Open breach hang fire

[Tommy Leroy Johnson]

Good morning.
Awhile back a youngster brought in his new model 70 Winchester in 270 WSM he said had blown up and injured his buddy, after inspecting the rifle I determined he had a hang fire with an open breach. He reported that the rifle misfired and the bolt was opened immediately then the explosion happened causing the shooter to fall down a steep embankment.
After getting his buddy taken care of, he discovered the rear portion of the case still in the action with the front half of the case missing and the bullet stuck in the barrel.
I did an inspection on the rifle it did not appear damaged just dirty, after cleaning and test firing the rifle was no worse for wear.
I had a long conversation with him about his hunter safety training where he claims he never heard of a hang fire and waiting to open the breach after a misfire, so now I keep the blown-up case on my bench to show clients what can happen, and surprisingly lots of the
younger shooters did not know about hang fires
This incident happened with factory ammunition from a new box, he said he was going to contact the manufacturer.
Ya'll have a great day.
Tommy Leroy Johnson

 

[Trigger Puller]

Heard a story of a shooter who rocked the bolt way to soon after a 338LM hang fired, lost a thumb and jaw issues from the bolt slamming back as a new projectile.

Osoh

 

[ebb]

This could be ammo or it could be ignition issues. Proceed with caution!

 

[Will Henry]

I have come close to having the same thing happen. I waited for a bit and had just started to raise the handle when it fired. Scary. WH

 

[sacre]

Had a new 223 rifle hang on the first shot. Not caused by the shell, but because the firing pin was heavily greased and it was cold.

 

[D-4297]

One of the very first things I was taught by my Father ; A highly reputed Bullseye Competitor back in the "Dark Ages" of the sixties , was about "Hang-Fires , or "Cook-offs" as they were called then .
I was taught to set the gun on the bench ( Pistol ) and leave it set there un-disturbed for at least three minutes , or until it quit "smoking" , meaning smoke coming from any part of the gun . I would think the same should apply to any rifle .
Put it down ! Get away from it , and don't try to "FIX" the problem !
After a reasonable amount of time ; carefully , and slowly open the bolt and hopefully eject the cartridge . Then Rod the barrel to insure there isn't a bullet somewhere down the barrel . If you have a Barrel brush available , rod the barrel a couple of passes with the brush to remove any spent powder and junk before shooting again .
Remember Folks ! We are playing with real explosives here . Let's not be in a hurry to lose Body parts or eyes because we get in a hurry , and forget our common sense .

 

[J_Hensley]

Had a new 223 rifle hang on the first shot. Not caused by the shell, but because the firing pin was heavily greased and it was cold.

One of the reason you should disassemble and clean any "new" firearm before use.

 

[msalm]

My BIL had that happen in a far more common instance on a trophy bull elk at 50 yards with his muzzleloader (cap lock TC Hawken). Cap ‘popped’ with no bang and he just thought to re-cap ASAP…. In the short time it took him to bring the rifle off his shoulder the 50 cal fired, sending the maxiball over the bulls back. He had never heard of a hang fire and if he would have kept on target a split second longer he would have collected the largest bull he had seen to date…. Stuff like that seems to happen at the most in-opportune times! Took him awhile to stop reliving that moment.

I had the same happen myself with a flintlock at last light…not so much a hangfire, but more like a tremendous flinch from the unexpected orange ball of flames 6” from my face and a slower than normal ignition

 

[Sniper338]

I had a winchester model 70 270wsm once upon a time. Most kicking sob gun i ever had. Got rid of that pos.

 

[tommeboy]

In the early 2000s when huge #'s of surplus military rifles were coming in from Eastern Europe there was a fatal incident with a Mosin rifle. The shooter had a had a misfire from not cleaning out the cosmoline from the bolt. And then a round was stuck from the same thing in the chamber. He then not thinking cycled the bolt fully and tried to chamber another round. The tip of the next cartridge hits the primer in the chamber and it sets off both cartridges. The bolt went into the head of the shooter.

 

[jds holler]

What's missing these days it seems, is the steps of "Post Processing" which smooths, de-burrs, and finalizes the fit and finish of mechanisms. This takes time, and costs money, and of course is often minimal.

I bought a very economical rifle the other day, and I'm pretty amazed at the quality of the NC machining quality, but a guy would be crazy to take it out of the box and go shooting without a damned good inspection and cleaning. jd

 

[Nevned]

Good morning.
Awhile back a youngster brought in his new model 70 Winchester in 270 WSM he said had blown up and injured his buddy, after inspecting the rifle I determined he had a hang fire with an open breach. He reported that the rifle misfired and the bolt was opened immediately then the explosion happened causing the shooter to fall down a steep embankment.
After getting his buddy taken care of, he discovered the rear portion of the case still in the action with the front half of the case missing and the bullet stuck in the barrel.
I did an inspection on the rifle it did not appear damaged just dirty, after cleaning and test firing the rifle was no worse for wear.
I had a long conversation with him about his hunter safety training where he claims he never heard of a hang fire and waiting to open the breach after a misfire, so now I keep the blown-up case on my bench to show clients what can happen, and surprisingly lots of the
younger shooters did not know about hang fires
This incident happened with factory ammunition from a new box, he said he was going to contact the manufacturer.
Ya'll have a great day.
Tommy Leroy Johnson

This is a good reminder for all of us. Hang fires thankfully happen very rarely. I for one will use this as a reminder to my shooting buddies as a refresher. Nevned

 

[sacre]

I had a "hang" of a different kind one time. Brand new Ruger 10-22. Loaded it up set up a target and pulled the trigger...... dumped the entire mag in about 1 second!!! Whoa!! What have we here!! Wouldn't do it again, never did it again.

 

[jds holler]

I had a "hang" of a different kind one time. Brand new Ruger 10-22. Loaded it up set up a target and pulled the trigger...... dumped the entire clip in about 1 second!!! Whoa!! What have we here!! Wouldn't do it again, never did it again.

My old 10-22 would every now and again fire 2 instead of 1 when I pulled the trigger. Trigger mechanism hadn't been cleaned for prolly 10 years and 10000 rounds.

 

[DShortt]

Perhaps I'm misguided.

I tend to think the 'hangfire' term was appropriate for black powder and had merit for a multitude of reasons.

In 'modern', smokeless centerfire rifles, I suspect a firing pin hung up for whatever reason that falls during bolt manipulation is a more likely cause.

But, many prefer to blame other things. So I'll probably get 'roasted' for saying this.

This excludes other causes, such as firing a firearm with a previous slug lodged in the bore.