What do you guys think happened here? (30-06 reload)

And the WAFU award of the day goes to...

(What A F_ _ _ Up)

Something went wrong - really wrong. If none of the above, then incorrectly labeled powder due to reusing a container? DO NOT CONTINUE until the cause is determined with no doubts, and corrected.

Good that it all went down with no injury.
 
Pull all the rounds and weigh the charges. If they are all 55 gr, then you know what happened.

if they are 45 gr, look for the one that is 30 gr. The powder bridged in the thrower for that one, and the extra 15 gr got dropped in the one that blew.

or, look for another powder in the shop that got used in error, like 322.

I agree with the 90,000 psi comment. This could have been much worse.
 
Get a gunsmith to pull the barrel and see if the bolt lugs were "Set back" into the receiver. With the kind of pressure that, that case took, this could be a real possibility. If it has happened then you will find that even with factory loads it will eventually be hard to open the bolt as the bolt will more or less have to resize the case each time you try to open the breech.

Scott
 
m39a2 said:
Get a gunsmith to pull the barrel and see if the bolt lugs were "Set back" into the receiver. With the kind of pressure that, that case took, this could be a real possibility. If it has happened then you will find that even with factory loads it will eventually be hard to open the bolt as the bolt will more or less have to resize the case each time you try to open the breech.

Scott
Click to expand...

You can check lug setback with a NO-GO or a Field gauge and not have to pull the barrel.

On a .303 British Enfield rifle two oiled proof testing rounds were fired, if the headspace increased over .003 the rifle failed proofing due to lug setback.
 
trucker60 said:
My load data doesn't have H4895 listed for 168 grain but 45 grains doesn't sound extreme to me. Is it possible he didn't maintain minimum overall length? Extra crimp?
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This was all once fired brass that he bought. Length should be good they would've all been measured and trimmed. They weren't crimped.
 
Hitzy said:
Seriously overpressure round, he should pull the rest of those and not shoot them, weigh the powder, check that it is H4895, check scales zero. Could be 55gr instead of 45gr of powder...there is plenty of room for it.
How long has he been loading?
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That was the first shot he took, he definitely didn't want to shoot anymore. He was going to pull them all, a batch of 100 rounds that he loaded. He's been reloading maybe 5 or 6 months.
 
Northman999 said:
That was not 45gr of H4895, period.

I shoot 50gr of IMR 4895 with 165/168 gr bullets, and have been using that in several rifles for several years.

I am not completely sure you can even get enough H4895 in a 30-06 case to do that - it's fairly bulky stuff.

Look for another extruded, short grain powder on his reloading bench that is much faster and consider that your prime suspect....
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The only other powders he has are H335 and Titegroup. (Loads .223 and .45)
 
Some very good advice here for your friend in this thread. He needs to find out why this happened, so it wont happen again.

I AM GUESSING he used the wrong powder. It is pretty hard to overload a case by that much using the right powder/bullet combo. Yes it can be done but, my guess is incorrect powder was used.

As per already stated advice - dump them all out to see what is in them.
You should weigh them all for variance
Check weigh the scale with a known test weight

Follow a very basic safety rule: only 1 can of powder open on the bench -- the one you are using.

It can be easy to use IMR 4895 for H4895 etc - and they are not the same.

Personally I like a single stage press so I can look at each case after I have thrown the powder in it.
If something looks funny I dump it out and reload it. I am not trying for any speed records while reloading, I am reloading for accuracy

Good luck
 
tavares86 said:
The only other powders he has are H335 and Titegroup. (Loads .223 and .45)
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Possibly since he is new to loading, he didn't empty the hopper drop tube after whatever he was loading before the 30'06.
335 & Titegroup don't look like H4895, he needs to pull the bullets and figure out what he did wrong.
 
Hitzy said:
Possibly since he is new to loading, he didn't empty the hopper drop tube after whatever he was loading before the 30'06.
335 & Titegroup don't look like H4895, he needs to pull the bullets and figure out what he did wrong.
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This! Even if he checked the cases for regularity and no squibs before seating the bullets everything would have likely looked good when looking down the neck at 50 or so cases.
 
tavares86 said:
The only other powders he has are H335 and Titegroup. (Loads .223 and .45)
Click to expand...
H335 should be safe to 47gr, and I think Tightgroup would have written a different ending.
Barrel obstruction? Obstruction will be hard to prove.
Did he buy the powder new, sealed?

Had he used IMR instead of H, it still doesn't explain anything. I believe he'd have been under min, but not drastically.

Where did the bullet go, any idea?
 
Well it wasn't H335 by mistake, because it is so close to h4895 in burning rate, that one probably could not determine any difference between the two, in firing them.
So that leaves Titegroup!
 
H4831 said:
Well it wasn't H335 by mistake, because it is so close to h4895 in burning rate, that one probably could not determine any difference between the two, in firing them.
So that leaves Titegroup!
Click to expand...
I would think 45gr of Titegroup would have turned that rifle into a pipe bomb.
 
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