well went to the sister in laws the other day for some shooting and trying to work up a good varmint load for the .243, no problems, after about 1/2 hour or so I found the combo i am going to use for the varmint grenades no problems.. i figured while i was there lets see what the factory ammo i have will do, thats when this happened!!


from a factory round! I stopped right there and came home, called the company, they are sending me new box of shells, told me its the brass was a screwy batch and they would pay for any and all gunsmith services needed on the rifle!! well my local smith finished his check over on the rifle this am and he said it looks fine to him! thank goodness!! otherwise no damage on anything else as i was wearing the eye and ear protection!

I am on a motorcycle forum as well and to steal a line from one of the guys i know on there and it ports to this forum as well
WEAR YOUR GEAR!
you never know what or when something will happen!

That sucks. Glad your not hurt and glad there takin care of ya, it could have bin alot worse.
Joe

Yea, good thing you were not hurt. I have had case seperations and blown primers but never seen the head blow like that.

WOW!!! You sure are hard on brass...

No bolt face damage? Or chamber cutting? And both eyes still where you left them last...Say a thank you prayer....Glad all is well...

I agree with your motorcyle buddies, you just never know!!

Glad you were not inquired or suffered damage.

Whose ammo , load, lot # were these rounds.

Was there any mention of recall on the ammo.

Glad you gave the manufacture a call on this.

Damn Jeff....that is NASTY. I am glad that you have suffered no damage to yourself or your rifle.

I have never seen a case blow out like that...ver scary mate. I have had rims on older .22 rimfire ammo blow out the side, but never, ever, have I seen a centrefire blow out like that...and that is the strongest part of the case. Be interested to see some better pics...maybe even a cut away.

Safety glasses are worth their weight in gold, no doubt about that.

Cheers, Vince

It just shows how dangerous reloading can be. It's always safer to use the factory stuff.

Aah Grumulkin...That WAS factory ammunition...And it can happen with handloaded ammunition, but at least the case has been tested at least once before you reload it unless you buy new cases. And yes...I've seen reloads blow out , but it usually can be attributed to poor reloading practices and negligence. I've reloaded for the last 22 years and have not had a blown out case, double charge or failure to fire. Up until I started reloading I had factory rounds that were double charged, failed to fire and cases that ruptured...Split cases don't count as I have had factory and my reloads do that...Reloading is a safe hob...Aah...Addiction. BUT...You must pay complete attention to what you are doing. No distractions...

Question Grumulkin...Who told you reloading ammunition was dangerous?

Please post the manufacturer & lot # in case anyone else has some.

Bushmaster wrote:

Question Grumulkin...Who told you reloading ammunition was dangerous?

I guess the sarcasm in my post didn't come through. I've reloaded ammunition with varying degrees of intensity for about 40 years. I'm currently set up to reload for over 25 different cartridges.

As for who says it's dangerous; that would be those gun manufacturers whose gun warranties are voided if you use reloaded ammunition.

Oh...Well that's O K...

As far as the gun manufacturers voiding their warranty if you use reloads. I can understand...I have ran into a bunch of reloaders that scare the crap out of me and wouldn't warranty anything they had...Can't really blame the manufacturers for that...

Bushmaster wrote:

As far as the gun manufacturers voiding their warranty if you use reloads. I can understand...I have ran into a bunch of reloaders that scare the crap out of me and wouldn't warranty anything they had.

What scares the crap out of me even more is defective ammunition as pictured above, powders put in mislabeled containers, etc. by the manufacturers. What a stupid reloader does, only impacts him; a mislabeled powder can damage me through no fault of my own.

sorry for taking so long in replying to this one, been busy little bee here..

the manu. was HSM ammo the bulk ammo from Cabelas, made by hunting shack ammo.
the loads were the .243 winchester topped with the 75 grain V-max bullet.

I tore one of them down just to see if maybe a double powder charge or something, and the grain weight was 43.2gn. of course this dont matter if you donno what powder they used in the case, but it shouldnt have done what it did!!

yeah eyes and ears and clean undies are all in place, the bolt face was marked with a bit of discoloration from the gasses but it wiped right off! took the rifle to my neighborhood smith and he gave it a clean bill of health, after of course the normal a$$ busting over it, "the rifle is fine, but its butt ugly why dont you sell it to me" hahah he has wanted it ever since i put the stock on it..


Grum, i caught the sarcasm in your post, and i agree 100% ya figure if you are going to have problems its going to be with a reload, i think this is what saved me more headaches cause i was shooting the reloads, so i would shoot, write down some stuff readjust eye and ear protection, shoot write stuff down... not just pow-pow-pow-pow.. and a lil side note, i wear contacts, so just think if i didnt have the glasses on I woulda melted it to my eye or something...

What kind of gun. The fact that you were not injured is a testament to the manufacturers of the rifle.