Safety Share on Rifles

[coueselk]

Ok everyone. I believe everyone probably has a couple of different calibers of rifles. This is a thread for safety awareness. On a recent bear hunting trip this past week, we had a very close call on somebody getting injured really bad.

Here is the scenario, one member of our hunting party was shooting a 7mm mag. Well, we found a bear and proceded to set up to shoot it. There were 3 of us, two with rifles and me as a glasser/caller. We were spaced roughly six foot apart. Me on the far right, one with a .25-06 in the middle and the 7mm mag holder on the far left.

The first shot was with the .25-06, which barely missed the bear. The bear disappeared into a brushy ravine and then reappeared going up a rocky bluff. The next shot was from the 7mm, which sounded like a canon going off. Then there was a guy on the ground holding his face and saying that he got some blow-back from the rifle. Then being the dedicated hunter he his, telling the other shooter to shoot the bear. I got up to help him and noticed he had indeed taken blowback from the rifle.

 

Here is a picture of his face a few minutes after the shot.

 

 

It's hard to see, but he did get hit in the eye with some fragments.

 

Here is the story, he had picked up a leather belt case of shells, that he had thought were 7mm mag shells. Not checking them, he loaded them into the gun. They happened to be .270 win shells. Since the .270 is smaller than the 7mm mag, it fit loosely into the chamber. When he shot, it blew the casing apart and sent tiny fragments of brass out from around the bolt, back toward his face. The scope shielded most of his eye. It also blew the magazine baseplate open on the bottom of the rifle. The force also sheared the pin somehow that keeps the bolt from coming all the way out of the rifle. As when we opened the bolt to remove the casing, the bolt slide all the way out of the rifle.

 

Here is a picture of the casing.

 

 

He went to the eye doctor the next morning and they removed a lot of tiny brass splinters from his eye. He went back later that afternoon for a follow-up after getting x-rays of his eye for any deep penetrating slivers. The doctor said that he was already 80% healed.

 

We got lucky and I do mean LUCKY, that this wasn't a lot worse. This is why I'm passing this on. I know a lot of us use shoot a couple of different calibers, like a primary rifle and a backup. I know that I only have one carrying case for shells, so I swap the shells out when I go. But it is easy for me to tell the difference between my .270win and my .270wsm shells. But for those of you that have like shell calibers, be sure to check your ammo. Everyone has the ablility to take it for granted that you have the correct stuff. Just double-check.

 

By the way, the happy ending was the shooter is ok and we got the bear.

[COUESAZ]

Oh man. You are right. I look at every shell even when i buy them brand new. I come right home and make sure they are all 25-06. it is easy to make a mistake like this but only takes a few seconds to make sure it does not take place. Thank you for the reminder.

[JVS]

Thank goodness it wasn't worse...I had a guy tell me once he shot quite a few practice rounds through a 30-06 before realizing he was using 270 ammo. He said the groups were all screwed up, but never got blowback.

 

I think we saw your bear coming out of unit 27 the other day. Did you have him on the back of your bike?

[missedagain]

Glad to hear that he will be alright!

 

I once shot a 3 1/2 inch shell out of an 870 that was suppose to only hold up to a 3 inch shell, the gun pretty much fell apart and I had to do surgery to get the shell out of the action but luckily I wasn't hurt.

 

Congratulations on the bear! Lets see some pictures

[More D]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your friend but am glad to hear that he is OK.

 

 

Another lesson on being careful:

 

I have a friend in Sonora who is a avid shooter in the .22 rifle competitions. He does hunt deer with a 300WSM but 99.9% of his shooting is the .22lr. While he was at the range during one of his regular practice sessons fellow club member asked him to take a look at an old .22 pistol that they could not figure out. After a bit of cleaning and checking the pistol out they fired a few rounds and the pistol quickly jammed. It did not feed correctly. He put the safty and while he was trying to clear the jam without the finger on the trigger the safty failed the slide slammed forward and fired.................. Right in the palm of his hand . He is ok but having trouble with his hand movment still after 6+ months.

 

 

Maybe we can learn or remind our selfs about gun safty. Part of the laundry list of mistakes he made, feel free to jump in here.

 

TRUSTING A SAFTY!

TOUCHING A GUN HE DID NOT KNOW(he had never seen that model of pistol before)

TOUCHING A GUN WHO HAD NOT SEEN A QUALIFIED GUNSMITH, EVER.

TOUCHING A GUN THAT HAD NOT SEEN A CLEANING KIT, EVER.

PUTTING ANY PART OF HIS BODY IN FRONT OF THE MUZZEL.

TRUSTING A SAFTY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[singleshot]

A few years back in Texas two hunters in a blind were seriously injured, one blinded and one killed when one of the men chambered a 30-06 in a 270 weatherby magnum. The leverage that is capable with a bolt action rifle will easily seat a larger caliber bullet into the case when encountering a chamber too small. The bolt came straight back and exited the back of the shooters head.

[Guest Ernesto C]

Oh man that was really a close call. I'm glad he's doing ok and thank God nothing worst happenend. Bad things happen so easy and so quick.

 

I one ocassion I saw a couple of guys at the shotting range,one was using a 30-06 and the other was using 25-06;they placed their remington ammo boxes next to each other.After a few shots one of them with out looking from which box was taking the ammo loaded his 30-06 with a 25-06 round,they were expecting to hit the silouete (spelling?) at 200 meters..................the bullet hit the ground 30 yards in from ot them. Thank God nothing bad happened but it could be worst.

 

Thanks for the reminder and wake up call for all of us Danny;take care.

 

Ernesto C

[Red Rabbit]

Fortunate indeed.

 

My college roommate's brother bought some reloading equipment, including powder. The guy he bought it from had put some pistol powder in a can labeled for rifle powder. The result was not good. Eve though he was wearing shooting glasses, he still suffered eye damage.

 

For reasons similar to the above, I do not like to share reloading recipes or use someone else's handloads. What is "safe?" in one rifle, may not be in another.

 

Doug~RR

[coueshunter84]

for those of you shooting the WSSM rounds. My brother in law and my self both purchased a new rifle. He got a .223 WSSM, and I went with the .243 WSSM. Ony took me about 2 seconds to see that the only difference in the 2 rounds equals the bullet diameter only. Side by side the only way to really tell the difference is reading the bottom of the casings. After sighting both the guns in ( one at a time with only one type of ammo out ) We tried chambering the empties in the opposite guns. Both chambered rather well in both guns. Kind of scarry. I ended up selling mine a couple of month ago so not to worry. But still something to think about.

 

 

 

Read them before you use them, or I might be visiting you on a professional basis. And thats not good.

[ruffcountry]

Once a freind bought a 300weatherby mag . I went to the store and bought a box of 300 weatherby ammo, drove to his house picked him up and went to the range. He fired 1st round, we coudnt tell where it hit, and something just didnt seem right . I examined fired shell , it looked ok . He fired 2cd round , it hit the ground about half way to the target . I closely examined fired cartridge , it looked just like the first one only on this one I noticed it said 270 weatherby mag.The brass fire formed to the larger chamber size, The box said 300 , the shells were270. Lucky for us the bullets were smaller than the bore. You can never be too careful , doublecheck every thing.

[BRYCE CANYON]

 

I have one of those also coueselk. I did the same thing with the same cartridges but I was shooting in the prone position so I had a lot more debris embedded in my eye.

[ghost hunter]

This is scary because there are other calibers where the cartidges will inter-change but not be the correct one. I'm glad he is alright, but it could have been different.