A few years back a friend of mine detonated a 03. Rifle in 30/06 came completely apart in a most violent detonation. A very experienced reloader whose been at the craft since 50’s set down to load some 06 in his favorite H414 powder. Stepped out the door and touched one off for testing. He said a bright light was all he saw. In his hand was a piece of wood or whats left of the stock. The bolt was on the ground lying between his feet. Barrel was about 30 feet out in front and completely unharmed. That barrel is now in another rifle. The scope bent into a curve and 20 feet behind. Floorplate and mag box along with various pieces of the action were scattered here and there.

Here's a pic


What happened to cause this? Well we took apart a couple rounds and discovered that instead of reaching for what he thought was H414 he pulled down a can of H110. An 06 case full of H110 is NOT a good idea. Result…. Complete Detonation.

He received numerous splinters and small cuts. Nothing that required a doc. His hearing came back the next day.

Lessons learned. Oh you bet. Age with less than perfect eyesight combined with a heap of “I’ve done this a million times I know what I’m doing†attitude is what caused this.

So we all can benefit from his most unfortunate accident by always double/triple checking everthing. I have this picture framed and hanging in my loading area with the caption in bold letters “ARE YOU SURE ABSOLUTELY SUREâ€

I'm glad to hear your friend made it through OK!

That is the MOST important thing.

So, didja tell him "yup, them low numbered 03's will do that every time!"

I am still trying to figure out what let go- It looks like the extractor groove is still on the case? So did the back end of the cartridge disappear, action split, and barrel lunge forward? Personally, I'm sure glad the bolt held up to all that! If you have a closer pic of the action I'd be glad if you posted that too.

Definately food for thought! Thanks for posting!

Mark

A little more detail.

Here is a pic zoomed in a little closer on whar we found of the action. Theres the rear bridge some feed rail and mag box. All we found of the front ring was just a couple small pieces. basicly the front of the action came completely apart.



We did find the case in good shape except for everything from the web back was gone.



The barrel, like I said was completely intact and unharmed. Screwed it into another action and never even chased the threads

Thanks for posting... good reminder.

OUCH!

Ouch Dam

Oh boy I always wondered what would happen with something like that. I have thought about buying some old cheap Mil surplus rifles and loading a case full of bulleye and using a very long string.

But every time I buy one and start working on it I decide they are too nice to blow up.

Just dam lucky he is not dead.


again DAM OUCH

: Glad your friend didn't get seriously hurt. Everyone reloading needs to see this to remind ourselves we never get to smart to not screw up!

This demonstrates the dangers of the low number Springfield. A properly heat treated receiver would not come apart like that. I have seen photos where a sound rifle has withstood a case full of 2400 which has about the same burning rate as H110.

I dont know if that was a low number Springfield or not. But intuition and knowledge of the man it belonged to says it probably was not.

Anyone who would load a case full with 2400 just to see if it would blow up a rifle sounds like they hid when brains were passed out.

I'm too am going to post that picture.

Thanks!

Very instructive story and picture. Your friend is very lucky, and you're smart to put that picture up in your reloading room. I hope no one discounts the lesson because your friend escaped serious injury and was able to re-use the barrel. I would like to request that you put this up on the reloading forum as well (if you haven't already).

Blob1: if the string is long enough, and if it leads around the corner of a brick wall it should be quite a lot of fun to see how much it takes to blow a rifle.

One question in that regard: Would a few U-Bolts fastened under the bench keep the rifle in place? Maybe screw a chunk of 4x4 into bench to keep the rifle from going backwards?

quote:

Originally posted by Blob1:
Anyone who would load a case full with 2400 just to see if it would blow up a rifle sounds like they hid when brains were passed out.

Last night I read Vol 1 & 2 where Ackley did
just that as a scientific comparison.
JL

Yep I've read that Ackley did just that. Try and blow the various suprlus actions up. Seems that I remember the only one that wouldn't blow was the Arisaka. If memory works he even left a cleaning rod in the barrel.

sorry to hear about this.. and glad to hear it being honest enough to say "the loader screwed up"

as a warning, win 748 and 760 cans look FAR too much alike, and have caused the same problem

jeffe

Yeah the old Ariska action was tested by the Army after world war 2 and they were surprised at the toughness of it. It is simple and the safty awkward but they found it would take a pounding from over loads and then shoot regular rounds quite accrute. When I bought my new Ruger SS MK 77 in .260 I noticed that the action looked a lot like the old Ariska.

quote:

Originally posted by RayGunter:
I dont know if that was a low number Springfield or not. But intuition and knowledge of the man it belonged to says it probably was not.

Bullshit. Those are classic pictures of a poorly heat treated, brittle M1903 receiver blowing up.

He should have known better.

quote:

Originally posted by RayGunter:
I dont know if that was a low number Springfield or not. But intuition and knowledge of the man it belonged to says it probably was not.

I would say from the photos that it is about 100% certain that it was a low number POS.

quote:

Originally posted by HP Shooter:
Bullshit. Those are classic pictures of a poorly heat treated, brittle M1903 receiver blowing up.

He should have known better.

I agree that he should have known better... he should have double checked that he was in fact loading a case full of H110. Every mistake I ever made...I should have known better.

Mistakes do happen. And we will not live long enough to make them all ourselves. We have to learn some though another avenue which is why I posted this in the first place.

The post wasn't about bad 03's it is about watching what your doing and double checking while reloadong. Thats all.

Whether the receiver was a "low number" or not, it is clear that the action ring was very, very brittle. A case full of H110 would not do this to most current-production turnbolt rifles, although no reasonable person would purposly fire an H-414 load with H-110 substituted.

Just shows you how close to "the edge" you are with improperly treated metal (as in the current case of some stainless Sakos). "Low number" Springfields can be re-heat treated to improve the ductility of the metal, but it takes someone who knows what they're doing.

Hey send that scope back to Leupold. Tell them you left in your car with the windows rolled up on a July day in Texas and it was like that when you got back. FNMauser