Mar 17, 2012

Bad bangs

If you pull the trigger and the bang does not sound quite right, you might want to open your action and take a peek.


Image





Mainly, you're looking for a hole through the barrel, confirming the round you just fired made it all the way out. Apparently one didn't when two young snow goose hunters went into action near here this week. The injured fellow lucked out with just minor injuries. 


... (The victim)  was hunting with 19-year-old  (buddy) ... (who) had taken a shot but the shell in his gun didn't fire properly. (Buddy) reloaded and when he fired again, the barrel exploded. Authorities believe the barrel was blocked by the misfiring of the first shell.


It can happen with any ammunition, of course, but reloads are the usual suspects. (I'm particularly sensitive to this because my buddy had a close call shooting unknown reloads in his 1911 a few years back.  And I had provided the mystery rounds. I was shooting them myself. Very, very dumb even though I had reason to trust the guy who sold them to me.) 


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I borrowed the picture from a good Shotgun World thread.







3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did someone perhaps forget to put the powder charge in the first shell? That looks about far enough down the barrell for wadding. JAGSC

TJP said...

Absolutely not! It was steel fatigue or unrepeatable spontaneous powder detonation. No one should be surprised, since the gun industry is widely known for making highly inaccurate arms.

I'm being sarcastic, of course. :)

Jim said...

Yep, I suspect a primer-only discharge.

:), TJP.