Watch your handloads, blown rifle

[Guy Miner]

From our friends over on Marlin Owners today:



http://www.marlinowners.com/forum/gener ... e-gun.html

Be sure you know what you're doing with the handloading please.

Guy

 

[Thebear_78]

Ouch, too much fast powder?


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[gerry]

It would take a big mistake to have that happen, what a shame. Hope everyone is alright though.

 

[DrMike]

It is positively frightening to think of holding a bomb like that when it goes off. Glad the shooter wasn't injured worse than he was.

 

[truck driver]

Saw a Ruger Super Black Hawk 44 mag with the top strap blown off and the cylinder missing once and that was enough for me to remember to watch what I was doing.

 

[ScreaminEagle]

There is an old 12ga shotgun at my local club that was scattered pretty good. Seems if you put a 12ga shell in, on top of a 20ga shell, the results are not pleasant. More of a loading, than reloading, accident.

 

[bbearhntr]

Yikes!

 

[Vince]

Crikey!
That Marlin would make me soil myself. I've blown out primers and stuck a bolt but never that.

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[Richracer1]

Nasty for sure....

After reading the post and all replies, seems the general consensus (guesses) is it may have been due to an under charged load.

 

[FOTIS]

49 gr max at under 30k PSI.

The under 40k PSI loads do not list AA2015

 

[sask boy]

That was scary and a good reminder to all of us that what we do should not be taken for granted.
I always check my rifle's bore before shooting after it has been sitting in my safe for some time.
I check my powder charge on every load after it comes out of my charge master. Most people think I am crazy for doing this but I just want my load to be the most accurate that I can make.
I am glad that no one was seriously hurt in this accident.

Blessings,
Dan

 

[Dwh7271]

+00.0 87 42.00 1530 2104 21179 4193 88.6 1.609

That's a 405 LFN with what he said he was loading. Doesn't look like a problem load.
Not criticising at all not having been there but there just seems to me to be more to this than it appears at first glance. Don't know though....
Thanks Guy! Good info and thought provoking.

 

[HomerOz]

G'Day Fella's,

If not an incorrectly reloaded round, given that it was the first shot of the day, maybe a bore obstruction?
Just a thought.
It says something about the Marlins action strength, that the bolt stayed put and didn't "Exit, Stage Rear"!!!

Doh!
Homer

 

[truck driver]

Shooting cast lead if they were commercial cast they could have been over sized and caused an obstruction from the looks of the chamber area in the picture. Hard to tell with out having the remaining loads to dissect but then that might not tell either.

 

[FOTIS]

Thanks for the replies. This was the first shot of the day, just dropped in and fired, none in the tube. I intend to open up the rest and see what the charges were. I had a batch of 42 grains 2015 and one where I was pushing down to 36 (starting load for trapdoor in my Lyman book). 405 grain cast bullets. The bullets were all crimped. It's hard to imagine how I could have double charged since I always take my time on these big loads and never get into "production line" mode. But anything is possible. It might be a light load thing too, though it doesn't seem too far out of the mainstream based on the Lyman tables.

Is there an easy way to determine year of manufacture?

These are new brass. Is there anything I should consider related to that? Case lengths were measured.

Time will tell if I can trust myself to reload in the future. Unfortunately, I've always enjoyed non mainstream calibers that are really expensive to buy.

42 gr would not cause this maybe a cast bullet left in the bore from another day's shoot?

 

[truck driver]

yeah it most defiantly looks like a possibly plugged barrel just in front of the chamber .

 

[diverdown]

Screaming eagle made a comment about a 20 gauge shell in front of a 12 gauge shell which brought to mind an interesting experience. A while back I worked in a fishing tackle store and met a lot of people who both fished and hunted. One of my customers was interested in selling an Ithaca model 37 twelve gauge. I looked at it externally, saw that it was in relatively good shape and paid one hundred dollars to take it off his hands. As with all used guns I purchase I went about breaking it down to clean. When I looked down the barrel It was black and I figured a mud wasp had manufactured a nest. I ran a cleaning rod down the front of the barrel and hit something hard. I hit the object a bit harder the second and third time and it finally broke free, coming out the breech. Low and behold the previous owner had fired a 16 gauge shell which went off but also went sailing down the interior of the barrel lodging about 4 inches inside from the breech. I mentioned this to the seller and to the best of his knowledge the last person that had fired the gun was his father. To give credit to Ithaca the barrel was undamaged. Have since gotten a lot of snipe with it.

 

[truck driver]

Snipe!!! We catch them at night with a bag and flash light. :roll: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[cloverleaf]

Dad always checked the bore of his rifle/ shotgun before he loaded it. On one occasion, could not see down the bore of his model 12 (with the action open). Further inspection revealed that the barrel had poked through the lining of his ancient gun case and packed a bunch of the padding into the bore. Apparently the last time he put it away. Might not have done any harm but who wants to find out the hard way? I should get in that habit a little better. Glad no one was hurt. CL