Thread: Guns blown, persons damaged- powder misadventures- examples

On a slow Good Friday..

There's always been the dire warnings re wrong powder for application, too much powder, too little powder, old powder, contaminated powder, bad data, unpublished data, Jolly Jim and Slim Stupid's internet data opinions, powder with/without fillers etc and so on.

Would be interesting to hear of actual examples, first hand or known facts would be best methinks

I'll start. The good old double charge. Man with brand new 45ACP 1911A and three virgin bottles of Titegroup - that powder of the infinitesimal charge. He swears he did not double the charge but the pistol was destroyed and he had emergency surgery to repair his face and save his eye. I got the story from the horses mouth cause I bought 2 and 9/10ths tubs of powder from him for what he paid at a time when it was unobtanium. He was unwilling to load such dangerous stuff ever again.

Second is the "I'm sure I charged the case" squib load. Leaving the primer propelled projectile in the barrel, again in a 45ACP 1911A. Owner made the mistake of manually racking the slide thinking he had a failure to feed. Next round split the barrel but no other damage, fortunately light loads. A 5 mth wait for a new barrel however.

So let's hear it. Verified accounts rather than hearsay would be choice. Happenings rather than dire warnings.

Over charged a 44 mag Sauer and Sohn revolver once in 1975. Turned it into a fire ball, split the chamber and self ejected the cylinder pin. Survived, but then, I also rode a very hot Honda Four way too fast as well.

Nothing like a conservative lifestyle..

Possibly not a dangerous event but certainly educational to a novice shooter at the time - me !
When I bought my first .270W ( lovely Sako AV ) I proudly showed it to a senior hunting mate / mentor. Just so happened he had been gifted some reloaded 270 ammo and offered me some to save me some money. I took the gladly accepted ammo to the range to sight in the scope. Opened the box and the ammo looked as if it had been in storage a long time. Not a red flag to ignorant me. Chambered the first round and fired. Funny I thought. Was that a hangfire ? Second shot, definitely a hangfire, immediately followed by a loud bang, smoke ejecting from the action. Gave me quite a fright. Opened the bolt and the case didn't come with it. The extractor was gone. The primer had ruptured and the case stuck in the chamber. Turned into a very short sight in session. Took everything home and started pulling the ammo, intending to ditch the powder, keep the bullets and primed brass. Propably half the bullets pulled with the necks splitting from the cases and welded to the bullets. All the powder I tipped out was clumped and some felt distinctly wet. Apart from the few clean bullets everything got dumped. A good lesson for a young shooter and I'm gald it didn't turn out worse.

Greetings,
There have been two cases that I know of locally where the wrong powder was used and the rifle was destroyed. One person was lightly injured and the other more seriously. I don't have direct knowledge of either.
Years ago I picked up two NZFS .270 cases at the old Roy's Hill Range. Both had their heads considerably expanded and blackened. The primer had significant clearance around an unfired primer. The fact that there were two indicates that both the rifle and shooter survived although likely shaken.
GPM.

Even with factory stuff you're not immune.

Loacal gunshop owner had a Remington factory 300BLK rifle in the other day. Welded shut by the case. The pulled barrel was ok, no obstruction. The extractor (not the usual Remmy type, the 300BLKs have something like a Sako type) had "ejected" via the reliading port, leaving a hefty dent in the rear reciever bridge, the shooter immensly lucky that it wasn't in his eye or face.

The kicker - Remington factory Ammo!

Greetings again,
Over recent years I have been given a lot of old CAC .303 ammo. A lot of this was loaded with AR2201 powder which has a poor storage life especially if it was stored in hot conditions like a tin shed. I have broken all of it down for components. A lot of the powder had clumped and looked wet. The inside of the cases were lightly corroded as was the base of the projectile. Some of the primers were dead as well. Later I was given some handloaded .303 ammo in new cases. The powder looked like AR2201 and was also clumped with the inside of the cases lightly corroded. Even more recently I was asked to sort out a batch of cases and tins of powder mostly IMR and some unopened. All of the cans were rusty in the inside and some of the powder had clumped. I don't know what would happen if this stuff was fired and don't intend to find out.
Grandpamac.

In my career as a gunsmith I got to see a great many examples of damage caused by poor handloading and sheer carelessness, buckled, bent, and blown guns, shattered stocks, and a surprising lack of bodily injury in most cases. The wrong powder in rifles, and double charges in pistols being the most common, all of which were completely avoidable with good loading practice. Being distracted by other people during setting up, or during the operation, gives good reason to do it by yourself with a clear head and no distractions.

given powder in big container and told what it was....fella who gave it to me was my reloading mentor and used to buy 3-4 tins of same batch and put it in bigger container....
got it home and picked a middle of road load for a rifle that normally handled hot loads well...long throat and a loose barrel meant lower pressure than something tight.
at the shot,loud as hell,face full of grit and bolt siezed.
got it home and used rubber mallet to turn bolt then hammered old cleaning rod down barrrel to back out bolt....wee ejector had departed the lug and the case is still welded into bolt face wit ha lovely wee belt on it like a weatherby magnum.
rifle was toast...shooter shook up but otherwise fine...didnt do the flinch much good!!!!
powder can not have been what was told..no way in hell an over charge would fit in case and when the remaining five rounds were pulled the weights were spot on....having loaded all six on scales I knew they would be.

This one was as close as it get

https://youtu.be/1449kJKxlMQ?si=gc5_juUJja8NsOhJ

Prior to moving to NZ was carrying out some pest control over the family farm using bird scaring 12 guage rounds. They are 3 inch cartridges which send what is essentially a firework about 300 feet before that explodes over the pesties - big bang of at least 140 db which you did not want to be near to.

There were two varients - one with a bigger report and had to be used from a barrel with a maximum of half choke. Grab a single barrl Baikal shotgun and a hand full of the scarers and went out to the newly drilled pea field to move the mob of wood pigeons on.

Yep you guessed it. In the ammo was one of the larger type that i did not notice at the time. Went to send it out over the field and on pulling the trigger just heard the rocket type propellent burning in the barrel and relised i was holding a pipebomb.

Managed to break the action and throw the Baikal as quick as i could - the banger going off as it hit the ground about 20 feet away.

Kept my fingers and toes but the ears rang for a few days. Baikel was never quite the same though...

Before I started hand loading myself, a mate loaded up some military cases for my .308. Second shot I couldn't open bolt. Whacked it with a handy 4x2, case had split in half. Gunsmith had to take off barrel to remove the stuck top half of case. No damage to the ruger m77 though.
Probably a hot load or wrong powder in a military spec'd case....
Even earlier in the mid 90's I had commercial custom loads done...twenty rounds had no powder!
After that lot I got into it myself on the basis that I could control the process myself.

As a dealer seen 2 guns wanting to claim warranty. Incorrect Headspace on reloads. Learned from the 1st one not to tell the punter he's a dkhead. " I'll send it back to manufacturer" so they can tell em

Really nice small ring mauser,my first 6.5x55.

Started at the smallest recommended charge,next round from a .5 grain increment blew the arse out of the case,thumped the bolt lugs back into the receiver,extractor was never found,stock was smashed.

Virgin powder bottle,new brass,virgin bullet packet,each charged weighed manually.

Norma didn't want to know nor did Seirra ,funked a nice rifle for mystery reasons.

Lol norsk saw pistol powder in a rifle doing same