Trapshooters Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

I about blew up my gun yesterday

3K views 30 replies 20 participants last post by  Tripod 
#1 ·
Yesterday, in the third 25 of a 100 bird shoot, I had one of those misfires where the primer goes off but has no powder in front of it. As you might imagine, the wad stayed in the barrel and the shot bounced off of the trap house roof. I cleared the wad, reloaded and continued on.

About five shoots later, I found my missing load of powder. I shouldered the gun, called for a bird, and let loose what had to be a double load of powder, in this case around 34.8 gr. of Clays. The recoil was like that of a 300 mag.

I remembered that the night before, my reloader had a "hiccup" and I had to reposition the hulls in the machine before starting again. Apparently I repostioned them one station off.

It took a real effort to get the action open and the hull out of the chamber, but the gun didn't show any visible damage. I finished the 30 or so birds of the event with no notible changes, but am still wondering how close I came to getting a face full of shrapnel.
 
#27 ·
Update:

Last night I tried to purposely load a hull with a double powder charge, and the RCBS Grand ran it through with only very minor differences. First difference was that the pressure required at the shot-drop station and the first crimp station was slightly greater. No greater than that you might experience with a tight expended primer or a hull needing a little extra sizing.

Second difference was that the final crimp was slightly more convex than a standard load. Here again, while different, this is not that unusual with the Grand. If I don't adjust the stations, AA's load a little more convex than STS's with the same formula load.

What didn't happen was that the wad and shot DID NOT pop back out of the hull.

Needless to say, I am going to get the 3200 checked out. It's a strong old gun, but it's due for its end-of-season cleaning/check-up anyway. Guess I'll be shooting the old Citori in the winter league.

Old Ranger
 
#29 ·
Gee reading this thread somebody might get the idea that not only is it possible to make a double powder charge load that looks normal but it is actually okay to shoot these(if you use a P gun). What an epiphany! Must be getting close to all saints day.
 
#30 ·
berettaman7 mentions "static build-up. One of the things I did, after experimenting last night with making a double load, was attach a grounding wire from my reloader to a nearby water pipe.

Another mistake I made after firing the original double load was throwing away that hull. I wish now I would have kept it and measured it.
 
#31 ·
I have double charged a load with 34 grs. 700X. In fact I have done it twice on my 650. I have been loading since 1965, but recently went to the 650 from a 600jr. The first time I thought maybe an insect had blocked the drop tube or something. It happened again and I cought it the third time. The bar was not returning all the way to the right after charging the bar but not dropping the powder. It would hang up just long enough to let me reposition another shell. It would then slip the rest of the way and then I would drop another charge in it. I solved the problem by adding another spring to the machine. I have not had a problem since. My old 1100 really barked those two times. Both tiomes were followed by a "poofer" load. BTW I broke the tatget both times. After I figured out what was happening I cut apart many shells that were fine but looked "funny" and also a lot of them weighed a lot heavier, but I couldn't ever find any others.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top