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.

[Barneyboy]

HAVE YOU BEEN INJURED IN ACCIDENT THAT WASNT YOU FAULT THEN CALL ACCIDENT HELP LINE SUE SUE SUE SUE!!!!!!!

[NorthernRaider]

Quit common in smaller rimfire weapons.

[00111001]

(27 June 2012, 13:07)NorthernRaider Wrote: Quit common in smaller rimfire weapons.

That's a bugger.

[Skean Dhude]

Not heard of it being common. I can understand how it happens botyh rimfire and centrefire but not that it is regular.

[00111001]

For some reason the hammer had fallen before the round was fully chambered. I wasn't using the cheap ammo either. Hhmmmm, maybe I should see if I can get a .22 centerfire on my ticket as well as a .22 rimfire.

[Timelord]

.22 semiauto is unrelaible anyway. If it did not quite feed the round fully that could explain the issue. Usually they just stop mid feed as they fail to cycle the next round. Yours must have almost made it to the point the firing pin was released forwards. This should not have happened even so and the gun must either have been faulty or dirty as you suffest. It would be wise to check all club guns first for cleanliness. Regards, TL.

[Lester]

Seen it happen once on a range when a 7.62 caliber wepon was not cleaned of oil from the working parts and breech properley. Very lucky person firing got away just needing a change of underwear.

[Tonka]

I used to shoot a lot of surplus WW2 ammunition. The .303s used to work seamlessly but the Russian ammo I'd use for a Mosin Nagant carbine used to give a lot of trouble. A few times the firing pin went straight through the cartridge and it would blast out of both ends.
I just made sure I had decent ballistic lenses in my glasses, and carried on shooting them (after clearing the jam of course). I figured any scars would be made worthwhile with the cool explanation. I was very young.