Big Happening at the Skeet Field Today

Koolmoose

NES Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
1,044
Likes
509
Location
Other side of the bridges behind the iron curtain
Feedback: 0 / 0 / 0
A 20 gauge Stevens blew up with a reloaded shell. The lower right part of the receiver hasn’t been found. The shooter had a cut on his left hand from the splintered fore end but, fortunately, there were no other injuries to anyone.
 

Attachments

  • 200B7990-434D-4E20-960B-8C67ED8B58B9.jpeg
    200B7990-434D-4E20-960B-8C67ED8B58B9.jpeg
    822.4 KB · Views: 319
  • C7CAEC80-B086-4939-B982-1D26649D471D.jpeg
    C7CAEC80-B086-4939-B982-1D26649D471D.jpeg
    779.2 KB · Views: 307
  • D4450337-1167-4A13-BFB5-7506BF9A668A.jpeg
    D4450337-1167-4A13-BFB5-7506BF9A668A.jpeg
    667 KB · Views: 304
  • 0B8D9DE7-4AFB-4407-87A0-53DF06C2D755.jpeg
    0B8D9DE7-4AFB-4407-87A0-53DF06C2D755.jpeg
    694.1 KB · Views: 313
A 20 gauge Stevens blew up with a reloaded shell. The lower right part of the receiver hasn’t been found. The shooter had a cut on his left hand from the splintered fore end but, fortunately, there were no other injuries to anyone.
Glad nobody was seriously hurt
 
damn, nasty...and everyone was lucky for the most part to walk away. yeah, i've never seen a shotgun blow, this was a serious detonation it looks like.
 
Wow as a shotgun reloader for over 20 years I have never seen that. Would love to know the details barrel obstruction ? Usually a squib load is very noticeable in a shotgun. How many rounds on the gun ?
Good news nobody got hurt.
 
Im actually surprised, it does not look like fhe barrel chamber was compromised? The sock wave rattled the solder loose on the connecting rib. Almost like the receiver faliled.
 
I’m keeping the field secret. I wasn’t even going to post this but everyone was so lucky I’d thought I’d share.it.
It was an older gun with many rounds through it.
Shell was loaded with #9 shot.
I don’t know if there were 2 or 2 rounds in the gun at the time of the accident.
 
Last edited:
I have, somewhere, a 12ga double that was blown to pieces and the parts were wired together. It was used as evidence in court. Was given to me without details. The thing looked like it had literally exploded. Someone must have been hurt bad. Jack.
 
It is hard to tell from the pics. Did the receiver break?

If the receiver broke, that was a double powder charge.

If only the barrel broke, like my BFR, it was a squib. But I dont think you can get a squib with birdshot, so I stand by double powder charge.
 
For you experienced reloaded / shotgun guys can you tell anything from the shell remains in pic #1?
Well from looking at the pictures, I would rule out a barrel obstruction at the muzzle as just the soldered vent rib looks to have separated. The condition of the receiver and I have not seen a shell come apart like that, I would venture a double shot of powder. BUT, even if the shell got double charged, when the wad went in, it should have been higher causing the shot charge to be higher. If the powder was fine like Clays, the extra powder might have been pushed down and not noticed. We really need to know if in fact the shell was a reload (printing looks faded on shell), what powder, and shot weight, and what kind of reloader used, to really figure more.
 
OP, can you give us any more details about exactly how the shotgun broke apart? These pictures give some good info, but they are still pretty limited.

It looks like the problem happened in the bottom barrel of an over under shotgun, and then the right side of the receiver blew out and channeled the force away from the shooter's head and face. Is this what happened?

What interests me is whether the shotgun was engineered to protect a right handed shooter from catastrophic failures, and whether that may have successfully prevented injury. Modern firearms are often designed to protect the shooter in ways that are not obvious. Good engineers don't just make designs that work, they also consider, if there is a failure, how the system will fail.

However, a lot of safety design on long guns is based on protecting right handed shooters. As a left handed shooter, I am always aware of this. I am especially aware that right handed bolt action rifles are designed to protect a right handed shooter in case of failure. And this could be very negative for a left handed shooter. Now I am thinking about the design of this shotgun. It appears pretty symmetrical from side to side, but I am wondering if the design involves more than it first appears.
 
OP, can you give us any more details about exactly how the shotgun broke apart? These pictures give some good info, but they are still pretty limited.

It looks like the problem happened in the bottom barrel of an over under shotgun, and then the right side of the receiver blew out and channeled the force away from the shooter's head and face. Is this what happened?

What interests me is whether the shotgun was engineered to protect a right handed shooter from catastrophic failures, and whether that may have successfully prevented injury. Modern firearms are often designed to protect the shooter in ways that are not obvious. Good engineers don't just make designs that work, they also consider, if there is a failure, how the system will fail.

However, a lot of safety design on long guns is based on protecting right handed shooters. As a left handed shooter, I am always aware of this. I am especially aware that right handed bolt action rifles are designed to protect a right handed shooter in case of failure. And this could be very negative for a left handed shooter. Now I am thinking about the design of this shotgun. It appears pretty symmetrical from side to side, but I am wondering if the design involves more than it first appears.

I only saw the aftermath. No one seems to know exactly what happened. The gun was aimed, a bird was called, trigger pulled and bang the explosion. I wish I could add more.

I thought of the consequences of this accident with a left handed shooter. From the looks of the receiver it could have been much more injurious to a left handed shooter.

BTW I have my next door neighbor’s Right handed Browning Citiori 725. He’s a lefty and went out and bought left handed Berettas in 12, 20, and 28 gauges. He felt he couldn’t shoot the right handed shotgun accurately. I got the Browning at a great price!

I’ve been metallic cartridge reloading for 40 years but only got into shot shell reloading in January of this year. I am well aware how a double load could get into a metallic cartridge. I got aMEC 590 Sizemaster jr for Christmas. After reading folks comments about a double powder load, I cannot figure out how one could double load a shell because of the way the charging bar cycles between powder and shot. How might a double load happen with shot shells?
 
Back
Top Bottom