Hoseless - Welcome to the forum
Everyone had to start somewheres. About your latest drama, you're not Robinson Crusoe there. We've all done some boo-boos at one stage. All one can do is simply learn from it and move on, making sure it doesn't happen again. I can relate to your story, not with a rifle, albeit in a pistol.
I have a BFR by Magnum Research in .45/70, 7 1/2" barrel, excellent shooter this one, am an absolute fan of it for the Metallic Silhouette Big Bore. One day, someone new to the sport of pistol shooting wanted a go of it after watching me fire some reloads I had made of my own.
The reloads I had made were Hawkesbury 300 grain lead projectiles, Starline brass, Federal Large Rifle Match primers, 15.5 grains of Trail Boss, which has proven to be a reliable, accurate load. Its recoil is comparable to a mild .44 Magnum load.
I demostrated for him how to use the BFR by firing the 5 rounds, the entire cylinder's compliment. I thought by having had firing a couple of rounds by now, all is well. How wrong I was.
He fired the two first rounds, went off normally, but the third one didn't sound right. The trouble with me is that I'm profoundly deaf and I'm at the line wearing hearing muffs, so unfortunately, I can't tell much difference, unless I was firing the BFR. Then I would have known something was wrong straight away and stop shooting the pistol, unload for further inspection.
Unluckily, the novice shooter didn't know and proceed to cycle the next round, only to fire it before I could stop him. BANG! Lots of recoil. Instead of one hole in the target, there was two! Lots of consternation to what was going on.
We figured out, my Dad and myself, very quickly that there was a stuck projectile after the third round fired and the barrel bulged slightly after having another projectile hit it up the arse. I was pretty angry with myself for a while, kicking myself up the backside over the whole thing. Naturally, I took all responsibility for it. Murphy's Law at its finest!
It took a long while to figure out what actually happened. Dad and a witness told me the round did go off, plenty of powder burned off but something wasn't quite right. So, after pulling all the remaining rounds apart, inspection of my reloading technique and the faulty round, it turns out that there was the odd primer in the works and it didn't provide enough spark to make the powder burn completely.
From that experience, I've learnt a lot, same with my Dad. It was one of those very rare kind of misfires. That said, I'm glad that Magnum Research makes one hell of a revolver in the BFR. So, at the moment, I'm having the BFR sent away to Magnum Research to have another new barrel fitted.
I look at it this way though, I'm very lucky no one else, including my Dad and myself, was hurt, so, I'm glad as well for you that no one else even yourself wasn't hurt big-time.
Yes, I do feel a bit awkward about posting this, but in doing so, I hope someone else learns from what happened to me and from you to prevent further dramas. At the end of the day though, when it comes to reloading, even when you dedicate all your attention and concentration, all the care in the world in storing your components, you still can come across a faulty lot of primers or powder or brass, take your pick.
I've been very lucky so far I hadn't had any other major drama in the last 15 years of shooting with all of my rifles and pistols. Anyway, here's to many more years of safe, enjoyable shooting.
