Has anyone actually had a major gun failure while in the act of shooting?

[PaGunNut]

While in NY for the first day of deer season this year it rained all day long! (SAT) Anyone out there with me on that one? Any way the second day Sun) we got 6 inch snow it was great. My brother-in-law popped a back strap buck the first day so he lends his dad his TC inline and uses his dads Winchester 1300 smooth bore with rifles sights, to fill his doe tag. He's hunting a pine stand and jumps this big 8pt and doe 30 yards in front of him. Of course he restrains goes for the doe squeezes the trigger, he hears a pop, ejects the shell, shoots, again. BOOOOM!!! It’s just like you hit him with a stun grenade he said it was the loudest single sound he's ever heard. Ears rang for six hours! He then felt a little num felling from his hand and the fore-end of the shotgun was gone he couldn’t even find a dent in the snow. Right at the end of where the fore -end would have been is where the slug exited the barrel. The other end of the barrel was being held on by a 1/4 jagged strip of metal. A few mins latter his hand was fine he didn’t have a scratch on him. He was the luckiest hunter in the woods. Our best guess is one of the slugs from Sat the powder got wet and the first shot left the slug mid barrel. I thought long and hard about whether or not I would have been able to, tell but in the heat of battle with a big 8 pt. in front of you it’s a tough call.
Thanks for Reading!

[MikeB0]

I had a Carbon 15 .223 Pistol come apart on me. The Frame split where the tube screws in and the tube and bolt came out the back and smacked me on the chin. Left me stunned and lightheaded for a bit. Probably had a minor concussion. Was like being punched on the chin, much harder than I'd ever actually been punched though.

It was probably my fault too. I was trying out a .223 suppressor on it, and hadn't fired it in about 8 months or so. I had forgotten that I had some trouble with it the last time I was using it. It wouldn't chamber a round, the bolt wouldn't close. The rounds I had tried to chamber ended up with the bullets set back. I had thought I set aside all the set back rounds, but probably ended up loading one. What was keeping the bolt from closing and a round from chambering was a broken off piece of shell casing, I removed that, loaded up a round and boom.

That Carbon 15 .223 Pistol is now replaced by a newer model, that has better reinforcing on the part of the frame where the tube screws in, apparently there were problems with them cracking. The broken one is also repaired with a steel collar, and some other parts added and is now a Carbon 15 9mm handgun.

[imashooter2]

I've had both revolvers and autos break in matches, but never a catastrophic failure.

[PaGunNut]

My B-I-L was a few inches from losing his hand. He was pretty worked up for a while. Wish I had a pic of the gun it was impressive.

[Ballistic Engineering]

Wow, you all are very lucky! Especially the shot gun.

The closest I ever got to a major episode was last year. Every once in a while I test out competitors loads. I had bought a bunch of differenct ones last year and went to the range. I took the 357 mag, 6" barrel. I got through a good number of rounds and changed manufacturers. First round was all good. Second shot of the second round just did not seem correct. Here the manufacturer forgot to put powder in it. The primer shot the bullet halfway down the barrel. Had I not been paying attention I am pretty sure it would not have been a good day.

gene

[PaGunNut]

Wow, you all are very lucky! Especially the shot gun.

The closest I ever got to a major episode was last year. Every once in a while I test out competitors loads. I had bought a bunch of differenct ones last year and went to the range. I took the 357 mag, 6" barrel. I got through a good number of rounds and changed manufacturers. First round was all good. Second shot of the second round just did not seem correct. Here the manufacturer forgot to put powder in it. The primer shot the bullet halfway down the barrel. Had I not been paying attention I am pretty sure it would not have been a good day.

gene

Gene,
I saw a show on the outdoor channel and they were doing a destructive test on a stainless steel S&W 357 6" using reloads with lower and lower powder chargers until they lodged a bullet mid barrel. Of course they had it in a pistol vise bolted to a bench. Once the bullet was lodged in the barrel they tied a string to the trigger, loaded the gun with a normal load and went behind a block building and pulled the string. All it did was bulge the barrel of the gun and push the first bullet out and the second was visibly stuck at the end of the barrel. The barrel didn’t even crack. They raved about how impressive that was and how well built the gun was and how that could have save the shooters hand or life. After seeing it on film I would have to agree.

[Ballistic Engineering]

Wish I would have saw that one. That actually makes me feel better.

gene

[max384]

Gene,
I saw a show on the outdoor channel and they were doing a destructive test on a stainless steel S&W 357 6" using reloads with lower and lower powder chargers until they lodged a bullet mid barrel. Of course they had it in a pistol vise bolted to a bench. Once the bullet was lodged in the barrel they tied a string to the trigger, loaded the gun with a normal load and went behind a block building and pulled the string. All it did was bulge the barrel of the gun and push the first bullet out and the second was visibly stuck at the end of the barrel. The barrel didn’t even crack. They raved about how impressive that was and how well built the gun was and how that could have save the shooters hand or life. After seeing it on film I would have to agree.

I saw that episode too. It was really impressive. It shows how well-made a Smith is. I wish they would have done the same test with some other manufacturers and see how they stacked up.... Of course that's not really what the test was about... Either way I was impressed and glad I went with S&W's for my two revolvers.

EDIT: I believe the show was Guns and Ammo TV

[goofin]

I was standing 10 ft away from a buddy shooting the new Eclipse plastic shotgun shell when his Remington 1100 blew up. luckily no one was hurt, he couldn't hear very well for a short time though. Ron Shirk had sold him the ammo and when Ron found out what happened, he got on the phone and Eclipse paid for a new 1100. that was somewhere October of 79?.

[ErSwnn]

I had inherited my father's Titan Tiger .38 revolver, it was his carry in Florida. Had it to the range a couple of times when one day, at Wicins, the top strap broke. My son was using it and failed to see the damage. He pulled the trigger and nothing happened. I saw him with a quizzical look on his face and then at the gun. Thank God it was unable to rotate. I knew the gun was junk but had never seen such a failure. If another round had fired I can't see how an injury could have been avoided. Lesson learned...don't use junk guns.