The owner of this .50BMG rifle fired it, but only heard a small "pop". Now, the smarter amongst us would have stopped right there, but this guy decided to chamber another round. He then decided to pull the trigger again. The unsurprising end result:
(http://kenjo.smugmug.com/Guns/Firearms/i-stW9ssC/0/L/Squib-L.jpg)
Credits: https://www.facebook.com/TheFirearmsTrainingAcademy
:wb:
Well now he will be able to clean is rifle barrel more easily ::)
I'll bet he has a bad flinch now. We had a squib round at a Pistolseed and because we mentioned it the student stopped shooting and ask for help.
Yikes! The action seems to be intact, so hopefully his face is as well...
At one of my light rifle classes, we had just started shooting following the safety talk, when a little 8 year old girl put up her hand to ask if she had a squib. (She was sort of wrapped around her grand-dad's 'tuber') Yup! We knocked the bullet out of the barrel with a rod, and she got a souvenir to take home, rather than blowing up the family rifle. Thank heavens for people who listen!
A fool and his money are soon parted? I would think the reduced recoil should of woke him up.
However as an RSO I have had to call cease fire during an IPSC match to a shooter who didn't notice.
I sure hope that guy didn't get hurt....
This last year I picked up a similar rifle at a estate sale.
It was an older muzzle loader. The story behind the blown up barrel
involved elk camp, alcohol and at some time plugging the barrel with dirt.
Lucky enough no one was hurt, or the elk he tried to fire at.....
It makes for a great wall hanger now! ^:)^
Quote from: hawkeye on December 10, 2013, 01:25:39 PM
I'll bet he has a bad flinch now. We had a squib round at a Pistolseed and because we mentioned it the student stopped shooting and ask for help.
Not meaning to make light of this, but the "bad flinch" comment had me shooting coffee out of my nose.. ;D
I was so excited to get my brand new M9 that I had just tuned for competitions out to the line I forgot to grab my ammo that morning so I was forced to buy the only ammo that the range had - their own reloads. Already this was a bad omen... The VERY FIRST round in the chamber got itself stuck solidly halfway down the bore of my BRAND NEW Bar Sto stainless barrel. I cleared the pistol as far as I could, took out the barrel and ammo and brought it to the lady that worked the counter and told her of the issue with their ammo. When asked what they used to load the ammo with (I was asking about powder/bullets) she simply said, 'I used the red machine, that's the one for your size. The blue one is for the revolvers." :wb: I stood there dumbfounded that they were trusting this girl (doesn't matter to me the sex of the person who loaded the ammo, just their skill) to reload and sell ammunition. I asked to speak with someone who knew what they were talking about. The next guy I talked to tried to grill me on all the different parts and things I've done to my pistol and tried to blame the pistol for the round getting stuck halfway down the barrel! Ok, I will admit that I have only owned my gunsmith shop for 3 years, have competed for 5 years, and was an armorer for only 12 years carrying the M9 all 12 of those years so I don't know everything there is to know about guns, but I think I have a pretty good handle on this particular firearm. I almost lost it when he kept refusing to admit fault with his reloaded ammo and stood by the girl who only knew the difference in color between two loading machines. (Good for him, sticking up for his employees - you don't see that often anymore but this was clearly an ammo issue) He offered to get the bullet out of the barrel for me and I told him that I would rather just get a refund on the ammo, even prorated for the single round I attempted to fire. Apparently all ammo sales are final and to be shot on his range only. This is when I lost my mind. I try to be nice and understanding that people can make mistakes, although I expect a business to own their mistakes and make sure their product is SAFE for their customer. That's when I said screw it, dumped the last 99 rounds in their toilet, flushed (or attempted to, it doesn't work so well like that...) Never been back there since.
Quote from: kenjo on December 10, 2013, 11:03:29 AM
The owner of this .50BMG rifle fired it, but only heard a small "pop". Now, the smarter amongst us would have stopped right there, but this guy decided to chamber another round. He then decided to pull the trigger again. The unsurprising end result:
(http://kenjo.smugmug.com/Guns/Firearms/i-stW9ssC/0/L/Squib-L.jpg)
Credits: https://www.facebook.com/TheFirearmsTrainingAcademy
Another source cites that it was done deliberately for a test. Here is another view of the same rifle...
(http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o191/aoe276/Proofdestruction50cal.jpg)
I've heard stories (I admit, these are 'range rumors') of a guy who had a 50 cal and was shooting his own reloads. Something was wrong with them and they weren't chambering right, probably wasn't trimming them properly or seating the bullet too long, but he needed to physically beat on the bolt with a piece of wood to get it to close. No surprises, it blew up on him much like the pictures above, but the damage focusing more along the bolt and receiver failure rather than the barrel due to an out of battery fire.
Hammering the bolt closed with a piece of wood is nature's way of saying, "Danger, Will Robinson, danger!"
ShadowMan
Quote from: ShadowMan on February 03, 2014, 02:02:37 AM
Hammering the bolt closed with a piece of wood is nature's way of saying, "Danger, Will Robinson, danger!"
ShadowMan
...or Darwin's way of saying "You! Out of the gene pool! You're taking up my oxygen!"
Quote from: Ninja Piper on February 02, 2014, 10:58:04 PM
I've heard stories (I admit, these are 'range rumors') of a guy who had a 50 cal and was shooting his own reloads. Something was wrong with them and they weren't chambering right, probably wasn't trimming them properly or seating the bullet too long, but he needed to physically beat on the bolt with a piece of wood to get it to close. No surprises, it blew up on him much like the pictures above, but the damage focusing more along the bolt and receiver failure rather than the barrel due to an out of battery fire.
I've heard that story as well. I seem to recall even seeing pictures of the alleged aftermath somewhere. Arfcom maybe?
There's a lot of fools out there that really have exactly zero business reloading their own ammo.
They are the very same people that give reloaded ammo a real bad name.
Trust me, I'd love to choke the lot of them.
Ninja Piper, looks like you're one of the people that aren't in that group.
And, by the way, I'd never go to that range ever, if they pulled that stunt on me.
In addition to those who have no business reloading, there are those who have no business modifying their guns. Had a guy come onto the range while I was there with his 'tacticool' Mossberg 500. Had the black fore end with a rail and the grip that turns into a bipod, heat shield with a red dot on top, flashlight mounted to one side, laser on the other and the most important feature to this guy's failure was the birds head pistol grip with no stock. I watched him for a bit getting set up thinking to myself "this is gonna be interesting." At the range, it was slug only so I wanted to see how he was going to be able to handle it. Guy sits down behind it, gets a grip, then proceeds to put his cheek on the back of the pistol grip like he was getting a cheek weld on the stock. At that point I had to step in with some friendly advise. I came over and stopped him before he fired the first shot and told him "if you value your teeth and nose, you shouldn't hold it that close to your face. Those are not meant to be fired like a regular stocked gun." He gave me the typical 'I know what I'm doing, just because you work here doesn't mean you know more than me, etc..." Ok, it's your face. I stepped back and let him go. First shot nailed him square in the cheek bone. Undetermined by logic and pain, he went for another shot. Same thing, only got him right in the nose. He readjusted at this point and instead of putting his face right on the gun, he kept it back an inch or two. Third shot, same thing, except this time he came over to me, holding a tooth and trying to stop his nose from bleeding profusely, asking for a first aid kit. I helped him get squared away, then helped him pack up his stuff with a friendly tip that he should probably go see a dentist. I wish I would have been able to kick him off the range, but the owners were all about the money instead of safety. In order to kick someone off the range, they basically had to fire a shot down the line. It was almost to the point of 'you kick someone off the line, we kick you out of a job.'
I guess the range owners aren't too worried about lawsuits, then......
I regularly get safety warnings from various military, civilian and LE groups. One of them was a military warning about the dangers of using a .50 BMG shell as a hammer. Seriously. The attached photos of the hand of the soldier who prompted the warning would turn your stomach.
Einstein once said: There are only two things that are infinite -- the universe and human stupidity -- and I'm not certain about the universe.
tk