Was going through some old pic's from almost 15 years ago now and came across a couple pics that I thought were fitting for this thread as a "Don't do what I do" lesson. LOL

You see, I went to the Fred Moreo School of Reloading which basically means if you aren't blowing the primer clean out of the case you're not pushing the bullets fast enough. Being the cocky young man I was at the time I decided I would show that cantankerous old man how it's really done by not only blowing the primer out, but by turning a standard .204 Ruger case into a belted magnum. I think you'll agree that I succeeded in that endeavor beyond all expectations.

Click image for larger version.  Name: 204Bolt3.jpg  Views: 25  Size: 75.2 KB  ID: 9859

Click image for larger version.  Name: 204Bolt2.jpg  Views: 24  Size: 54.8 KB  ID: 9860

Click image for larger version.  Name: 204Brass1.jpg  Views: 24  Size: 50.1 KB  ID: 9861

Click image for larger version.  Name: 204Brass4.jpg  Views: 24  Size: 57.8 KB  ID: 9862

Humor aside, to this day I have no clue what caused this. I had loaded up 25 rounds with 40gr bullets, CCI BR4 primers and my typical charge of Varget. The charge filled the case to the base of the neck making them easy to visually check and verify, so any light or heavy charge would have been easily noticeable and the load was a good full grain or so under published max. I had fired one 5-shot group and this happened somewhere in the second. This round sounded a little funny compared to the others, but other than that nothing too obvious. There was nothing odd or unusual about the rounds fired before this one as they were all printing to point of aim and gave no indication of being faster or slower than usual.

The fun part was getting this case out of the rifle after the event. The case head had blown out to the point that it had pushed the extractor out into the raceway of the receiver which prevented the bolt from being able to rotate. In the second pic you can actually see the expanded case head holding in the detent ball and spring for the extractor in place. As such I had to try to disassemble the bolt while still in the rifle which was a challenge in and of itself. Can't 100% recall if I got it all apart at the range or if I had to bring it home and pull the barrel to finally get the spent case out, but either way....

Back at home I pulled apart all the remain loads from that 25rd session and the powder charges all measured what they should so I have no clue what caused it to this day. Took both the action and barrel out to Fred's to have him look it over and everything was as it should be so no harm done to the rifle (other than having to get a new extractor as the original fell out at some point never to be seen again. Amazingly the ejector and spring were unaffected.

Moral of the story: Even being careful, cautious and consistent in your reloading practices can have unintended results, so always be diligent to minimize the risks as much as humanly possible.