i am feeling lucky to be alive

[eddybo]

I just made about the biggest mistake a reloader can make. I have always been very careful to avoid loading the wrong powder. one laz moment can kill you. I just touched off 92gr of 8208 instead of h870. The bolt is locked, I am headin out to try and ttwist the barrel off and see what damage was done. I think there is a good chance I may be in the market for a lawton 7000. Good news was that it produced a velocit y of 3600 fps....and I still have fingers and eyes.
Be careful with those white jugs. I think I am going to paint them different colors.
I know it was stupid. I had used the 870 yesterday and sat it on the bench but forgot that I switched jugs to load some ppcs.

 

[jeff 300]

I just made about the biggest mistake a reloader can make. I have always been very careful to avoid loading the wrong powder. one laz moment can kill you. I just touched off 92gr of 8208 instead of h870. The bolt is locked, I am headin out to try and ttwist the barrel off and see what damage was done. I think there is a good chance I may be in the market for a lawton 7000. Good news was that it produced a velocit y of 3600 fps....and I still have fingers and eyes.
Be careful with those white jugs. I think I am going to paint them different colors.
I know it was stupid. I had used the 870 yesterday and sat it on the bench but forgot that I switched jugs to load some ppcs.

be safe your lucky it went that way could have been a lot worst.

 

[esshup]

eddybo:

Thank God that nothing serious happened. Sometimes it just isn't our turn to go it seems. God knows that I've done some stupid things in my time!

Once I was loading some shtogun shells with Red Dot, and at the end of the day I didn't drain the powder. The next day I wanted to load different shells, and emptied out the remaining powder in the loader back into the jug. I went to grab the jug of Blue Dot for the next load and couldn't understand why it wasn't where it normally was. It was then that I realized that I just poured about 3/4# of Red Dot into approx. 7# of Blue Dot. Lesson learned - never walk away from the loader without having a written note on it saying what's inside! The garden got an extra dose of expensive fertilizer that year.

 

[Varminator 911]

More details please

Was this in a Lawton? What was the caliber and bullet? May not be important, but whatever action it was may have saved your eyes.

Thanks!!

 

[Robbin]

Thanks for reminding us

It's easy to never mention something like this. Sharing it is the best thing you can do, it didn't happen to us, but it reminds us how easy it is to blow yourself up using the wrong powder.
I'm sorry for your rifle, and glad thats ALL that happened.

 

[BountyHunter]

That is called a "significant emotional event" and normally calls for new underwear after the old ones are extracted from the vapor lock.

Glad to see you are OK. Boo Boo happens if you do not constantly watch and we all let things slip at times.

BH

 

[Buffalobob]

At least you didn't get a hammer and beat it open and try it two more times. A Wby Mark 5 bolt shroud is a wonderful thing for a stupid person.

 

[gamehauler]

At least you didn't get a hammer and beat it open and try it two more times. A Wby Mark 5 bolt shroud is a wonderful thing for a stupid person.

??

 

[Buffalobob]

If you build a reduced velocity load for a 7mm Wby in a Mark V action for shooting turkeys using IMR 4227 and then decide to "speed it up" by just adding more 4227, you will lock the bolt up in a hurry. If you don't have any good sense you will try it a couple of more times before deciding that something is really wrong and quit.

When you get up to the point that flame comes out of the gas relief holes and out from under the bolt shroud you really have a lot of pressure. The bolt shroud defects it down and away from your face which is good for us dummies.

 

[300ECHO]

good to know you can still type and then read replies-glad it didn't grenade.geuss bob had an eyeopener also.what is 8208 used in?(how fast of a powder)

 

[eddybo]

Well the Lawton action came through it very well sans the extractor and recoil lug pin. The barrel/chamber is a different matter. The chamber is out of round to the tune of .004 very near the neck. Instead of setting it back and rechambering in something else I think I will hang the barrel over my reloading bench as a reminder.
It is a real shame too. I barely had this barrel broke in shot number 17 did it in. It was a 7mm/338 Lapua and was showing great potential. It was a fluted bartlein 8 twist that finished at 28 inches.
I should have never been hurrying trying to load a few rounds to show a buddy the chrono results. I know better, but I just plain out did something stupid. I guess it proves my theory that I am the luckiest man alive.
The fact that I have eyes is a testament to Bartlein's fine barrels and Lawton's actions. I got off cheap.

Just a tip if you use a bunch of the old surplus powders that come in the white bleach looking jugs mark them very clearly. I am going to spray paint the jugs on my faster burning powders a bright color.

 

[James Jones]

Your very right , luckly everything held togther.

You might want to check the top bolt lug recess in the action , its alot thicker than the bottom one and somtimes with event like that the top recess will suffer an imprint of the bolt lug were the bottom one will flex enough to save it from being imprinted.

So what did you get 3600 fps with? a 180 Berger?

have your run that load through quick load yet to see what kind of pressure you generated?

How was the recoil , is that what made you think *** just happned?

 

[eddybo]

8208 is just a tad quicker than vv133. I ran 92gr of 133 through QL and got an estimated pressure of 176000. Not as bad as I figured but still like a double load. I didnt really notice any difference in the recoil or the sound just that the bolt was really really stuck. We are assumiing the chamber is oblonged from the fact the external barrel dimensions changed from where the front of the chamber would be back to the recoil lug. The recoil lug is stuck on the barrel from the expansion. The threaded portion of the barrel tennon did not expand. There were no marks on the recoil lugs. I could maybe ream the case out of the chamber and put it back together, but am not taking that chance. I ordered a new barrel. If I use the old barrel for anything I will cut the entire old chamber off. I measured it just a few minutes ago. With the whole chamber cut off I will have enough barrel left for a remington tennon, but just barely. I think I was very lucky.

 

[Buffalobob]

Was that your "backup" Oryx rifle?