The closest I ever came...

[Jim]

...to blowing up a rifle was today. I took my new 1917 Eddystone Enfield to my private range and ran it through it's paces. Somehow, a 185 gr. PSP 8MM got in the bag of reloads. It went off and I immediately knew something was wrong. I felt blow-back on my face. Amazingly the bolt opened perfectly and what came out was a beautifully fire formed 8MM case to .30-06 chamber dimensions. I could see daylight through the pierced primer. I now have that case on my key ring to remind me daily of how close I came to disaster by not double checking my ammunition prior to loading. For those that may doubt there's a God, trust me, He's there.
By the way, the bullet cut the edge of a really nice "one ragged hole" group.

[Wicky]

A bit of good luck there Jim. Glad everything is OK.
And at least you know the load shoots well.

Had a similar thing happen years ago, I was taking my cousin out for a shot and had a half dozen firearms and he loaded a 308 in a 375 H&H.
The extracter must have held the cartridge tight enough for the firing pin to give it a good hit and we got a 308 case to nearly fit the 375 chamber!
I think he was lucky the brass streched enough to seal the chamber or it could have been tears all round!

Stay safe.

[Blammer]

wow, I'm really surprised you could get an 8mm case into a 30-06, the 8mm boolit must have been short enough in the case to let it fit. glad you're ok.

[Ricochet]

Yeah, it'll usually go in. A lot of .30-06 rifles have been blown up that way.

[S.R.Custom]

wow, I'm really surprised you could get an 8mm case into a 30-06, the 8mm boolit must have been short enough in the case to let it fit...

That's how it happens... Years ago, a buddy of mine touched off a .308 round in a .270 Ruger M77 MKII. Everything felt fine when he chambered the round; the .308's bullet had headspaced in the neck part of the chamber of the .270. Upon pulling the trigger, he figured out something was wrong...

The gun didn't blow up, but it took a hammer to get the bolt open and some patient work with a Dremel tool to get all the brass out of the recesses of the bolt face. Other than that, the gun came through it fine. Can't imagine what kind of pressures were generated in the process of swaging that .308 bullet down to .277. Those Ruger M77s are tough...

[Bret4207]

Hobbs to Calvin, lying on their backs gazing at the stars- "Do you think Gods out there somewhere?" Calvin- " I don't know, probably.............I think He's out to get me."

[BCall]

I've seen similar happen, now I am very careful about only having one type of ammo on the bench. Some friends were shooting at my dad's house when one of them picked up the wrong ammo. This was the case afterwards. 307 Win on the left, 7 mag on the right. The middle is the 307 that was fired in the 7 mag. Amazingly, the bolt wasn't even stuckl on the Rem 700. Makes me nervous to this day. Billy

[MtGun44]

See, a bullet that fits the bore properly will be accurate. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Of course, MOST of us draw the line at .002" oversized, not 0.015 over.

Glad to hear that you and the rifle are OK. They always said the 1917 Enfields
were strong rifles.

Bill

[Mk42gunner]

... and in the center the world's only surviving example of the 307 Winchester Belted Mag



Yikes


Robert

[DLCTEX]

A friend fired a 25 Rem. in a 243 once. He got a case separation and a face full of powder gases. The gun was built on a 98 Mauser action. Another friend ( teenager) was shooting 300 Savage in an Arisaka. The fella he borrowed it from said it was always inaccurate.

[PAT303]

I cast up a heap off Lee 8mm and lyman 311299 boolits for a mate of mine and he loaded the 8mm's into his '06 Eddystone instead of his mauser and fired at least 40 of them not knowing anything was wrong.He said afterwoulds that he didn't notice any difference in how they shot. Pat

[mag44uk]

I once fired a 38 full wadcutter that was destined for my S$W Model 52 in my 10mm Colt Delta Elite!
It loaded and fired. Funny noise and lots of gas. (that may have just been me tho! )
No big issue. I had to check afterwards that is was possible to get the round in the mag.
Suprisingly similar in OAL and diameter.
Tony

[TAWILDCATT]

I had a friend bring his own ammo to shoot in my 303 brit.I still have the 303 savage case.my son just was testing a 700 rem before buying ased store for 7 mm magnum.fired on and it was a 270 win in the box with 7 mm rem ultra.I called Remington and told them making cartridges that simular was bad business.frankly there is not that much improvement,just a sales pitch.

[725]

Long ago I was given an 8mm-'06. The ammo was so close to the '06, I just rebarreled the 8mm-'06 so as to avoid this very thing. Didn't even want one around that would be so easy to confuse.

[carpetman]

30-30 in bolt action certainly can shoot pointed bullets---BUT someone not knowing the difference or some other situation--Murphy's Law--those bullets will most likely end up in a lever gun. Others say they shoot a pointed on first shot---again that pointed will wind up wrong posistion--you want your first shot to be accurate or the following shot? Doubtful they'll be hitting same place. Moral of the story get a .308 if you want pointed bullets.

[chevyiron420]

i read a story someplace about a guy's friend that hunted with a arasaka that had been rechambered to 30-06. the friend had been shooting and hunting with it for many years and never had any trouble with it other than he didnt care for the recoil it had. the guy had been trying to trade him up to something more up to date for a long time and when he finaly did he discovered that the barrel was 6.5mm and someone had cut a 30-06 chamber in it. can you imagine those 308 bullets sizing down to, what, .267 or so???

[Southern Son]

A gentleman I shoot with in my club sent a rifle away to a company here in Oz that specialises in rebarreling. He told them he wanted the new barrel to be chambered in .270 Winchester. It came back some time later so my friend took off to the club to test his new rifle. Shot terrible, at 100 meters, the projectiles that hit the paper were travelling sideways. Calls to the factory initially did not get any real answers. It was not until he made some measurements that he found they had indeed chamered the new barrel for .270 Win. Unfortunately, they had put that chamber in a 7mm barrel. The company fixed up their mistake once they found out what had happened, and we can all laugh about it know, but what would have been the result of a .280 in a .270 barrel. Initially maybe not much, but if you kept shooting it for a while, how long before something gives up the ghost and the rifle goes boom in the wrong direction?

[Jim]

When that back blast of hot gas hit me in the face, it sent a chill through me the likes of which I've not experienced in a long time. I knew I had come very close to being fragged. And I shoot left handed! I ain't greenin' y'all, fellas, that scared me somethin' fierce!
I can guarantee you one thing, for sure and certain: I'll be checkin' what I'm feedin' very carefully from now on.

[Wayne Smith]

i read a story someplace about a guy's friend that hunted with a arasaka that had been rechambered to 30-06. the friend had been shooting and hunting with it for many years and never had any trouble with it other than he didnt care for the recoil it had. the guy had been trying to trade him up to something more up to date for a long time and when he finaly did he discovered that the barrel was 6.5mm and someone had cut a 30-06 chamber in it. can you imagine those 308 bullets sizing down to, what, .267 or so???

That story goes back to the early 50's and was published in the American Rifleman. The guy had even shot a deer with it, took it to his gunsmith to do something about the recoil. Said it kicked like crazy. The gunsmith sent it to the NRA for evaluation.

[jonk]

For godssake, be careful!

I've never done this and God willing, never will. I take all my ammo in boxes segregated by caliber, and only load one caliber at a time- or with factory or surplus, in the original packaging. It certainly COULD happen but I'm just saying, there are precautions to be taken... it scares me not so much that ONE member has done this but that a few of you have!