Ever had a kaboom or other catastrophic failure with a firearm?

[Stomper]

Freaky.... SomeOne or SomeThing was speaking thru your Unconscious Mind... glad you heard it!

It had to be the baby reloading Jesus!

 

[Aero Denezol]

Where is countrygent? Hasn't been seen in months.

I thought he moved to Texas.

 

[SuperBreed]

When I was around 17, growing up in Kentucky, I had some buddies that had been shooting an old double barrel muzzle loader all day just across the way from my house. They shot it probably 15-20 times. They came to the house and asked if I wanted to go shoot it. Of course my dumb bubblegum said sure. Now, unknown to me at the time, they had been loading this old thing with powder out of shotgun shells they had cut down. They handed the rifle to me already loaded.

So here I go out in the field to blast away with this thing. My first two percussion caps didn't go. Placed the 3rd and said the classic, third times a charm before pulling the trigger. Things started to happen quite quickly at this point. The left barrel disintegrated at the chamber, my right hand that was on the stock was blown back with stock still in hand, the barrel flipped upward 180 degrees and the muzzle struck me in the chin and shoulder. I couldn't hear anything but ringing. Trigger, trigger guard, and neither hammer where ever found. At this point I started to check for damage. I had a light flannel jacket on that absorbed most of the frag from the barrel and the forend. Ended up with more then a few holes in my arm still though, as well as splinters of wood.

Still have the scars to remind myself. Also haven't shot a Muzzleloader since. Don't know that I ever will or want to either.

 

[kopcicle]

@SuperBreed

There is a difference between "hold my beer, watch this"
And
"let me hold your beer, I'll watch"

Details are critical.

 

[boattail]

I remembered a time when I was in high school my neighbor made a pipe cannon. 1/2" water pipe with a nut welded in the back. Hole drilled for a fuse. We stuffed six shotgun shells worth of powder in the tube and tamped it in with a damp paper towel. Then he dropped a AA battery in the tube. He lit the fuse and it went out once in the hole. He tried two more times and gave up. I told him to heat up a piece of wire and poke it into the hole. That worked.

Made a bang louder than four 30-06's going off at once. Back of cannon blew off and the nut hit his shin while all the powder burned his hands and shins. I was at the side of the cannon and it blew me back 6 feet. Buddy went to the ER and I went home and we agreed I wasn't there when it happened.

We found the battery a few years later about half a mile away. How stupid were we to think six shells worth of powder was just right? My parents did not think I would live to 16. I often wonder how I made it out alive.

 

[Stomper]

When I was around 17, growing up in Kentucky, I had some buddies that had been shooting an old double barrel muzzle loader all day just across the way from my house. They shot it probably 15-20 times. They came to the house and asked if I wanted to go shoot it. Of course my dumb bubblegum said sure. Now, unknown to me at the time, they had been loading this old thing with powder out of shotgun shells they had cut down. They handed the rifle to me already loaded.

So here I go out in the field to blast away with this thing. My first two percussion caps didn't go. Placed the 3rd and said the classic, third times a charm before pulling the trigger. Things started to happen quite quickly at this point. The left barrel disintegrated at the chamber, my right hand that was on the stock was blown back with stock still in hand, the barrel flipped upward 180 degrees and the muzzle struck me in the chin and shoulder. I couldn't hear anything but ringing. Trigger, trigger guard, and neither hammer where ever found. At this point I started to check for damage. I had a light flannel jacket on that absorbed most of the frag from the barrel and the forend. Ended up with more then a few holes in my arm still though, as well as splinters of wood.

Still have the scars to remind myself. Also haven't shot a Muzzleloader since. Don't know that I ever will or want to either.

Sounds like maybe you were holding it from the wrong end…. or something.

 

[Hemlock]

When I was a teenager, I had a 16 gauge break open single barrel shotgun split the chamber down the top and peel open. Not a damascus barrel.
Factory Winchester ammo. Muffled hearing. Doctor had to pop my ear drums back. We never did find the rib that tore of and went flying somewhere.

 

[Mike_M57]

Hasn't happened to me, but...

This was one of grandpa's guns. He loaned it to a friend, and this happened. Suspected double charge of powder.

 

[Toxic6]

No pictures but had some squibs while doing a rapid fire waste of ammo with a keltec sub2k. Had it all tricked out even had a hogue slip on grip! Turns out that hogue grip acted like a rubber band/shock absorber and kept the frame together when the kaboom happened and likely saved me from lacerations as I was not wearing gloves. Hand and arm were numb, magazine had blown apart and there were loose rounds everywhere around me. Everyone was staring like they'd just seen a ghost. We never found the base plate or follower.

Lessons I learned
1- if ammo is recalled and your alerted to it, do not proceed to shoot it anyways (or do so cautiously I guess lol)
2- if your weapon sounds different firing and doesn't clear the spent casing do not proceed to manually clear and continue rapid fire without inspecting it first.
3-plastic/polymer weapons are way more forgiving structurally then metal ones. And hogue slip-on grips are actually pretty sturdy