Shotgun blowups????

07 June 2003, 18:02

<G.Malmborg>

I don't believe I have ever seen a shotgun blowup because of a simple case head failure... "Normally" pressures are pretty low for anything spectacular I would think, unless of course the barrel were plugged. I've seen many of them blown to pieces because of a plugged barrel...

Malm

[ 06-07-2003, 09:03: Message edited by: G.Malmborg ]

07 June 2003, 18:10

smallfry

yeah... a farmer friend of my dads showed me a 20 guage single shot that had a barrel that looked not unlike one you might see on a cartoon... split out down about 10 inches of length in multiple spots. The farmer said he was hunting rabbits in the snow and musta "climbed a hill" and got snow in the end. Gotta be careful.

07 June 2003, 23:11

John Y Cannuck

Lost a set of barrels on my side by side due to a wad that stayed in one barrel. The guys had never seen me shoot both barrels, so I did, but one side didn't fire anything but the primer, wad stayed in the barrel.
Didn't burst the barrel, just ringed it, on the next shot.

08 June 2003, 05:50

Leftoverdj

I've seen it twice, Malm. Both on older pumps and both due to majorly overpressure handloads. One was so overpressure that the gas bulged and spilt the top of the receiver. In the other case, the escaping gas vented down, sheared pins and blew out the trigger group. Barrels showed no signs of obstruction in either case.

I've read several "this can happen to you" articles in the past on the subject but can't lay hands on one now. I'll grant that it is rare, but that is because most folks know better than to go experimenting wildly with shotgun loads.

08 June 2003, 10:54

<JBelk>

This is actually the mortal remains of a Siempert or Suhl Veirling...... 16 ga over 6.5x57R.
It belonged to, and was shot the last time by, the late John Hackley.....no, cancer killed him this just destroyed his underwear.
Factory ammo that had been shot many times before.......stress riser crack formed in the extractor rail dovetail and caused the lower half of the chamber to blow off.

19/Greendot, 1 1/8 oz. sporting clays reload. The gun failed an the 224th shot.

Mechanical failure of the chamber at the thinnest spot (.055) where the ejector stabilizer pin fits. The silver soldered watertable joint failed in sheer and the chamber opened like a gull-winged car door. No injury.

09 June 2003, 09:38

Andre Mertens

Another classic in his kind way to certain blow up is mixing shells. This Merkel behaved as expected when a 12 ga shell was loaded on top of the 20 ga inadvertently dropped in the barrel :

.
Moral : never mix shells in your pocket [Eek!]

10 June 2003, 02:31

<JBelk>

Andre---

The Merkel had no obstruction in the barrel whatsoever. It was metal failure and silver solder failure as described. The gun was replaced by the dealer (and then the new one immediately sold by the customer.)

10 June 2003, 03:40

Clark

I have not blown up a shotgun since 1963, but I recently bought a Damascus shotgun at the gun show just to blow up. This is going to be a trigger string job and incremental work up.

10 June 2003, 04:25

Brent

quote:
Originally posted by Clark:
I have not blown up a shotgun since 1963, but I recently bought a Damascus shotgun at the gun show just to blow up. This is going to be a trigger string job and incremental work up.

Why?

I rather love good damascus. I hope you have a junker to start with.

Brent

10 June 2003, 05:06

<JBelk>

Clark---

When I ran a "Hunter Education Course" for the Boy Scouts, before anybody had a hunter ed. course, I used to demonstrate damascus blow-ups because there were so many of them still in use at time in the South.

I'd bought several for $5 to $15 and for this class picked a typical Cycle Works single barrel twist steel barrel twelve guage and, just to be sure I drove the point home, packed the bore with wet newspaper......

I shot it with a 3inch duck load in it, by long string, with a dozen Boy Scouts watching from a safe distance. Newspaper blew a hundred feet and the barrel was barely bulged!!!...... I worked it into the lesson plan and noted that some twist steel barrels would hold for a long time and THEN fail.

I then inserted a 20 guage shell and shot another 3in. duck load. It swelled the barrel but did NOT fail.....Oh well.

The W. Richards (NOT Westley Richards) double blew the barrels off the frame and peeled twist steel in all directions......The Boy Scouts grinned at that one.

Some things you just can't predict. [Smile]

10 June 2003, 09:04

<G.Malmborg>

quote:
Originally posted by JBelk:
Clark---

When I ran a "Hunter Education Course" for the Boy Scouts, before anybody had a hunter ed. course,...

Good grief Jack, how old are you? [Big Grin]

10 June 2003, 09:20

raamw

About 30 years ago I pulled the trigger on my M11, 12 guage after I was confident that I cleared the snow outof the barrel after a fall chasing some pheasants that would rather run than fly, I did eventually catch up to the pheasant wish I didn't. ^The barrel had a bulge about 3 inches from the muzzle with a 1/2" crack. Needless to say the 28" barrel became a 24" a couple of days latter.

10 June 2003, 10:19

Leftoverdj

JBelk,

Around 1960, when I was in junior high, the local game warden taught hunter safety for a week as part of the health course. He brought along several blown up shotguns as props and they made a lasting impression on me.

About the same time, I bought a 12 gauge Lee Loader and supplies. It was perfectly legal for a kid to do so at that time and place, but the dealer pulled out a couple of blown up guns and made me read the instructions before he would sell it to me.

There was no shortage of blownup shotguns in the rural south at the time. Plugged muzzles were the most common cause, but there were plenty of damascus twist barrels still in use and people shooting 3" shells in 2 3/4" chambers. If it went in, it was good enough for them.

And there were some horrible junkers still in use. the crude conversions of old military stuff to shotguns and stuff that had sold new for $2 and been used hard for fifty or sixty years. I have seen people still using shotguns that were so worn (and likely action stretched) that a penny could be slid into the gap between the barrel and the standing breech.

Nuts about guns as I have always been, I seriously doubt that I would have made it through adolescence with both eyes and all my fingers had not the two gentlemen previously mentioned scared some sense into me at an early age.

[ 06-10-2003, 07:26: Message edited by: Leftoverdj ]