There but for the Grace of God....

[mehavey]

Today I was standing at a 45 angle to the #4 shooting table at our local range reloading a Smith
(50 cal/BP) carbine when I heard an unusually loud report from the #5 table next to me on the right.

I simultaneously felt a very hard impact on my right collarbone, so hard that I immediately
put my hand up to the area and for awhile expected to feel liquid coming through the shirt.
(As it was/is, I have a red-purple/plasma-weeping contusion about the size of a silver dollar.)
At the same time I moved over to the #5 table where the shooter was standing up and back
from his tricked-out Rock River AR-15 and looking at the magazine blown out in pieces on the
table. Also on the table were several live rounds with distorted shoulders and bullets pushed
at least halfway back into the cases from apparent misfeeds.

The rifle itself was still smoking a bit; the bolt carrier was jammed 1/3 of the way open;
the bolt itself was extended from the carrier and locked into the lugs; the rails were
bulged about a 1/4" out on each side; the receiver ring itself was cracked from
the ejection port up to/past the lugs about an inch; ... and the bolt release on the left side was
blown off/missing, having apparently hit me on its way down the firing line to the left.
He had no idea what had happened or why.

Looking at the distorted cartridges on the table it was apparent he'd been having feed problems
with ammunition he had reloaded. Looking at the bullets shoved back into the case I mentioned
that he'd likely had a feed malfunction/blowout where the bullet had been shoved all the way
into the case before ignition. That didn't seem to register. The Range Safety officer was on the
scene at this point and after ascertaining that the shooter has no injuries, asked what powder he'd
been using. His answer was "1048". The Ranger Office offered that there was no "1048 powder"...
and might it have been '748'? The shooter said he didn't know, but that "... it was in a green bottle."
Now the only powder I know that comes in a Green bottle suitable for 223 is the newer IMR 4166,
but no matter.... I asked him what load he was using so I could run a pressure simulation
for a bullet fully jammed into the case and he replied "...well its a progressive but I don't
think I have doubled charged it..., but [he thought] it was about 13 grains."

Hearing that, it was obvious I needed to bow out of the conversation and let the Range
Officers handle it -- until I saw the shooter trying to pry open the jammed bolt carried with
a screw driver levered against the front of the ejection port. I suggested that the bolt itself
was completely locked into the receiver's locking lugs and that no amount of prying on the
carrier would do anything but bend the ejection port edges and mangle the bolt carrier....
and that he probably wanted to ship things undamaged back to Rock River for a failure analysis...
But he wasn't in the receive mode at that point.

The Range Officers gently suggested he pack things up, and he did.

I could start ticking things off on my fingers here... but I'll simply say that had I taken a normal
rifle to the range I would have been sitting head level/temple exposed to that flying bolt stop.

But God sent me there with a Smith today... so I'd be standing when things came apart at the seams.




postscript: I've heard that IMR-4166 is similar to 4064 burn performance, so I loaded up QuickLoad with
a 55ksi/26gr load of 4064 and then shoved the bullet back into the case all the way: 105,000psi.
Shooter at table #5 needs to offer a novena to Gene Stoner next Sunday.

.

[baddarryl]

Wow that is scary. A couple of years ago at a public range I had a guy showing me his Single Six. Right about the time I saw the hammer back and his finger on the trigger....boom! He almost shot his girlfriends foot 2 feet away. I immediately moved a few bays down and informed the RO when I saw him, but by that time the shooter was gone. I have since joined a private range that is set up where it is virtually impossible for such mistakes to happen just by way of set up.

So glad you are ok!

[stephen426]

Wow! Glad you're okay! A badly bruised collar bone certainly beats a fractured skull! Makes me want to avoid shooting next to people!

[kcub]

At my public range there are dings in the stainless tabletop in the bays where dufus' pick up a loaded pistol with finger on trigger. I haven't been there when it's happened but they say it's always a .45.

Now they have rules where you can't lay a handgun down with a mag in or the slide forward but the range officers can't be everywhere at the same time. I called the RO on a kid who was waving a handgun around while his uncle(?) stood by and watched. It wasn't the kids fault, he just needed instruction but I guess uncle didn't know?

[samsmix]

Post removed because upon review it may not be as relevant as I at first thought.

Glad you're okay! Sounds like a butt puckering experienc!

[rickyrick]

I'm glad that you weren't seriously hurt.
Very scary at the least.

So my understanding of the OP that this was caused by bad ammo loading?