Hunters, any of you ever had your weapon fail in the field?

outdoor338 · 09-05-2003, 03:05 PM

Hunters,

have any of you ever had your rifle or handgun fail to operate while in the fileld? This is for a show segment, taking care of your weapon prior to the hunting season. I have had firing pins not working on my 7mm mag, lost a chance on a good buck, thanks for all your help and stories..

Dr. Mike

BareBack Jack · 09-05-2003, 03:49 PM

I can happily say I have never had a gun fail,operator erro yes.
.

DreaminBoutElk · 09-05-2003, 04:05 PM

Sure I have! That darn gun misses all the time.....

63North · 09-05-2003, 06:17 PM

Two common winter problems are oil, especially old contaminated oil, in the bolt which can and has caused freeze up of the firing pin; and junk, like snow, which finds its way inside the action as the bolt is worked - pretty difficult to chamber a round while trying to crush even a relatively small quantity of snow. Been there.....

cheese-head · 09-05-2003, 08:20 PM

Why yes , Once while hunting brown bears on the southern tip of Alaska I droped my spear while running down a 700lb boar and steped on it breaking the tip off of it so I just used my good old swissarmy Knife to bag my bear.

oldelkhunter · 09-05-2003, 09:10 PM

Had a 700 bolt freeze up badly on a especially miserable/snowy day in Montana...You know how field strippable that particular bolt is. Gun would not fire so I had to use the bumper on the truck and a dime to take it apart and wash it in gasoline...it was wadded up with rust probably from going in and out of the truck with it and getting condensation forming inside the bolt...

Jorgy · 09-05-2003, 09:40 PM

Twice with my BAR. First time during a freezing sleet storm in Wisconsin, I was pretty careful all day long chipping ice off of the action and checking it every now and then, and in one of those " checking the actions" I didn' t realize that the bolt didn' t close all of the way because of ice being stuck in there.

Second time was durning a deer drive and a spent shell got caught in the action half stuck out. That pretty much took care of my second shot at a doe I missed with my first shot.

clattin · 09-06-2003, 06:27 AM

One bitterly cold morning while coyote hunting in Kansas, my brand new Ruger M77 froze up from all the grease they had put in it at the factory. Couldn' t even pull the trigger. Had 3 coyotes all within 100 yards and nothing I could do about it!

clattin

feddoc · 09-06-2003, 07:43 AM

Yup,
The day before I left for elk season last year my 700 extractor failed. After the initial panic, I checked headspace on my spare bolt and went on my way.

Nic Barca · 09-06-2003, 02:28 PM

Yeah. I recently bought a 12 gauge semi auto Sear Roebuck shotgun.

I guess the cocking lever had broke before so it was brazed back on. They never brazed it properly and it worked with the bird shot while I was testing it but when I tried a slug, the lever got blown off and flew somewhere in the bushes. I eventually took it to a welder and we brazed a new lever on it and did it right this time. But I had to file down all the excess metal on my own with these little files and got it pretty close but it turned out, there was too much braze on the back and the action couldn' t slide back far enough to eject a spent shell so it would jam and it took a little effort to get it out.

I also had one more proplem. A screw that went along to the part that regulates one bullet to come out of the magazine, it came loose and the gun would jam because it wouldn' t be able to pull a bullet out of the magazine.

So here' s how it went.
I was hunting with the gun while the cocking lever was still broke off and I ended up shooting a boar at 20 feet or so and nailed it with a slug and he launched himself forward and came to a sliding stop on the grownd, squeeled and jumped back up. I was still holding on him but when he squeeled I lowered my gun to my hip and he jumped up and ran right towards me. Past only 3 feet away. I could see some big tusks on him. I don' t think he even saw me. I probably should have shot again but even if I had tried it turned out that the mag. regulator fauled up because of that loose screw. So there' s one jam with it.

Then Another time I shot a billy goat in the head from behind a bush at 12 feet with a slug and I turned to shoot the other goat with buckshot, I settled and pulled the trigger and nothing happened. A spent cartridge was stuck because the action never slid back far enough because of that excess braze. Took me a secont to get it out but by that time, the goat was two far away and I made a couple 30 yards shots with buchshot but I think one hit behind and the other hit this big clump of saw grass that he was running behind.

The Buckshots allways worked fine in the gun but every time I have shot a slug, the gun messed up. Either the power of the slug popped the srew loose or the length of the slug shell was too big because the excess braze wouldn' t allow it to slide back far enough to eject it. I think I got everything fixed now. I' ve gone hunting with it a few times but never shot it yet.