What blew up my gun?

[Gord0]

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

What's the fastest burning rifle powder you have?
As JE said, that's over 200,000psi range you saw there and only 2 things can cause that. Something was in the bore, or powder was way too fast/too much.

 

[bigngreen]

No I didn't. Can't recall exactly how many shots I took (5, 6, 7 ???) was a little stunned after incident.

I've had exactly one uncork on me and blow metal into my face and it was nothing like yours just the case and bolt third ring of steel blown of. I will forever be unnerved by that, nothing pleasant about it!!!! Amazed and glad you are OK!!!

 

[keithcandler]

Cold Weld or what you read as Bullet Weld is real, and creates a bomb.

Another issue could be if you throw your powder charges and not weigh everyone of them. Varget could "bridge" in the powder measure, causing one light charge and one heavy charge. A light charge could detonate and blow your gun up.

I don't believe the bore was plugged as obstruced bores usually bulge near the obstruction.

Is there any way a Savage Axis could have a firing pin break or be forward as you chamber the round, causing the round to go off out of battery? I have seen this happen in M1's, and a Weatherby Mark 5.

 

[J E Custom]

How / Why does it happen? Just bad storage practices? Too long in storage?

I personally don't think It has anything to do with the age of the ammo because when ammo goes bad, it normally becomes acidic and starts to eat through the case. Also when you open a container of old powder you can smell the degradation. and should not use it.

I have shot 50+year old ammo and it was fine. even some of the corrosive ammo that was 75+years old, and as long as the cases looked good it worked fine. As I said, if it looks bad I don't shoot it in anything and usually just pull the bullets and throw the rest away. But if you are not sure about the quality or the powder charge or even someone else's reloads, Dispose of it in a safe manor.

J E CUSTOM

 

[CVCOBRA1]

On the "old" ammo, I was thinking the same thing. I have never shot any but do know some guys that shoot military ammo that is decades old from time to time. None of them has ever had any trouble.

 

[jerry moore]

either out of battery or over pressure load is my guess
55 gr is close to max with 55gr, but not a compressed load, could you maybe have gotten an overcharge by accident?
would a loose barrel nut cause this type of OP issue?

other thing I might be wary of is case head separation?
mistake of pistol powder? (probably not)

I would pull all the rest of those loads to see if you can find an issue, and look for signs of case head separation on the fired brass, varget powder is pretty easy to tell apart from others as it has a goldish tint to it--I can still read the brass manu in your 2nd pic

savage axis 2? check out this article : https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/10/24/man-insane-battery-firing-savage-axis-can-happen/

 

[Andrew Cowling]

either out of battery or over pressure load is my guess
55 gr is close to max with 55gr, but not a compressed load, could you maybe have gotten an overcharge by accident?
would a loose barrel nut cause this type of OP issue?

other thing I might be wary of is case head separation?
mistake of pistol powder? (probably not)

I would pull all the rest of those loads to see if you can find an issue, and look for signs of case head separation on the fired brass, varget powder is pretty easy to tell apart from others as it has a goldish tint to it--I can still read the brass manu in your 2nd pic

savage axis 2? check out this article : https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/10/24/man-insane-battery-firing-savage-axis-can-happen/

Not a savage axis action, wrong shape for that.

 

[jerry moore]

is this savage recent production the quote on out of battery is scary wonder if all axis bolts are made like this

 

[thwatson2]

Of course there is a common theme here. Barrel obstruction and over pressure. Not to beat the dead horse but it is one of those 2 things. Not seeing barrel in pics so can't tell if obstruction exist. I'd pull all your remaining rounds, check for powder consistency and weight. Likely others have an issue. Do you use pistol powder? Do you use them in rifle rounds for recoil reduction or subsonic loads, if not then find out why with some investigation you will know. 35 gr varget with 55 gr bullets in 22-250 wouldn't do this Glad you are safe and able to share

 

[xbowbob]

Yes our "sting free warranty" will cover your scope.
Bob Shebaylo pres.
Scorpion Optics

 

[30BR]

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

Maybe you can sell the old scope to Cornershot...

 

[Farmerboy78]

Guys I had 2 similar instances myself that caused this. In a 6x47 lapua I had a case that wouldn't hold up and the case head separated like in the picture. The case has to be weak near the head. Second, was a 6xc and fired a 6x47 in it. My wife pulled 1 bullet of each out of the freshly loaded ammo boxes and crossed them up when they were put back.

 

[mpayne]

xbowbob it's nice to see a company stand behind their product!

 

[108676]

Had a 243 go waaaaaay high on pressure many years ago when I was younger and less educated in the ways of reloading and found out the cases were over length and the necks were pinched in the leade -essentially "welding" or just plain old wedged in - I would say measure the cases for overall case length and if over spec you may have solved your problem.
Just a thought since you seem to be ruling out most of the other obvious causes