Rifle destroyed, Shooter safe.

In over forty years of reloading and shooting, the only "bad" loads (mischarged rounds) that have turned up when shooting have been factory pistol ammo. My own screwups have not made it to the range (so far). 300BO has a track record of kabooms in AR15s chambered for .223/5.56, as it will readily chamber without forcing it. The infamous loading rifle charges of pistol powder is fortunately more rare.
 
SCLID: Sudden catastrophic load induced disassembly

"SCLID": Sudden catastrophic load induced disassembly

It happened (case head separation) to a fellow shooter yesterday, at our outdoor range. Happily...no one was hurt, save for the shooter who had some wood chips blast his safety eyeglass face.

Rifle: M1917 Enfield rifle, chambered in 30-06

Ammo: His own 30-06 reloads.

I was shooting my Martini Henry Model12/15 rimfire rifle in the standing position, when I heard a loud Kaboom to the left of me, about 20 feet away.

He was shooting off the wooden benchrest. The right side of the wooden rifle stock was blasted out under the bolt. Magazine floor plate and spring was blasted out and laying on the concrete firing pad. Furthermore...another metal piece from the kaboom, traveled back to the right side of the shooter and impacted the aluminum handle of a broom, that was hanging from a overhead canopy pole --- About eight feet from him.

I don't know how to post pictures...but I did take a picture of the destroyed broom. It had an inch long by 1/2 inch wide entrance and exit holes in the lower part of the broom handle. The broom broke off the handle. The only thing blocking the possible pathway of the shrapnel...with my 2020 Toyota TRD PRO 4Runner (parked about 30 feet away) was the brass collection broom; that was in line with my truck.

Anybody would have been seriously hurt...if hit by that flying piece of metal shrapnel from the Kaboom...that I still haven't found yet.

So then I searched "case head separation" on the web...and I read that M1917's, 1903 Springfields and pre 64 Winchester M70's have a "cone breech", that makes for some "spectacular events"...involving case head separation incidents.

I don't reload brass yet...but I'm never gonna shoot reloads in both my own Winchester M1917 and my 1903 O3A3 Springfield --- That's for sure.

The involved shooter...does have another M1917 at his home. And they are very pleasant and accurate too shoot.
 
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I bought a whole box of ammunition that had apparently been cycled through a rifle. They all had feeding marks on the cartridges and light marks on the primers where the firing pin had tapped them. Was supposed to be new factory ammunition.
I own 300aac and 5.56/223 guns. I’m a bit Squeamish about having both. I have the magazines clearly marked. But I still check them visually before firing.
 
Hornady 22 mag goes BOOM

I was shooting Hornady 22 mag out of my NAA Black Widow. Had a round go BOOM instead of bang and the gun quit working. Main spring had broken. Everyone has told me that a hot load would not break the main spring. Don't know what to say. NAA fixed the gun free. Sent the ammo to Hornady. They reported back that they found no problems and send me 100 rounds free. I recall reporting all this in a previous post some time ago. Hmmmmmmmm . . . ..

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
Not saying this is the case--and I suspect it's probably illegal, but I have bought boxed ammo from a LGS that I am certain was "recirculated as new" and the cartridges inside clearly where not matched of the same production. I suspect there's stuff out there that is purchased from estate sales, going out of business sales etc. and then pressed into service as "new." Pretty easy to spot with multiple price tag layers, badly tarnished/weathered brass etc.
 
stagpanther Not saying this is the case--and I suspect it's probably illegal, but I have bought boxed ammo from a LGS that I am certain was "recirculated as new" and the cartridges inside clearly where not matched of the same production.
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"Remanufactured" ammo, ie commercial reloads are common, and selling them is not illegal. It's not uncommon to see such ammunition with a mix of headstamps.

That's a far cry from selling such reloads as "factory new".



I suspect there's stuff out there that is purchased from estate sales, going out of business sales etc. and then pressed into service as "new." Pretty easy to spot with multiple price tag layers, badly tarnished/weathered brass etc.
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Any gun store selling such ammunition is taking a pretty big risk liability wise.
 
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