Follow-up to earlier thread "Found this in the barrel of an 1888/05"

Hi all,
A little while ago I posted that I found a bullet stuck in the bore of surplus 1888/05. Yesterday I had some time on my hands and decided to scrub that batch barreled receivers down.
Running a cleaning rod through the one that had the bullet in it, out popped the front half of a shell casing. As you can see from the pictures it not like a clean cut or anything.
That leads me to think that the shell blew, and there wasn't sufficient energy to send the bullet out of the barrel.
I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on it.
Cheers,
flophound

Attachment 270589Attachment 270590Attachment 270591

almost looks like the brass was accidentally fire-formed, what did the bolt look like.

I would suspect grossly out of spec headspace or the incorrect cartridge being fired resulting in grossly out of spec headspace. I would certainly check that action over closely before proceeding with it any further.

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Originally Posted by rancher1913

almost looks like the brass was accidentally fire-formed, what did the bolt look like.

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It was just a barreled receiver so no bolt, unfortunately.

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Originally Posted by NoZombies

I would suspect grossly out of spec headspace or the incorrect cartridge being fired resulting in grossly out of spec headspace. I would certainly check that action over closely before proceeding with it any further.

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Oh for sure. I'm not setting up these barreled actions to take 8mm Mauser. Gonna put chamber adapters in them for pistol calibers and/or make some very odd looking muzzle loading squirrel guns.

I had seen such cases extracted from milsurp rifles before, but usually they were the result of repeatedly reloading the same set of cases for a rifle with generous headspace by shooters who don't know much about the eventual consequences of case head separation. One fellow thought his rifle was ruined and didn't even venture to mention he had a problem. It went into his closet and stayed there for years before someone asked him about it and the problem was corrected. Another wondered what caliber his milsurp rifle was, since he couldn't get anything to chamber in it - not knowing the front end of a case was stuck in there. I guess when milsurps are dirt cheap, it's easy come, easy go.

A mistake I made when I was young and indestructible was when using the Lee Loader and plastic mallet and driving the cases too far into the sizing die, thus setting the shoulder back without realizing what I was doing. I had discussions with experienced reloaders which soon informed me of the error of my ways.

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Originally Posted by yeahbub

I had seen such cases extracted from milsurp rifles before, but usually they were the result of repeatedly reloading the same set of cases for a rifle with generous headspace by shooters who don't know much about the eventual consequences of case head separation. One fellow thought his rifle was ruined and didn't even venture to mention he had a problem. It went into his closet and stayed there for years before someone asked him about it and the problem was corrected. Another wondered what caliber his milsurp rifle was, since he couldn't get anything to chamber in it - not knowing the front end of a case was stuck in there. I guess when milsurps are dirt cheap, it's easy come, easy go.

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Yikes, I'm really glad I happened to scrub the shell out of the chamber, a visual inspect didn't reveal it.
My understanding is that these barreled receivers were from Gewehrn1888/05s, so firing the more modern ammo with some or all upgrades made to the rifle, that were then given to the Turks in WW1. Lore only knows how long they saw service for and the availability of competent armorers to keep those second string rifles in good shooting condition. Almost tells a story.
In any event, I'm glad I found it for both safety's and novelty's sake.

This is truly interesting , never encountered anything quite like this before . Years ago I purchased a Model 94 that had a bullet stuck the barrel but never have half a cartridge . Based on the brass it very probably was a charged case that failed at least that is my estimate. I own an 88/05 that is a finely accurate rifle. The barrel on mine doesn't appear to have been shot when I recieved it, found it for $100 two years ago at a flea market and took a chance. The headspace on the old gun is perfect and it shoots 200 grain bullets powered by a charge of A4350 very nicely. Most of the time though I have been shooting 185 grain cast bullets with a charge of 2400 , at some point I hope the opportunity presents itself to go hunting with the old gun.