Anybody have a rifle malfunction that made them say what!

MagnumManiac, Perhaps I've misunderstood the event! But, is it possible ( assuming this is a New Haven rifle) that the - trigger adjustment lock nut backed-off, causing incorrect sear ingagement? This happened to a friend of mine. While sitting in a late 60's Model (All Metal cab), was chambering a round in his .338 WM, anticipating elk to come across the park he was watching. When closing the bolt, the rifle fired....in uncontrolled panic, he quickly ejected the spent case, and promptly closed the bolt, firing another round! It only required two shots to kill the old Chevy truck! memtb
 
memtb said:
MagnumManiac, <SNIPPED STUFF> This happened to a friend of mine. While sitting in a late 60's Model (All Metal cab), was chambering a round in his .338 WM, anticipating elk to come across the park he was watching. When closing the bolt, the rifle fired...in uncontrolled panic, he quickly ejected the spent case, and promptly closed the bolt, firing another round! It only required two shots to kill the old Chevy truck! memtb
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That is funny (since no one got hurt!) I can only imagine how loud a .338 WM is within the enclosed confines of a truck cab. Your friend must say "What?" a lot now ;)

How do you gut and clean a Chevy? Where do you attach the tag for the game warden to see? Probably tough eating, too.
 
Not so much a malfunction, but I've gotten a few bad deals in the barrel department...

Brand new Weatherby Accumark .257 Wby 7+ tight-spots in the barrel, Weatherby refused to replace the barrel under warranty. So I traded it back in to where I bought it from.

Bought a used browning A-Bolt II 7mmRM to replace the one that got stolen back in 2008... Shot about 150 rounds through it and the barrel was toast...Someone must have ran it hard before me. Rebarreled and blueprinted, now she's back to shooting great.

Traded a 200th Anniversary Ruger .220 Swift for a well-used custom Model 7 .22-250, put about 250 rounds through the .22-250 and the barrel was toast. Rebarreled to .308 Win, gun was stolen in 2008 along with 3 others.

Bought a used stainless 700 .338 WinMag (mainly for the action) and took it to the range... Minute of pie pan. Snatched the barrel... Blueprinted, and rebuilt it into my .300 Ackley.
 
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memtb said:
About 30 years ago, I went out with friends to shoot a few "prairie poodles" with my Remington Heavy Barrel Varmint in .223 Rem. My very first shot, a "puff" of gasses, a slight stinging to the face, and recoil...if you can believe that. I could not open the bolt, and rather than force the issue, I took it to a gunsmith! I immediately went home and pulled all of the remaining loads, only about 30 rounds, weighed each charge and found nothing wrong. I was using IMR 4198, and could not have "double charged"! To this date, I can't explain. The only possible explanation, and this is reaching...the rifle had sat in my reloading room, muzzle up for about 2 weeks. Maybe an insect built a nest or some such in the barrel. I was living alone, so a child tampering, wasn't a possibility!

I'm glad I wasn't there to observe how he opened the boltand extracted the brass. The .223 brass had a belt similar to a "belted magnum", the case rim was damaged, and the extractor was destroyed! The "smith", performed a "go - no go", and an inspection, and could find nothing else damaged on the rifle.

The only other malfunction was, an unexplained miss.....it couldn't have been me! :D memtb
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Had that happen a few years ago with a .204 with 40 gr berger bullets ! New nosler cases ! The case split open, powder hit me in the face and the guy next to me and the bolt was hard to open ! Sounded like pressure to me so I asked Walt Berger about the load and he called me at home and said the load was fine with that bullet ! I next asked Darrell Holland and he believed that the brass (nosler) which is made by Norma was bad ! I took the case to Norma (I was at the shot show ) showed it to the rep. he took the case and I never heard from Norma again which probably answered my question !
 
Had a .458 SOCOM on an AR lower I had built a few years ago. The upper came from RRA right one of the times when it seemed likely that there would be an assault rifle ban (again) and the chamber was poorly finished, so rough that it tore brass up a lot.
Took it on a pig hunt and test fired it, all was well. That evening at dusk a big boar showed up at the feeder; I lined up on him, and "CLICK".... rechambered, "CLICK" .....

That night I tore the rifle apart; all seemed well, the firing pin protruded from the bolt, etc. I was really puzzled. Gave it a thorough cleaning, then stuck a paper clip through the firing pin hole, and a tiny piece of brass popped loose from inside the bolt and fell out the back side. Brass shaving from the rough chamber had fallen into the bolt thru FP hole, then gotten smashed up into the opening, allowing the FP to protrude a bit but stopping the FP from going far enough to set off the primer. I felt like that guy in the movie about the ex-sniper who was framed for shooting a bishop.
 
DDB TX said:
Had a .458 SOCOM on an AR lower I had built a few years ago. The upper came from RRA right one of the times when it seemed likely that there would be an assault rifle ban (again) and the chamber was poorly finished, so rough that it tore brass up a lot.
Took it on a pig hunt and test fired it, all was well. That evening at dusk a big boar showed up at the feeder; I lined up on him, and "CLICK".... rechambered, "CLICK" .....

That night I tore the rifle apart; all seemed well, the firing pin protruded from the bolt, etc. I was really puzzled. Gave it a thorough cleaning, then stuck a paper clip through the firing pin hole, and a tiny piece of brass popped loose from inside the bolt and fell out the back side. Brass shaving from the rough chamber had fallen into the bolt thru FP hole, then gotten smashed up into the opening, allowing the FP to protrude a bit but stopping the FP from going far enough to set off the primer. I felt like that guy in the movie about the ex-sniper who was framed for shooting a bishop.
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Had a buddy who used to own a DPMS AR10 that did that ALL the time. Pile of junk.
 
Had a similar incident. it was a case that split in the neck when I fired. Large puff of smoke. The RSO opened it up and it came right out. Kept on shooting.
 
MudRunner2005 said:
Had a buddy who used to own a DPMS AR10 that did that ALL the time. Pile of junk.
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Later I took a chamber cleaning felt attachment and some polishing compound, about 30 seconds of that on a hand drill and the chamber was/is fine. But RRA had definitely been using that reamer for too long.
 
Frog4aday said:
Hey Buster, what a great post. Makes me think I should reconsider my habit of hunting with a loaded round in the chamber and the safety on. If the safety were to get 'brushed off', a simple twig in the trigger guard could lead to more excitement than I'm looking for in a hunt. That is perplexing that you couldn't get the rifle to re-cock after the incident with the brush. Only thing I can think is perhaps some debris got trapped in the trigger mechanism and by the time you got back to where you could disassemble the gun, it had worked itself out, 'fixing' the problem? The problem when you can't 'find and fix' something is you are then left wondering if the rifle is really okay or not. I'm assuming it has worked fine ever since? Weird!
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The trigger from that rifle was pulled and blamed by others as defective. I still have the trigger in another personal gun now and have had no issues. Like you said maybe something got stuck in there and later worked its way out. My only real thought was when the trigger got pulled/tugged by the brush it canted just enough that the sear wasn't engaging. I took a hard fall before getting back and maybe that knocked stuff straight? I'll never know and can only guess but it's something that has left me wondering and thinking about from time to time.
 
I have a Remington M700 built in the 80's that suffered firing while closing the bolt. I traded a spotting scope for it and took it home, I basically just wanted it for the action. Well I got out of the stock and found the trigger assembly caked with dirt and all kids of debris. It was someone's truck gun with very little care. After taking the trigger assembly off I put it my ultrasonic cleaner and man it exploded in a cloud of dirt, insect wings and parts, and all kinds of other gunk. I lubed it, readjusted the sear engagement, and dropped it down to 2 lbs. It was an awesome rock chuck killer until the 22-250 barrel burned up last year. 14 years of excellent service with no problems.
 
xsn10s said:
I have a Remington M700 built in the 80's that suffered firing while closing the bolt. I traded a spotting scope for it and took it home, I basically just wanted it for the action. Well I got out of the stock and found the trigger assembly caked with dirt and all kids of debris. It was someone's truck gun with very little care. After taking the trigger assembly off I put it my ultrasonic cleaner and man it exploded in a cloud of dirt, insect wings and parts, and all kinds of other gunk. I lubed it, readjusted the sear engagement, and dropped it down to 2 lbs. It was an awesome rock chuck killer until the 22-250 barrel burned up last year. 14 years of excellent service with no problems.
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That's what I've been saying about those triggers... Everyone keeps wanting to blame Remington, when a lot of it is neglect, negligence, and ignorance that caused the accidents. Guns don't just "go off" unless parts physically break, or they are improperly adjusted or have been tampered with by someone ignorant of how to properly adjust a trigger. And people never get shot by a loaded gun, without someone doing something negligent.
 
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