Breech Bang!

[00111001]

Was at the range last night trying to improve my aim. Using one of the club guns (semi-auto), when I was taking my next shot there's one almighty bang - got peppered with bits of metal, lots of smoke and quite a few expletives from yours truly.

Un-jammed the thing and realised that the round had gone off in the breech! The casing had exploded at the side, splitting another one open. Caused some damage to the gun apparently. Now someone at the club said that this was probably cause the gun wasn't cleaned properly - whaddya reckon? Is this a common occurrence? I'm just glad I was only shooting .22.

Anything bigger could have been much more unpleasant.