Model 70 explosion

Buckmastr

Buckmastr

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From 24hr campfire. Factory nosler ammo, explosion and permanent eye damage.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/15578344/1

A young man whose mother is a good friend of my wife was seriously injured last month at the range. He was firing a Model 70 Winchester in 7mm Remington Magnum. He fired one round with no problems, then jacked in the next round and when he fired, the rifle completely blew up on him. He lost an eye and has had two eye surgeries since then. He was using factory ammunition, not reloads. The family asked me to bring it to this forum and see if anybody with expertise had any theories or insight into what happened. This young man is not a firearms neophyte, having served two hitches in the Marine Corps and been a lifelong hunter.

Since he fired the first round without incident, it is hard to visualize some kind of barrel obstruction, yet amazingly high pressure must have ensued
Click to expand...







 
The barrel didn't split with the lugs looking more or less intact but the action blew out , maybe faulty heat treatment of the action made it too brittle?
 
I would bet a fast powder. As mentioned by Shoot to kill.

Interesting that the barrel did not expand?
Interesting that the cartridge in the picture has a dented neck? Must have been in the magazine and was struck by something.

I'm pretty sure I would be pulling the other rounds apart with someone from Nosler and my lawyer present to determine what amount of what powder is in the remainder.

But I agree with Trimmer905 - chances of a wrong powder would not be impossible, but would certainly not be probable
 
I've never seen a rifle blow up that bad.

If he was using factory ammo, then I can only guess a barrel obstruction, but that doesn't seem likely if the first round was good.
 
For it to be a barrel obstruction, it would have had to be right at the chamber... as a cleaning left in the barrel touching the bullet. An obstruction down the barrel would have the blow out down the barrel.

For it to be a factory round - I don't know how a factory round could be so far over loaded or out of spec to be this catastrophic.

The remaining ammunition should be examined, taken apart, weighed, etc. and documented by a reliable third party.

It is this kind of catastrophic case failure I refer to when I talk about the superior strength of the Remington 700 action over all other 2 lug bolt actions.

It sad that there was a serious personal injury involved - luckily not a death.
 
Loaded cartridge in the first picture shows a badly dented case shoulder. Likely from the rifle failure, but could it potentially be a sign of a sloppy reload?
 
So i have been reading the posts on 24hr campfire.....

Many theories - re-barreled rifle that was done incorrectly, cracked receiver from the rebarrel job, wrong factory ammo loaded in rifle, you name it they speculate it
 
My money is on a cracked receiver.
If that's a genuine pre-64 model 70 action then it has been re-barreled and re-stocked at some point.
 
All one has to do is look at the primer. A factory primer vs a reload primer always looks different. If it was factory why is this the only incident?
 
It blew apart on the right side of the receiver and wrapped the top of the receiver over to the left side of the rifle.
Extractor blown off. Coned breech and extractor cut on the barrel look normal but who knows?
If there's a weak point on the pre-64 M70 that's where I'd start looking.
 
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