elkaholic
Well-Known Member
I had rums for several years and also wold agree that the powder charge itself would not have been the problem.
It's possible but I would think if that was the case it would not have shown the high velocity that it did, it takes almost 100K pressure to reach that velocity. So it would appear that something caused the spike, it's the something that would be nice to know so as to try and prevent future issues.I had a similar experience shooting 200 ABs in my RUM. I'm not near my notes but the load is about 93 grains of retumbo. It was probably in the high teens the day mine happened. Broke the bolt off the gun and eventually took it to a Smith. They unscrewed the barrel and everything was just fine. I did not know what the actual cause of the issue was, but thought it was probably debris that got into the beach causing the lugs to get hung up.
We had been crawling through snow after a herd of Elk. My dad had wounded a bull, long story short, we got the bull. Rifle handle broke and was welded back on.
It doesn't seem like debris would be the issue here. I am curious to get the bullet pulled, barrel inspected and some type of diagnosis given.
Is it possible there was some type of weakness in the case, letting the explosion go through the shell and welding it to the chamber?
BignGreen I will send you a PM and let's see what you find.
I will try and answer a few of the questions that have been posted.
190gr Accubond load: Winchester primers, 91.5 gr Retumbo COL of 3.6"
This round shot just fine regardless of temp.
210Gr Berger load: Federal 215 Primers 91.5gr Retumbo at 3.6"
No issues here either.
230Gr Berger (the one in question): Federal 215 primers, 86.8 gr, 3.6"
I pulled the bullets from the 230 gr loads and they were within .1 gr of what I initially measured. I used two different scales to measure the power and they both provided the same results.
I only had one power out at the time so I am confident that it is Retumbo. All the loads I have for the RUM have come from the same 8 lb container of Retumbo.
I did look into each case while loading and they visually had same amount of powder. The charge sits just below the shoulder visually.
I have about 350-400 rounds in total down the barrel.
I have been getting some good feedback on thing I should have done differently after the incident. Maybe if I would have reached out to a few folks I may have been able to save the receiver.
I told my wife today that I need to observe a moment of silence for the rifle that is no longer with us. She said is it really that bad. I said yes. Her response was well why don't you go buy a new rifle? I don't think I am going to ask twice. I guess the search will be on.
This is quite the learning experience. I hate to learn the hard way. A guy takes pride in his work and I try to pay attention to what I am doing. I had six friends harvest game this year on safe loads I worked up. It is a tough pill to swallow when your rifle is damaged with ammo you load. If any good comes of this it may point out points where I made mistakes and hopefully I and other can learn from it.