Safety Lesson: Bore Obstructions Cause Nasty Accidents
A Negligent Shooter Gets Lucky
Here we have a story so filled with negligent acts that I can only marvel that the shooter survived the experience. The photo and narrative were provided by the gunsmith who took in the repair job, my comments are in italics. It’s worth reading, we can’t get enough safety warnings in our hobby. — GS Arizona, Riflemans Journal
Below is a sectioned barrel showing an 80gr Sierra that was fired in a .223 bolt action with a cleaning rod in the bore. Both the bullet and the rod are still in the bore.
This article originally appeared in the Riflemans Journal website.
Description of Incident (with Commentary)
The shooter had a stuck case in his .223 chamber. The stuck case was actually a loaded round that didn’t fire. It wouldn’t extract because it was a .222 case that got mixed in with his .223 brass. [He had loaded the wrong brass.] I saw the loaded round with an 80gr bullet in it and a light primer strike. Negligent Act #1: Wrong brass was mixed in with the brass being reloaded.
The shooter removed the stuck case with a 3-piece aluminum rod. Negligent Act #2: Hammering out a loaded round with a cleaning rod. People have been killed doing this as the round can fire and drive the cleaning rod right into you. I remember one such incident about 5 years ago, the shooter was pounding out a stuck round, the cleaning rod went right through him, he didn’t survive.
The shooter didn’t notice only two segments of the cleaning rod came out when he removed it. Negligent Act #3: If you put anything at all down the barrel of a rifle you’d better make darn sure you got it all out before doing anything else!
He then chambered another round and fired it. Negligent act #4: If you’ve had a barrel obstruction of any kind, and if you’ve put something in the barrel, look through the barrel before proceeding! Within the past two years I know of an incident in which a benchrest shooter was killed in exactly this manner. The pressure built up and the rifle bolt came out of the receiver and into his chest.
The shooter is ‘OK’, but did not escape unscathed. He said there was a huge explosion and after regaining his senses found he was bleeding heavily from his forehead. The blood was thick enough that it ran in his eyes and he couldn’t see. In his words “I thought I was going to die”.
He has what looks like a pretty deep cut about an inch long on the side of his head, right in line with his right eye starting where the eye socket turns out to the side of the skull. And no telling what he’s got in the way of brass particles embedded in his forehead.
He was shooting on private property, and was alone when this happened. Negligent Act #5: Don’t shoot alone! Accidents happen, this is just one more example. If we could predict accidents, we wouldn’t have them. Always shoot with at least one other person.
He managed to get the bleeding stopped, or at least under control, packed his car and drove himself home without seeking immediate medical attention. Negligent Act #6: This one could have cost him his life after being lucky enough to survive the incident. There’s no way to know what’s happened just after an incident like this. He should have been at a hospital getting checked for shrapnel in the head.
The rod and slug could not be driven out. Since the barrel had a high round count there was no point in trying to salvage it. Note that the aluminum rod is expanded to a tight fit in the bore for the first couple inches. The base of the bullet is a little over 2″ from the mouth of the chamber.
What we’ve seen here is negligence and an absolute indifference to the established rules of safe reloading and gun handling, from start to finish, capped off with the shooter’s foolish avoidance of medical treatment. This shooter is lucky to be alive, but he’s surely used up all his luck. Don’t assume you’ll be so fortunate.
Similar Posts:
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- Big-Bore Blast: .338 Lapua Magnum Cleaning Rod Kaboom
- Don’t Be This Stupid — Cautionary Tale About Stuck Live Round
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Tags: Barrel, Kaboom, Obstruction, safety, Stuck Bullet
Good post. But, what is the best way to remove a stuck case?
There was a series of articles titled “ACCIDENT!” during the 1980s or early 90s in the long-gone UK magazine ‘Guns Review’ written by a retired army ordnance officer whose job had included investigating such incidents. The three main causes of rifle blow-ups were cleaning implements left in the bore (jag and patch becoming unscrewed and left in the bore being very common); excessive preservative grease remaining from weapons taken from storage and inadequately degreased before use; squaddies (‘grunts’ to you in the USA) deliberately putting things dow the barrel with blank rounds to try to achieve a particular effect.
By coincidence I found a bent and broken small calibre one-pice rod on Diggle’s 100yd BR A-Range last week, at around the 70yd mark. It was a plastic coated Parker-Hale type and it is obvious from the shredding of the plastic that it has been used from the muzzle ned of the barrel, left in, and fired!
Its being left lying on the range despite being evidence of mis-practice makes us think that one of two things happened. Either the shooter took himself and the remains of his rifle off at speed, maybe to the nearest hospital leaving the evidence lying about, or (more likely) he got away with it, never noticed, wondered why the shot missed, and thinks he’s left his cleaning rod somewhere!
In any event it’s gone on display in the clubhouse with a warning to others attached!
“Good post. But, what is the best way to remove a stuck case?”
Good question! The UK NRA ‘Bible’ says remove bolt, leave it pointing down the range and ‘call armourer’. OK for
Bisley where there is an armourer, but nobody has come up with a good answer for anywhere else that doesn’t.
In many such cases the cartridge is not really stuck – it can be an extractor problem that sees the claw fail to move over the rim, or into the extractor groove. This stops bolt closure / cartridge firing if it’s a hefty external Mauser type extractor, or a damaged / broken internal Remy / Sako type. In such a case, remove bolt and tap the buttplate on the ground to try and dislodge the cartridge pointing the muzzle in a safe direction. If that doesn’t work, keep the muzzle pointing down range under firing conditions and feed a cleaning rod back really gently using thumb and forefinger only while staying out of the way – and then very, very gently tap the bullet nose.
I know that’s not the officially correct answer, but it should be safe.
If a really, really gentle tap doesn’t work, and the cartridge is properly stuck in the chamber due to incorrect sizing, using a neck-sized case from another rifle with a slacker chamber, or as here, the wrong case used – it’s remove bolt and take the rifle to a gunsmith I reckon.
Paul:
Thanks for the heads-up on the improved ram. That makes a huge difference to me. The press I purchased also had a pretty poor casting in that it had “grooves” prior to painting. I know this sounds terrible, but I purchased the press because of the glowing reports about the ram allignment etc. It appears I just got the ugly duckling of the lot. Still, I felt a heads-up to other shooteres from my end was in order.
I will give Lee a call. They might even replace it for me as they were most kind in promptly sending me the primer catch tube.
Regards,
Jim Hardy
I can’t believe that cat used SIX of his nine lives in one outting. He should give up shooting entirely.
High round count or low round count, there’s no way I’d salvage a barrel or receiver that had been involved in a kaboom. That’s just asking for a second “no reason” kaboom later on.
I’m far from an expert in these matters, so a couple questions.
80gr is huge!
1. Is that bullet naturally rectangular, or was it flattened considerably by impact with the rod?
2. How/why did the rod expand to a tight fit? The rods for my AR leave plenty of room to slide through the bore when cleaning. Also, that rod looks to be solid with a blunt end. Most cleaning rods are threaded with either a male or female end. Unless he was ramming the handle end down the bore, which is probably a bit thicker than the other pieces.
50,000 psi will flatten a bullet without issue, and the impact into the rod will likely expand it very rapidly, causing the scene shown in the picture. The threads have been likely smashed flat onto the end of the rod, and the hole likely eased the expanding of the rod into the bore. And no, the bullet wasn’t flat to start.
Amazing things happen when you add 50,000 psi to the mix.
That makes since. I don’t deal with high pressures like that on a daily basis.
But yeah, high pressure in a confined space can do interesting things.
German – Good reminder for all of us, new and old! FYI – I ordered and received the K&M tool holder you mention on RiflemansJournal.com and it arrived in 2 days. Seems simple but it really helps you to apply more consistent force as you turn the neck. I found myself flicking the K&M without Joel’s tool and now the operation is much smoother. Thanks again
I also have been preaching a little something very much the same to virtually anyone that will pay attention.
In the case of a bolt action rifle, once the bolt has been removed, I would say that transporting the rifle to a location where better tools are available would be the best option. For a couple of case head sizes there are tools that lock onto the whole circumference of the rim and are attached to a sliding hammer that is used to remove the stuck round. Another good option would be to take the barrel off. I have heard of smiths using a couple of large screwdrivers, on opposite sides of the head to remove a stuck round. What all of this comes down to is being in too big of a hurry, and taking shortcuts that should not be used. I have seen a lot of unsafe things done because the person had an “It won’t happen to me.” mentality. Well, sometimes it will. Slow down and do it right.
Several years ago…. a gunsmith and friend was brought a Browning A5 with a stuck round in the barrel. He understood the round had been spent. He placed the butt on the floor, his palm on the muzzle and forced the barrel to (RECOIL). He is presently surviving with no right hand. An he was a professional in the business at least 25 years.