When good guns go bad
 

In the past I did all of my shooting on private land. Now, due to a recent move, I' m forced to shoot more at the public range. Not knowing what the guy shooting beside me has in his gun, I' ve been wondering: What happens when a gun blows up? I' ve never seen it happen and neither have any of my friends.

This would be a good opportunity for some of you to reinforce the need for care in reloading.

I' d like to hear stories involving the accident; the cause and the results.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

Several years ago a guy at the local range in South Florida brought a brand new Weatherby chambered in 270 Weatherby. The store that sold him this gun sold him 270 Win ammunition by mistake.Needless to say there was a problem. The receiver came part firing the first shot. Thankfully he wasn' t hurt badly. He had some cuts and lacerations. He wanted wittnesses.I never heard anymore about it.Check and double check what ammunition you are using.It could be a costly mistake like this guy found out.
Ruger Redhawk

RE: When good guns go bad
 

He wanted witnesses?!?!?! Was that guy too stupid to check what ammo he was loading into his own gun? What a dumb a$$. He deserves to have his gun blown up.

Most of the time if someone loads a round that' s too hot it won' t blow up but just be hard to get out of the chamber. If you see someone having to tap or beat the bolt open you need to make sure that he stops shooting one way or the other.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

I' ll take RR story as testimony towards the quality of Weatherby. Any gun you can improperly load that doesn' t really hurt you is worth the money in my book. Sure a shooter should know better but we were all green once. I was fortunate enough to have guidance when I started shooting.

Good advice BB, however, I' ll just leave the range.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

I know were all green once, but that is the first thing that you should learn.

Kind of like puting diesel in your first Ferrari.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

Good analogy.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

Some of you are assuming that the fact the rifle was a weatherby prevented this idiot from being hurt more seriously.Most other modern bolt actions would have provided the same results.If you really do consider the fact that no one was badly injured as a testimony to the quality of weatherby rifles you must also take this incident as a testimony to the intelligence of weatherby owners.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

It seems to me that if a 270 Win cartridge fired in a 270 Weatherby Mag that it would be somewhat of a fluke. One would think the smaller 270 Win, having a more sloping shoulder and being slightly shorter would slide forward just enough in a 270 Weatherby chamber to keep the firing pin from striking the primer. I don' t doubt it happened, but it just seems unlikely. I wonder how many times the guy snapped on a cartridge before he actually got it to fire? As far as Weatherby rifles go, you can have them but that' s another topic for another day.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

Hey, it can happen to anyone. I was at the range a couple of weeks ago and brought severel rifles along in several different chamberings. I usually shoot on one bench and set my gear up on another bench next to me. After shooting a couple off the bench through my 03A3, I decided to practice from a prone position. I grabbed what I thought was my second box of 30-06 (I keep my reloads in those plastic boxes that hold 80 rds) and sarted to load the magazine. I got 5 rounds in the magazine and noticed that something didn' t look right and found that I had grabbed the wrong box off the bench and had loaded my rifle with 6.5x55. My blood ran cold and I ended up putting all of my ammunition I wasn' t shooting with the current rifle back in my truck just to make sure that this wouldn' t happen again. Familiarity with a firearms can be just as dangerous as ignorance at times!

RE: When good guns go bad
 

I' ve had one firearm let go on me last year. Iwas shooting some cheap remanufactured 9mm ammo through my beretta 92 when the gun made a report and recoil that seemed alot more like a .44 magnum than a 9mm. There was alot of blacksmoke, I was hit in the face hard by burning powder and small bits of brass. The trigger bar was blown completely out of the frame and had peeld the hard rubber grip back like a banana. The case head had blown out. The gun survived the incident- it just neede to be completely stripped apart, cleaned and inspected, though it took me a long time and alot of shooting to loose my fear of it and to stop flinching afterwards.

If I hadn' t been wearing glasses at the time, I would probably be blind right now

RE: When good guns go bad
 

As far as accidents go, I wouldn' t be concerned, they are very rare, and most modern guns are made with safety in mind if something catastrophic should occur. Not saying that if you load a 30-06 round full of bullseye you are going to come out fine and dandy after firing it, but in most casehead failures, I wouldn' t worry too much if you are 20 feet away;)

I would worry more about shooting next to someone shooting a semiauto without a brass deflector or with a muzzle brake. Nothing wakes you quicker than getting a piece of hot brass down the back of your shirt, or being anywhere near a rifle with a compensator without hearing protection when its fired. I think the worst offenders are slug guns with ported barrels- these tend to throw alot of crap out to the side of the barrel. I' ve even seen a guy who was hit in the cheek by a hot sliver of lead that came out of a ported slug gun on the next bench over- steer clear of these guns[>:]

If the guy next to you is shooting a mauser 98, stay to the right of him, if he' s shooting a flintlock, stay to the left of him.:D

RE: When good guns go bad
 

Interesting comments.....regarding the .270 winchester in a .270 weatherby chamber........my brother once fired a .223 in a .22-250 chamber with disastrous results.....the failure isn' t to the receiver....it' s to the case that ruptures and releases gas to the rear. It could cause the receiver to blow up. In this case the Model 70 winchester allowed the error and the fact that my brother was using safety glasses saved his eyes and there was no damage done except he needed a new extractor for the Model 70. He' s never fired that rifle since!!!

I' ve been reloading for over 30 years and I' ve had a couple incidents but have never " blown up" a receiver or barrel. I' d be far more concerned about my own reloads than those of the guy next to me at the range.

Regarding the Weatherby rifle:......just because you paid more for it don' t mean it' s a stronger or better gun.

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RE: When good guns go bad
 

Plus the fact that a .270 case is not a stright walled case but has a bit of taper to it. A shorter case could wedge into the chamber and still leave enough case head sticking out for the firing pin to get a good punch on even in a push feed rifle.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

bigbulls, I agree this guy should have enough smarts to check his ammunition.I guess he assumed the store gave him the correct ammo since they just sold him the rifle.That was his first mistake. Never assume anything.I was shooting several benches down when this gun came apart.I don' t know if he kept trying to fire it or it went off the first time.Needless to say there was allot of commotion over this.The guy was more shaken then hurt.I' m sure he learned a lesson, he might not be as lucky the next time.When I' m going to shoot different rifles I only put that one rifle on the bench and one ammuntion.When I' m finished shooting that rifle I put everything away and then bring the other stuff out.
There was another incident when I worked at a gun shop. A regular customer brought in a S&W model 29.He had loaded up some 44 mags.Somehow he misread the loading data.I think the somehow was being under the influence of something.Many times he' d come in the store doped up.He said the first shot surprised him how hot it was.It actually hurt his hand. The dummy took another shot and from the cylinder forward it came apart.I saw this gun. We sent it back to S&W for him.I can' t remember what it costed him,but Smith replaced his gun with a new one with the same S/N.I would never have believed a Smith would come part like it did if I hadn' t seen it.You can never be to careful. One little mistake can change your life or others in a matter of a split second.If you handload give it your fullest attention.
Ruger Redhawk

RE: When good guns go bad
 

winchester saw the probability of loading the wrong ammo in the wrong gun because of store clerks giving the wrong ammo by mistake when they had the 7mm mag. and the 7mm express , that' s why they renamed it the .280 rem.

i also remember an article in shooting times ( i think ) about gun blow ups , and they had a picture of a gun blow up caused by the wrong ammo loaded into it , a guy had tried to fire a .250 savage out of a .243 winchester , and that rifle literally blew apart right in his hands , completely in half and splintered , the reciever broke apart by the barrel and the barrel had split , the bolt was naturally knocked open by the lack of lock up , and the stock by the reciever was basically splintered beyond recognition , the shooter miraculously only had minor injuries but , it could have been much much worse. that was a near worse case scenario except for the minor injureies to the shooter.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

I saw the remanants of a 12 ga winchester at my local gunsmith. Not sure of the circumstances, but according to him it was a double charged reload. In any case the breech end of the barrel was peeled forward in about 3 strips, looked just like a banana, and the reciever has peices cracked out of it.
The shooter wasn' t hurt but was very shaken up.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

Theres some good reading in PO Ackley' s handbook for shooters and reloaders concerning bolt action rifles failing due to excessive pressure. He took a bunch of military rifles and proceeded to bust them by overloads. If I remember right, the M38 Arisaka withstood more abuse than the mausers and springfields. Ive seen a colt saur 25-06 which had a 308 fired in it and all it did was bow the receiver popping off the scope, split the stock, and seized the action. The barrel and receiver were not split. Pretty impressive that it didnt bust.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

Larry,
That is impressive. It' s somewhat comforting to know that modern firearms are engineered to withstand such a mistake.

I think it was the Arisaka Type 99 that got the results from Ackley' s test.

RE: When good guns go bad
 

Couldnt remember which jap it was recoiljunkie, slight case of crs here. Didnt he say he split the barrel and blew it completely out of a receiver without damaging the receiver beyond repair? Yes, it is somewhat comforting to know rifles can take that kind of abuse without going off like a grenade. Every shooter believes he has better sense right up to the moment he blows his face off. $hit can happen though.