Story and pictures of gun mishap while hunting this last season

[bigelk1030]

I want to share this with you guys, the gun this happened to is a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight in .270.

I was hunting in Alberta in early December and shot a nice mule deer my third morning of hunting.  That evening, in about a foot of snow and -9 degree F weather, I was hunting for whitetail and we spotted a 170 class buck at the bottom of a wooded draw.  We walked up one side of the draw, when we got to the top of the draw the buck was standing broadside at about 150 yards.

I rested my rifle on a wood fence post and found the buck in my scope.  I squeezed the trigger, the gun fired, but the deer didn’t react.  I chambered another round, the buck was walking slowly but stopped.  I once again found the buck in my scope and squeezed the trigger.

The next thing I knew, my left hand was numb and I had part of the laminated wood stock in my left hand.  The guy I was hunting with said (in a panicked voice) what the hell happened to your gun?  I didn’t realize at that second what had happened, the gun fired and was in pieces in my hand (In retrospect, I was probably in a bit of shock.)

As you can see from the pictures, the barrel split from one end down to the where the casing is.  The bolt wouldn’t open and the shell casing was stuck in the action, until I took it to a gunsmith here.  It appears the only part that survived is the Leupold scope.

I called Winchester and they didn’t seem to care much at all with what happened.  The guy I spoke with said the only time he had ever heard of something like this was when someone put a .308 cartridge into a .270 (which is not the case).

Luckily nobody was hurt bad.  The numbness in my left hand went away after a couple of days, although my hearing in my left ear is noticeably worse (going to an ear doctor on Friday).  Thank goodness the guy I was hunting with was behind me!

The rifle is a .270 Winchester model 70 that I purchased new in about 1993.  I was shooting Federal Premium (factory loads) with a 130 grain Nosler Ballistic tip bullet.  I would guess I have put less than 250 rounds through the rifle.

I took it to a local gunsmith and all we can figure is the first bullet never left the barrel.  If there was debris in the barrel there should have been some indication with the first shot.  In his 25 years in the business he had never seen anything like this.  The stock is busted up, the barrel is split (from one end all the way down into the threads) and the action appears to be bent. (Bolt rubs when its cycled). 

I think I will put it on my wall as a reminder to how lucky I was or I have even thought about sharing it with a Hunters Education course to show people what can happen.

As I said in the beginning, I wanted to share this with you, probably more a reminder on gun safety than anything else.

Open for serious thoughts about what your theory is on why it happened, was it the cold weather?  Debris?  Short load in the first shot?  I will probably never know, but just damn happy nobody was seriously hurt. 

Thanks for reading.

[washelkhntr]

Your one lucky man!

[halflife65]

Wow!  I have almost the identical setup except the gun is early '80s.

Not sure what happened - my initial thought was that the first bullet didn't leave the barrel but I dunno.  My uncle blew up a shotgun about 2 years ago but he actually had some stuff stuck in the barrel and didn't realize it. 

[denali]

WOW.   I'm glad no one was seriously hurt.   that would put the damper on a hunting trip   

[FC]

Sounds pretty simple, first shot was a squib and the second blew the gun apart. You are very lucky!

[bobcat]

If there was a problem with the first shot such as not enough powder or no powder in the cartridge, and the bullet didn't make it out of the barrel, I think you would have noticed something was wrong because the sound would have been a lot quieter than normal and there would have been almost no recoil. To me it would seem more likely that the second shot was the problem- but I have no idea what it could have been. Unless the wrong powder was used and it was way over pressure.

I take it the deer walked away unharmed?

[duckaholic]

Blocked Rifle Barrel Blows Up In Guys Face

[carpsniperg2]

Wow! Very lucky!

[bowhunterforever]

  Thats some scary stuff. I bet you were alittle nervous shooting a rifle for the first time after that happend.

[toothfangclaw]

is -9 cold enough to compromise the steel?

[Little Dave]

Thanks for sharing, glad you lived to tell.
Possible that any snow got in there?

[rasbo]

wow

[BallisticsNut]

Just out of curiosity, how many days where you out there prior to taking the shot?  Was the rifle cleaned prior to this hunt?  Was it raining/snowing at any point during this hunt?  Did you carry your rifle barrel up or down?

Not that I have any personal knowledge if this happening in another case, seems to me that this could have been caused by a multitude of the aforementioned items.  If the rifle had not been cleaned prior to this hunt, its possible there may have been a foreign body in the barrel prior to the first shot.  Wet cold weather carrying the rifle barrel up, could compromise the barrell/bolt over a course of a couple days (wet cold and condensation in the barrel, stored overnite in warm climate-repeat process) 

Whatever it was that caused this, I want to avoid the same "steps in the process". 

[jackmaster]

glad to hear that you can still walk the earth, that is some crazy stuff, i could almost guarantee that the cold weather made the barrel ice up, when you take a weapon from warm to minus temps then the barrel will ice up which caused the first round to lodge itself in the barrel and you obviosly know what happened with second, back in 86 or 87 here in washington we had a deer season where the temps dropped to 0 or below and i heard of a few people that almost the same thing happened to. glad that you ok man, pretty *censored*ty of winchester, to not really care, you would think they would love to test it to see if it was inferior steel.

[HornHoarder]

Did that really have to happen when you were shooting at a 170 class buck? Luckily you werent seriously injured. Lucky buck too.

[BLKBEARKLR]

First glad that you made it out of that ordeal with all your digits.

I have hunted and shot numerous weapons in Alaska in the military. In temps up to negative 75. So the temp will not compromise the steel. Only thing it does it make it cold to have in your hands or by your face.

If you shot at the mule deer earlier and then you brought that gun in from the outside and it warmed up and made condensation inside the barrel and then you brought it back outside allowing it to freeze again you may have gotten ice in the barrel, could have been ( usually towards the very end of the barrel this occurs. First round may have not made it out of barrel but made it almost to the end of the barrel. And second round comes smoking down and impacts and you get what you have. Ice melts from inside of barrel nothing left for evidence. I say this not because I am an expert but have seen it happen a couple of times with military weapons.

Once again glad you made it out of that with no serious injuries.

Joe

[Jason]

My guess is for the barrel to split like that, is the first bullet was stuck towards the end of the barrel 

[bigelk1030]

I appreciate everyone's input, I will try to answer all the questions, the perplexing part is that the first shot went off and (as I remember it) sounded/acted like a shot, I remember the recoil, and the guy with me said the same thing.  It may of been a short load (squib) but I am confident it was more than just the primer.

The deer wasn't hit, we looked for blood in the snow, who knows where the second shot even ended up.  We actually looked for it but by the time I got my bearings straight (out of shock) it was too dark to shoot.  

As for it being a 170 class deer, there were 3 other people from Alberta that had saw it, and they all stated it was that size, I know it was big, but I am not an expert on field judging whitetails, but I take their word for it.

Not that I have any personal knowledge if this happening in another case, seems to me that this could have been caused by a multitude of the aforementioned items.  If the rifle had not been cleaned prior to this hunt, its possible there may have been a foreign body in the barrel prior to the first shot.  Wet cold weather carrying the rifle barrel up, could compromise the barrell/bolt over a course of a couple days (wet cold and condensation in the barrel, stored overnite in warm climate-repeat process) 

Whatever it was that caused this, I want to avoid the same "steps in the process". 

I shot a mule deer that morning, so the gun was working fine then, it was cleaned just prior to the trip, it was in the warm truck then into the cold/snow, so it could of iced up, I dont recall falling or getting the barrel into the snow.  One thought I have had is maybe with the barrel on the floorboard something did get into it, but it makes no sense why the first shot went off and this happened on the second.

I added a few more pics................

[Rob]

I'd send the scope in to Leupold before I remounted it...  They do free inspections.

[bigelk1030]

My guess is for the barrel to split like that, is the first bullet was stuck towards the end of the barrel 

You and blkbearklr are probably on to something, if you look at the end of the barrel pic (below), its black and looks as though there was something there, could of been ice or the first bullet.  The gunsmith picked up on this also, but we didnt discuss the ice scenario.

[bigelk1030]

I'd send the scope in to Leupold before I remounted it...  They do free inspections.

Great point, I will do that.  Kudo's to Leupold it appears its the only part that survived.   

[MikeWalking]

Glad you're OK.  I've done some shooting in that kind of cold. Alaska 11B...brrrrrr  Gotta be real careful about where/how you keep a rifle before you shoot.  As in keeping it in a heated tent or camper then going outside and letting condensation build up then freeze.  There may have been some icing in the barrel, a squib or the barrel may have warped a bit in the cold but I wouldn't think so..

[bigelk1030]

glad that you ok man, pretty *censored*ty of winchester, to not really care, you would think they would love to test it to see if it was inferior steel.

I agree, although it may be a bullet issue, I would of thought Winchester would of liked to look at it.  Where I work, if we have any issue like this at all we get it back for an analysis to see what happen.  If anything, I would think they would want to get it out of the public.

One reason I waited so long to post it was to see if I could get them to talk to me, the guys I spoke with on the phone were no help, I looked all over for an email address to send them the photos and no luck there either.

I have the gun, its been taken apart and inspected.  I tried to use the action to build a new gun but it was just too risky not understanding if the split affected it.  The split on the barrel went down to 3/8 of an inch from splitting all the way through, well into the threads.

[Rob]

I have nothing but good to say about Leupold.  I have sent in scopes to correct damage I have done, replace caps lost while hunting, do inspections, etc.  they are always fast, friendly and have yet to charge me.  Maybe they can use the photo to market how tough their scopes are!

have you contaced Federal to get their take?  could be an ammo issue.

If you fire the first round, and the bullet were to lodge in the end of the barrel for some reason, what happens to the gasses behind the first bullet?  I would think it would make an odd noise, or belch fire out the bolt.

But I know how buck fever is - it would be easy to not notice such things while trying to take shots on a nice animal.

My guess is Winchester is laying low to avoid a potential lawsuit.

[MikeWalking]

If you fire the first round, and the bullet were to lodge in the end of the barrel for some reason, what happens to the gasses behind the first bullet?  I would think it would make an odd noise, or belch fire out the bolt.

I've got a very old Winchester action with a vent for just that...for a ruptured case at least...

[woodswalker]

Looking at the muzzle pic it appears that there is a bulge about an inch back from the muzzle...I'm wondering if there was rain/snow/ice in the muzzle that the first bullet managed to pass, but started the split in the barrel. Then the second shot finished it off.

[quadrafire]

Holy Chit-----That is scary stuff.

[Curly]

Looking at the muzzle pic it appears that there is a bulge about an inch back from the muzzle...I'm wondering if there was rain/snow/ice in the muzzle that the first bullet managed to pass, but started the split in the barrel. Then the second shot finished it off.

That is my thoughts as well.  The first shot probably punched the ice/snow out of the end of the barrel, leaving the first bullet resting near the end of the barrel.  Then the second bullet comes along and hit the stuck first bullet causing the catastrophic failure.  (Maybe the first shot didn't sound too much out of the ordinary because of the monster buck in front of you and because the ice plug probably left at a pretty decent velocity.............

[bigelk1030]

have you contaced Federal to get their take?  could be an ammo issue.


My guess is Winchester is laying low to avoid a potential lawsuit.

I haven't contacted Federal, I probably should have, I was fairly convinced they would give me the stiff arm like Winchester did.  Exactly for the reason you quote, avoiding a lawsuit. 

I have the casing it happened with and the box it came from, I would be willing to let Federal or Winchester inspect the gun and casing, but I have little hope they would want to see it.  My 

[509er]

WOW!!  You are lucky to have all your digits still!!  I also would contact Federal just because.  Also I would keep the rifle and hang it on the wall or something, would make a great reminder/conversation piece.

[gaddy]

i would think bolth companys would want to inspect it . if for no other reason , research on thier products. i would try to get ahold of the head person at winchester and try to bypass the phone flunkys. e-mail picts to the pres, be nice but let them see the product. same with federal, see if you can get access to the top dogs. if i was in a position to see a product failure, no mater what the cause, id want want to see it. the phone flunkies always seem to try & put problems in the hands of the user, guess thats thier job. but i had a problem with a shot gun a few years ago & when i finally(pain in the ass) got ahold of the upper management they were shocked(so they said) that i had been treated that way & they got the parts sent to me free.i guess its like any product,those that arent persistant enough or dont get ahold of the right people wont be heard.i would think that gun would be valuable to thier r&d dept no matter what the cause. and if for no other reason to keep it out of the public eye.

[bigelk1030]

That is exactly what I was thinking gaddy, at least for Winchester I couldnt find a single email address.  I suppose they get a lot of hate mail if its published on the web.

Anyone have the email address for someone (preferably senior management) at Winchester?

[Raul Duke]

WOW, I have never seen something like this. 

[wsucowboy]

WOW! Your very lucky indeed! Never seen anything like that before

[huntandjeep]

Thats crazy 

[sakoshooter]

I'm glad to be able to read a story written by the person this happened to. Could have been a lot worse. Say your prayers.

[bigelk1030]

I'm glad to be able to read a story written by the person this happened to. Could have been a lot worse. Say your prayers.

Thank you, your note hit home, I pause every once in a while and think 'what if'. 

I am very very lucky to make it through with no major injuries.  Things could of been really bad, I was many miles from a hospital, it could of hurt the guy I was with, lots of what if's.  I will take a little hearing loss over what could have been.

[bigelk1030]

WOW!!  You are lucky to have all your digits still!! 

With the cold weather I was wearing a thick winter mitten, I am sure it absorbed a lot of the energy, with out it I may have lost some fingers.  As I mentioned, my hand was numb, actually tingled for a few days, my fingertips were bruised (around the nails) for a few weeks.

I attended the hunters ed course with my son right after I returned from the hunt, they showed some pictures of hands half gone from gun and muzzleloader incidents.  Thought long and hard about how close I was to losing my hand.

I have thought, what if the stock was walnut or synthetic?  I think the laminated wood held together better than the others would have.  I might of been picking pieces of synthetic stock out of my hand.