What not to do!

[Grapeshot]

OK. Here it is. I went to the range with a shooting friend of mine yesterday. He brought along his Rossi M92. Told me it was his .357 Carbine that he wanted to try out. He told me he also had another 92 in .44 Mag. That statement should have alerted me to a mix up somewhere along this trip.

Anyway he pulls out a box of .357 Magnum JSP's and begins to load them thru the loading gate. He levers a round into the chamber and aims down range and pulls the trigger. Nothing happens, so he works the lever and out jumps a cartridge. We check it out and there is no firing pin hit. So he attempts to close the lever and chamber another round when another round jumps out of the magazine tube and binds up the action. We clear the action and get a round to chamber, almost. It did not go into the chamber smoothly, so my friend squeezes the lever to force the cartridge into the chamber thinking he's got a round that had a slight bulge from poor reloading practices.

Now he's ready. He draws a bead on the target and pulls the trigger. There is a flash, smoke, fire and some debris come flying back thru the action and scare the daylights out of him. First we make sure he's not hurt. He was hit with hot gasses and unburned powder, but no harm done. The rifle is still intact. That's when he opens the action and out drops a mangled .357 casing and the bullet that had been in it.

It is only then that he checks the markings on the barrel and finds that the rifle is chambered for .44 Magnum. OOPS!

Looking down the barrel after we make sure that there is no more ammo in the magazine, we find it is obstructed. It is what is left of the first round he levered into the chamber and pushed forward into the forcing cone with the second round. attached are the pictures of that second cartridge and the front half of the first round that expanded into the rifling split, and went sailing down range into the berm. Never did find that first rounds bullet.

[Hickory]

Darwin at work?
Everyone is born with two bags;
One empty of experences. and
one full of luck.
The trick in life, is to fill up your bag of experences
before your bag of luck runs out!

[1874Sharps]

Grapeshot:

You are not the first one to have this sort of thing happen! I have heard and read many stories of this sort. I had a friend back in college days that accidentally purchased 16 ga. shells for the 12 ga. shotgun he had borrowed from me. Fortunately for all concerned we discovered the error after the first or second shot because of the split brass at the base. The old Rem 870 held up and did not bust which was especially good because it was on loan to me from my dad. I had an incident about 15 years back when I grabbed my 308 WIN rifle and some 300 Savage shells. The 300 Savage shoulder is mighty close to that of a 308 WIN, so head space was not excessive and the pressure was well under that of the rifle's limits. I shot about ten shots before I noticed that the neck on the brass looked a bit short for a 308. These sorts of things happen and the best one can do, I suppose, is try to develop habits and practices that will short circuit the errors before they happen and to be ever observant. It is good to hear stories like this so that we do not become complacant.

I must ask, what kind of uniform is that that you are wearing in the photo? It looks cool!

[Grapeshot]

Here is the base of that .357 case that was stuck in the bore of the .44 Magnum M92. Obviously the round fire when struck by the bullet of the cartridge that did fire from the firing pin hit. It is the only explanation that we can come up with on why the base stayed in the bore when the front half went down the tube.

1874SHARPS, The Uniform is a US Army Light Artillery Officer's Uniform circa 1898.

[rhbrink]

The worst that I ever saw was a .308 fired in a 25-06. Wasn't there just saw the end result. That guy hadn't used up his bag of luck yet but would guess that he was getting mighty close.
Also saw a .308 fired in a 30-06 I was there for that one no one hurt but the rifle blew out the floorplate and split the stock.

[home in oz]

I think there might be a lesson lurking in this story somewhere.

[beagle]

My shooting partner fired a .30/30 cast in his .308 and didn't even know it until we looked at the brass. My question is??? How did that rimmed case even chamber and fire?/beagle

[Tom-ADC]

Had a good friend put 44 mag in a Ruger single action in 45 LC lots of noise not much recoil and split 44 cases. Got lucky.

[405]

Oh boy! Luck is not predictable. This kinda segways into a rant post that B4207 posted a few days ago. I guess on another forum, one of the visitors here I haven't seen in a while, was bad mouthing the Cast Boolits group here for shooting "popcorn" loads. That same individual jumped all over a post here a few months ago about safe and sane 45 Colt loads. I really think some of these people get a testosterone moment with their fast and loose loading and shooting habit..... ego is an odd critter. The only thing that saves the reckless is the wide safety margin built into most guns and the incredible strength inherent in their design.

Let's see... that un-named individual on the other forum that B4207 referred to thinks that only a real man loads a 45 Colt to manly pressure levels. Of course that individual is no where to be found a few years from now when one of his manly rounds finds its way into a blackpowder framed original Colt and sends gas and metal shards into the shooter or bystanders. Bad enough for the unknowing victims.... doubly bad for the shooting sports as it provides huge amounts of ammo for the anti-gun crowd. Rant over

[missionary5155]

Good morning
The old sarge said it 1000 times.. "Pay attention to detail troop". Still the bulk of casualties I saw in armor were self inflicted due to lack of paying attention to details.
It is so easy to lapse into "failure to follow procedures".

[jr545]

Everyone is born with two bags;
One empty of experences. and
one full of luck.
The trick in life, is to fill up your bag of experences
before your bag of luck runs out!

Thanks for that one hickory.
My grandfather used to say this and he's been gone many years. Guess I'd forgotten it, I'll have to use it with my boys...