Well............good grief
I guess I should share this so some other dumb guy does not pull the same stunt I did recently. Just a note on this, a #35 primer for a 50 BMG is one hot puppy with a bunch of force. Check the x-ray at the bottom for the results. Well it is official, I’m a dumb ***, a fat one too. Just before Christmas it was raining and had been raining for several days so I didn’t go out to shoot the 50 BMG to empty the brass. So I decided to use my fancy bullet puller and pull the bullets on the rounds that I wanted to use to make 50 BMG bottle openers. The one thing I didn’t do was take the empty shell and load it in my rifle to make the primer safe. Well after making the two horizontal cuts I started on the vertical cut. Now I’ve done this at least 50 times without problem but this time I screwed up big time. The primer went off, flew out of the primer pocket and hit me about 3 inches above my belly button. It didn’t hurt at all but sure rang my bell. I had safety glasses on so it saved my eye sight. After I figured that I was not hurt bad I got up and noticed that my bib overalls had a hole in them. I headed to the bedroom to double check and found that my shirt, underwear and bib overalls was drenched in blood. I was bleeding like a stuck pig. I grabbed a towel and applied pressure and hollered at my 10 year old son. When he saw the blood he started to freak out but I told him to cool it. I changed my clothes while he held pressure on the wound and we headed for the hospital. I called my 89 year old father on the way and he was waiting with his van to take Scotty and I the rest of the way. Once I got to the hospital the nurse checked me in and they called the sheriff and somehow let them know I had been shot with a 50 BMG rifle. The deputy that showed up couldn’t believe that I had driven myself or that I’d been shot with a 50 BMG. He has known me and my family for quite a while. Once they did the x-ray and CT scan they figured out that I had not mortally wounded myself. Thank goodness for fat. The primer went in above my belly button and traveled about 6 inches to my right and stopped about 3 inches under the skin. The doctor felt around and thought he had figured out how to get it out and made a cut over where the primer should be. After digging around for 20 or 30 minutes he kept having trouble with the primer moving out from between the forceps. He sewed me back up and told me to see the surgeon on Thursday. Man do I feel stupid. I know better than this and could have killed the primer with a drop of oil but I was in a hurry and it bit me. I guess it could have been worse, it could have lodged in my stomach or other important organ. The marks on my spine are from a spinal fusion I had about 4 years ago.
I'll cling to my God and my guns, and you can keep the "Change".
wow ridurall, glad to here it wasn't any worse but watch out for infection, not just from the primer but the Dr poking around too. I was gonna order a couple of those bottle openers but now I'm afraid too
I don't start any bottle openers any more without using fired brass. Absolutly no live primers will ever be mailed out from me.
The primer pocket for the .50BMG is 0.315" in diameter by 0.212" in depth.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...mg_12.7x99.PNG
Small pistol and rifle primers are 0.175" in diameter.
Shotgun shell primers are 0.209" in diameter
Large pistol and rifle primers are 0.210" in diameter.
Areas:
SP/SR -- 0.024052109
LP/LR -- 0.034636051
.50BMG -- 0.077931116
I don't know what the depth of the small or large primers might be, but even if you assume that all the primers had the same depth of priming material, you would be looking at about 2.25 times the explosive material in the .50BMG vs the large rifle/pistol primer...
The .50BMG primer is about $0.30 each whereas the SP or LP primer is around $0.024 each... The BMG primer is basically about 12.5 times the price of a regular primer... Sounds like the primer manufacturers are pricing their products a bit high due to the relatively small number of .50BMG reloaders out there...
Live fast, die young, leave a cute widow...
Glad to hear you are well we all make mistakes at times . One BIG WARNING while that drop of oil will make a primer insensitive to impact heat will still detonate them!
When I think back on all the **** I learned in high school it's a wonder I can think at all ! And then my lack of education hasn't hurt me none I can read the writing on the wall.
My own mother lost a dollar bet when I made 21.
When I was 14 I tried shooting my .22 pistol off a horse. The horse came completely unglued. He bolted, bucked and threw me.
I lost the pistol, probably in midair and when I landed I rolled through a short mesquite.
My horse ran home, I pee'd my pants sometime between airborne and mesquite. I bled all over what was left of my shirt.
Dad laughed his **** off, "Next time shoot off to the horse's side, not over his head".
Mom was not amused.
Everybody grab a shovel, we got a swamp to drain.
You can shoot off of any horse.
Once.
The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"
Forget everything you know about loading jacketed bullets. This is a whole new ball game!
Best sticky ever.
Just Horribly Wrong.....best one tonite!
My senior year in high school my Dad bought an old xray machine from a dentist's office. My brothers and I hooked the cathode ray tube (out of the case) up to a car abttery and watched it glow - several times! I used it in a science project until it was stolen but after I ran several tests in front of the entire class. No wonder the teacher stood in the back corner! I did get a headache every time I used it (several dozen times).
All 4 of us brothers do have kids though.
What would you have if you woke up tomorrow with only what you thanked the Lord for today?
I cannot top that story but a close friend, John Musser, now gone to his reward, got interested in Luger pistols. THis was about 1950. He ordered a Lyman pot for the kitchen gas stove and a mould for the truncated 115 grain bullet and placed a bunch of scrap lead in the pot, set things alight and repaired to the living room to read the reloading manual. Some time later a loud BANG assaulted his ears and he returned to the kitchen to find the ceiling coated with lead. THere evidently was a stray primer or loaded round mixed in the melt scrap! I din't do as badly, but got some old beer coils for the tin. A piece evidently had a bit of water in it and business picked up. THis was in the dining room with an electric pot and somehow the curtains got a sheeting of lead. Lesson learned...
I will not try to (top) but my neighbor as a kid found his dad's dead donkey laying in a field and cried as this animal was a pet to him. He laid down next to the donkey and fell asleep. He lost an eye to the vouchers. He is 90 years old now. Just saying, I would hang on to the hot mould thank you! Great post And thread!
Give me something to believe in. Poison
Arosmith What it takes
A 12 step program
I was reading through our family history and came across an account of one of my progenitors who lived in Utah in the 1800's. There was problems with the Black Hawk Indians and the local men were formed into a militia to act as protection. As part of their "training" they were taught how to fire from their horses. The men lined up in one wide line and were supposed to charge to a certain distance, fire their weapons and then perform a tight turn and return to their starting point, while maintaining the line. It all sounded reasonable but when they first tried it, all heck broke loose. Several horses bolted, some men fired early, and one poor guy got to the firing point and shot his horse in the back of the head, killing it instantly. I can only imagine the story he told to his poor wife. . . .
So, we're not the first men who've made silly mistakes and lived to share them. Hopefully, after a good chuckle, we can learn from the stories.
First thing here I can comment on with authority. I was a radar tech on F-4s. You have to feed that cathode tube a very high frequency signal on one wire and a high amount of electricity on another if you want to get any kind of frequency out of it. Warming it up with a DC car battery will make it glow, but there would be no output to be concerned about, certainly nothing like x-rays.
I'm having a hard time deciding between real tough and real stupid....at least you did not get hurt!
I used to think I was a red neck, and you told the world you are one....
Slow Elk 45/70
Praise the Lord & Pass the Ammo
A hunting buddy of mine shot me. We were chasing quail up in the panhandle of Texas (no hills, no trees). We busted a covey and watched them land and knowing they would run, we split up to cover a wider area. He flushed one and you know quail, they will intentionally circle back on you. This one went between us and he fired at it, about 10 feet off the ground. I got peppered pretty good. He came running over appologizing all the way and asking if I was OK. I said "Sure they just bounced off of me. Not hurt a bit." He stepped up to me and put his finger to my forehead and brought it back so I could see the blood. I still didn't think much of it. We finished hunting and I went home. I was in the bathroom looking at the spot in the mirror and thought 'man that spot looks awful dark, must be a small blood clot there'. I mashed it like a pimple and out popped one piece of 7 1/2 shot. I caught it before it went down the sink. The next day I went to a guy that would mold plastic around just about anything, scorpions, rattlesnake heads, just anything. I had him mold a 2" square with that pellet in the middle. Then I gave it to my buddy. He almost cried and started appologizing again. We still hunted together until the Army took me and he still has that paper weight.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |