Documented Cases of Gun "Blow-ups"
- Thread starter Andy
- Start date
I've been told to never mix gun powder and alcool, the mix is too unpredictable...
My 12" long, 2 inch diameter brass cannon (thats a 1 inch bore and 1/2 inch walls) + not watching drunk morons load it up (with smokeless) + wad + 1000 grain slug = KABOOOOM!
We were all standing in a circle not 30 feet away when it went off. Huge white flash, massive concussion blast and pieces of the carriage and the shredded barrel zipping through the trees all around us. The picture shows all that we could find in the smoking hole in the ground. The muzzle landed six inches in front of my friends two day old truck. We were lucky that the only casualty was the cannon.
This was a lesson learned. I will never let anyone load a round, a gun, a cannon or even a water pistol I am going to fire without direct supervision. I turned my back for a moment and let normally competent people who had way too much to drink load the cannon. They said they had no idea that they had used that much powder and that they did not think about the difference between black powder and smokeless. They took the smokeless powder out of the cabinet when I was not looking and loaded the tube with about three inches of fast pistol powder.
maple_leaf_eh
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I saw a military Browning break its barrel lug and jam the gun half-open. One of the very very few military breakages I have ever seen. Yeah, broken extractors, ejectors, runaways and NDs, but nothing else unsafe.
I traded for an Iver Johnson that had blown a bolt lug. I swapped around carbine parts and after test firing, sold it again - with the new owner's full knowledge.
My father and I (as a youngster) short charged a few trays of .38 Spl. A fellow borrowed an 8" revolver and proceeded to plug the barrel with 11 jacketed semi-wadcutters. He stopped when the cylinder wouldn't advance. Not exactly a KABOOM, because of the cylinder gap venting the gas sideways.
I traded for an Iver Johnson that had blown a bolt lug. I swapped around carbine parts and after test firing, sold it again - with the new owner's full knowledge.
My father and I (as a youngster) short charged a few trays of .38 Spl. A fellow borrowed an 8" revolver and proceeded to plug the barrel with 11 jacketed semi-wadcutters. He stopped when the cylinder wouldn't advance. Not exactly a KABOOM, because of the cylinder gap venting the gas sideways.
