What blew up my gun?

[Gord0]

Extreme pressure is the only thing that would cause that. You either had an obstructed bore, or you loaded 35gr of pistol powder, not varget.

 

[memtb]

I had a similar occurrence on the first shot of the day, though not nearly as bad as yours, about 30 years ago. I had just loaded a week or so before with a proven load.....no "weld". I pulled all of the remaining loaded cartridges....proper bullets, powder and powder weight(IMR 4198/23.0 grains). The rifle had been shot a few weeks earlier, stored in basement ( living alone, no one else in home)....leaned in a corner. It was a Rem. Model 700 Heavy Barrel Varmint in .223.

With the shot, I got....recoil (wow....from a .223), gasses from ports, mild sting to the face, couldn't open the bolt. I took it to a local gunsmith. He "hammered" the bolt open, the .223 Rem. brass was now a "belted" case, and we had to replace the extractor. Checked with "go/no-go" gauges and passed. I used the rifle for several years thereafter.

Conclusion using the "SWAG" system : a "dirt dauber" or something similar built a nest in the barrel! memtb

 

[robert l]

Went shooting yesterday, shot about 5 shots and on 6th shot this happened.
Reloads from a couple years ago , store in ammo box in a shooting bag.
Rifle is a 22-250 Savage Model 10
Bullets are 55Gn Hornady V-Max
35GN of Varget Powder
Been doing this recipe for approx. 4 years, have never had problem.
No signs of over pressure until this incident, happily no injuries/casualties (except gun,LOL)
Any Ideas out there

View attachment 148591 View attachment 148592

Looks like some thing blocked the barrel the way it all came out to the rear.

 

[normyt]

Can you see if the bullet is lodged in the barrel if it is leave it there. A couple years ago I was with my uncle shooting sage rats when he bulged the barrel on his CZ 17 hmr and cracked the stock. Stuck a bullet in the barrel we knocked the bullet out should have left it in there because CZ would only replace the stock. It was hornandy HMR ammo my guess there was a bullet over sized. Anyway no way to prove it was the bullet lodged in the barrel since we knocked it out.

The barrel looks in great shape other then it's not attached to action. Can see down barrel no obstruction, only the case that was being shot when this blew up.

 

[normyt]

To do that id say wrong powder or obstruction near the chamber. Plugged barrels usually bulge/split near the obstruction so id rule out an obstruction farther down. It really looks like a hefty dose of pistol powder got in there.

Don't do pistols so don't have pistol powder

 

[normyt]

I doubt an over charge of varget would do that, I dont think you can get that much in a 22-250 case...
Case/bullet weld shouldn't do that either-- if it was a barrel obstruction I'd think you would see a barrel bulge and usually the barrel will split/blow before the receiver ....looks like the bolt lugs got shoved back into the receiver, thus the banana'd receiver. Still think it could be an out of battery, wrong powder, or case rupture/failure-- it takes alot of energy to split a steel receiver like that.


Looks like I can see the bolt handle at the rear, but I dont see the bolt through the vent hole in the front of the receiver--- did the bolt shear in 2 pieces? Or am I looking at the picture wrong

Bolt was pushed back, no ejector left. That's what it appears that pressure (case rupture/failure)
pushed hard enough for lugs to split action

 

[robert l]

Went shooting yesterday, shot about 5 shots and on 6th shot this happened.
Reloads from a couple years ago , store in ammo box in a shooting bag.
Rifle is a 22-250 Savage Model 10
Bullets are 55Gn Hornady V-Max
35GN of Varget Powder
Been doing this recipe for approx. 4 years, have never had problem.
No signs of over pressure until this incident, happily no injuries/casualties (except gun,LOL)
Any Ideas out there

View attachment 148591 View attachment 148592

Can you see through the bore?

 

[normyt]

Unless there was a barrel obstruction introduced from the previous shot, I'd say an extreme case of over-pressure with the round itself. However, the charge weight you listed is certainly within reason.

The strong possibility exists that the case was significantly over-charged. Check your powder thrower. Check your scale (electronic or mechanical). I always recommend that each charge be individually weighed even though it slows the process a bit. It's possible the case was double charged but that usually leaves an obvious mess of powder and bullet seating issues - but it happens.

Pull the bullets from the remaining loaded cases and carefully examine/weigh those charges as the problem might have been repeated within that same batch.

Yeah that's what I'm going to do is pull remaining loads. These bullets were reloaded probably
3.5 to 4 years ago. Wonder if something in reloaded case/bullet can change after that much time in store? I feel I'm pretty careful when reloading but I guess a guy can get complacent when doing this repetitious routine. i also always check for what's "incipent head separation" of each case.

 

[normyt]

Can you see through the bore?

Yeah can see thru bore

 

[normyt]

I had a similar occurrence on the first shot of the day, though not nearly as bad as yours, about 30 years ago. I had just loaded a week or so before with a proven load.....no "weld". I pulled all of the remaining loaded cartridges....proper bullets, powder and powder weight(IMR 4198/23.0 grains). The rifle had been shot a few weeks earlier, stored in basement ( living alone, no one else in home)....leaned in a corner. It was a Rem. Model 700 Heavy Barrel Varmint in .223.

With the shot, I got....recoil (wow....from a .223), gasses from ports, mild sting to the face, couldn't open the bolt. I took it to a local gunsmith. He "hammered" the bolt open, the .223 Rem. brass was now a "belted" case, and we had to replace the extractor. Checked with "go/no-go" gauges and passed. I used the rifle for several years thereafter.

Conclusion using the "SWAG" system : a "dirt dauber" or something similar built a nest in the barrel! memtb

The thing is this was not my first shot. I had shot about 5-6 cartridges from same batch of reloads.
All felt & sounded same. Not sure replacing extractor will fix this. LOL

 

[normyt]

Extreme pressure is the only thing that would cause that. You either had an obstructed bore, or you loaded 35gr of pistol powder, not varget.

Shot 5-6 rounds before this happened, all recoil / blast felt/sounded same. Don't do pistols so don't have pistol powder

 

[normyt]

glad there were no injuries-
you think scorpion will warranty that scope under their "sting free" policy?

"STING FREE" WARRANTY
If you have ANY issues with your Red Hot Varminter 4-16x44 you can simply return it to us, and have it exchanged for a brand new one.

Forgot about their "Stingfree" Warranty. I'll get ahold of them see what they have to say.
Let you know what happens.

 

[MagnumManiac]

Have seen similar occurrence with 243 rifles, a known proven load suddenly destroys the rifle.
Had one come into the shop some years back, a Sako 243 that was destroyed, barrel was ok and the bore scope showed numerous cloth threads embedded in the grooves, which might have been the issue.
I locked a bolt on a CRF because there was too much oil left in the bore, luckily no rifle damage, just a ruined case.

All I can say is, it happens and no-one knows why. Many cite S.E.E (Secondary Explosion Effect), but this has never been proven in a lab to date.

Cheers.

 

[MachV]

Had a 243 and 6-284 a few years ago blow a case bad, in both cases they had been reloaded for a couple years. The actions didnt seem damaged and have since put afew rounds through them.Both cases where 100% loads so it was impossible to overload and it was the correct powder.
The only thing I could think of was bullet weld, run a few cases back through the seating die and bingo! They all poped a little but a few of them where very tuff.
Since then I make a habit of bumping back any loads that have been loaded over six month. Kind of a PITA but I try not to reload more than I'm going to shoot in one season.
Try bumping a few rounds back a couple thousand and see what you find? Also check a few case lengths, if the case is too long it can lock the bullet up.