From post by Latigo st.Marie, who was the 12 yr old victim of the shrapnel, son to Pierre St.Marie, the owner and driving force of Swiss Products.
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Enfields and a long ago true story
Gents, I'm being allowed to post this with the understanding that I not participate in the discussion. I was very young and actually don't remember any part of it other than being in the hospital afterward. My Father will most certainly not discuss it.
This was written by my Father in 1993.
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This is a hard one for me to write, but it demands an explanation.
There was a 5 year stretch beginning in 1986 during which I offered a service to hunters during the summer months. I am in posession of a free standing device that accepted the entire rifle, seats it to the rear against a recoil absorbing mechanism and holds the barrel in place with a Padded "V" adjustable rest with rubber tubing that allowed for "natural recoil". The unit has a seat that may be rotated left or right for either side shooting. The shooter need only to gently squeeze the trigger or fire it with a remote setup. The unit has both rough and fine windage and elevation adjusters. All of this serves to allow the sighting in process with the human out of the equation.
Typically it would take a maximum of 4 rounds to accomplish this. First shot to determine POI in relation to the scope. Without disturbing the rifle, the windage and elevation were then adjusted to intercept the POI of the first shot. Second shot to confirm the desired POI and a third shot to prove the change . 4th shot to prove correct grouping.
Only new, factory ammunition was accepted from the owner of the rifle. No reloads, nothing custom, just in-the-box factory ammunition. The rifle had to be of a recent manufacture. The customer was to deliver the rifle and ammuntion to our facility in town by noon on friday. The sighting process was done on Saturday and Sunday at our range, returning the rifle to the owner the following monday. The owner was absolutely forbidden to be at the Lost Prairie range during this process. An average weekend would see 5 or more rifles to be sighted in.
Most all of these rifles were in the .375 H&H, .300 WinMag, 8mm Mag or .416 Rigby categories, calibers with substantial recoil that the owners were loathe to sight in from the shoulder, thus the use of our firing device.
In 1992, the Saturday before the opening of hunting season, I received a "desperate" call from a gent who said he had just gotten back into the Flathead, had a rifle and was intending to hunt the opening day on Sunday. It was the last one of the season so......... I broke my own range rule #1. "The customer may not be on our range during the process."
He arrived one hour later with his rifle, an Enfield that was original issue. I then broke my own range rule #2. The rifle was not of recent manufacture. It was late, he was there with the rifle, so I proceeded. Range rule #3 was then broken when I accepted a loaded magazine from a box he set on the table. The two boxes he presented were original boxes of the day (WWII vintage), so I proceeded. Thus began a series of events our Family will not soon forget.
A scope of unrecognizeable origin was mounted on the rifle. I locked the rifle into the the Accurite device, sat in the right hand position and placed the crosshairs on the target. Using just my thumb and forefinger on the trigger, I fired the first round. 6" left and 4" high. I noted that the client was exactly behind me and my son Latigo, then 12 years old, was behind me and slightly off to my right. I shifted the crosshairs to the POI and squeezed off the second round. Strangely the POI only shifted half the distance I'd moved the scope, so I closed the bolt as is usual. I commented to the owner that I was relatively positive that he had a cope problem and was about to confirm this with the next shot.
I gently squeezed the trigger and the shot "sounded" wrong. I also felt a concussion wave and hot gas as something rushed to the rear and close to my right ear. I heard a sort of gasp from behind me and saw my son collapsing to the ground. Blood from three places on his white T shirt appeared as I shouted for my wife to call 911. We immediately determined it had to be the Alert helicopter from the Kalispell Regional Hospital instead of an ambulance.
Our home is 36 miles from town and in the mountains, but well known to the Sheriff's Department due to our long term reltionship with officers using our range. the helicopter was here within 15 minutes and they had Latigo loaded in a compression suit and gone in another three minutes. I headed for town.
A deputy intercepted me 20 miles from town and ran front door for me at varying speeds of 70 right up to 100 miles an hour. We were at the hospital shortly thereafter and I truly don't remember the trip in from Lost prairie. Latigo was already in surgery with no word of his condition. The Alert Helicopter nurse asked if I was his father and told me they had jump started his heart twice on the way to KRH and wished me the best of luck. The rest of this is going to be a long explanation shortened as much as possible.
A large piece of metal, having entered his upper chest, was deflected by a rib, tore a channel down his body without hitting a vital organ and was lodged near the base of his spine. A second piece was near his heart but not close enough to damage anything critical. A third piece entered his upper right arm, was deflected by bone and tore a 4" channel down alongside the bone. All three were considered not to be immediately life threatening and that removal surgery would be more dangerous than allowing the metal pieces to grow scar tissue around them and allow for natural gravitation to the surface for removal at later dates.
A deputy accompanied me back to the range where the very distraught owner of the rifle had been taken into the kitchen and given coffee. The rifle was untouched still in the rest.
Examining the unfired cartridges proved them to be original with a lot of mild corrosion, not enough to prevent chambering, but definitely visibly corroded. The balance of the boxed ammunition was in the same condition as were the rest of the boxes in the opriginal 288 round wood box in his truck. His Grandfather had owned this original "bring -back" and the wooden box of ammunituion and had given it to him some 40 years ago.
Now begins the contoversy. This Enfield had fired out of batttery. The pieces in my Son's body were pieces of the bolt. The rifle was otherwise not "apparently" damaged. All of this was a result of me ignoring and violating my own range rules for the sake of expediency and a hunter's desire not to miss opening day. The rifle was taken into the Sheriff's department for storage and keeping as evidence of the incident for the subsequent required incident report. This rifles and the incident became a huge talking point within the department as there were a number of Enfield owner/collectors withing the ranks. Despite the obvious incident, it was generally believed that something was not yet in the equation since everyone knew that "an Enfield could not fire out of battery".
A deputy who had the same model and vintage Enfield asked if he could test this ammunition on his own rifle, under controlled circumstances of course. I agreed. the original owner of the ammuntion agreed to give all of it to the Sheriff's Department for this purpose. We transported the Accurite device to town and set it up in the KPD indoor range. There were 202 rounds left in the original box, so we began firing it with a cord from behind the heavy Polycarbonate shield. After some 60 rounds the barrel was fairly hot so we called it a day.
The following day we began at 5am. At 187 rounds the rifle repeated the Lost Prairie experience and we then did something incredibly stupid. We opened 8 random rounds to examine the powder (cordite actually)...... Something that should have been done right out of the gate, but in retrospect, if we'd done that first we may not have even continued the process that led to the second blown bolt. This vintage ammunition was found to have an unusual amount of deteriorated dust in each case. Certainly due to storage conditions or something as yet undertermined, we surmised the the coagulent had failed and we had experienced a "detonation" rather than a controlled burn in both rifles. The varying amount of deterioration in each cartridge was nothing more than a roll of the dice, luck of the draw, whatever you want to call it. I'll not discuss this further. The incident is something that weighs heavily upon me and this is the only missive I'll compose on the matter.
Today, Latigo still carries the bolt pieces in his body. Xrays determined that the scar tissue did indeed occur and all three pieces were thus trapped and remain immobile in his body. Should the situation change and gravitation does occur, they will then be surgically removed at that point.
P.W. St.Marie
Edited: I copied this from a typewritten sheet and have spelling errors.
Latigo
--------------------------------
- - - - - - -
Enfields and a long ago true story
Gents, I'm being allowed to post this with the understanding that I not participate in the discussion. I was very young and actually don't remember any part of it other than being in the hospital afterward. My Father will most certainly not discuss it.
This was written by my Father in 1993.
------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a hard one for me to write, but it demands an explanation.
There was a 5 year stretch beginning in 1986 during which I offered a service to hunters during the summer months. I am in posession of a free standing device that accepted the entire rifle, seats it to the rear against a recoil absorbing mechanism and holds the barrel in place with a Padded "V" adjustable rest with rubber tubing that allowed for "natural recoil". The unit has a seat that may be rotated left or right for either side shooting. The shooter need only to gently squeeze the trigger or fire it with a remote setup. The unit has both rough and fine windage and elevation adjusters. All of this serves to allow the sighting in process with the human out of the equation.
Typically it would take a maximum of 4 rounds to accomplish this. First shot to determine POI in relation to the scope. Without disturbing the rifle, the windage and elevation were then adjusted to intercept the POI of the first shot. Second shot to confirm the desired POI and a third shot to prove the change . 4th shot to prove correct grouping.
Only new, factory ammunition was accepted from the owner of the rifle. No reloads, nothing custom, just in-the-box factory ammunition. The rifle had to be of a recent manufacture. The customer was to deliver the rifle and ammuntion to our facility in town by noon on friday. The sighting process was done on Saturday and Sunday at our range, returning the rifle to the owner the following monday. The owner was absolutely forbidden to be at the Lost Prairie range during this process. An average weekend would see 5 or more rifles to be sighted in.
Most all of these rifles were in the .375 H&H, .300 WinMag, 8mm Mag or .416 Rigby categories, calibers with substantial recoil that the owners were loathe to sight in from the shoulder, thus the use of our firing device.
In 1992, the Saturday before the opening of hunting season, I received a "desperate" call from a gent who said he had just gotten back into the Flathead, had a rifle and was intending to hunt the opening day on Sunday. It was the last one of the season so......... I broke my own range rule #1. "The customer may not be on our range during the process."
He arrived one hour later with his rifle, an Enfield that was original issue. I then broke my own range rule #2. The rifle was not of recent manufacture. It was late, he was there with the rifle, so I proceeded. Range rule #3 was then broken when I accepted a loaded magazine from a box he set on the table. The two boxes he presented were original boxes of the day (WWII vintage), so I proceeded. Thus began a series of events our Family will not soon forget.
A scope of unrecognizeable origin was mounted on the rifle. I locked the rifle into the the Accurite device, sat in the right hand position and placed the crosshairs on the target. Using just my thumb and forefinger on the trigger, I fired the first round. 6" left and 4" high. I noted that the client was exactly behind me and my son Latigo, then 12 years old, was behind me and slightly off to my right. I shifted the crosshairs to the POI and squeezed off the second round. Strangely the POI only shifted half the distance I'd moved the scope, so I closed the bolt as is usual. I commented to the owner that I was relatively positive that he had a cope problem and was about to confirm this with the next shot.
I gently squeezed the trigger and the shot "sounded" wrong. I also felt a concussion wave and hot gas as something rushed to the rear and close to my right ear. I heard a sort of gasp from behind me and saw my son collapsing to the ground. Blood from three places on his white T shirt appeared as I shouted for my wife to call 911. We immediately determined it had to be the Alert helicopter from the Kalispell Regional Hospital instead of an ambulance.
Our home is 36 miles from town and in the mountains, but well known to the Sheriff's Department due to our long term reltionship with officers using our range. the helicopter was here within 15 minutes and they had Latigo loaded in a compression suit and gone in another three minutes. I headed for town.
A deputy intercepted me 20 miles from town and ran front door for me at varying speeds of 70 right up to 100 miles an hour. We were at the hospital shortly thereafter and I truly don't remember the trip in from Lost prairie. Latigo was already in surgery with no word of his condition. The Alert Helicopter nurse asked if I was his father and told me they had jump started his heart twice on the way to KRH and wished me the best of luck. The rest of this is going to be a long explanation shortened as much as possible.
A large piece of metal, having entered his upper chest, was deflected by a rib, tore a channel down his body without hitting a vital organ and was lodged near the base of his spine. A second piece was near his heart but not close enough to damage anything critical. A third piece entered his upper right arm, was deflected by bone and tore a 4" channel down alongside the bone. All three were considered not to be immediately life threatening and that removal surgery would be more dangerous than allowing the metal pieces to grow scar tissue around them and allow for natural gravitation to the surface for removal at later dates.
A deputy accompanied me back to the range where the very distraught owner of the rifle had been taken into the kitchen and given coffee. The rifle was untouched still in the rest.
Examining the unfired cartridges proved them to be original with a lot of mild corrosion, not enough to prevent chambering, but definitely visibly corroded. The balance of the boxed ammunition was in the same condition as were the rest of the boxes in the opriginal 288 round wood box in his truck. His Grandfather had owned this original "bring -back" and the wooden box of ammunituion and had given it to him some 40 years ago.
Now begins the contoversy. This Enfield had fired out of batttery. The pieces in my Son's body were pieces of the bolt. The rifle was otherwise not "apparently" damaged. All of this was a result of me ignoring and violating my own range rules for the sake of expediency and a hunter's desire not to miss opening day. The rifle was taken into the Sheriff's department for storage and keeping as evidence of the incident for the subsequent required incident report. This rifles and the incident became a huge talking point within the department as there were a number of Enfield owner/collectors withing the ranks. Despite the obvious incident, it was generally believed that something was not yet in the equation since everyone knew that "an Enfield could not fire out of battery".
A deputy who had the same model and vintage Enfield asked if he could test this ammunition on his own rifle, under controlled circumstances of course. I agreed. the original owner of the ammuntion agreed to give all of it to the Sheriff's Department for this purpose. We transported the Accurite device to town and set it up in the KPD indoor range. There were 202 rounds left in the original box, so we began firing it with a cord from behind the heavy Polycarbonate shield. After some 60 rounds the barrel was fairly hot so we called it a day.
The following day we began at 5am. At 187 rounds the rifle repeated the Lost Prairie experience and we then did something incredibly stupid. We opened 8 random rounds to examine the powder (cordite actually)...... Something that should have been done right out of the gate, but in retrospect, if we'd done that first we may not have even continued the process that led to the second blown bolt. This vintage ammunition was found to have an unusual amount of deteriorated dust in each case. Certainly due to storage conditions or something as yet undertermined, we surmised the the coagulent had failed and we had experienced a "detonation" rather than a controlled burn in both rifles. The varying amount of deterioration in each cartridge was nothing more than a roll of the dice, luck of the draw, whatever you want to call it. I'll not discuss this further. The incident is something that weighs heavily upon me and this is the only missive I'll compose on the matter.
Today, Latigo still carries the bolt pieces in his body. Xrays determined that the scar tissue did indeed occur and all three pieces were thus trapped and remain immobile in his body. Should the situation change and gravitation does occur, they will then be surgically removed at that point.
P.W. St.Marie
Edited: I copied this from a typewritten sheet and have spelling errors.
Latigo
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