Posted on 02/22/2014 8:14:19 PM PST by smokingfrog
You might well think that the catastrophic destruction of firearms caused by shooters leaving their cleaning rods inside their guns was a rare occurrence, but you would be wrong. It happens far to often. These photos show what happens when a cleaning rod is left in a .338 Lapua Magnum rifle. A member of the SnipersHide forum reported that this KABOOM happened two benches down from him at the range. The shooter only sustained minor injuries. Two holes were punched in roof and pieces of the rifle were scattered around the range.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefirearmblog.com ...
Almost...
If I remember he was practicing fast draw and didn’t remember the gun was loaded.
Yep
Still like my Garand though.
Who cleans their weapon BEFORE they shoot?
Your rod was your last round. Out of ammo and about to die? What have you got to lose? Pour in some powder, push in a patch and without a ball or bullet it will expel the rod with, hopefully, enough velocity to do damage.
Under those circumstances I guess you might as well give it a try.
Naw, just bad manners.
Actually, for stupidity of this magnitude, I'd say it was pretty cheap.
No, what I’m saying is the hand loads had a problem sticking in the chamber and that is why the rod was being used to push the stuck empty case out of the chamber.
Another reason to use a Bore Snake.
35 years ago a bunch of us were plinking with our black powder rifles and one guy was using a heavy glass range rod with a T handle to reload his 50 T/C Hawken. He left the rod in and fired it by accident. That brass crescent buttplate gave him a great bruise and the rod went about 300 yards and stuck in the mud flat. We sawed about an inch off the end and glued on another tip and the rod and rifle were good to go.
Smile when you say that pilgrim!
;<)
Am going to take a SWAG that this is, or rather was, a Savage 110FCP.
I don’t like public ranges because of what I call ‘Perfessers’ working up loads and doing unusual things. Annoys me when they seem to always take a lane in the middle of the line so as to inflict the most risk on the largest number of other shooters.
You have to scan around at public ranges before setting up to make sure you’re not just plopping down next to a ‘Perfesser’ or an otherwise commonly dangerous schnook like Señor Explodo de la Lapua as we see here. What an ass. Hope it cost him a fortune.
Usually, I just go shoot in the desert despite having an outstanding public range nearby.
There's a public, unsupervised range near here. If I pull up and anyone else is shooting, I turn around. If I am shooting and someone shows up, I pack up and leave.
Yeah, but did the cleaning rod hit the target?
Indeed. Sporting safety aside, there’s risk in shooting at known shooting spots because criminals sometimes visit them to rob people of guns. I’ve read of murders, but most thefts I’ve heard of are criminals who just sit back and wait for someone to go change their target then drive off with their gear. So much for background checks.
I shoot at places you’d need to be an experienced off-roader to get to and have GPS and topo maps to find. I basically have a forbidding and empty state the size of France all to myself to shoot in as long as I take sufficient equipment along with me. Certainly want to bring along a convoy of similarly equipped pals...
I’m in the next state north. Plenty of lonely places to shoot here, too.
I don’t fear the gun range murders or thefts, but after shooting so many sanctioned competitions of various breeds, I like to know the range is under control when I am at the targets. Some people think if the bench is vacant, the range is open.
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