Seen on another thread:

quote:

Just need to be mighty careful with small cases as just .1gr increase Will blow a gun up. Been there, done that, and the only time I ever have.

Here is a question that is not so often discussed:

How many on the list have blown a gun up?

Please share words of wisdom.

I've never blown one up, but I have had a couple that I felt like blowing up.

I call BS on that statement!

There is simply not enough energy in 0.1grain of powder to change a safe load to a bomb.

That statement, like 51% of things on the internet I read about firearms, is utter and complete nonsense. Point one grain? NO.
Yes, I blew up an M14 once, true story. Meaning, the bolt face broke in half and the stock split. I still have the case somewhere. Using a case full of blank powder; they come about 1/3 full. I didn't use mine, I borrowed one from another guy.
You have to be pretty stupid, or determined, to actually damage a modern firearm.

I have, through sheer poor judgement. About 30+ years ago I blew up a minty .32 Colt Police Positive by stupidly buying a baggie full of unknown reloads for $5 at a gun show. Prudence took a back seat in a mis-spent quest to save money. Never since have I done such an idiotic thing, and never again I shall.

Must have been a double or triple charge of Bullseye in one of those cartridges- it disintegrated the top half of the cylinder and bent the top strap into a big "U". No injuries except to my pride.

I've bent or rather lifted the top of the stirrup on a Webley Mk VI .455. We just stopped using that load, hammered the top of the stirrup back down, carried on. That gun was still going dine five plus years later! And that was a safe load in a 265 grain bullet being used with a 218 grain Mk IV bullet. We reckoned it was because even though heavier the 265 grain bullet is actually more compressible than the parallel sided 218 grain Mk IV bullet.

Revolvers are easy to blow up; I was talking about rifles.

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
Seen on another thread:

quote:

Just need to be mighty careful with small cases as just .1gr increase Will blow a gun up. Been there, done that, and the only time I ever have.

Here is a question that is not so often discussed:

How many on the list have blown a gun up?

Please share words of wisdom.

0.1 of a grain is not going to blow up a gun.

We have blown up several guns, on purpose.

Never had a blow up by accident.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
Seen on another thread:

quote:

Just need to be mighty careful with small cases as just .1gr increase Will blow a gun up. Been there, done that, and the only time I ever have.

Here is a question that is not so often discussed:

How many on the list have blown a gun up?

Please share words of wisdom.

0.1 of a grain is not going to blow up a gun.

We have blown up several guns, on purpose.

Never had a blow up by accident.

What did you blow up?

How?

what happened?

No, Never blew a gun up.

No .1 grain isn't what put his load over the edge. He must have been decimal-challenged!

Zeke

The worst I have is one shotgun that comes open on firing (single shot) that put some stuff in the safety glasses I was wearing. That was with a standard heavy trap load.

If you shoot anything other than light target loads, it does this.

The mechanism is worn.

I put it over the door at the hunting cabin as a wall hanger. If a thief takes it, it’s on them. I shudder to think what would happen if someone stuffed some of my hot 3.5” hunting loads in the thing...

I have!

Sako Finbear Deluxe ( With the blonde wood and acorn leaf inlays ) in 270.
cause was fast shooting with one of the shots being a squib load just enough to push the bullet part ways down the bore then a normal load to follow. The Bolt held but all the bits at the bottom and stock went for the shits !

Second gun was a tricked out Brno ZKK 602 reamed out to 460 Weatherby
The issue was a hangfire trying to download.

quote:

The issue was a hangfire trying to download

Not certain what you mean, could you elaborate on that?

Lots of people think they've "blown up the gun" when they have a case failure which spits gas and maybe a shred or two of brass at them. This may even be at normal working pressure and due to defective (or overworked) brass.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard the story from the guy who inadvertently touched off a .270 round in his Rem 700 7mm Mag. He praises the 700 to High Heaven as being the "strongest in the world" because all that happened was he got some gas in the eye "but the gun was totally unhurt by the 'explosion'". Of course, the chamber pressure was considerably less than if he fired a correct round in the chamber, but the ruptured case convinced him that there were "thousands of tons of pressure" that his Rem 700 contained.

I've had a blown primer knock the extractor off of a Sako a couple of times, but amazingly, I found it both times and re-installed it with no problems. That's the closest I've ever come to "blowing up" a gun.

That is unless you count the old Mossberg bolt action 20 gauge I shot as a kid. With paper hulls reloaded a couple of times (using questionable data with whatever stack of wadding we could come up with), the paper base wad would sometimes let go and blow gas out of the brass rim. This had the effect of bending the stamped sheet metal extractor outward, sometimes at nearly a 90 degree angle. Fortunately, the extractor was pretty malleable, so we would just bend it back into place and go on shooting at doves until another rim blew. When the rim blew you knew it was time to (sadly) retire that hull.

Had an M60 blow up while in the service. Well, it blew the loading cover off and locked the bolt back. Still have the 7.62 case or what’s left of it.

Came close once....

Turned a 17PPC case into a "belted" version.

Kevin

I had an idiot customer years ago that chambered a 308 in his 25-06 + pulled the trigger. He was fortunate that it was a 98 action w/ 3 locking lugs. Even so, it set them all back trashing the bolt + ruptured both eardrums. No hearing protection either. I said he was an idiot.

That .01-grain thing might be seen as the straw that broke the camel's back - but had loads half a grain lighter been fired long enough I bet the same result would have occurred.

I'm happy to say the closest I've come to these matters* was a peppering of my forehead from my father's old '04 Winchester .22, which had a bit of headspace. I don't recall that we stopped using it, though. My cousin had a shotgun barrel split, driving a splinter of something into his left arm.

*touch wood

Back in the 1980's I was using the Speer number 11 guide, max loads of Blue Dot with 125 gr jacketed in a .357 mag. (I know)

The pictures in Hornady's manual of flattened primers in test barrels? They looked like that. I had to punch empties out one at a time. Stuck very tightly.

I didn't blow it up but I did bend the crane. S & W fixed it for free.

As mentioned earlier that revolvers are easy to blow up. I had a buddy that I used to load for until he thought it looked like so much fun he wanted to do it himself. Bought all new RCBS equipment + set himself up in his shed. Now we REALLY never know what happened but he blew up his S+W .357 using a brand new scale. In fairness he might not have known how to calibrate the scale, it MIGHT have been defective, there MIGHT have been beer involved. When he called RCBS with his complaint, 3 days later he had a new scale + S+W revolver at his door. Cheaper than a lawsuit.

Joe, I can relate to that. I never blew up or damaged one but back in the early 70s, I used the Lyman manual who at that point was using as reference C.U.P. (copper units of pressure) which we found out later that the Saami psi testings were more correct. All things considered, though we had more reference to go by than Elmer ever did.

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
Seen on another thread:

quote:

Just need to be mighty careful with small cases as just .1gr increase Will blow a gun up. Been there, done that, and the only time I ever have.

Here is a question that is not so often discussed:

How many on the list have blown a gun up?

Please share words of wisdom.

0.1 of a grain is not going to blow up a gun.

We have blown up several guns, on purpose.

Never had a blow up by accident.

What did you blow up?

How?

what happened?

I will try to find the videos and post them

I once saw a 1980s Brno 25'06 with the exact stunt and the bolt was cracked in pieces bolt lug was damaged and barrel was fine.

another more recent one a guy inadvertently shot a 308 in a Sako 7mm Rem mag rifle while shooting a mob of goats. Same thing.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
I had an idiot customer years ago that chambered a 308 in his 25-06 + pulled the trigger. He was fortunate that it was a 98 action w/ 3 locking lugs. Even so, it set them all back trashing the bolt + ruptured both eardrums. No hearing protection either. I said he was an idiot.

Another revolver killer. I cracked a frame on a Smith 642 with a lot of +P ammo. Don't believe what you read in gun rags, follow the makers instructions. I called up Smith, told the truth, they asked me to send it in, and they replaced it.

Wow, the good old days of customer service. My fault, but they stood behind the product. The replacement does have a funny serial number.

BSA 243 WINCHESTER

BRNO CZ 505 308 WINCHESTER


Both cartridges were loaded with HP38 pistol powder - case full.

I think the charge was 35 grains.

The BRNO we managed to open the bolt, took the barrel off, and chambered it for the 300 Winchester Magnum, and did the same again.

Still did not fall apart like the BSA.

Back in the day when Mauser 95 and 96 were a dime dozen, springfields were $7.50 or $14.00 as best I recall, we blew up some guns in a tire with a string to the trigger...It was amazing just how much of an overload they took, even the 95s and 96s, the 96 were better than the 95s it seemed, the 98s were the best and springfields varied a lot, tested the rock island bad boys and they came apart as mentioned by the American Rifleman...

In most cases things got to be fun with Bullseye..I had an old friend, long passed, that had more money than good since and loved to blow up guns...

The only thing that came of this non scientific study was the mod. 70 pre 64 would take an awesome load, but when it blew it came apart like a hand grenade sending shrapnel in every direction, plumb scary...A 98 Mauser would not come apart, at best it puffed up like a balloon and with a case of Bullseye the barrel would also split to one degree or another..

Accidents with reloading while looking for a max load?? Well never came close to blowing up a gun, but in the beginning of my wildcatting days did split a few cases, separated a few case heads, blown some gas out, slightly stuck some bolts, and lost some primers, never injured the guns in any case, Learned a lot about finding max in a rifle in a short time and wich pressure signs were legit and which ones were not under some circumstances..My friend, whom I nicked named the Frankenstien of reloading was a kick..