60947 Fires it's last shot

[John Truitt]

Mr Yeatts,

Again I am sorry this happened and am glad you are well.

I am not trying to pick anything apart. Just making some observations and putting some questions out there.

That is one big section of metal that is missing. And the barrel is really bulged out.
All of the damage appears to be proximal to the forcing cones and located at the chamber over the shell.

Is there any info out there that correlates position of rupture with cause of destruction? (ie: split out way in front of forearm = stuck hull, chamber rupture= double powder charge or some major obstruction)

Don Kaas posted a few years ago some pictures how his 32" 16 barrel was split due to a stuck wad out past the forearm ( that was a few years ago so I am going off of memory) That seemed to be a split longitudinally and in a fluid steel barrel. (search catastrophic failure. I don't know how to attach it to this)

The amount of metal missing and the expansion of the barrel seems to be most impressive to me. ( mr yeatt's pictures that is)

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by David Yeatts

Thank you all for your opinions, suggestions, and good wishes. The main reason I was not injured, good safety glasses and gloves.

I have had other shells blow up on me (Cheddite is very bad I limit them to no more than 3 reloads) but the guns have remained intact. I have checked all 12 of the other hulls and all have there base wads and I broke the bird on 4 high.
A lot of old hulls will also be hitting the dustbin.

Dave

Glad you are OK, what an awful thing to have happen, You make a good point about always wearing safety glasses and at least one glove on your barrel hand for sure.

I am thinking out loud here, 10ga Federal hulls have a tendency to split down the side from repeated firings. Could it be possible that when a hull with a split is fired the pressure could vent through the split before the crimp can open venting all the pressure against the chamber wall?

Someone mentioned detonation, I think that is most likely a myth. The NRA commissioned H.P. White Lab to make/prove detonation could occur in a 38 special as so many were blowing up with reported light loads. Thousands of deliberate attempts to create the conditions for detonation and none happened.

[Smoothebore]

David, I'm glad you are okay. I'm not an expert either, but just thinking about what can cause an obstructed barrel. Everyone who reloads has occasionally experienced a squibb load, where the full powder charge doesn't drop when loading the shell. When it's fired, it makes the sound of a pop or pffft. When fired, it only has the power of a few grains of powder, or even the primer only. The squibb has enough power to eject the shot, but the wad is often left behind in the barrel. That could have been shot number 12, but the sound would have been obvious, allerting you to check the barrels.


There is also such a thing as a tumbled wad. This is a rare occurance when the wad is deformed by being loaded improperly. It may have been twisted, or folded over sideways, or a shot cup petal folded under. I have experienced a tumbled wad in shooting, one time. The report sounds like any other normal shell, but the wad melted and tumbled and stuck solid midway in the barrel. Up until that time I had only occasionally checked my barrels during shooting. Luckily, I checked that time, and found the obstruction. It took a cleaning rod, and considerable effort to get it clear. Since then, the regimen is to blow in each barrel, and visually inspect after every shot. This could have been your shot number twelve.


Dave

[Cold Spring]

David, as others have said I'm happy you weren't injured. Thank you for posting.

I shoot a lot of Short Tens both for hunting and clays. Regarding Federal 10-gauge hulls, they do of course have a paper base wad that's more/less held in place by compression at the bottom of the hull. I've attached a pic of a sectioned 10 gauge Federal hull. Note that the plastic wall is crimped/held by the rim, but the base wad is not. I discard these Federal hulls after 4 loadings (to include the first factory loading if I am using once-fired hulls from RST shells). And I've developed the "trap shooter" habit of blowing through the barrel(s) after each shot to see the typical smoke at the muzzle and thus check for a base wad that's come loose. It's not commonly understood but when a shell is fired a partial vacuum is created in the barrel when gas exits the muzzle, and that can "suck" a loose base wad into the forcing cone or barrel. Shot seems normal and an obstruction is in place for the next shot.

Most of my Short Ten shooting nowadays is with the olive-green Remington hulls that have the low plastic base wad.

[Dean Romig]

If there is the potential of a base was loosening, consequently becoming an 'obstruction' I wonder why the shotshell manufacturers believe they are necessary.
The early solid brass shotshells of the 19th century didn't have base wads and were intended to be reloaded indefinitely....

[High Brass]

"I have had several shells blow up on me..."

What does that mean?

[Parker Bachelder (Brad's Profile)]

As Drew stated, difinative Lab testing is quite expensive. I do a fair amount of work as a Firearms Expert Wittness. I have been retained in many, many chamber failure cases with shotguns, rifles and handguns. Wether squib load, cocked wad,overload or underload,Inthe vast majority of these cases the culprit is the ammunition not the Firearm. Overpresure failures have several unique signatures, these appear present in the pictures.
I would personally focus my investigation on the ammunition.
I am curious to know what the head of the stock looks like inside.

Brad

[Fishtail]

I'll catch flack for this...but this incident is a good example of why I never reload. It seems like the majority of gun failures I read about happened when a reload was involved.

[Bill Murphy]

Not "flack", Greg, just deaf ears. There are few alternatives to reloading when it comes to short tens and eight gauge.

[John Truitt]

Fishtail,

Ill back you up on this. You and I will take the flak together

I agree. All of the shotgun failures I know of except for Don Kaas's were associated with reloads. Be it modern guns or older guns. Hell this is an on going debate over on the trap shooters site about the cause of failures. But all of those referenced that I have read have been associated with reloads.

Certainly issues can happen with any shell/ load and every time we pull the trigger we take the risk but I feel just a little better shooting factory loaded shells.

I know of several guys who are excellent at reloading but know of more people who have had issues. Some not until they got the gun home and then realized a bulge or some other issue.