Good reminder that safety is not just a punchline.
I was shooting at the range today and paused to watch the guy next to me shooting a real nice looking 1903. He pulled the trigger, and BOOM! A flash flew out the side of the gun, reminiscent of an old flint musket. He stood up and staggered backwards in a daze. The blood was already pouring from the multiple cuts on his face.
Luckily he was wearing a good set of glasses. He only ended up the facial lacerations.
Upon investigation of the gun, the bolt would not move so we could not open it up to see how the cartridge failed. Fortunately, he was only shooting 1 round at a time so there was no live ammo stuck in the internal magazine. The speculation is that the brass was weakened and a case-head separation occurred. There was talk about a potentially double charged case but apparently a double charge is very unlikely using the particular powder he was (it would have overflowed the case).
The craziest part was that I actually SAW it happen. It's not one of those stories of "i looked down, heard a noise, looked up and saw the aftermath." I actually saw him pull the trigger, saw the flash, saw the gun blow up, saw him stagger back, and saw the blood start flowing. It was quite surreal.
I was shooting at the range today and paused to watch the guy next to me shooting a real nice looking 1903. He pulled the trigger, and BOOM! A flash flew out the side of the gun, reminiscent of an old flint musket. He stood up and staggered backwards in a daze. The blood was already pouring from the multiple cuts on his face.
Luckily he was wearing a good set of glasses. He only ended up the facial lacerations.
Upon investigation of the gun, the bolt would not move so we could not open it up to see how the cartridge failed. Fortunately, he was only shooting 1 round at a time so there was no live ammo stuck in the internal magazine. The speculation is that the brass was weakened and a case-head separation occurred. There was talk about a potentially double charged case but apparently a double charge is very unlikely using the particular powder he was (it would have overflowed the case).
The craziest part was that I actually SAW it happen. It's not one of those stories of "i looked down, heard a noise, looked up and saw the aftermath." I actually saw him pull the trigger, saw the flash, saw the gun blow up, saw him stagger back, and saw the blood start flowing. It was quite surreal.