I saw something on 3/9 that I have never seen before - a rifle exploding at the range. An elderly gentleman was shooting on another set of benches near me and I was watching him. He sat down, loaded the gun and at the squeeze of the trigger, the rifle exploded! The barrel fell off and hit the cement floor, the action was split back like a banana, the bolt face face was missing nearly a third of the face and the cartidge case was stuck in the chamber yet. The cartridge head was missing a chunk of the brass where the extractor gripped it and the flashhole was enlarged. The stock which was a thumbhole laminated stock, split in two and the scope bell was bent. The guy wasn't hurt and nobody else on the range was either.
He claims he was loading 25 grains of 2400 powder in the .223 he was shooting. The rifle was a Savage model 25. I believe he overloaded with an incorrect charge of powder.

Thats crazy. I bet it shocked hell out of him.

Sounds like he needs to give up reloading.
I just looked and don't see 2400 listed for any .223 loads in my books and their website don't have a recipe either.
The closest I saw a recipe for was a .22 hornet and it said to only use 11gr of powder with a 33gr bullet.

OOOPPS

good thing it was only a Savage.

What kind of scope was he using?

like he fell asllep loading the whole barrel full of powder and stuffed a slug in it? what can cause this...using pistol powder? C-4?

Dude musta got his loading data off the internet.

There was just an article about that same type of thing happening in the "Shooters Bible" or one of those books. The guy in the article was loading for a 30/06 and used pistol powder...they still never found the bolt and searched a 100ft radius...

Be CAREFUL out there guys!!

He was using the wrong powder and way too much of it.
Guy's a moron.

Sounds like Alzheimer's or Dementia to me....sometimes them 'ol dudes get a little cornfused....