jammed round out of the chamber. He had a .243 stuck in a .30-06 then right after a guy came in with a .308 round stuck down in the bottom of the action on a .30-30 Winchester that we couldn't get out with out a gun smith.

That is the things we see every year, as far as reloading knowleage how does that have to do with people using the wrong ammo in a rifle?? These were all factory ammo as far as I know.

I am not knocking your integrity here, just stating that these things do happen rather it is ignorance on the shooter or the store who sold him the gun and ammo.

Benny

Love the photo of an o/u shotgun aiming at you for the story.

Guessing they were shooting reloads but diagnosing firearms failures is far out of my realm of expertise.

WHY IS IT THE FIRST THING OUT OF SOMEONE'S MOUTH IS "THEY WERE SHOOTING RELOADS" ?????????

I've been shooting reloads for 42 years now and haven't blown a gun yet, even while trying! I had to obstruct the barrel before it would blow the action.

And a later comment about ammo matching gun is stupid also. If you reload properly, you have the option of resizing cases to fit other guns, like sizing down 30-06 to fit 25-06, or 308 down to 7mm-08 or 260 or 243, or 8mmRemMag down to 7mmSTW, or other examples based on a 300H&H case to make wildcats. Most range officers don't have the know-how to even try to understand this type of processing.

Let the FACTS come out before speculating with wild rumors.

I "speculate" it was an OOBD. Out-Of-Battery-Detonation usually caused by slamming a bolt closed to hard, or the existence of a squib load blocking the bore.. BUT I WILL WAIT TO HEAR THE FINDINGS.

[yuppiejr]

I don't know that any article specifying what/why is going to hit the news as a follow-up, it bled so it led... such a mundane explanation would not be nearly as sensational as being able to brag up a "safe" gun owner getting hurt while sighting in a deer rifle to the antis.

Given the sorts of questions and conversations I heard in the ammo section at Fleet Farm I would not be surprised if this was a case of wrong ammo in the gun, I've worked the fall rifle sight-in and some of the things people don't know about their firearms is scary (the box says 7mm so it should work, right?). I am fairly certain there are a lot of guys who literally open the boxes in the store and try to buy the right ammo based on how it looks rather than what's on the box (which is why you end up with .243's and 7mm projectiles bouncing down 30 caliber tubes, etc..).

Scary also is seeing someone shooting from a benchrest on sandbags with the right ammo and still not putting a 12" group together at 100 yards through a scoped rifle and then declaring themselves "minute of deer" and walking back to the car after 3 shots.

[OldmanFCSA]

OK. I will back off on the use of wrong ammo being used in a rifle.

BUT, I do not want the RSO denying my shooting after explaining the reasoning for the use of mixed cases being used in my rifles.

Another example, I gave BigDog58 some 30-06 cases necked down and fire-formed in a 25-06, the reason for the usage was to tighten the gap between the case and the neck of the chamber holding the bullet on centerline better.

!@#$%^&* = I do have in my possession a 300 Win Mag case that must have been fired in a 300 Weatherby Magnum due to very short neck and rounded corners on body and neck intersections. There was a whole box of them left laying on the range. Others took home samples of this also.
I intentionally tried shooting 44Mag ammo in my 444Marlin pistol JUST to see what would happen = ruptured case above base, don't do it again.
I intentionally shoot 30-30 rounds with projectile pulled to touch rifling to make better fire-formed brass for my 30-30 Ackley Improved Marlin 336 rifle. Chamber is over-size on length = this holds case in proper alignment for proper fire-form.
I intentionally re-chamber my 50BMG target rifles with 0.008" smaller neck diameter on chamber, forcing me to neck-turn my 50BMG Match brass to obtain the proper fit of cartridge in chamber for best accuracy.

AND if you have not read this article, search the web and read it "Secrets of the Houston Warehouse", be sure to read the long version, should take over an hour to read and digest.

[Erik_Pakieser]

You really have to be careful when mixing calibers.

I used to keep my rounds loose in the bottom of my range bag (I'd just dump the box in there and head to the range). Until one day, I managed to chamber and fire a .38 special in my .44 magnum Marlin 1894. I consider myself extremely luck I didn't ruin the gun. I now keep my ammo in separate containers and check each round before loading.