Bolt Gun Explodes at Gun Range

[sawgrass]

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/11/0 ... in-duluth/

[Thunder71]

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.

[Sigfan220]

I would think bore obstruction or wrong ammo type. You'd have to really work hard to blow a bolt action due to reloading, unless they swapped 231 for 748 or something ridiculous.

[JJ]

Ask any RO how deer rifle sight in goes every year. Most every one will have a horror story about someone trying to shoot the wrong ammo. Me thinks someone was trying to stuff a cartridge that didn't belong, into a rifle, and learned the hard way to check their ammo before firing.

[LePetomane]

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

How can one trust the accuracy of this article when the author posts a picture like that. It's like when DiFi swept an audience with her finger on the trigger of an AK 47. No one in the audience was phased.

[RealDeal]

[quote="Thunder71"]Love the photo of an o/u shotgun aiming at you for the story.

Yup, the national coverage of the LAX shooting isn't enough, so the the local media machine has to keep any incident in the forefront, to keep indoctrinating the masses. Not trying to minimize the seriousness of this incident, as far as shooting and safety is concerned, but these kind of stories, slanted photos included, are popping up with too much regularity, now days. Stay vigilant, and check your ammo at the range.

[Makarov]

http://kdal610.com/news/articles/2013/n ... ke-sunday/

This article lists names of the two involved.
Shooter (who is 34 in this report) went to the hospital later.

[minnesotatv]

Ask any RO how deer rifle sight in goes every year. Most every one will have a horror story about someone trying to shoot the wrong ammo. Me thinks someone was trying to stuff a cartridge that didn't belong, into a rifle, and learned the hard way to check their ammo before firing.

BIg +1
its amazing how some fools cling to stupidity like it was a virtue

[OldmanFCSA]

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.

[bpacman]

Yep, this year, at a rifle site in, I witnessed a person shooting a 7mm Mauser round in a 7mm-RemMag rifle. Luckily nothing happened other than the throat of the casing going out the barrel with the bullet. The other one was a person trying to fire a .308 in a 30.06. Despite his efforts to fire the round, it never went into battery and took a lot to eject the live round.

I was loosing my sense of humor by the end of the second day.

Bp

[Seismic Sam]

HammAR had a hilarious story about some snotty elitist who thought he knew everything about guns AND was a perfect shot to boot, so we're talking old school classic hunter with a major corn cob obstruction, rather than a new school Tacticool fool with all of the gear and none of the brains necessary. At any rate, this old snotty geezer was trying to hit the broad sign of a barn with his 30-06, and pretty much missing, and the paper target still had it's "cherry". HammAR had tried at least once halfway through this farce to help again, but all he got was more snottiness and self righteousness, so he just sat down to watch the fun. (He had seen the problem immediately, BTW....) So the guy was pissed off and confused, and couldn't figure out how somebody who knew as much as he did could be having all this trouble. HammAR sidled over while this guy was muttering to himself after shooting the whole box of 20, and offered up an opinion that it might have something to do with the bullet diameter, and this ******* gets all hostile and belligerent, and nearly screams out "What could be wrong with the bullet diameter???!!!!", and it was THEN that HammAR offered up the observation that:
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when you were shooting 244 Remington ammo in a 30-06, the bullet to bore fit is going to be a mite loose, and when that bullet gets done getting chewed up by the rifling and bouncing back and forth, the bullet could come out going most anywhere......

The ******* turned beet red and was paralyzed with rage/embarrassment/whatever, and threw all of his gear in a pile in his truck, and drove out of there with steam coming out both ears and his a**hole. I think HammAR damn near ruptured himself laughing after the guy left.
And I have had the exact same kind of idjits that JJ has seen show up when I was an RSO, so yes, there is a great herd of Darwin candidates out there that need to be culled before they propogate their stupidity to future generations.

My guess is also that it was Rifle caliber A and cartridge caliber B, and I think these guys may have lucked out relatively speaking, because with a lot of guns the whole action is going to detonate and fragment if the pressure has gone through the roof. For whatever reason the lugs sheared off the bolt before the whole action blew, and the damage was relatively minor.

And yes, if you are a complete DOOFUS, and put 8mm ammo in a 30-06 and have a kablooey, it won't take the club regulars too long to see that the numbers on the ammo box and the barrel ain't the same, and start asking you embarrassing questions like I do with the n00bs in here, and then you are trapped in the blinding white light of your own ignorance and want nothing more than to get the hell out of there, and in my past observations, it's REALLY tough to run when you have your head stuck all the way up your own ass.

[mc762x54R]

I saw a kid trying to sight in his Savage 30.06 with 270win ammo...he was shooting about a 15' group at 50 yards..

[Mauser98]

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.

I had this exact issue last weekend at the range. I showed up with an 8mm Mauser, 7mm Mauser, and a 6mm Remington. The RO was verifying head stamps to the gun.

The first confusion started with the 8mm, as the head stamp is 7.92. He didn't want me shooting them, as they didn't say 8mm on them. It took a little persuasion to get the go ahead with that. I then mentioned my next cartridges will throw him for a loop. I pulled out the 7mm ammo, and had him compare. He looked puzzled. I had 257 brass necked up. :shock:

Years ago my dad came across a 5 gallon bucket of .257 Roberts cases that he pretty much got for free. Many of these have been formed into either the 6mm or the 7mm.

The RO wasn't sure what to do and called over a buddy. Now I had two guys that weren't to sure on the procedure. I walked them through the different factory, and some wildcat, cartridges created from the 7mm, and that the 257 is just necked down, all we did was neck it up and fire form. They conversed a bit, verified I signed the waiver:???:, and said OK. Luckily I had actual 6mm cases, I'm pretty sure they would have asked me to leave if they would have been different.

They put me away from everyone else, and gave themselves a very wide berth, and watched on. I'm not sure if they expected a big kaboom, or were truly interested if they would work.

We had some good conversations afterward. Pretty sure they don't get hand loaders there very often.

Next year I might have to bring 3 different calibers with 3 different head stamps and watch the confusion ensue. Maybe I'll do 30-06HS for the 280, 260HS for the 243, and 300 Win Mag HS for the 308 Norma magnum. :twisted:

It'll be an interesting day none the less.

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

[Seismic Sam]

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

[Lights]

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.

It can happen with factory loads also. Last year while I was sighting in my 700 270Win. I could not close the bolt on a round easily. Oh I could have sent it home if I tried but I did not. After inspecting it at home. It was a 150 gr 7mm bullet in a 270 case, straight out of a new box of 140 gr Winchester supremes. I called Winchester and told them they are dam lucky my 15 year old kif did not slam it home and pull the trigger. They sent out a shipping label for the rest of the box of ammo and sent me some goodies to keep me happy I guess.