Ka-Boom

[siamese4570]

I was at the range on Tuesday and witnessed a ka-boom. Just two of us on the 100 yd range. The other guy was testing loads in hos 03A3. All of the sudden I heard a boom instead of a bang. I looked down at the other guy and he was wondering around and his rifle appeared to be broken in half. I immediately went over to help. He had small shrapnel cuts on his face and one hand but other than that no serious injuries. It was the first shot out of a new group of reloads. The action was shattered. The barrel was intact and I found the bolt about 10 feet behind and to the right of the bench. Both lugs were intact. He was going home to pull and weigh the charges on the remaining loads. Pretty scary stuff. As bad as it was, it could have been a lot worse. At least he walked away. Let's all be careful out there!
Siamese4570

[Kestrel4k]

He needs to actually identify the powder he used instead of merely weighing the loads IMO.

[TD1886]

More like he should win the award for "I Should Quit Reloading" .

[Txcowboy52]

Wow , that is scary stuff! Would be interesting to know what the problem was .

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Very interesting-- another Springfield. Since it is/was an 03-A3 there's no way it could have been a "low number."

DG

[WILCO]

He needs to actually identify the powder he used instead of merely weighing the loads IMO.

Exactly.

Reloading ammunition is serious business.
It's fun but can get you if you are complacent.

[Hannibal]

I'm always worried I'll make a big mistake one day myself. So far, so good but I check things multiple times and still screw up occasionally. I'd love to be able to say I've never done anything like forgotten to seat new primers before charging cases but I'd be lying if I did.

Gotta be careful and never loose respect for what responsibilities you are accepting when reloading.

[TD1886]

Very interesting-- another Springfield. Since it is/was an 03-A3 there's no way it could have been a "low number."

DG

Yeah on it couldn't have been a low number one. Definitey sounds like an overload and would be interesting if the OP finds out exactly what it was, powder type, grains, and bullet weight so we can punch it into Quickload and find out if it was a blue pill or not.

[TD1886]

I'm always worried I'll make a big mistake one day myself. So far, so good but I check things multiple times and still screw up occasionally. I'd love to be able to say I've never done anything like forgotten to seat new primers before charging cases but I'd be lying if I did.

Gotta be careful and never loose respect for what responsibilities you are accepting when reloading.

That's the best way to do it, double or triple check yourself. I ALWAY check my powder measure weights in my scale or scales and I'll do it often while reloading to make extra sure it didn't change. The one advice about looking at your powder levels in the cartridge as they sit in your loading tray before putting bullets in them is one of the best old advices. As they say better safe then sorry.

[dverna]

Agree with those who think the wrong powder was used. I doubt having two or three grains more powder is not going to blow up a gun like that.

[Hannibal]

Agree with those who think the wrong powder was used. I doubt having two or three grains more powder is not going to blow up a gun like that.

Nevermind. Didn't read the post carefully enough and got confused by the OPs username.

[Kestrel4k]

We'll never know the whole story; "Success has many fathers; failure is an orphan."

[georgerkahn]

I was at the range on Tuesday and witnessed a ka-boom. Just two of us on the 100 yd range. The other guy was testing loads in hos 03A3. All of the sudden I heard a boom instead of a bang. I looked down at the other guy and he was wondering around and his rifle appeared to be broken in half. I immediately went over to help. He had small shrapnel cuts on his face and one hand but other than that no serious injuries. It was the first shot out of a new group of reloads. The action was shattered. The barrel was intact and I found the bolt about 10 feet behind and to the right of the bench. Both lugs were intact. He was going home to pull and weigh the charges on the remaining loads. Pretty scary stuff. As bad as it was, it could have been a lot worse. At least he walked away. Let's all be careful out there!
Siamese4570

I concur happiness that no injuries to note! As a point of information, I was privy to three blow-ups -- one Garand and two Springfields -- and the common denominator of all three was pistol powder was used in light loads. I was present/on range for one of the three -- where quite long cast bullets were attempted to be fired in a (beautiful before it blew) Rock Island 1903 -- with the powder employed being Bullseye. Interesting and scary both, the shooter was/is about my age -- perhaps in mid-50s at the time -- who had hand loaded thousands of rounds before, albeit mostly .45acp pistol. Albeit he wears prescription eyeglasses, he still was one lucky camper as a piece of steel got embedded 1/4" above the top of his nose -- dead center between both eyes -- for which we took him to hospital for removal. (He still has the divot/scar).
I reckon it's important to note that H.W. was NOT shooting "normal" rifle (military) loads.
geo

[Rapier]

If you have R-7 and AA-7 on your shelf, be very careful that you do not grab one VS the other. The notorious #7 mixup-up is a real possibility if you get in a hurry and they are near each other.
That I know of, there have been four explosions with cast, and an established R-7 load substituted with AA-7. Usually both were on the powder shelf together. That error will get you.

[firefly1957]

I am also of the belief it would be the wrong powder those are very strong actions .
I forget how high of pressures Hatcher had run in them without results like that . Hearing the bolt was blown out and still had the lugs is bothersome that sounds like the action shatters to me. I have heard of really soft brass from someone annealing the entire case doing things like that did you see where the case head ended up , was there a lot of brass splatter?

[725]

It's no fun being on the line when a ka-boom goes off. I was two stations down from just this very thing. I got splinters (no injury), but others had serious wounds and missing teeth. Glad the injuries were more on the minor side.

[popper]

I had one about a month ago, ar15 223. Wrong ammo. Not my rifle and not my mmo and I didn't load it. Stuns you for a moment. Rifle is trash my SIL said. Went to the house to get some blood cleaned off, I'm thankfully OK.

[country gent]

Many things over a rifles life can lead up to a kaboom. May not have been a big over load but several things over the year that added up to it. Is it possible an out of battery discharge. Or an squib and bore obstruction

[35 Rem]

This why I talk out loud to myself when reaching up to my powder shelf to retrieve a can of powder when starting a loading session. I hold the can and read the powder manufacturer and name, then look down at the load data and read the Powder name, then repeat this a few times. It may seem over cautious but the consequences of being wrong justify it. Once I'm totally convinced that I have the proper powder, ONLY that 1 can of powder is allowed on the bench until I am done with it and then it goes back up on the powder shelf which is high enough that I have to really stretch to reach it.

[1Hawkeye]

I wonder if it was a real 03a3 or a national ordinance receiver parts gun? Finding the bolt with the lugs intact makes me wonder as I've heard the nationals were brittle.