Thread: Close call!

Looking closely at the picture, I would say a few things. Yes one very very lucky shooter.

From what I know about the Howa design, (But I am no expert) the venting holes in the bolt / action design are such that in the event of case failure or dare I say it, explosion, the bulk of the force is directed down through the mag well. Looking at the bottom metal and the way the stock has shattered, to me this looks like the design has done this. The action has clearly also split from the excess pressure meaning the remaining gasses etc could go somewhere away from the shooter. Not sure if these failures are intentional for situations like this, but one way or the other, it would still be as scary as hell.

I had a fellow shooting at the local range. He had just bought two new packets of 30/06 Hornady from a local retailer. He could not figure out why it wasn't hitting the target, He checked the boxes and they were 30/06, but when I checked the 3 fired cases they were 3x 270. He went straight back to the shop to sort out the swap issue because if someone had put the 3x 270 into his packet, it seemed likely the same person could have placed the 3x 30/06 into the 270 packet. Now I check my new boxes of ammo when I go to use them even if they are a new one.

Originally Posted by timattalon

Looking closely at the picture, I would say a few things. Yes one very very lucky shooter.

From what I know about the Howa design, (But I am no expert) the venting holes in the bolt / action design are such that in the event of case failure or dare I say it, explosion, the bulk of the force is directed down through the mag well. Looking at the bottom metal and the way the stock has shattered, to me this looks like the design has done this. The action has clearly also split from the excess pressure meaning the remaining gasses etc could go somewhere away from the shooter. Not sure if these failures are intentional for situations like this, but one way or the other, it would still be as scary as hell.

I had a fellow shooting at the local range. He had just bought two new packets of 30/06 Hornady from a local retailer. He could not figure out why it wasn't hitting the target, He checked the boxes and they were 30/06, but when I checked the 3 fired cases they were 3x 270. He went straight back to the shop to sort out the swap issue because if someone had put the 3x 270 into his packet, it seemed likely the same person could have placed the 3x 30/06 into the 270 packet. Now I check my new boxes of ammo when I go to use them even if they are a new one.

Now that's a dirty trick

Originally Posted by csmiffy

Now that's a dirty trick

When this situation goes persuaded like the original posters pictures you Got to wonder if the supplier of the ammunition would end up in hot water over it, they supplied a falsely labelled product that caused damage to a person and property....

Originally Posted by 223nut

When this situation goes persuaded like the original posters pictures you Got to wonder if the supplier of the ammunition would end up in hot water over it, they supplied a falsely labelled product that caused damage to a person and property....

In the case I mentioned, I suspect a customer at the shop was comparing one with the other (potentially considering a rifle purchase) and someone has dug a few rounds out to show differences and put back into the wrong packet. And it may not have been a salesman as some shops have customer access to ammo. At the end of the day, it is your face that is inches from the action, so I would suggest that you check ammo you load whether it is your fault or not. It does not matter to me who makes the mistake, it only matters that the mistake is found before someone gets hurt.