My first ruptured rim fire...

K

kiki231

Regular
Rating - 100%
16   0   0
Location
New Brunswick
So on Saturday I took my little Golden boy (17hmr) out to the range. I have been having slight probs with feeding and hoping to figure out the prob with use.
I had my girlfriends son with me, and , thankfully, safety first trumped his enthusiasm and I forced the glasses on him. His third shot made a funny "thump" and I looked down to see a puff of powder around the hammer. He looked up at me with bewilderment, and started rubbing his cheek. Sure enough , a ruptured case.
The range was busy and word spread quickly what happened. Thankfully there was nothing worse than a red cheek, but it could have turned out much differently. A great reminder to wear the glasses .

The cartridge was a Hornady , and the split was a circumference right where the rim meets the side of the case. The brass peeled back like a peice of Orange.
 
Likely a weakness or thinning of the brass when the case was formed. Case failures are more frequent with rimfire than centrefire but still not frequently encountered. You may want to keep the case and contact the maker. After a similar experience I contacted the maker and received a voucher in compensation for the faulty ammo.

Also a good idea to do a bore check after an incident like that.
 
dryfire said:
Also a good idea to do a bore check after an incident like that.
Click to expand...

Bingo. My fear was that there is something still in the bore and the second shot could have been much worse....
thankfully all was clear, but i needed to run cleaning rod, since this baby is a lever gun.

I do need to disassemble the gun carefully. this incident aside, the feeding issue is a pain, not to mention stuck cartridges in the inner tube. The gun feels wonderful in my hands, is beautiful and well made, but i think with a careful cleaning i can make it cycle more reliably (not to mention the powder residue that now must be in the bolt). I bought it used (it was only owned for 3 months prior).
 
I've never seen a lever gun reliably cycle pointy rounds. That was another reason they used flat or round nose bullets (aside from the primer to bullet nose detonation that can occur with centerfire rifles, and the exception being savage 99's and browning BLR's that use a magazine for the rounds, I am talking about ANY lever gun that uses a tube magazine. )
 
Some CIL Mk IV (probably 30 years old) was splitting on the rim with the same puff of blue smoke with my Remington 541.
Previously some Lapua Silhouette that was over 10 years old split using a Walther KKMS.
A good cleaning would be prudent which may reduce the pressures ever so slightly.
 
sgt.rock said:
I've never seen a lever gun reliably cycle pointy rounds. That was another reason they used flat or round nose bullets (aside from the primer to bullet nose detonation that can occur with centerfire rifles, and the exception being savage 99's and browning BLR's that use a magazine for the rounds, I am talking about ANY lever gun that uses a tube magazine. )
Click to expand...

On a rim fire pointy rounds should make no difference as the bullet isn't sitting on the primer. My guess would be the firing pin hit when the round was slightly out of battery. My pps-50 will do that. Never owned a rim fire lever so not sure. It could just be poor QC on the rounds as well. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
 
KRJ said:
On a rim fire pointy rounds should make no difference as the bullet isn't sitting on the primer. My guess would be the firing pin hit when the round was slightly out of battery. My pps-50 will do that. Never owned a rim fire lever so not sure. It could just be poor QC on the rounds as well. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Click to expand...
Ahh. That makes sense and a plausible explanation. I know that if you don't squeeze the lever all the way up the guns hammer can still fall.
I perhaps will need to remind myself and others to squeeze it in until it clicks and locks up as one more safety precaution. Come to think of it, my BLR has the same trait. But it rotates as opposed to sliding linear.
 
kiki231 said:
Bingo. My fear was that there is something still in the bore and the second shot could have been much worse....
thankfully all was clear, but i needed to run cleaning rod, since this baby is a lever gun.

I do need to disassemble the gun carefully. this incident aside, the feeding issue is a pain, not to mention stuck cartridges in the inner tube. The gun feels wonderful in my hands, is beautiful and well made, but i think with a careful cleaning i can make it cycle more reliably (not to mention the powder residue that now must be in the bolt). I bought it used (it was only owned for 3 months prior).
Click to expand...

Must be 17HMR related because I never had any issues with my 22LR Henry. Nor did I really clean it. Other then what I could reach with the action open. I only ever dis assemble it once.
 
I had Remington ammo burst at the rim 2 different times in my Anschutz semi-auto. Blew the extractor off both times. I won't use Remington ammo in my semi-autos anymore. No issues in bolt actions.

A friend gave me some 40-year old ("D" headstamp) ammo a few months ago. About every 5th round split the case near the rim. I ended up pulling the bullets out to re-melt, and tossing the rest. About 300 rounds. It was probably Canuck or Imperial ammo based on the headstamp.
 
Most issues I have had with rimfire ammunition have usually been Remington. I have had a few cases let go right on the rim, one blew the bolt open on a single shot a fellow handed me to try out and it resulted in a trip to the hospital to have two pieces of brass removed from my right eye! Two lessons that day. Always wear shooting glasses and do not uses someobe elses firearm unless you know it is in good repair!
 
An out of battery discharge with a Brno ZKM611A .22 WMR. The firing pin is located at the 12-o'clock position, rupture was out the bottom and spilled into the magazine well. Note how a secondary rim has formed from lack of support. Enough gas spilled out the bottom of the action to split the stock in two places. I need to get a new disconnector made, the factory original allows the hammer to fall with the bolt ever so slightly open.

Cartridge was a Winchester Super-X 40 gr. H.P.

P5170442_zpszv25bprk.jpg

P5170444_zpsgz8fwz7y.jpg

P5170449_zpsqm1fbwkg.jpg

P5170450_zpsja0ppokv.jpg

P5170454_zpsohis7sqs.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom