Thread: Anyone have their gun explode in their face?

I was shooting slug shot out of my Mossberg 500 and boom. Barrel blew up. Lucky i didn't get hit with shrapnel. This was an 18 inch barrel. The percussion from the blow up slapped my face. It was like a flash bang grenade, for a couple seconds a was disorientated.

What type of slug??!! Scary.
Back in 1997-ish, I had my very first glock in 40 s&w go 'kaboom' in my hands(too common occurance w/ early Glock 40's). I wore glasses back then fortunately, or prolly would have had some eye injury. Now that I wear contacts, I don't shoot without eyepro. Scary as a motha!

Damn! Was something lodged in the barrel? That is some scary stuff.

Wow!!!! yeah was their an obstruction? I had this happen when I was young but the barrel was obstructed and did not blow out completley like that.

Yeah, No obstruction. I cleaned the gun before i went shooting. It shook me up. I was shooting Remington 12 gauge 2-3/4 slug. I had shot these rounds before. I guess a weak spot must have developed over time. Or a ammo production error.

real bummer, luckily no one was hurt.

What barell was that? That could explain alot.

had a rem. 870 police blow up. the reciever, not the barrel. was shooting reloads though so cant blame the shotgun.

A real bummer and Im glad your unhurt, but that looks like a barrel obstruction.In the pic you can see a ring where the pressure built up.I always hate to see a blown up gun...

Were you shooting slugs out of a full choke barrel or something?

Was this the first shot? How many rounds approximately prior to this one?

I am really thankful you posted this partner,I have the same mossberg 500 tactical and have thought about shooting slugs from it but this makes me rethink it.
I read that the multi purpose barrel on these is ok too shoot anything except saboted rounds but i also know usually a slug barrel is groved for slugs.
does anyone know if this smooth bore multi purpose barrel is ok too shoot slugs from?

It is weird, but at the range I usually fire the first shot of a rifle or shotgun out away from my face. Especially if it is my first time firing it. Maybe that isn't such a bad idea.

Originally Posted by Noisycow

It is weird, but at the range I usually fire the first shot of a rifle or shotgun out away from my face. Especially if it is my first time firing it. Maybe that isn't such a bad idea.

Sometimes OCD pays off.
all joking aside,that may save you someday from having an accident,i do that with high power rifles until i know the eye relief on the scope isnt going to cut my brow.scope eye just looks humiliating.

whats the choke type on this one? also; were the slugs meant for rifled barrels or older fashioned rifled for smoothbore barrels? it kinda looks like one slug got swaged into the barrel and thus built the pressure...might make sense if the slug was meant to be fired through a rifled barrel (smooth surface on slug itself) as opposed to the older style smoothbore slugs with the grooves already cut into them....

If it's not something stupid you did, the gun should definitely go back to Mossberg, and the ammunition company notified. These things aren't supposed to happen, and the manufacturers need to figure out whose product did it and how to avoid it in the future.

I know you said it wasn't, but I really don't see how this could NOT be a barrel obstruction. First off, all slugs will shoot through all barrels without something like this happening. Ammunition makers do make slugs recommended for this or that type of barrel, but a 12 Ga. slug will shoot through any 12 Ga. barrel regardless of choke without a catastrophic failure of this type taking place. If they didn't ammunition makers would be sued out of existence in very short order. Especially in today's sue crazy legal climate.

Second, if it was an overload the barrel would have let go in front of the chamber area, not near the muzzle. Shotgun powder is very fast burning, which is why it is used often in pistol reloads. Third, it couldn't be a choke issue because the barrel let go well before the choke, which is the last few inches before the muzzle. Lastly, as was mentioned, you can clearly see the ring inside the barrel where the pressure spiked.

What caused the obstruction is a better question at this point, then if it was one. I don't know the type of construction that the slug you were shooting was comprised of, so one can only speculate as to the type of obstruction that occurred. Glad you're OK.

WOW, Glad you are OK.
Mike

musta had a squib
this shotgun is on my list of "to get" i plan on shooting slugs out of it too. the remington sluggers are designed for smoothbore barrels so that shouldnt have been the prob.
glad your ok.

That type of barrel failure is only caused by a obstruction. Good chance the previous round was a squib.