got lucky very, VERY lucky........
hillbille
Member Posts: 14,395 ✭✭✭✭
one of the guys I hunt with decided to take up muzzleloading this year. we all went out on sunday and he didn't come till monday afternoon. I was in my sons stand almost a mile down the road as he decided to shoot his new muzzloader, I heard it like it was just down the hill, honestly I figured another one of our bunch had shot a doe just around the hill from me. I sat there another 10 minutes and decided to give up and call it beer thirty.
got back to the cabin and ask where the fellow was and my cousin said on his way to the hospital, his rifle had blown up, banana peeled from the breechplug towards the front sight almost halfway down the barrell. I saw he barrell and a lot of the pieces laying on the table and blood on the porch. It was a scary few hours till he called and said he was fine, gonna loose a few fingernails and a chunk of skin from his wrist, it actually ripped his watch off and we found it out in the yard almost 20 yards away.
as we were putting the pieces back together and talking over what may have happened my cousing kept saying we did everything right, measured out 90 grains of powder,made sure the bullet was tamped down on the powder,ect. then he showed me the powder can, bullseye!!! he put 90 grains of bullseye down the barrell then tamped it compact and shot it off, we NEVER even found the scope! I told them he literally made a pipe bomb, he had to be close to 20 times the normal charge and VERY lucky to be alive, and my cousin also as he was standing beside him when he shot it. seems he had gotten in a hurry and just grabbed a can of powder on the way out the door! and yes he is new to reloading also, which makes me wonder about his reloads!!
we had a long talk at the table a few nights later when he came out to get his stuff and he admitted he was in a hurry and didn't even think about it, I asked him about his reloads and said if he got the powders mixed up on them he stood a good chance of doing the same to his hunting rifles or pistols, he just got a funny look and said "seriously?" I hope he learned his lesson, once is enough to go through something like this.........
I don't know how to post pics but I do have a few I could email to someone if they want to see/post them.
Comments
Send them to me and I'll try to post then.
Wow, glad he's okay.
will give it a try jim, will foward 3 if I figure it out. thanks
tried to send the 3 pics, my wife sent them to me from her phone, I tried to foward them to you, if you don't get them I will have her send them when she gets home tonight, sorry I'm not very computer savvy......
guess you got them, thanks Jim. you can erase your e-mail from the post if you want Jim
Holey money!
Wow, glad everything turned out no worse than it did. I also sure hope some lessons were learned. Gunpowder + hurry is not a good recipe.
Holey smokes! 90 grs of one of the fastest burning powders that there is. I wouldn't know where to start trying to figure out what the pressure generated from that load was. It looks like the type of muzzeloader that he used directed most of the blast forward. If it hadn't you might be telling us some much sadder news. Bob
If not for the buttstock, I wouldn't even recognize the wreckage as part of a firearm. Your friend and cousin are very fortunate!
Holy chit, VERY lucky. What was it?
Ignorance of powder charges has cost a lot of limbs.
Good God! What a screwup.
All I can say is...WOW!!!
Combat Vet VN
D.A.V Life Member
Everybody thinks they are an expert.......until they find out that they aren't.
CVA wolf, as I said we found a lot but never found the scope, the hinge pin it breaks open on was 20 yards behind where he shot in the parking area. it also put two holes in the rain gutter you could put your finger through...
Wow!
GOOD MORNING AMERICA! SO wrong and so lucky!
He better buy a lottery ticket. damn lucky.
Glad he survived with only the educational injuries he received.
shame that some of our most learning events are ones that involve personal injury when common sense didnt take precedence.
That being said, I’m the pot calling the kettle black, LOL 🤠
Mule
lucky is a understatement wow how close they came to major injury or death is frightening
I will guess 15 to 18 years ago my youngest son was a friend's house the kids uncle liked old muzzleloaders so the fellow went out back to try out his new ( recent bought old rifle . ) so the boys were standing close by when the fellow pulled the bang switch well some blood some cuts some minor ? damage to his face , he lost a finger or two the gun stock and barrel parted ways just blew up in his hands
my son and his buddy were close by and seen it happen and both were lucky and not hurt
best guess it was just a old rifle the chamber had deuterated / rusted to a state of weak metal inside over the years
my son had a slight dis trust of muzzle loaders after that as we were shooing a TC I had and he said you know my experence was not that great with one . so we talked about what happened and the kids uncle just judging / guessing based on the outward appearance but then again that was my guess as he collected and used them but using the wrong powder or way too much is alos possible
as we were putting the pieces back together and talking over what may have happened my cousing kept saying we did everything right, measured out 90 grains of powder
your Cousin doesn't know any better either ??
no he didn't pay any attention as my friend poured it into his powder horn, he never looked at the can it came out of till I asked him a few hours later, and then he grabbed it out of the box my friend had put it back in.
I'm gonna bet he is going to be a little nervous IF he ever pulls a trigger again..
Well, it's easy to figure out the pressure it generated. It's equal to the failure strength of the barrel. 😆
look on the roof the scope maybe there
glad no one got killed
we did its not there.......
If it is any consolation, 90 grains of Bullseye under a bullet will destroy any rifle made today.
This could be the largest loading blunder I have heard of in my entire life.
In "Hatcher's Notebook' the general relates a story about a guy who loaded a 12 ga. shell full of dynamite and let his heavily insured wife shoot it in a single shot break-open gun. But that was intentional. The wrecked firearm looked a great deal like the pieces shown in the pictures.
I witnessed a custom Colt 38 Super blow apart because of a double load (8.2 gr) of Bullseye. If it had been a lesser quality gun, he would have lost his hand. The barrel split, the slide broke at the ejection port, the magazine blew out the bottom, and the grip panels became kindling. We disassembled the rest of the rounds left in the magazine, and all of them were double charged. Three grains of Bullseye was my load for plinking 38 Spl 150 gr wadcutters, I can only imagine what 90 grains would do!
my gosh, very lucky indeed.
I would strongly encourage him to tear down all his reloads. Dispose of the powder, salvage what components you can. If he got that funny look on his face,,,, there is just too much at risk. Perhaps he should only reload one caliber, and or only with an experienced reloader with him as a coach and extra quality control.
Just wow.