Weatherby Bolt Failure

[keylargo]

This past weekend a young shooter who lives near me was seriously injured while doing target work with his Weatherby rifle. The bolt failed during a shot and was sent back into the shooters face causing very serious injuries to his face.
Has anyone else ever heard of this happening? I really didn' t think it was possible with modern firearms.

[stubblejumper]

I can happen in any firearm under the right conditions. Usually handloads are involved.

[James B]

Its true. Guns can be dangerous on both ends. Most of us do not use propper saftey precautions. Safty glasses in this case may not have helped but how many of you wear them when you shoot. I didn' t used to but many years back I lost my master eye and now to late I wear them. My good eye will soon need catarack surgery. Its no big deal when you have two good eyes but now one little slip and I could be totally blind. I urge everyone who still has two good eyes to take care of them. In less than one blink you can loose an eye. Its not something we ever think about but one second I had perfect vision and the next second or even less, I was half blind.

[PABuck_HNTR]

I' m sorry to hear of that young boy' s accident. Eye and ear safety is # 1 at our range. It doesn' t sound as though this was the problem in this case, but if you don' t have them at our facility you don' t shoot.

[lance0623]

There was a recall on for the bolt on Weatherby Vanguards, the first time I saw the recall was about two years ago. The only reason I knew about the recall was because of this forum. Here' s the link:

http://www.weatherby.com/safety/info.html

Hope this helps, and hope your friend will be o.k.

Lance

[LAbushman]

I have shot guns for many years and never heard of this happening in a modern firearm. I won' t say it can' t happen, but it seems that something catastrophic had to fail in the gun to cause this. I shoot a Weatherby Vanguard. Did anybody call the manufacturer and see if this is a single occurance or did this happen multiple times? The safety mechanism on my Vanguard was recalled. Weatherby replaced it with a new one. I learned about this from the forum and contacted them.
By the way, safety glasses and hearing protection won' t afford you much help if the bolt flies back at you.
I hope the shooter recovers without serious problems.

[stubblejumper]

Was the rifle involved a vanguard?Are there any more details of the incident?

[keylargo]

I am affraid that I don' t know for sure if the rifle was a vanguard or not. I have been told by a friend of the family that Weatherby has already contacted them. The last I heard the shooters condition was still very serious

[Briman]

It can happen if you charge a fast burning pitol powder instead of a slow burning rifle powder to your reloads. Most of the time what happens is the casehead blows out, and hot high pressure gasses vent to the path of least resistance- usually to one side or the other or down the magazine well. I actually talked to a guy this last weekend who has a catastrophic failure on his Ruger no.1 a few months ago. He was usign RL 2400 with cast lead bullets and had a double charge. It blew the stock apart and buried some wood into his left arm.

I' m not familiar with the weatherby design, but I' m guessing it has smaller multiple lugs for a nifty 60 degree bolt throw? I simply do not have much trust for a rifle without 2 large opposing lugs and a safety lug is always a big bonus also. Bolt action rifles were perfected over a 100 years ago to give some protection to the shooter in such a circumstance. By protection I mean not having a bolt buried in your head when things go wrong.

I' ve also had a casehead failure myself with my 92FS 9mm last year. I was hit with a cloud of burning powder and brass, but most of the energy was vented off to the right of the pistol. The design of the pistol was such that I only had minor injuries and the pistol itself was not damaged beyond repair.

[lance0623]

The Vanguard has 2 large opposing lugs; other " true" weatherby' s have the Mark V action (9 lugs).