[FrankenMauser]

I've seen guns blowup - modern guns are designed to blowup without embedding a chunk of steel in your head. I think some of you watch too much TV and you don't understand the relative risks. Better wear your tinfoil hats tomorrow when the satellite comes down

I have witnessed at least three catastrophic failures in modern firearms, and many near-failures (slides cracking, cases rupturing, etc).

None of the failures offered any real protection to the shooter. Sure, they may have been lucky enough to make it out of the confusion without a piece of the barrel sticking out of their forehead... But, all it takes is a single, itty-bitty fragment to your favorite eye; and you'll regret the "It'll never happen to me" attitude.

Case in point: Cornbush's Hawkeye incident.
The Ruger held, and the safety features did their job. The escaping gases that didn't go directly through the gas port were directed down the length of the bolt, and deflected by the gas shield. They were also directed downward (inside the bolt), and into the magazine well.

Seems to have worked well, right? Wrong. He still had many pieces of the case head embedded in his face. When the floor plate was "popped" by gas pressure, it sprang open with enough force to bend around its stop, and smacked his support hand on the fore-end. It also launched the follower like a friggin' missile, at his torso. His left arm was also peppered with brass shrapnel and minor parts of the action, when escaping gases used the bolt release as an exit. His right hand got torn up pretty badly by brass shrapnel, as well.

Right hand injuries: Cuts, shrapnel.
Left hand injuries: Cuts, bruises.
Left arm injuries: Cuts, shrapnel.
Face injuries: Cuts, shrapnel.
Torso injury: A nice bruise.

To this very day, he still, occasionally, digs a piece of brass out of his face or hand. He was very lucky that none of the pieces hitting him in the face didn't have enough mass to go through his glasses.

It sure does sound like the rifle saved him, right? Nope. It was only a spectacular case head failure. (We only classify it as a "catastrophic failure", because it rendered the firearm inoperable, and unrepairable.) If the rifle had actually been overloaded far enough to blow, he may not have survived. He surely would have suffered substantial injury.


...Which brings up another point, about these magical "directional destruction" firearms. I was standing right next to Cornbush. My little brother was standing just the other side of him. Neither of us caught a single piece of shrapnel, that caused a wound (my little brother was hit by the bolt release plunger, after it ricocheted off Cornbush; I wasn't hit at all). It seems that rifle's only "directional destruction" was aimed at the shooter.....