There are a number of rifle chambers in which the wrong ammunition with an undersized bullet can be mistakenly fired without damaging the gun. Examples would be a 7x57 in an 8x57 chamber; or a .270 Win in a .30-06; a .243 in .260, 7-08, or .308 -- and any smaller cartridge in a larger rifle of that sequence. A .264 in 7mm Rem or a 7mm Rem in a .338 Win -- you get the picture.
In any of these instances the cases are identical or nearly identical but the bullet of the ammunition is smaller than the bore. The result is that the wrong cartridge chambers and fires, but the bullet presumably bounces down the bore and exits the muzzle at a lower than normal velocity and very inaccurately.
My question: Have you or anyone you've known actually killed an animal with the wrong ammunition? (If you have actually done this but are too embarrassed to admit it, simply say that it was your inept friend, Bobby Don, who did it and you were there to witness it; like "Really, doctor, I'm only asking for a friend because he's had this problem in bed for a while now".)
Posts: 13227 | Location: Henly, TX, USA | Registered: 04 April 2001
Originally posted by dpcd: Never killed anything but I have fired hundreds of 7.62 Nato rounds from 30-06 and 7.65 Argentine rifles.
Did you ever chronograph any of those? I wonder how much velocity they lose in an oversized chamber. I assume the brass was useless afterward and discarded?
Posts: 13227 | Location: Henly, TX, USA | Registered: 04 April 2001
I ran a magfull of 7.62x51/.308 through a BAR. They functioned full auto just fine, cases were blown out close to straight, but no issues. Killed a target, but that was all.
Originally posted by 1894mk2: I saw a decent group of 7x57 from a 270. Recoil was reported as noticable.
Not what I was thinking of, but notable nonetheless. "Barrel swaging" a lead core jacketed bullet down from .284 to .277 isn't as difficult as most might think. And although I don't recommend it, shooting .323" "S"-bore bullets down a .318" J-bore barrel works okay if you manage your powder charge appropriately.
Posts: 13227 | Location: Henly, TX, USA | Registered: 04 April 2001
Needed a few 458 Lott cases when they were hard to find. Shot a couple of 300 Win Mags in it. More accurate than I would have thought. I did not chrony them but could have easily killed a whitetail at 50 yards!
Posts: 696 | Location: South Central Texas | Registered: 29 August 2014
Can't remember when it was, but at one of our Christmas family reunions, some of the boys decided to go hunting. My wife's uncle gave me his 7 mm Rem as he had just returned from a Colorado elk hunt....."still has shells in the well."
I pulled the trigger on an 8 point and immediately felt a sting on my right cheek. JFC that's a hot load i thought to myself as I saw the deer run around in a circle chasing his tail. I hit him in the ass, most likely key holed. No blood or hair.
And yes, it was a .270 Win.
There are two types of people in the world: those that get things done and those who make excuses. There are no others.
Posts: 1428 | Location: El Campo Texas | Registered: 26 July 2004
Originally posted by Live Oak: Needed a few 458 Lott cases when they were hard to find. Shot a couple of 300 Win Mags in it. More accurate than I would have thought. I did not chrony them but could have easily killed a whitetail at 50 yards!
After blowing the necks out from .30 to .45 was the brass still usable for the Lott? I would think the necks might split.
I purposely fired a .223 round in a .222 Magnum chamber (needed to seat the bullet into the lands in order to get dependable ignition) to see, in the absence of any actual .222 Magnum brass, if the .223 could be substituted. The answer is a conditional "yes" if you can get by with a neck that is barely there.
Posts: 13227 | Location: Henly, TX, USA | Registered: 04 April 2001
Dad shot a deer with a 25-35 in a 30-30 and somebody in the family shot a steer in the pen with a 270 in his 30-06. I recall one of my deer hunters shooting a deer with a 99 Savage with the wrong bullet
one instance I recall very well was I needed to go to town and the Mexican cowboys wanted a deer and I had a doe tag, so told them I would shoot one when I got back, they understood my Spanish as a rule but this time I told they to shoot one while I was gone!! Filliburto went in the house got my 250-3000 Savage and a box of 243s..shot the deer, rifle blew him off the rock he was standing on and the gun would function after that according to my other cowboy "Tio" and Henry, who were rolling in laughter as the told me the story..Ihad to beat the lever open with a bar and a big hammer, and it was sprung, got a new lever and cut the case out of the chamber with a reamer, but the bolt and body were OK..
I watched a guy shoot AT a crow in a field with 7mm Rem Mag ammo in a 300 Win Mag rifle. The bullet bounced a couple times starting about 50 yards down range. It wasn't even close! Accidents happen (to others). LOL
My wife and I argued one beautiful Sunday morning as to whether I'd go to church or go to my shooting range. I won the battle but lost the war when I realized that I arrived at the range without the bolt for my rifle! I should have just gone to church.
Some guys have gone shooting with me and brought the wrong ammo and couldn't shoot. They were sad! LOL
In 1976 I was in a beat shoot in India where a guy was using military 7.62 ammo in a P14 30'06 rifle and shot a Sambar on the run.
Those examples are exactly what I was looking for. I figured that taking game with the wrong ammunition had happened and that someone on this forum would be able to verify it.
Posts: 13227 | Location: Henly, TX, USA | Registered: 04 April 2001
This is a different scenario than what you're asking for, but you might find it interesting. One of my favorite customers at the first gun shop I worked at in the '80s and '90s was the head ballistics guy in the ballistics lab at our State Police headquarters. We stocked a lot of off the wall ammo and he bought a lot of ammo from us over the years that the lab stockpiled "just in case". He always had interesting stories about some of the cases he'd worked on and I asked him what the most unusual case he'd been involved with was. He thought a minute and told me of a wife who'd been on the receiving end of her husband's drunken rage one time too many. She shot and killed him and the wound and recovered slug were most unusual. Turns out she located a Winchester 94 .30/30 and either couldn't find the right ammo or didn't know the difference. She found one .38 Special wadcutter in a drawer and managed to fire it in the .30/30. The extractor held the .38 case enough to fire it and force that soft lead .357" wadcutter down the bore and into her husband's chest. I bet that bullet ended up being an inch long!
This is not about game shot but just one more stupid mistake. A couple of years ago my son took my daughter in law out to shoot his Ruger Vaquero in 45 L.C. I was in the shop next to the range + I kinda in the back of my mind thought that something doesn't sound quite right. Then he comes in the shop + says the extraction was a bit hard + the cases look odd. NO SHIT!!! He had grabbed a box of 44 Mags + his wife was shooting them through that 45 cal revolver. Thank God it was a Ruger. My boys have grown up around guns but that is just one more proof that anyone can screw up. That was a cheap lesson as no one was injured; I hope it made an impression.
Originally posted by SCGunNut: Turns out she located a Winchester 94 .30/30 and either couldn't find the right ammo or didn't know the difference. She found one .38 Special wadcutter in a drawer and managed to fire it in the .30/30. The extractor held the .38 case enough to fire it and force that soft lead .357" wadcutter down the bore and into her husband's chest. I bet that bullet ended up being an inch long!
Now that's interesting (if tragic). However, errant spouses, while not quite qualified as "game", probably do qualify as "varmints", therefore I give this example the prize for the most unlikely combination of mismatched ammunition and rifle successfully bagging the intended target.
Posts: 13227 | Location: Henly, TX, USA | Registered: 04 April 2001
I have probably already told about the fellow for whom I had barrelled two Remington 700 Classics. One was a 7mm STW; the other was a 308 Norma Magnum. The hunter who was using the STW inadvertently loaded it with a 308 Norma shell and shot a decent black bear with the 180 Swift bullet. It was a one shot kill. This was a good thing since it would have been impossible to fire again. While testing for function, I didn't have any 300 Weatherby ammo and didn't want to break open a new box so I fired a 300 Win Mag. Worked fine but the resulting neck was a little short. Regards, Bill.
Originally posted by dpcd: Never killed anything but I have fired hundreds of 7.62 Nato rounds from 30-06 and 7.65 Argentine rifles.
This post and the ones from back40 and Nakihunter reminded me of an otherwise long forgotten fact: Guys returning from the two World Wars with Enfields or Springfields often had a few boxes of .300 Savage laying around the house for the Model 99 which had been in the family for decades. Word soon got around that you could fire the Savage ammunition in the .30-06 bolts and "hardly know the difference". I suspect that a lot of venison found its way onto the table via an Enfield or a Springfield firing a .300 Savage shell.
Posts: 13227 | Location: Henly, TX, USA | Registered: 04 April 2001
A number of years ago the American Rifleman had a short on a mischambered rifle. At the end of the second world war many war trophy Jap rifles were rechambered to 30-06 or 257 Roberts to create cheap sporters. A NRA member complained he had his Jap rifle rechambered to 30-06 and killed a deer with it but it just kicked like a mule. The rifle was sent to the NRA who immediately recognize the rifle a a 25 cal Jap rifle that had mistakenly been rechambered to 30-06. The NRA test fired the rifle with a 30-06 hunting round and the recovered 30 cal bullet was swaged down to 25 cal and about 1 1/2 times the normal length. As Hatcher noted in his book the Arasaka action was probably the strongest military action and the above would support that finding.
Posts: 157 | Location: Dallas area | Registered: 07 October 2012
We had a buddy who came back from the range at the hunting lease one day. His Browning 7mm Mag BAR hunting rifle was not grouping well. He asked what was wrong and handed us a spent case. The box was marked Wincheser and 7mm Mag, but the spent case was 270 WInchester. Told him that was the problem. We think he mixed it in there on accident. To this day he denies it ever happened.
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