Comments on: Safety Advice: Be Careful When Shooting Similar Cartridges

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 17:29:10 +0000

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.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:29:19 +0000

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.

By: Frank

Frank — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 05:24:05 +0000

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.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:13:52 +0000

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.

By: Neil

Neil — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:45:53 +0000

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

By: Alan Fraser

Alan Fraser — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:54:56 +0000

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.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 02:43:33 +0000

I am impressed with the performance of the action. It kept a bad situation from becoming a tragedy.

By: DesertLefty

DesertLefty — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:36:40 +0000

> 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!

By: Rob L.

Rob L. — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:08:29 +0000

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.

By: Matt D.

Matt D. — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:38:42 +0000

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.