Just wondering. Sometimes if you read enough, it seems like every reloader eventually has an accident. I hope this isn't the case.

I believe it's not that a blown up firearm indicates an accident, there are other manifestations that can be classified as accidents.

I equate it with motorcycle riding, there are two groups of riders, those that have fallen off and those that will.

The severity of the event is not an indicator of an accident but nearly any accident will "knock" the observant user back into calibration.

signed

"Stumpy"

Let this be the opening to my answer, "I used to have this really accurate blue finish Super Blackhawk."


I now have a powder check die for every caliber I load with my progressive press.

Funny thing about is that a friend had told me about taking apart his S&W 29 on Wednesday and this happened after several hundred rounds on Friday. The blow-up was so uneventful that I did not know what happened until I got ready to acquire the rear sight for the next shot and I could not see it!
A fellow club member found the topstrap lying in the grass downrange several months later and gave it to me as a prize.

You have any idea how long it takes to disassemble an ammo can of 38 spls and a couple of hundred 44 Mags? I had to since both had been loaded at the same time on that progressive.

IF YOUR PROGRESSIVE IS NOT AUTO INDEXING INSTALL A POWDER CHECK DIE AND BE EXTRA CAREFUL WHEN YOU HAVE A PRIMER FEED PROBLEM WHEN USING A POWDER THAT CAN EASILY BE DOUBLE CHARGED.

Ruger sold me a replacement firearm at a reasonable price, but it won't hit the side of a barn . . . IF you are locked inside!

I was plinking at clay pigeons (and expecting to hit them) at 100 yards when the old one was blown up by my stupidity.
I am thrilled now if the new gun will hit one at 25 yards . . . a hit now at 25 yards is probably a random dispersion accident !

LouisB

[ 12-23-2002, 18:49: Message edited by: TCLouis ]

>I equate it with motorcycle riding, there are two groups of riders, those that have fallen off and those that will.<

I have been riding morocycles for 50 years and have never fallen off. I have however, parted company with a few during unintended enthusiastic manuevers.

Fortunately, have never blow up a gun either. Did move a little metal into the bolt cutout on a Smith K38 though.

I used to shoot a certain single shot bolt action pistol and reload for it. About the fourth box of bullets I had three rounds that didn't impact on the target, said targets going back into the ground for another day. On the third shot the bolt had to be hammered open with a piece of 2X4, the case looked like it had melted and resolidified in the chamber. The first two cases showed signs of pressure on later exam. This was the smallest cartridge I ever had loaded, and one of steps I took was to weigh and check length of all completed cartridges as the final check. The pistol was TOASTED, THE DEALER settled up with me just fine, as I had obtained all parts pieces and gun from them (one of many), much to my surprised delight. I always felt that some of the bullets used in reloading were in the box incorrectly and were the wrong size. I don't really know, I guess that is the point. I sent in the powder, primers, bullets, cases, with the gun for exam, and did not receive a detailed explanation. The bullets were disintegrating about 20 ft out, you could see the debris impact zone on later exam. The dealer said the manufacture gave them credit for replacement, which they did, just not the same configeration or caliber (my choice). I would like to have known what happened, but never will. Murphy won that battle.

Had a S&W model 58 that was bored out to .45 Colt. Lasted about 100 rounds (mild) before the cylinder came apart while shooting. It could have been a hot load, but was more likely due to the rechambering of a 40 year old pistol. In its previous life it may have been subjected to hot .41 mag loads, who knows.

When I first started to reload as a young stupid kid I made a big mistake.
I had loaded some shells for my Stevens (savage) 110 in a 270. Then at a unthinking moment I switched bullets. The shell was HARD to chamber but I didn't know what the problem was. When I shot the gun, the bullet was already shoved HARD into the barrel. It was basically a pipe bomb. The load vented out the side vent holes. The shell was stuck in the chamber. The primer was gone and that allowed HOT gas to come back and melt the ejector spring and something else I can't remember. I took it to a local gunsmith for him to fix it. He said at the time I was lucky to be alive. He said "those savage 110's and hell bent for stout"
He said there are other guns out there that would not have handled that. I never asked him which ones. I still have that gun. I remember to check bullet seating depth every time.
Ron

I once overloaded a 7mm-08 by EIGHT grains due to a faulty electronic scale. Had the primer fall out and VERY hard extraction. Thats about the extent of my handloading mishaps after thirty five years in the hobby.

My ONLY catastrophic dissasembly of a gun was when a Smith M60 blew up with a Federal 125 gr +P factory load. I was shooting at a porcupine walking up the hill behind my house. I took the first shot and couldn't understand why I didn't hit it. I tried to cock the hammer back and couldn't. Thats when I noticed the backstrap was missing and the cylinder split open. Talk about LUCKY!! I NEVER found the backstrap either. Good thing it wasn't about two inches deep in my skull between my eyes.

FN in MT

Several years ago I was loading rounds for my new rifle [Sako 75, McMillan stock, the works, chambered in .20/.222]. I must have had too much oil in the barrel or something, because when I touched her off, I got blow-back in the face, the extractor was blown to smithereens and I had to pound the bolt open.

My gunsmith had to weld the bolt and then remachine the extractor cut-out and reinstall a new one [you would never know the bolt had been repaired].

Here is the worst part and the moral of the story: I have constant ringing in my right ear as a result of that one act of idiocy. It will never leave me; my research indicates there is no cure. A high price to pay for trying to squeeze out a few extra fps of velocity.

Jordan

I have not blown up a gun -- yet. I feel it's only a matter of time.

When I test new loads -- Hell, for that matter, new GUNS -- I wear safety goggles over my eyeglasses. If I was more ambitious, I'd tie a string to the trigger, sandbag the barrel down, hide behind a berm, and give the string a tug... but I'm not that ambitious.

I've ridden a motorcycle for many, many, many years... and I have always had the viewpoint that if a new rider can live through his first three at-speed accidents... he'll probably live to become a pretty good rider. I was already a pretty good rider -- and still had accidents. Sometime when I'm drunk, I'll pass along my reflections on the joys of loose gravel on highway exit/entrance ramps, gas station parking lots, and other places. Jolly entertaining material, I assure you. Still, I'm an even BETTER rider because of those "unintended enthusiastic manuevers."

Also, "ALWAYS" wear safety goggles when doing ANY priming operation during the reloading process, whether on a progressive or single stage.

Lastly... if it's your time to go, it's your time to go. Period. You have nothing to say about it.

Vaya con Dios.

Russ

As far as I know, to have an accident, you basically have to screw up. Yes, even the faulty scale above would have been noticed with a set of check weights.
Thing is, how to be prepared for everything?
Can you be? No. Can you trust factory loads absolutely? No. But when rolling your own, you can try, and I think thats just part of the shooting sport. There is very likely more danger in a fishing trip, if you are a carefull reloader. You'll learn pretty quick if you're not.
I've had a couple of hard bolt lifts, swollen case heads, and a blown primer. All from stupid stuff I did.

I had Savage 110FP let go on me during a match. It was repairable as I lost the extractor and ejector. I had forgotten about the match and when I woke up that morning I realized I hadn't loaded up any ammo. I threw the correct powder into the rcbs powder measure and commence loading 40 rounds for the match. I didn't have time to pull out the scale and went on my way to the match. I knew everything would be alright because I had loaded ammo the previous week and hadn't changed the setting on the powder measure. What I didn't know was that the lock down nut for the adjustment was loose and I over charged my cases by 5 grains of H335. Lesson learned! I have been reloading since the late 60's and figured I would never screw up!

I had to open a Swedish Mauser with a 2x4 one time and ripped the extractor off an AR-15 one other time. One was a legitimate error the other was stupidity.

I'm glad to see the honesty expressed here.

When I sighted in my new 300 WSM prior to going to the RSA, I checked in at Gibson's Outpost in Mesquite. The lady told me that they had had a serious accident the previous day. I shooter had blown his gun up. The barrel had flown down-range and the stock had disintegrated against his face.

The amount of blood around that shooting position was stunning. He survived luckily. He claimed he was shooting factory ammo, but the people around him said he was running a patch through his barrel after almost every round. They speculated that he might have left an obstruction in the barrel.

The next day as I got set up for another round of shooting, the lady walked by me and said be sure to have only one caliber of ammo at the bench at any one time. Not a problem. I brought only my Browning A-bolt in 300 WSM and my bag with the Winchester 150 gr. Supreme Ballistic Silvertips for that gun. The same that I'd been shooting the previous day.

Within 30 minutes I proceeded to push three .308 Win, 165 gr. Winchester Supreme Ballistic Silvertips into the magazine and pull the trigger on the first one, even though I momentarily thought, "Gee, that fed funny".

Nothing happened. I opened the bolt to find the round still in the barrel. I dumped it out, looked at the primer, and nearly fell over when I saw what I'd done.

Over forty years of experience, a verbal warning, a mental alert that something wasn't right, and yet I still made a rookie mistake and pull the trigger.

In my industry we call that a "Near Miss". I did nothing to see that an accident wouldn't happen. I relied on dumb luck, and God to see that I didn't kill myself. That is the maddest I've been at myself in a long time.

If you think you can't make a mistake, guess again.

no,but when i first started reloading. i loaded some fa83 475linebaugh loads on a rcbs progressive 2000 .went to the land to check velocity first shot clocked 1517fps for a 425 cpwfngc i was happy with the velocity noticed the gun a little loose checked screws they were loose ,retightened them had taken my ear muffs off to work on screws, next shot (without earmuffs) the shot clocked 1518fps sounded like artiliary round going off oouch at this point checked cylinder the cases were bigtime stuck i think load was 27.5gr-h110 instead of 25gr at this point i had been reloading about 3 months thankfully i was shooting an fa

Savage,
No,I never blew up a gun,,BUT,I did have an occasion to think that I did.
I was shooting a muzzleloader rifle,and left the ramrod in the barrell.It was a solid brass rod,too.
I was shooting from a bench,and the shot dumped me off the seat and onto the ground.
I was using a Thompson Center Hawken Kit Gun,and I think that I proof tested it,right then.
Frank

I loaded my M14 up with H380, I thought, turned out my brother had dumped something else in the can, I still don't know what it is.

Off to the range with three rounds each of various powders, when this one was loaded and fired, thank God I didn't have my hand below the CLIP, it was about twice the sound of a normal round going off, ya and smoke too. Figured I was numb and missing flesh or bleedin out somewhere, looked in the truck mirror and just a scratch on my cheek!

Felt like I was having a heart attack for about the next two hours over it, out in the middle of nowhere by yourself is a bad place to be if an op rod is stuck in your forehead, scared me to death truth be known.

I'll never use anyone elses powder again, EVER!

Split the stock fore and aft of the reciever, bent the op rod, blew the extractor side of the boltface off, exploded the clip and blew the two rounds in it and the follower in half. Had to beat the bolt open with a block of wood and a sledge. The case had ruptured just ahead of the web half way around it and about a 1/4" up the case. The reciever and barrel check out good. The Oehler 43 registered 81,000 psi when it blew!

Almost loaded on a 5gr over a max load in my 454 RB but saw the powder way up high in the case compared to the others, that freaked me out a bit and I've always weighed all my charges since then. That was on a Dillon 550 and a Dillon measurer, no powder check die, just spotted it when indexing the cases! The next two cases were over charged by about the same amount too. I was loading a grain under max so I didn't have to weigh them all when that happened, as I said, they all hit the scale first now.

I learned some time ago that one doesn't always consider ALL things, even though he'd bet his life he did, that small voice if one listens to it can remind you of it too.

[ 12-23-2002, 15:43: Message edited by: Brent Moffitt ]

Locked a rem 700 up with a load of RL15 that was supposed to be RL22, bulged a barrel on a S & W 29 with a powderless load (buddy shooting, and didn't quite get the words out of my mouth when the second round, a real one, went down the pipe). That's about it, watched another shooting buddy take the top three chambers and the topstrap off an S & W 10 onetime, still not sure why. - Dan

Years ago, I stretched several case heads, but have never had a blowup. Don't stretch case heads any more, either!!

I haven't blowen up a gun, but a freind of mine was shooting my 357mg when he had one round squib. The bullet must of been just in the barrel because when he shot the next round the gun almost flew out of his hand. No apparent dammage to the gun but I made sure my reloads had a good roll crimp from then on. Fuzz

I have blown up less than a dozen guns in hundreds of incremental work ups "to see what happens", and half of those could be repaired.

The trick is picking guns that are stronger than the brass.
Kel-Tec's, Glocks, 98 Mausers, 91/30 Moisin Nagants, Stevens break action .410's, NEF Handi Rifles, and Tokarevs are all good actions.
CZ52's and Alluminum framed 38 specials are not.

When I first started reloading, I thought that data from a manual was interchangeable with all brands of bullets...what can I say I was stupid and poor back then. I pierced a couple of primers but did not do much more than that. Another time I seized up a Remington 742 with a too hot load.

I had a mishap with a Ruger 4 5/8" SS blackhawk in 45colt one day. My buddy had just gotten his Linebaugh made 475, and I was wondering just how close I could get with some 405gn 45-70 bullets sized down to .452". I tried some 296 but stupidly thought I might get more velocity with bluedot. I almost got to 1300fps when the brass had to be beat out of the gun. A visual inspection showed a hairline crack on the inside of one chamber. I've backed way off on my hot loads since then. I keep the cylinder in my safe as a reminder that you can have to much of a good thing. Luckily my buddies 475 used to be a 45 Bisley, so I talked him out of his old cylinder, fitted it to my frame and was off and running again, this time at somewhat reduced loads.

Been reloading for 20 years now and haven't blown anything up yet. Every now and then I've had a sticky case during extraction, but that's about it.

Blew up the 7-up bottle on a watergun once.

Fill that 7-UP bottle with dry ice and a bit of water and she'll blow!

I have never even come close to a blow up in reloading. I weigh each powder load. I don't load more than 100 rounds at a time. I never have any other powder on the bench than the one in use. Keep It Simple Stupid!

thats my motto too rob K I S S i always load 1 box at time and check the levels of powder in each case next to another for comparison. i.ve never even been around any one who's blown up a gun. i hope you are wrong about it just taking time before it happens to everyone savage.

THE 2ND AMENDMENT PROTECTS US ALL...............

Danger is greatly overrated, but can be minimized:
1 Work up slowly, and carefully on loads
2 when working with a progressive, make sure you use a powder that will overflow if double charged
SEE ABOVE AND READ 10 TIMES, THEN WRITE 10 TIMES!!!!
I did fire a bulldog loose, using 9 grains of unique, and 240 grain hollowpoints. Took awhile, but the gun just got real loose, and had to give it away, with full disclosure to a local gunsmith.

Used to fill cases with H110, and put a 230 grain hard cast slug over it, and shoot em all day out of a Linebaugh.
Since the bullet was light, it couldn't develop enough pressure to blow anything up. Plus, Johns guns and cylinders are plenty strong.

I like fairly heavy loads, and always try and find stainless guns for such abuse. Also use heavy springs if possible, for autos.

My only danger rounds came with double charges, in 45 colt, using a Dillon. I found the safety of a large size/use powder, that I couldn't double charge with, worth the slight extra expense.

s

Cruisin' down memory lane... First rifle I built was a 308 on a VZ-24 action. Started off with a Lee Loader, then bought a set up from a guy and started down the road to reckless reloading. I took the load out of Lyman's #43 Handbook (I think - got it in 69) and went directly to the max. Young, stupid, and all that. Unfortunately, I used GI brass. Fortunately, all I had to do was hammer the bolt open with a piece of 2x4. Several times...

Few years later I was using a friend's Jim Clark 1911 Match dandy in 38 Spl and also using my generous friend's reloads (the old standard, 148 WC, 2.7 BE). In the middle of the match, a very load noise and instanteously numb right thumb and fingers alerted me (and everyone around me) that my good friend had double charged one. Blew the finely serrated grips off the left side but no damage to me other than numb fingers and ringing ears.

We're all lucky we still have all our parts! "Too soon old, too late smart."

WOW! A lot of really great stories, and lessons to be learned! Thanks for the info all. I'm pretty happy that the reloading I've done so far has resulted in almost full cases, so it's easy to see when a mistake is made. One of my worries though is interchanging different make bullets for a given load. I'll always start low and work up like recommended. Keep the stories coming, this is great reading!

[ 12-26-2002, 19:32: Message edited by: savageshooter ]

Probably the one place I tempt fate is in discarding used cases. I've heard people say "five times and out" or use some other rule of thumb. I frankly fire a case until I can visually see a problem beginning to develop; split neck, crack/stretch in front of the head, etc.

I neck re-size only for my rifles, but there is no telling how many times I've fired some of those cases.

As part of my job I see a dozen or more blown guns a year.

A full 99% were shooting handloads and 99% of those were using the wrong powder.

NEVER use a powder that can be double charged. 100% load density is not only effecient but also much safer than fast powder in a big case.

Yes--- I've done a bunch of Aw Shits! but most were on purpose.

Ive never blown one but I've got a friend that did. And spectacular too.

Rifle was a A3/03 in 30-06. He loaded up some 180's with H414 or so he thought. Turned out to be H110. Eyesight not what it once was. He stepped out the back door and fired one of the loads. Now this fellers been loading for almost half a century. But he let his guard down and made a big mistake. Said all he saw was a bright light when he pulled the trigger and when he got his sences back all he had in each of his hands was a piece of wood. The scope was still attached to the mount and bent almost 90 deg. We found it about 30 yards to the rear. Barrel was gone. Located it about 30 yards out front. Bolt was lying on ground between his feet. Pieces of action and mag were all around on the ground. He got scratches and splinters plenty. And his hearing came back the next day.

Surprising to us was the barrel was undamaged. Even the threads were still good. That barrel now has another action screwed on.

All his powder cans now have letters about 2 inches tall.

Ray

I brought home LONGSHOT and LIL'GUN together and they both have the Hodgdon shape and color.
I put 12 gr of LONGSHOT in a 32sw long, and I didn't find all the parts for a while.

Never have blown one up but have had a few experinces. As I have heard here before, "when I was young and stupid". The worst was a blown primer in a Sako finnbear 270. It was when I was still in school and always broke. I had some brass that I had picked up while hunting. The one that gave me the trouble blew the primer, the extractor pulled the rim off after one heck of a fight to get the bolt open. Knocked it out of the chamber with a 1/4 inch brass rod and a few blows with a hammer. When I looked at it I had remembered where I had picked it up. (The only Norma case I had.) It came from near an old junk pile. I got to thinking and figured it had been burned. Needless to say I am very picky about brass that I pick up now days. If they are not nice and shiny they get left behind! All my others loaded with this load were fine so I'm sure it was the brass. John.

Never blew up a gun but had two complete case head separations from the same group of handloads. I was loading for my Puma M92 .454 Casull and this was the third firing with the brass (Starline). The load chronoed at a little over 2100fps with a 200 grain bullet which should have been just fine. I had been working up to this final load with the first two firings of the same brass. Turns out that the brass had stretched. I usually don't worry too much about pistol brass needing to be trimmed, but you could see where the case mouth was pinched in the throat just a bit. And it measured way long. Pressures must of been way up there. No damage to the gun or me though. After the second separation I quit with those loads and started looking for answers.I discovered that some of the other brass also showed signs of imminent case failure. I measure and trim that brass now. Here's a link to some pics of one of the cases. http://www.infomagic.net/~pondercat/casesep.htm PC

Pondercat, that makes me think that the Puma'a action is not holding up well to the 454's pressure. Maybe the action is flexing alittle bit causeing the case to stretch? I've been loading revolver cartiges hotter than I should since 87' and I haven't had to trim one yet. I check them periodically, but haven't noticed any change. I have had to discard several 44mag cases because of loose primer pockets, but I didn't have any casehead seperations. I've also loaded for the 454 and ran some pretty high pressures getting 405's up to 1550fps out of my 6.5" Raging Bull, but the brass never stretched.

Never did and I don't ride motor bikes. Do fly helicopters, is that the same?