WHAT BLEW UP THIS WINCHESTER

[deadeye2]

:shock: What Blew  Up This Winchester???
I posted this a couple of years back on another forum so if you happened to see it, please wait a bit to post the answer……Let’s see if anyone else can determine what happened.

This WAS a model 70 Winchester stainless with synthetic stock and Burris Scope 3 x 9 x 40
(Can't seem to get the picture to post so if you will go to the link below you whould be able to view.)


Be Safe...Have Fun
deadeye2
www.deadeye2.com

[Weatherby223]

I would say that it was the wrong powder loaded. Same sort of damage i seen on a Sako  which was loaded with wrong powder.  :wink:

[jdt48653]

well the barrel looks in good shape,so it could be a larger cal lead .
if the lead stuck in the front of the barrel the force would be to the rear !

[willis5]

bad luck?

[ringo]

wrong ammunition that chambered, fired, the bullet was too big to go down the barrel so the resulting pressure blew up the receiver?

[taxmiser]

P.O. Ackely experimented with blowing up actions many years ago and reached certain conclusions.  One was that using a bullet of larger diameter would be an unlikely candiate, the over-size bullets tend to swage without increasing pressure to the extent that would ruin an action.  That would tend to leave the following possibilities.  1. wrong burning rate power. 2. simple overload. Or, 3. in magnum cases an underload can cause extremely high pressures with slow burning powders.  Least likely is that an object was lodged in the barrel just ahead of the new projectile when the rifle was fired.
tax

[willis5]

taxmiser,
What your saying is that they had the wrong junk in the trunk, right? That makes perfect sense!

[deadeye2]

Some very knowledgeable replys........Will post  "The rest of the story" soon.....

[deadeye2]

THE REST OF THE STORY...
Several of you were very close in your determination of what happened and many of you posted very knowledgeable replies.
   
First of all the two bullets,  shown with this new picture, were originally the same, both are .338 cal , 250 gr Nosler partitioners. (not bait bullets) This little learning lesson was provided by a dear friend of mine who has hunted the world and is a very knowledgeable reloader. He owned two almost identical Model 70’s, same mounts, scope, trigger pull.......EXCEPT the bores were different.  One was a  7 mm Shooting Times Western, the other is a 338 Win Mag.  He decided to develop a better load for the Win Mag, using the Nosler 250 gr partition bullet.  He loaded 3 rounds of the new load,  went to the gun safe and  knowing the similarity in the rifles, carefully chose the 338 Win Mag, to try his new loads.  Fired first round… ,second round…, and on the third round, as you can see, there was no more….   He called me a few minutes after the explosion and told me what had happened but did no yet know why it happened.  My first question was, “how bad are you hurt?”.   Thank goodness he was not  seriously injured (only had one small piece of the stock imbedded in his cheek), but needless to say, he was “all shook up”.

  He was shooting off the bench with the rifle in a shooting stand, he was only holding the pistol grip and steadying the butt of the rifle with his left hand, otherwise it is almost  certain  that he would have lost his left hand and /or arm. After he calmed down a little, and of course, changed his pants , he returned to the scene. Covering about a 25 yard area, he retrieved what you see in the picture .  Not until after looking at the barrel and noticing the markings did he realize what a dumb mistake he had made. Of course it was the 7mm.  Our question is still…. how it managed to hold together until the 3rd shot, and  we were even more amazed that he was not seriously injured..

Epilogue:
This did not come out of a book I took these pictures myself.  It was an actual experience by a friend who is not a newbie to shooting, hunting and reloading, and could just as easily happened to one of us. We may not have been so lucky as to not have serious injuries.
I had 3 rifles that were almost identical too, all with black satin stocks, Leupold scopes, etc.   I now have a gray one, a black one and a green one hehehe.  You can never be to careful, even if you have checked........, CHECK IT AGAIN!!!!
Perhaps  these very graphic pictures have impressed upon you the importance of knowing you are shooting the correct ammo in the correct rifle, and will help prevent serious injury to you or someone else.  
Be safe…Have fun!
deadeye2
www.deadeye2.com

[willis5]

I am guessing that because it was a 7mm STW or shooting times western...  That is a big cartridge

[Double D]

7STW is longer than the 338 WinMag, so a 338 winMag round would fit right in a 7STW chamber with little or no resistance.

That's a great testimony to the strength of the Winchester 70

Good thing it wasn't Pre 64 M-70 he would have lost an eye!

[Lee D.]

How was the Target?

[willis5]

That does speak for the strength. it didn't go until the 3rd round? that is amazing.

[eroyd]

Strange coincidence but a few years ago an aquiantance blew up a rifle by accidentally loading a 7mm STW with 338 win. rounds. They'd set up a improv. range out in the bush and were taking turns on each others rifles. Stupidly they had two similiar looking (but different) rifles on the same table. Fortunately no one was killed but the shooter sustained burns and bruises to his face and left forearm and received a few nasty splinters from the shattered forestalk.

Another rifle I've seen that had exploded was due to some overly deep custom barrel fluting. Fortunately the shooter was resting the rifle on sandbags for the front end of the Fibreglass stock and the scope were gone. The barrel looked like one of those chinese finger puzzles.