What to look at after an overpressure incident?

[sha-ul]

I have a friend that has a 110 scout rifle in 308, a mixup occurred on the loading bench& the case got filled with pistol powder, and the results were acoustic& kinetic.:o:o

I brought it home to look at tonight, they had attempted to force the bolt open, breaking the bolt handle off& cracking the bolt body ahead of the cross-pin.
The cross-pin was broken& missing. The stock broke& the magazine was pushed out of the bottom.
Using my barrel nut wrench& action wrench I was able to get the barrel off, about half the case head was blown out, the bolt head was broken on the extractor side.
The barrel was stiff unscrewing, however there was a lot of residue in the threads from loctite or bluing salts, I wire brushed the barrel threads& it screws in by hand now until it hits the threads damaged by their attempts to force the bolt. & had hoped that I could use the barrel to gauge if the action might be damaged, but with the threads obviously mangled from the bolt pieces it eliminates that option.

How do we go about seeing if this action can be safely salvaged? Its going to take quite a bit to repair, Sear, bolt assembly,stock, detachable magazine.

[Zero333]

I hope your friend is OK.

I wouldn't salvage much.
Definitely NOT the barrel.
Maybe some of the trigger parts like springs, maybe the sear.
Rear bolt baffle ?

You would know better than us since you have the rifle.

Not many (if any) of us had this happen, so our experience will not be very helpful.

Please take some pics of the rifle parts. I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love to see.

But seriously I hope your friend doesn't have any permanent reminders on his hands arms body or face. For sure hope not the face.

[Evlshnngns]

I think the appropriate thing to do is cut the action into pieces, glue and screw them into a nice plaque over the reloading bench. It is a 3-500$ gun, what is your deductible to the ER when a lug fails?

[RustyShackle]

Yeah, scrap it. Not worth the costs to see if it’s actually toast or not, better to use that money towards the next rifle.

On a a side note I wouldn’t mind seeing pictures of this rifle. Should be a testament of the action strength that it even partially survived a pistol powder load.

I would scrap that barrel also. I would be it stressed it also.

[sha-ul]

I have a few pics, however since Photobucket screwed the entire interwebs it's a challenge to post them here, and I can't afford to renew my membership until next payday.

[strut64]

There could be damage that can't be seen. Fractures or cracks in the steel that can let go on subsequnet use. The idea of creating a mount with the logo "don't do this"!! is a great idea.

[LoneWolf]

As already stated, srapping that action/rifle is the right thing to do. Not worth the risk of the few dollars that might be saved/salvaged...

[JeepsAndGuns]

I agree with everyone else. Do not try and reuse the action or any major part. (trigger parts might be ok). Like mentioned above, there could be some hairline crack that you might not be able to see that will let go after trying to fire it again. Not worth it.
Cut the receiver in half so it can not be used again. Hang it above the reloading bench as a constant reminder to pay very close attention when your loading ammo.

[SageRat Shooter]

this has been an enlightening thread... I didn't want to tell anybody about my "oops" this last weekend when reloading... I guess I'm not the only one who's had an error while reloading. First time I've done it, but glad it was caught before I fired any of them...

Was reloading for the 260 a couple weekends ago... and I opened up the coffee can in Dad's shop to get my primers out... Reached in grabbed a pack that had been tapped to another pack... Thought to myself as I was untaping the packs... "they must have updated the packaging, cuz these look different than my usual Winchester LR primers.... Didn't think anything of it after that... Proceeded to load up 97 rounds of my 143 ELD-X load (43 gr. H4350) which is a max load in my rifle.... Decided not to go shoot that particular day as it was Dang COLD and I wanted to be home for dinner that evening... The next day at work, I get a text from my Dad saying "I hope you didn't load MAGNUM Primers for your 260 yesterday".... :( I immediately called him and told him where I had put the pack that the primers came out of.... Sure enough, I had loaded Mag Primers!!! What a D.A.!! If I had fired any of those rounds (Dad said it would have been like shooting a 45 gr. H4350 Load) I probably would not have a face, hand, or rifle left.... I'm glad my dad thought about it (He's got more years of experience and loads everything from pistol all the way up to 338 LM), So he was used to thinking about primer differences... I only use LR primers for my 3 guns (22-250, 260 Rem, 30-06) so that was where I wasn't thinking quite well enough.... Lesson Learned for $35 and 4 hours of time.... I figure I got off LUCKY this time!

It made me change up my loading routine.... From now on I have all of my reloading gear and components stored in MY LOADING BAG... no longer do I just store my stuff with all of Dad's stuff.

[LoneWolf]

this has been an enlightening thread... I didn't want to tell anybody about my "oops" this last weekend when reloading... I guess I'm not the only one who's had an error while reloading. First time I've done it, but glad it was caught before I fired any of them..


I don't think you would have seen anything crazy. Maybe some heavy bolt lift, but nothing too crazy. Regardless it's a good thing you caught it as it's always better safe than sorry in this game. I don't have quickload, but a 45grs load of H4350 in the 260 is probably around 60KPSI. The situation the OP's friend experienced was probably more like a 120KPSI event or better.

[SageRat Shooter]

I don't think you would have seen anything crazy. Maybe some heavy bolt lift, but nothing too crazy. Regardless it's a good thing you caught it as it's always better safe than sorry in this game. I don't have quickload, but a 45grs load of H4350 in the 260 is probably around 60KPSI. The situation the OP's friend experienced was probably more like a 120KPSI event or better.

Thanks for the info LoneWolf.... I totally realize the OP's situation was far more Extreme than mine may have been... Just thought I'd throw in my "oops" just to say how easy it is to mess up something while reloading... Even when you've been doing for quite awhile... It petrified me to think about how much money I have spent on building the 260, and I could have Messed it up already and possibly myself. You have given a little piece of mind that I wouldn't have blown my face off... Thanks!!

[darkker]

To the OP:
Scrap the action. If you reached the plastic limit and tore threads, the action is a paperweight.

Sage:
I'm with LoneWolf, you probably, wouldn't have had an issue. Just far too many variables to be positive, but.... In pressure testing the Creedmoor and the 308, several powders(I'm not floating in money:cool:) show no difference in pressures when swapping winchester standard, Win Mag, or Wolf primers. But as said, the OP was well beyond proof loads, you would be just perhaps above SAAMI MAP; which most who read primers are anyway.

[LoneWolf]

To the OP:
Sage:
I'm with LoneWolf, you probably, wouldn't have had an issue. Just far too many variables to be positive, but.... In pressure testing the Creedmoor and the 308, several powders(I'm not floating in money:cool:) show no difference in pressures when swapping winchester standard, Win Mag, or Wolf primers. But as said, the OP was well beyond proof loads, you would be just perhaps above SAAMI MAP; which most who read primers are anyway.

Well as they say "There's a first for everything":victorious:

[sha-ul]

To the OP:
Scrap the action. If you reached the plastic limit and tore threads, the action is a paperweight.
It didn't tear or stretch the threads that I can see, the tips of some of the threads were messed up from attempting to turn the bolt and the pieces were jammed.

[VAFISH]

I'm too young and pretty to have a rifle blow up in my face. I wouldn't trust that action to hold together at a critical moment. Not for the few bucks you are saving. Go buy one of the Cabelas 12FV with the $100 rebate rifles and start a new build.

[LoneWolf]

It didn't tear or stretch the threads that I can see, the tips of some of the threads were messed up from attempting to turn the bolt and the pieces were jammed.

Would you trust with 100% confidence the action to contain and explosion 4" from your face every time you pull the trigger? I know for a fact I wouldn't!

[LoneWolf]

Not to mention by the time you get a new stock, new bolt, New barrel, etc. you could have bought a new rifle....

[sha-ul]

Not to mention by the time you get a new stock, new bolt, New barrel, etc. you could have bought a new rifle....
I was going over that with my friend, a complete bolt~150, stock would probably be close to 100, replacement sear? Assuming the barrel& action were still good, We are still 200+ and a similar rifle can be had on gunbroker for $400 or less, so I'm advising him to go for a used rifle& salvage his SSS trigger.

BTW he is thinking it was about 43 grains of H110 instead of BLC2