A New Jersey man died after his rifle barrel exploded while he was target shooting over the weekend at the
Easton Rod and Gun Club in Northampton County, authorities said Sunday.

The accident happened Saturday at the club's Lower Saucon Township firing range at 11:30 a.m., said
Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim.

There was an explosion in the barrel of the rifle that Glenn deRuiter, 54, of 268 W. Portal Road, Bethlehem Township,
Hunterdon County, was firing, Grim said.

The blast sent out shrapnel, and one piece hit deRuiter in the head, Grim said.

DeRuiter died at 2:30 p.m. at St. Luke's Hospital, Fountain Hill, Grim said.

Grim, who ruled the death an accident, said the malfunction happened in the rifle's receiver ring.

Neighbors learned of deRuiter's death Sunday night.

''Everyone is in total shock,'' said neighbor Beverly Graczyk, the mayor of Bethlehem Township, about 40 miles east of
Allentown.

''All of us are just gasping and trying to recover,'' she said.

Dairy farmer Bernie Beatty is another neighbor.

''He was a wonderful man, a wonderful father,'' Beatty said. ''I just saw him the other day. He was always working in the yard,
doing something.''

DeRuiter also was a gun enthusiast, Graczyk said.

''He had quite an extensive gun collection,'' Graczyk said. ''I believe he worked for a company that manufactures firearms.''

DeRuiter and his wife, Joan, who is a teacher, have lived in the township for about 20 years.

''Glenn was a quiet, very nice man,'' Graczyk said.

''They are the kind of people you really want for neighbors, to be part of the community. He was just a really good guy.''

Graczyk said she knew deRuiter's wife through her efforts to save the Asbury Bridge, which Graczyk said was a ''wonderful
antique'' with iron tresses.

''She fought hard to save that bridge,'' Graczyk said. ''But the county wouldn't listen and put up a new ugly one.''

As word of the accident spread through the township Sunday night, Graczyk said, ''This is a tough one � really, really hard.''

I found the above article at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/709099/posts

A first hand account is at http://subguns.biggerhammer.net/reloading.cgi?read=4022

I take that Free Republic article at face value, but I have a hard time believing the second link (subgun whatever). Let's see. The author allegedly rendered first aid and also alegedly took time out from that to monkey around with death scene evidence, and then the cops show up, and the author makes no mention of their being pissed about the condition of the scene. This doesn't sound right.

H. C.

Henry,

I make no claims about the authenticity of either link. However, as reloaders if we can learn something that prevents another KA-BOOM it is worth posting. I sure as hell don't want a rifle to blow up in my hands!

[ 07-04-2002, 04:11: Message edited by: Mr_Magoo ]

Two guys were shooting a trap door Springfield next to me and were using cast bullet loads. One of the loads was a squibb and the next blew a piece of handguard past me. Also a piece of the barrel was gone on my side. We never found the barrel piece.

I think this may be true. The person in question did die last Saturday. This link will show you his Newspaper Obituary. He was listed as a firearms specialist who worked for Sarco Inc.

Link to Obituary

I agree with Henry that the �witness� should not have messed with the accident scene at all. He could have very well damaged useful evidence. The guy admits he is not much of a reloader so why in hell was he qualified to inspect the rifle? This makes no sense whatsoever. In any event, kudos to the writer for his level headed emergency response to Mr. deRuiter�s unfortunate accident.

I, too, am glad people tried to help Glenn... but, like others, I don't understand what possessed the guy to handle and, essentially, "contaminate" the scene of the accident. "Looking"... okay, I can understand that. Doing all the other things he did... well, again, I just don't understand what his thought processes were that allowed him to think it was "just a normal thing to do" to fiddle with things. The best thing he could have done would have been to clear the area until trained investigators arrived. If he then noticed something they were missing -- he could have pointed it out to them. I'm sure they wouldn't have just arrived and said "We don't want to interview anyone."

This whole incident is sure a good example of what NOT to do after something like this happens.

Russ

As a matter of fact... Ann ("Aspen Hill Farm") is a cop who examines death scenes (I can't remember her job title, but this is what she does). She investigates a LOT of suicides and murders. I know she's out of town for a BBQ today, but I'll E-mail her this thread and ask her to comment, after she's reviewed all the posts on the incident. I'll enjoy seeing what she has to say.

Russ

[ 07-04-2002, 21:58: Message edited by: Russell E. Taylor ]

Getting back to the origional reason for posting this thread, what can we learn from this that will help prevent future incidents?

I refuse to call it an accident, because there were factors that could have prevented this from happening. To me it looks like the shooter neglected warning signs from the first shot he fired. (if the first hand account is accurate) I don't know about anyone else here but if I had a spent brass look like that first one was described, I would NOT fire that gun until a qualified smith looked it over.

If that first hand account is accurate, I agree the writer was way out of line disturbing the evidence. His discription of the evidence is interesting tho. I would like to see any official reports of this incident and the discriptions/conclusions of the forensic investigators. Maybe Ann has a way to get a copy. So far, little public information is available. I posted everything I have access to.

I believe that Glenn was a long time employee of SARCO Inc. If you ever looked at a copy of the ShotGun News, you know who Sarco is.

It probably would not have mattered in this case, but you should never try to staunch the blood/fluid coming from a headwound that penetrates the skull. Building up the internal cranial pressure causes damage more dangerous than the bleeding.

Stopping the often copious bleeding from external head wounds is safe and proper.

Be careful out there. It is easy to double throw a pistol-powder fire-forming load in a rifle case.

Don