What blew up my gun?

[normyt]

Went shooting yesterday, shot about 5 shots and on 6th shot this happened.
Reloads from a couple years ago , store in ammo box in a shooting bag.
Rifle is a 22-250 Savage Model 10
Bullets are 55Gn Hornady V-Max
35GN of Varget Powder
Been doing this recipe for approx. 4 years, have never had problem.
No signs of over pressure until this incident, happily no injuries/casualties (except gun,LOL)
Any Ideas out there

 

[jd126]

Edit, Glad no one was hurt though

 

[J E Custom]

This looks like excessive pressure.

This could be caused by many different things like, = The wrong load or powder, A squib load from not enough powder, A barrel obstruction from a stuck bullet(This sometimes happens when a squib load fails to push the bullet through the barrel and the next shot is a normal load, also a primer loaded case with no powder can cause this. (Normally you can hear the difference and check the barrel before firing) this happens more often that you think.

Ether way I am glad you were not hurt. Sorry about the rifle though.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Schnyd112]

I would say barrel obstruction. Unless you loaded 35g of pistol powder, I can't think of anything that would cause a pressure spike like that.

You didn't just pierce a primer or lock the bolt shut. It needed to vent pressure and it wasn't coming out of the front so it banana peeled the barrel. Any chance you put a round that was not 22-250 in the chamber?

 

[cohunt]

either out of battery or over pressure load is my guess
55 gr is close to max with 55gr, but not a compressed load, could you maybe have gotten an overcharge by accident?
would a loose barrel nut cause this type of OP issue?

other thing I might be wary of is case head separation?
mistake of pistol powder? (probably not)

I would pull all the rest of those loads to see if you can find an issue, and look for signs of case head separation on the fired brass, varget powder is pretty easy to tell apart from others as it has a goldish tint to it--I can still read the brass manu in your 2nd pic

savage axis 2? check out this article : https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/10/24/man-insane-battery-firing-savage-axis-can-happen/

 

[cohunt]

glad there were no injuries-
you think scorpion will warranty that scope under their "sting free" policy?

"STING FREE" WARRANTY
If you have ANY issues with your Red Hot Varminter 4-16x44 you can simply return it to us, and have it exchanged for a brand new one.

 

[Don A Parsons]

Yuppers,,, Darn lucky fore sure,,, that's what really counts...

My guess and a guess only is that the bullet up the pipe before the explosion didn't clear the tube...

The bolt has 2 options,,, straight out the back if the lugs rip off,,, or bolt buckle up with damage to it and or the action...

My old retired gun Smith had 4 walls of destruction in his shop... In most cases the shooters came out of those explosions ok,,, not so much for others...

We got lucky a few years ago when a fellow beside us fired a shot and it just didn't sound right,,, we pulled the bolt and sure enough a bullet got about 4" up the pipe stuck...

Had he launched the next shot it would of been bad...

A few years after that we had a fellow blow a bolt out of his action,,, 20 to 30 feet where it landed behind him,,, caught a peace of his cheek and top part of his thumb Knuckle,,, lucky fore sure,,, the fellow on the port side ended up with brass shrapnel along his face and shoulder....good thing for shooting glasses...

The bolt lugs were ok on that blow back,,, the only thing we could make of it was the bolt handle got kicked up or he had a hang fire when he lifted the bolt handle with the back of his thumb Knuckle...

Either way,,, glad you come out of this ok...

 

[talltexanrancher]

Unless there was a barrel obstruction introduced from the previous shot, I'd say an extreme case of over-pressure with the round itself. However, the charge weight you listed is certainly within reason.

The strong possibility exists that the case was significantly over-charged. Check your powder thrower. Check your scale (electronic or mechanical). I always recommend that each charge be individually weighed even though it slows the process a bit. It's possible the case was double charged but that usually leaves an obvious mess of powder and bullet seating issues - but it happens.

Pull the bullets from the remaining loaded cases and carefully examine/weigh those charges as the problem might have been repeated within that same batch.

 

[simo hayha]

Bullet weld.

 

[L.Sherm]

Can you see if the bullet is lodged in the barrel if it is leave it there. A couple years ago I was with my uncle shooting sage rats when he bulged the barrel on his CZ 17 hmr and cracked the stock. Stuck a bullet in the barrel we knocked the bullet out should have left it in there because CZ would only replace the stock. It was hornandy HMR ammo my guess there was a bullet over sized. Anyway no way to prove it was the bullet lodged in the barrel since we knocked it out.

 

[J E Custom]

You also need to look down the barrel for an obstruction even though it is ruined It might at least tell you what happened.

Years ago a friend and gunsmith had a similar problem with a revolver that Blew up when he tried to fire it without looking down the barrel (He said he knew better, but the customer said that he had just shot it and he couldn't even hit the target. After Xrays were done on the plugged barrel, It showed 9 lodged bullets still in the barrel.

J E CUSTOM

 

[cohunt]

I doubt an over charge of varget would do that, I dont think you can get that much in a 22-250 case...
Case/bullet weld shouldn't do that either-- if it was a barrel obstruction I'd think you would see a barrel bulge and usually the barrel will split/blow before the receiver ....looks like the bolt lugs got shoved back into the receiver, thus the banana'd receiver. Still think it could be an out of battery, wrong powder, or case rupture/failure-- it takes alot of energy to split a steel receiver like that.


Looks like I can see the bolt handle at the rear, but I dont see the bolt through the vent hole in the front of the receiver--- did the bolt shear in 2 pieces? Or am I looking at the picture wrong

 

[Thaifighter]

I'd go with obstructed bore just past the end of the chamber...

glad you are ok.

 

[John Klingenberg]

To do that id say wrong powder or obstruction near the chamber. Plugged barrels usually bulge/split near the obstruction so id rule out an obstruction farther down. It really looks like a hefty dose of pistol powder got in there.