Exploding guns?

[Lee D.]

Do you know of or have you ever had a modern bolt action rifle actually fail from an overloaded cartridge?  I stress BOLT ACTION.
I hear alot about the potential for this happening but all of the actual failures from pressure are destroyed brass.
I do know one man personally who blew up an old Lebel.  He got quite damaged.  
Even with all of the incompetent/careless people that I know of who handload I have never heard or read about someone actually ruining a modern gun.

[Mikey]

Lee D:  Nope, never saw one explode.  Have seen lots of bolts get locked up tight due to brass failures or other types of ammo problems but never saw a rifle explode.  I have seen brass failures where, most often, the head separates from the rest of the case.  I saw a 03A3 bolt handle break off, but that was after the owner had problems chambering one particular cartridge, then he fired the rifle and when he went to eject the casing, the bolt handle broke off.  I once saw a 1917 loaded so hot that the case head flowed/flattened and jammed up the bolt, but we pounded that open.  Nope, ain't ne'er seen one explode.  Oops, saw a barrel split once but that was due to an obstruction.  HTH.  Mikey.

[WD45]

I have never seen any one blow up a bolt gun personally ..... but there have been some people I have stayed away from cause I wasnt going to be the one standing next to them when they send one flying into a few hundred pieces from not paying attention to heavy pressure signs on extracted cases :shock:
I have seen a couple of shot gun barrels trashed from mud and snow obstruction though.
I have always tried to learn from others mistakes ( or in SOME cases stupidity or insert what ever word you want to use here instead of stupidity )  :-)  And that statement is not meant in offence to anyone here on this forum

[Graycg]

In the gun case at the Texas City Texas range there is an Interarms MKX in 243 that is all blown to hell as well as many other guns, mostly revolvers.  I haven't been there in a few years, but the sight of that MKX, a very strong action, made me review my safety practises!!!

regards,
 Graycg

[Lee D.]

Was that Mark X blown from overloading or a barrel obstruction?
The reason I started this thread- I wonder if it is even possible to get enough of an overload with normal powder to actually destroy a modern bolt action.  I imagine that if you loaded a 450 LOTT with a 500 grain solid and all the bullseye that would fit, then you might have enough inertia and power to damage the action.  You sure as hell would have a very stretched case.

[Duffy]

The only bolt action I have heard of was a local fellow who loaded shotgun powder in his 30-06 by mistake. It cracked one lug all the way through and started to shear the other plus split the stock, don't remember all the details.
The other one was in a friends 760 remington pump. He had borrowed it from his father in law and it was badly in need of cleaning.  They shot it about three times and checked the target. When another fellow went to chamber a shell it went off before the bolt was closed. The magazine flew out in pieces put a dent in his jeep hood, split the stock back by the grip and sprung the receiver. Fortunately he was pointing it up and everyone else was standing behind the jeep. He lost the feeling in his hand for about a week and one finger is still a bit numb 2 years later. I told him he's lucky to have all his fingers! Only thing we could figure was that the firing pin did not retract on the last round and was still sticking out when he went to chamber the round. It still was protruding out of the bolt after all the smoke cleared.

[Ullr]

I know of one guy that had someone give him a box of 20 cartridges that he reloaded to try out.  He also gave him a warning that 3 of them were loaded hot, but not sure which 3.  This should have been enough of a warning to say no thanks, but it was a friend he trusted so he took them to try.  He fired the first one and it sent pieces of his bolt over his shoulder and a few small fragments into his face.  Luckily he got by with only a few stitches and no permanent damage.  The next time he saw the guy he returned the remaining 19 cartridges to him and told him there are 2 of these that are loaded hot.

Sorry I don’t have any detail as to caliber or make of rifle.  This has been about 6-8 years ago so I don’t want to include details that I am not 100% sure I am remembering correct.

[Graycg]

MKX in Texas city definitely blown from overloading, no bore obstruction, at so according to the then range officer.  I think if there was a bore obsturction, it would have had to been right in the chamber, because from just forward of the chamber forward was pretty much normal, the action blew out through the magazine blew the wood off of both side and tore off the magazine sheet metal, the floor plate and buckled the action on the bottom and split through the chamber on the bottom.

regards,
 Graycg

[Toolpush]

The only Bolt action rifle I've ever saw (after the fact) blown that is hanging in the Carter's Country store & range in the north end of Houston. I think it was a Wearbethy 25-06 and some one got a 308 to fire in it. They have several pieces wired to a board. The stock is in several pieces and the bolt is out of it. I do not remember if the lugs sheared off or not.

[jhalcott]

years before I joined the club several fellows decided they needed a show and tell peice for the Hunter Safety classes held monthlyback then. The got an old 6.5 Jap gun from Sunny's surplus.After reloading a shell with an obvious over charge they tied it to an old tire and yanked the string on the trigger.No signs of any thing wrong with the gun.They next hammered a bullet into the muzzle (do NOT TRY THIS) and welded the muzzle closed.
Back to the safe area and the tire.This time they covered the gun with a heavy tarp so pieces would not fly too far.The string was yanked,gun went off and was retrieved. The bolt was hammered open and the shell extracted.The barrel was shortened about 2 inches.Other shells were fired thru the gun with no problems,just not offhand.The military during the Viet Nam era experimented with multiple projectile .308 ammunition.there were a few "INCIDENTS" of bullets running into each other IN the barrel.I only heard of one bursting.  jh

[Weatherby223]

Just read an Aussie shooters magazine which showed a Tikka/Sako blown to pieces. Ruined everything! The guy had said that while reloading he grabbed the wrong powder for his load and that was all it took. Even the scope was broke in two..
Mick..

[Doctor Sam]

Yes, a cousin took apart a Rem 721? 725? in .35 Whelan with a case load of pistol powder and a 250 gr bullet.  Don't remember all the details but the gun was inoperative.  He was fortunate that he only needed a few stiches and some debris dug out of his left forearm.  I do remember that the floorplate was blown off and possibly the extractor.

It can be done.

Doctor Sam

[Lee D.]

So far this thread has reinforced what I thought.  It sounds like all of these have been caused by extreme errors (pistol powder, shotgun powder, wrong cartridge, not just an overload of the correct components.
I'm not saying that I would gurantee anything but it seems very unlikely that if you "filled" for example a 30-06 with H380  and a 180 gr. bullet in a Rem. 700 that you could get a catastrophic failure.  
I guess my point is that a slight error in loading a modern bolt rifle such as going 1 grain heavy on the correct powder or 20 grain heavier bullet is very unlikely to be disastrous.

[jhalcott]

I would not say that a "slight" error in components will not cause any harm. Stress fractures may develope and then get worse because of continued use of wrong ammo.
 ANY TIME YOU DEVIATE FROM PROPER PROCEDURES,YOU PUT YOURSELF AND OTHERS IN DANGER.
  Never reload ammo with out regard to safety first.\\\start low and work up to max levels.I have seen guys lock up the bolt on guns of the identical make /model by shooting ONE round of the other guy's reloads.
 Factory stuff is loaded to a level safe for all guns of that caliber. Why do you think they load 7x57 ammo so weak ? Old 7x57's are still around!
 Sorry to rant  jh

[His lordship.]

I used to own a good book written by a fellow who lived in Pennsylvania, he was a gun enthusiast who contributed material in several gun periodicals.  I don't remember the name, etc., but he bought an unmarked Mauser rifle action and sporterized it.  He thinks that it was made in a small gunshop in Europe and not on an assembly line due to its lack of identification info, and due to the many angles of the Mauser 98's action a part of it was not heat treated properly.

Anyways, after a few hundred rounds were fired the action blew up hitting him in the eye and face with metal shards.  His safety glasses kept him from loosing his eyes.  

One of the guys at my gun club blew up his bolt action rifle due to bad reloads.  The limited amount of info I could get was that it was either a Winchester 70 or a Remington 700.  You can still see the hole in the wall where the bolt flew into it.  He was not seriously injured.

[The Shrink]

Lee

A lot of the variance will be accounted for by the inherant strength of the action involved.  The 6.5 Jap is known as probably the strongest action made.  There is on record a 6.5 Jap re-chambered to 30-06 but not rebored!  The guy who brought it in to the gunsmith who sent it to the NRA complained that it kicked like a mule but was reasonably accurate.  The NRA confirmed the story and published it in the '50's.  There was no damage to the action.

I wouldn't try this with a Circano or a Lebel!  I think that those might be able to be blown with a case full of modern powder.  If you limit this to modern production guns using standard listed powders for the caliber, I think you might be right.  

Frankly, I'm encouraged and surprised that injuries were so minor in the cases mentioned above.  It shows how inherantly safe our sport is, even when everything is done wrong.