!!!!!HERE'S YOUR SIGN!!!!!HIGH PRESSURE

[roundknob]

Yesterday I was shooting an IBS match down here in South Ga with my 6Dasher which I have had about two months now. The gun has been shooting steady 1.3-4 inch groups at 600 and 4-5 inch groups at 1000 with 33 grains of RL15 and 105 Berger pointed hybrids.Most of the temps have been in the 70s at most of the matches I have been to and in the shade untill yesterday. My E-Z UP was destroyed in a windstorm at a match two weeks ago and I had not replaced it.Well with that said at the match yesterday all was good I had won a couple of relays and was in a shootoff. At this match there were pitts and I had been down there working leaving my gun AND BULLETS on the tail gate of my truck,temp 85.I returned for the shootoff payed no attention to hot gun or bullets and started the sighter round. Sighter round is going good, shooting at 1000, all of a sudden an unexplained shot goes vertical 10 inches and bolt lift in stiff,DUH. In the heat of competition I fired my last sighter and was back in the 9 ring. The match is now on I fire my first shot I learn later it was an X,CRANK ROUND TWO IN and my match and world comes to a stop with a total blowback in my face and the bolt release blowing off the side of the action. Match officials are running to me as I have blood over my face and left hand where bits of steel have cut the left side of my face and EYE. Yep I have an appointment with an eye doctor tomorrow, I had taken my shades off on the shot before because of cloud cover,another dumb move. The moral here is regardless of how many matches you shoot look for the signs,be safe,and remember WE ARENT BULLET PROOF.
Thanks Guys
Steve
P.S. Looks like I will be starting another post on how to open up this blown apart action.

 

[chuckw2]

Very sobering read......I for one will never shoot without my glasses on again...
We all need to be reminded of safety issues.
Keep us posted on your doctors visit.....
Chuck. N. Ga. Marietta

 

[Minesweeper3433]

Glad your alright and good luck with the eye doctor. One more reason I am glad I wear eye protection as much as I do.

 

[cmillard]

i hope things turn out fine for you and you can get right back to shooting. re-15 in the sun light--that is the double base powder for you.

 

[jp]

Steve, glad to hear you are alright.. Hope all is well with the doctor's visit. And thx for the heads up on safety, even though I wear glasses I sometimes take them off. But now I will try to remember to keep them on.

thx

 

[Forum Boss]

Thanks for the honest report. Heat can be a killer! And here's a message to guys who think this can't happen with Hodgdon extreme powders.

A couple years back, I was shooting a 600-yard varmint match with my 6BR. At the time, the club had no covered shooting area. Temp was about 85 degrees F. Between relays I got lazy and left ammo in an MTM green box in the sun on my shooting mat. When I started the next relay, I notice the cartridges were WARM to TOUCH. I loaded and launched one sighter and noticed it went over the sighter gong many inches high from my zero.

I stopped my match, took my "warm" ammo (30.3 Varget, 6mmBR, 105 Scenar) over to another section of the range. I set up my chron and -- still leaving the ammo in the sun to maintain the "warm to touch" temp -- fired 3 rounds over the chrono. Velocity was about 85 fps higher than it should be with that load.

When I got home I programmed the observed velocity into Quickload (and used the Temperature Variable too). QuickLOAD calculated that I had picked up at least 6000 PSI! This was equivalent to adding a FULL grain of Varget powder to ammo held at a constant 70 degrees

Moral of story: NEVER, EVER leave your ammo out in hot sun. Keep in an insulated cooler if possible. Also, storing inside a vehicle is not a good solution -- the inside of a vehicle can get over 130 degrees on a hot, sunny day.

AND YES -- Always wear Eye and Ear Protection! When I shot IDPA pistol and Cowboy Action matches, protective eyewear was ALWAYS mandatory -- wear safety glasses or go home. Why this rule is not applied universally, in all firearms disciplines I don't know....

Advise you get 3 sets of protective eyewear -- one clear, one with a light amber tint (for bright days), and a back-up set. That way you won't be tempted to "go bare".

 

[NorCalMikie]

Good reason to "ALWAYS" wear eye protection, and another good reason to leave yourself a little "wiggle room" with your loads. Temp shift and hot loads don't mix. It can mess up your whole day. (among other things)

 

[BoydAllen]

Looking at another cartridge that I have experience with, accuracy can be found at various tuning nodes below the top one. By choosing a slightly larger cartridge, and pairing it with a powder that will fills the case well, the same velocity can be reached at a pressure that will not pose a safety problem, even if the ammunition is allowed to overheat. Of course the pressure and velocity will still increase, taking the rifle out of tune, but at least that will be the only penalty.

I know a successful short range shooter, that advised me of another advantage of using a node that is one down from the top. He told me that at the top node, if ambient temperature increase produces pressure that causes a flier, that it cannot be tuned out with the tuner, but one node down, it can be. It seem that we are genetically programed to push a given case farther than we should.

As to the issue of eye protection, I think that the problem is that a lot of people dislike being told what they should do, and they allow that emotion to over ride logic. To them I say "Here's your sign."

 

[Geronimo Jim]

Thanks for sharing. Important lesson and reminder for the spring season.

 

[WyleWD]

Thanks for sharing. Important lesson and reminder for the spring season.

+1 on Geronimo Jim's post. Hope all goes well with your eye doctor's appointment. WD

 

[BoydAllen]

A thing or two that I forgot to add to my previous post:

Good luck with the eye doctor. Thanks for sharing. Lest I sound too arrogant, I have done plenty of dumb, and unnecessarily dangerous thing in my life, and it is the memory of those close calls that makes me so pushy about urging others taking a safer path. May you all finish with the same number of working eyes that you started with.

 

[dtucker]

I for one am guilty of not wearing glasses 100% of the time. Of all the things i due and caution i take i have left them off. I hope your eye will be fine and all heals up well. Your rifle can be replaced but not your eye. Take care and sorry to hear about your accident. Your post is a reminder on how important wearing them is.

 

[Belton45]

Thanks for sharing. It immediatley sent me to amazon and placed an order for some youth and adult Uvex safety glasses.

 

[MrMajestic]

Sorry to hear this and thank you for posting. Sure do hope all goes well at the Optometrist and worry about that action much later!

 

[davek]

I had a 6brx blow up at butner back in 2008, I was using 32g of varget with a 105g bullet, the blow up was on the 13th or so round, in a 600yd match, yea blood and metal all over the place, I use large shooting glasses and leather shooting gear so I was ok but pulling down the other rounds later showed the correct powder charge and no head space problems, I did section the remaining cases and found a lack of radius in the bottom of the fireformed Lupa cases . The case that failed blew out in this location. Now I load 30.1 g of varget to be safe and get 2820 fps from the 105s. I feel that case forming of the brass to the 6brx chamber weakens the case and the added powder brings up the pressures, well I found the limits back in 2008 of the brass and question the wisdom of fireforming a 6br to a brx case . That said I use the false shoulder method to fire form cases after the blowup to keep the case tight in the chamber back agains the bolt and hopefully this helps keep a radius in the head area in the case after fireforming . Davek

 

[40X Guy]

Steve, heal up quickly and keep us posted. Your post hits home hard, i have been guilty of not wearin eye protection for a long time but recently have gotten back into the yellow tint safety glasses while shooting.

Frank

 

[DennisH]

With summer upon us especially in S Louisiana, my normal procedure is to chamber my round a few seconds before I shoot just for all the reasons mentioned above! It's a PIA, but I can tell the diference if I leave a round in the hot chamber for 10 seconds +. July and Aug I usually back off .3 + on my powder charge just due to the normal summer heat. I usually shoot under a roof and keep the gun and ammo in shaded areas. Sometimes between relays, we crank up a vehicle and leave our guns in the A/C!

QuickLOAD calculated that I had picked up at least 6000 PSI! This was equivalent to adding a FULL grain of Varget powder to ammo held at a constant 70 degrees

This is an interesting fact!

 

[6BRinNZ]

Sometimes I think I must be nuts to be interested in shooting...everytime I go out I put my head inches away from a bomb and deliberately set it off.

To the OP - my thoughts are with you, I hope all ends well and thank you for what I would call a brave and sobering post.

 

[roundknob]

First of all,Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. I was very lucky. Just got back from the eye specialist had a piece of steel removed just outside the cornea and one piece embedded to deep in the cornea to risk removal. Doc says it will be OK as the steel is tiny and stainless. Had six more pieces removed from my thumb,one from my chest and eight from my face. I will never ever again shoot without safety glasses and most of all LISTEN TO MY GUN. It tried its best to talk to me but I ignored the signs because of the pressure of competition. Thanks Guys and when your sign comes on PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO IT!!!!!
Steve

 

[Joe C]

Steve,

Glad to hear your eye is going to recover. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Hopefully it will remind those that need reminding.

As for me, I had a close call as well several years ago. I was testing a .22 conversion pistol at our range without eye pro (which was my norm for years) as I was shooting at a gong hanging from chains about 15 yards away. One of the rounds ricocheted off either the gong or the chain, don't know which, came back and smashed into my left ear muff. Blew it all to pieces! The only thing I could think of was, "Wow, that could have been my eye!" From then on it has been eye pro for me!

Same thing in the shop. If you're grinding, milling, turning, filing or pretty much doing anything with metal, wear eye pro guys. It's one of the few parts of the body they haven't figured out how to fully manufacture from scratch yet so they are irreplaceable!