Story and pictures of gun mishap while hunting this last season

[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.