End of Barrel Blown off
 

FYI,
I just thought I'd share this little tidbit.
A friend of mine was duck hunting this weekend and managed to blow the end of the barrel off of his Browning BPS. :eek: The culprit appears to be Steel shot that was stuck together from moisture. :cuss: Guess we really need to think twice before launching a load of these down barrels that can't be replaced. :nono:

In case you can't tell, I just love these little smilies!!! :draw:

:duck:Gotta be careful with those modern barrels.

did the same thing myself about 60 years ago. was huntin in a swamp along the Altamaha river in south east Georgia. had my trusty stevens model 94 .410 in hand. stuck the muzzle of the 410 in the mud and figured no big deal and I would just shoot the mud out...well that did work, but hit also pealed back about four inches of the barrel, sorta like a banana...my dad sawed off the damaged part of the barrel and then I had a dandy little cylinder bore quail gun...wonder where that little gun is now?

The good news in this tale is that he didn't blow the end off a Parker barrel. It's just another reason NOT to use steel shot for any purpose. Especially in an old double.

How did he KNOW it was steel stuck together that caused it?
A little difficult of a situation to know what actually happened.
One could only speculate.

Yup, has anyone ever opened up a steel shot shell and found the shot rusted together? Did the victim examine the inside of his remaining shells? Junk in the muzzle would be my guess.

I have a hard time believing a load would stick together that hard after ignition, even if it had taken oon water and frozen.

The BPS was my bad weather gun when I was a died hard duck hunter. Its a solid gun.

But I wonder if this could happen if the choke tube was loose?

First person to shoot ducks in freezing weather with wet shells? Junk in the muzzle.

Better get rid of that weak BPS. If it is a 12 3.5" gun I'll buy what is left and scrap it for him. (I'm serious.)

Does he remember what choke was in for sure ?

Just a reminder to check those barrels each time out. Had a similar issue at our property in south FL. We had a 410 stored in the garage for use on snakes and such. Needed it in a hurry for a large cottonmouth (I hate snakes). Split the barrel when it was fired. Seems a dirt dobber bee had started a nest in the barrel. We now store the garage shotgun with a cork in the end of the barrel. My first question would be, did it occur on the first shot? If so, something in the barrel.

This was a problem with the early steel shot shells actually, they put something on the shot now to keep it from happening. I've also seen several guns bulged behind the choke from steel, always older guns with tight chokes. That's the main reason not to use it in older shotguns, particularly larger shot and guns with tighter chokes. But of course, I don't know anything, we have an expert here on the forum who will tell you it's perfectly safe.

DLH

I prefer to pay extra and get Nice Shot or Kent Tungsten. More expensive, but just pick your shots better. If it was not an obstruction, I bet the gun in question here would still be fine

Modern steel kills just fine, the reputation for wounding was created in the early days before the ammo companies figured out how to load it. When it comes to steel, speed kills, and it's all plenty fast now. I've seen some tremendous long range shooting done with large shot in steel loads by a friend of mine. If it will kill at long range it will certainly kill at 25 yards.

That being said, I stick with the Kent TM and old Federal TP for the most part. I'd never shoot steel in a vintage gun, unless it was some beater I didn't care about.


DLH

Interesting. I have not used steel since Bismuth came out

The owner of the barrel in question is out of town so i haven't found out what choke he has.
This I do know:
It was the third shot of the morning;
#4 winchester steel shot;
3" gun;
The shells had been wet before.

It would be interesting to get a few of the remaining cartridges that got "wet" ...if any remain. Then cut a few open to see if the steel shot had oxidized and possibly fused together inside. Normally these factory loads are fairly waterproof. If they went "bang" then they couldn't have gotten too wet for very long...

Still, I'd suspect a barrel obstruction of some sort. What happened with the barrel between the second and third shot?

just wondering - maybe a wad stuck at the end? if the wet shell lost some velocity due to damp powder and the load did not completely clear the muzzle

fact is - we would likely never know for a fact

I have seen several choke tubes blow out and take with them a fractured portion of the barrel end. There was no obstruction, type or size of shot was not a factor , and in one instance, the owner of the 870 stated that before shooting he had checked the choke tube for tightness.

We checked the sporting clays range for the tube , found it and determined that the shot had pushed one lower edge up, causing the tube to rotate and take off about 240 degrees around the muzzle end. Why the choke tube blew out I have no explanation, particularly considering the owners statement that he had just checked it for tightness.

That was the fourth choke tube I had seen blow out, either witnessing the incident directly or seeing it shortly afterward. There were no injuries to the shooter or bystanders in any of the incidents. Three were in Rem 870s and one in a black gun , a Benelli I think, but since Rem 870's are the most popular gun, its not surprising one would see an unrelated occurrence there.

Sorry for the lack of clarity. :knowbetter:
Unless one had been in the hull at the time of firing, riding the wad and shot column through the barrel, accompanied by a metallurgist with a VERY expensive camera, there's no way one could truly KNOW what happened. :duck:
I plead guilty to making an assumption and stating that shot appeared to be the culprit.

Additionally, he cut open some shells and found rust.
I inspected some new winchester shells that I have and (here's that word again) it appears that the melt job on some of the crimps goes clear through the plastic thus providing a path for moisture to reach the shot.

As far as the powder getting wet, the wad can form a fairly good seal. Perhaps it's possible to get the shot wet but not the powder.