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Biting The Hand That Feeds You

By Boquisucio on January 5, 2012 | | Comments (12)
.30-06's can some times make you giggle with their puppy love:



...Or sometimes they can just be female dogs.



Boq

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12 Comments

By Joe in N Calif on January 5, 2012 1:58 PM
Was there a squib?  Looks like she tried to clear a failure to feed.  Did that leave a bullet in the bore?  Hope she is OK.

And tell her to lean into it, not back.
 
By John of Argghhh! on January 5, 2012 2:07 PM
Someone did not ensure their bolt was fully forward and locked.
 
By Joe in N Calif on January 5, 2012 2:35 PM
But what caused that, John?  A FtF followed by a KA-BOOM makes me suspect something to do with the loads.
 
By John of Argghhh! on January 5, 2012 2:56 PM
Watching her, the recoil appears roughly the same each time she pulls the trigger, as is the sound, but her handling of recoil decays.  I think her failure to feed resulted from not handling the recoil properly, possibly combined with a weak spring action due to age or possibly fouling.  Since the failure occured in the magazine, and the wood doesn't appear to fail anywhere along the barrel, I'm still thinking a worn rifle, and because she just pushed the bolt forward, vice snapped it in, the bolt was not fully locked, causing a cartridge base failure, which blew into the magazine, and blew the rifle apart at that point.
 
By John of Argghhh! on January 5, 2012 2:59 PM
Of course, if they're shooting surplus ammo, it could have been an ammo failure on it's own, too.
 
By Joe in N Calif on January 5, 2012 3:22 PM
In the comments she says it's new factory ammo.  Didn't mention the brand.  Maybe a bit hot and the operating rod is bent a bit?  It doesn't look like she rode the bolt forward much when she cleared the FtF.  And what caused that FtF?
 
By John of Argghhh! on January 5, 2012 4:07 PM

I can't assert what caused the ftf - but I did posti: "I think her failure to feed resulted from not handling the recoil properly, possibly combined with a weak spring action due to age or possibly fouling. Since the failure occured in the magazine, and the wood doesn't appear to fail anywhere along the barrel, I'm still thinking a worn rifle, and because she just pushed the bolt forward, vice snapped it in, the bolt was not fully locked, causing a cartridge base failure, which blew into the magazine, and blew the rifle apart at that point. "

 
By Grumpy on January 5, 2012 7:01 PM
"Female on Female = Bad Mix"
 
By PrimEvil on January 5, 2012 7:59 PM
Those li'l' gals both need instruction as to proper off-hand posture, and use of the sling. Got to keep that off-side arm under the rifle, not flapping out to the side like a stork chick on a wobbly limb. Get that head down on the stock, and aquire proper cheek-weld. Nice to see the ol' boy using the sling as it was intended to be used.
 
By John (Not The Armorer) on January 5, 2012 8:18 PM
It is nearly impossible to have a Garand fire with the bolt not fully closed. 

There is a camming surface in the receiver where the tang of the firing pin rubs as the bolt is rotating to the locked position.  Not until the bolt rotates to fully locked is the slot for the firing pin lined up to allow it to move forward enough to contact the primer, even if the hammer were to fall prematurely.  If not fully closed, and the hammer falls it may force the bolt to the locked position but the loss of energy as the hammer rotates the bolt and the firing pin drags along the cam surface will probably preclude it from giving the firing pin enough energy for firing when it is finally lined up.

Possibly a broken firing pin would allow the forward part of the firing pin (separated from the tang and free to move on its own) to hit  a primer by inertia as the bolt closed, or if wedged in the firing pin hole to hit the primer as the base of the cartridge made contact with the face of the bolt.

However, in this case there is lengthy delay while she was aiming after clearing the malfunction, and the explosion occurred when she pulled the trigger.

My guess is that it is an ammo problem with a major case separation or split.  This would cause gas to escape into the magazine well and blow the stock to splintery smithereens.  Stopping the video does not appear to show any damage to the barrel or receiver group, so the barrel and gas cylinder and bolt seem to have held up okay.

There were a number of problems with some "hot" FN made .30-06 ammo about 10-20 years ago that destroyed some Garands, and some of the ammo is still around.  Handloads are always a possibie source of problems. 
 
By Justthisguy on January 6, 2012 1:44 AM
This reminds me of my favorite Garand story, from Ol' Major Unger.  When he was at Ft. Leonard Wood, one of his people had an incident of not "Garand Thumb", but "Garand (other part)".

It seems the soldier was sitting on his bunk cleaning and inspecting his Garand, wearing only his skivvy shorts. At one point in the process it became necessary to release the bolt and let it fly forward.  He tried that, and nothing happened. He tried again, etc.  Then he got annoyed, and holding the thing in his lap, started beating it, or something. Well, all at once, the bolt came loose and flew forrard, trapping a very sensitive part of his body whiich was hanging out of his shorts..

Much owiness ensued.

They got him loose, and  healed up just fine, but eventually had to transfer him after the word got around. It seems the politer soldiers could barely restrain themselve from pointing at him and laughing, and the ruder ones didn't even try.

"This is my rifle, this is my gun..."

 
By MAJ Mike on January 6, 2012 7:36 AM
Something similiar happened with a Ruger Mini-14.  We thought that an improperly seated primer in a batch of reloaded .223 ammunition caused the premature ignition.  The stock was cracked and the operating rod was bent. 

Ruger replaced the rifle even though we thought it wasn't in any way their fault.  Ruger was and is a quality operation.