Safety Advice: Be Careful When Shooting Similar Cartridges
The .223 WSSM and 6mmBR Disaster
Report by Dr. Jim Clary
Under most circumstances, shooters don’t have to worry about chambering the wrong cartridge into the wrong rifle. After all, the cartridges are well marked and we all know which rifle we are shooting on any given day. In many cases, incorrect cartridges cannot be chambered — larger cases will not fit in smaller chambers, for example. No problem! That being said, I can tell you that even an experienced, careful and normally safe shooter can make a mistake.
The following is an account of just such a mistake that could have resulted in death or dismemberment. Fortunately, the shooter was not hurt, but the rifle was completely destroyed.
Last year, a friend purchased a Savage Precision right bolt, left port, single shot bolt action in 6mmBR Norma. It was an incredible prairie dog gun and he spent the summer burning powder and busting dogs. In October, he purchased a stainless steel Browning A-Bolt Varmint in .223 WSSM. The weather in the upper Midwest turned sour by the time he got the brass tuned up and he only got to fire it a few times before he was “socked in” for the winter. Thus, he spent his evenings loading ammo for the spring thaw.
During a break in the weather, he grabbed both rifles and a couple of bags of .223 WSSM and 6mmBR cartridges and headed to the range to check out his new loads. In case you are not familiar, the 6mmBR is smaller in diameter and a mite shorter than the .223 WSSM. Because of this, it will chamber in a .223 WSSM, but the .243 caliber (6mm) bullet is too big for the .22 caliber bore. That is what happened to my friend.
The rest is history — when he squeezed the trigger, all hell broke loose. The entire bottom of the rifle blew out, including the magazine assembly. The explosion actually cut the stock into two pieces. However, the bolt held and amazing as it may seem, the .243 bullet was “swaged” right out of the .223 barrel.
6mmBR (left) and .223 WSSM (right) cartridges above the remains of Browning A-Bolt rifle.One Small Mistake Is All It Takes
Now, realize that my friend has been shooting all manner of firearms, safely, for over half a century. He is meticulous, thorough and conscientious in his approach to reloading and shooting. However, he made one mistake. He put some lose 6BR cartridges in a baggie as he packed up from a prairie dog hunt last summer, without noticing that the baggie was marked .223 WSSM in black marker. Then, when the break in his winter weather came, he grabbed the bag, believing it to be the WSSM cartridges and didn’t check the head stamp.
Couldn’t happen to you? How many times have we emptied our pockets of cartridges and dropped them into a plastic container on the shooting bench? How many times have we set down to a marathon reloading session, loading several calibers in a row? How many times have we put the wrong bullets, cases or primers into the incorrect container? My point is that even the safest of us can make a mistake. So, look at the picture above and take a bit more time when you reload your ammunition at home or chamber a round in the field. It might save your life.
Story and photo © Dr. Jim Clary, All Rights Reserved.
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I’ll bet his shorts took a hit too. Went to a match a couple of years ago and a shooter had a 22 BRXbarrel on his gun. He loaded a 6mmBR and fired it. The bolt held and there was a lot of escaping gas. The bullet actually passed out the barrel. of Course the case ruptured. The barrel developed a bulge.
Nat
Accidents happen I suppose… newbie or seasoned hand, we all can make mistakes.
It’s those we walk away from that teach us something. I hope the shooter was in the habit of wearing eye protection.
(I guess I’ll be more careful never to take up two different, but very similar-in-appearance cartridges, for my shooting needs….)
In a thread inspired by the above story, the moderator of another gun forum wrote today:
“Tthere was a rifle (or what was left of it) mounted above the door of a range I used to go to. The story behind it was of a guy who was shooting a .30-06 and set it aside to shoot his .25-06 instead. he didn’t bother putting the larger cartridges away first and of course one found it’s way into his gun. The explosion took 3 fingers off his left hand, two off his right and stuck a piece of the bolt in his face. He recovered but was never the same again. The pieces of the gun were gathered and mounted to show others why it pays to be mindful of what you’re doing. It was effective as there was never another such accident at that range.”
Wait, a 30-06 round fired in a 25-06 chamber??? Was a hammer involved in chambering this round?
EDITOR: Think of factory ammo loaded short with a long factory barrel throat. Unfortunately, it’s possible to do it.
This same scenerio has always been in the back of my mind as I own 2-6BRs rifle and pistol, 2-22Dashers and 2-6Dashers. All except the pistol are true switch barrel guns. Hopefully, the 22Dashers will only see the correct rounds. I think I’ll try some dummy rounds to see what/if any will cross chamber. I also have .243s and 708s.
>
For years atop of my fathers RCBS powder measure was a cylinder of a 44Mag. It came from a SW Model 29 and was at least 2 decades old when I first remember it. It held the top of the powder measure on and it had 5 chambers, not 6. My father relayed the story as this: An older gent was having a few drinks, after he was done he loaded a few rounds and went out to test fire. First round went through the top strap, took of the mans left two fingers continued through and embeded into his cheek. Moral of the story, reloading is dangerous when you impaired or careless. I have that same cylinder strapped to my reloading bench.
I might have misted it but I didnt see if he hit his target or not
This is why I only have gun in rounds that look NOTHING like each other. .223, .308 and 6mmbr.
I work as a range safety officer so I am privy to too many such accidents. One I have seen more than once is the chambering of a 270 Win in a 7mm Mag which, if you think about it, sounds fairly innocuous. However, due to difference in case length, the 270 case neck wedges into the 7mm past the neck so it can’t expand to release the bullet when the trigger is pulled. So far, the shooters have been lucky with little more than a destroyed gun to show for their mental lapse. Experienced shooters do make mistakes.
> So, look at the picture above and take a bit more time when you reload your ammunition at home or chamber a round in the field. It might save your life.
Amen!
I am impressed with the performance of the action. It kept a bad situation from becoming a tragedy.
I am puzzled how a 6mmBR could be chambered in a 223 WSM??? Unless the 6BR had an extremely thin neck wall perhaps? Because the start of the WSSM neck will be shallower than the end of a 6BR neck by my estimation.
Shot at St Thomas a few years ago – me with my .243 and my son with his 7mm-08. I was spotting for him and could not understand why he wasn’t even hitting the 200 yard target. Then I checked the headstamps…. Ruined both our days since I did not have enough ammo to finish my 400 yard target. The boxes are now marked REALLY BIG
Alan, his 6BR didn’t even need a thin neck. It’s that WSSMs have extremely thick necks, and they are chambered for this.
His 22WSSM loaded necks were likely:
0.224+(0.020*2)= .264
Add to that typical 5-6thou factory neck clearance .264+.005= .269
A 6mm round: 0.243+(0.013*2)= .269
That puts it ‘close’, and consider that the 6BR is shorter, and that a factory chamber neck is tapered.
A bit of his 6mm ogive was in WSSM chamber neck..
It actually does take 3-strikes for any event:
-He carried both guns to the range
-He mixed the 6BR/22WSSM ammo in a bag marked WSSM
-He shot WSSM first
Remove any one and the event wouldn’t have happened.
The most significant contributor, and what I would tag as the ‘root cause’, is the ammo mixing.
So many have failed with mixed ammo in the past ~150years that it has become a primary consideration in new cartridge design, and reloading in general.
I know having a 6ppc and two 6BR’s i allways double check to see what i have because the ppc will chamber in the 6BR chamber and could explode in there. P.O. ackley’s books handbook for shooters and reloaders is great read. as they test what it would take to blow up a action, in most intances they could not do it. only with a pistol powder or a smaller case in the chamber it would explode. they even went as far as opening the neck on a 30/06 to .338 and fired .338’s out of a .30 bore and could not blow up the action. interesting stuff. but put a smaller case or a real hot pistol powder and disater.
This is a sober reminder that you have to pay close attention to what you are doing. Great thing is that the moderen firearm is designed to fail, when put into this type of situation, and prevent as much damage to the shooter as possible.
Throughout the years I have heard of many diferent things that have happened, that causeed dangerous situations. Heard of people shooting 6br out of 6×47’s, using the wrong bolt in guns, such as a 308 bolt in a 223 rilfe that the owner has both guns made by the same manufactor. Many guns destroyed by bore sighters left in barrels. The worse one I heard of was a manufactor defect, a 40 S&W was loaded into a 45ACP box from the factory. It fit into the magazine. The shooter had a shell that did not go off, so he pulled the slide back and rack another round, and pulled the trigger and boom, the gun came apart. What happened was the 40S&W was stripped into the magazine, it slide up in to the chamber, and wedged itself into the barrel, when the gun when clcik, he thought that a round did not chamber, so when he racked another round it sat behind the 40S&W and shoved it into the barrel, sealing the barrel shut.
Moral of thiese storries is Be carefullif you dont think it can happen to you you better believe it can, inspect EVERY round you use. make sure your barrel is free from obstructions before you shoot.
I have one sobering experience of my own. One July 4th I was shooting rifles with my family as usual. I had just finished with my SKS and was letting others shoot it while I got behind my Savage 308. I had loose shells in my pocket and since the savage is a single shot, was just pulling them out one by one without looking. I don’t know how one made it in, but a Chinese 7.62X39 made it into my chamber from my pocket. After a click with no boom I checked the action to find the brown steel case glaring at me. I was sick from embarrassment and the thought of what could have happened.