Why do newbies at the gun range flinch? I mean, we tell them what to expect, we warm them up with .22’s, we show them how to properly hold their gun….and when they pull the trigger..:::flinch:::.
Well,, there’s a really good reason. We’re used to it so we often don’t even think about it, but for a new shooter the biggest thing on their mind is that an enormous explosion is about to take place in the hands right in front of their face.
A lifetime of shooting kinda makes you forget that. At least, until you get an unpleasant reminder that, yes, there’s a metric buttload of kinetic violence happening right in front of your nose:
I hate wearing safety glasses at the range, but you can bloody well believe that I’m going to do it anyway. This guy is alive only because he had someone at the range to haul his bleeding ass to a hospital while he pinched his own severed artery shut. I usually shoot by myself..I’d have been found a few miles down the road, bled out all over the steering wheel.
Moral of the story: safety gear sucks but what happens when you don’t wear it is infinitely worse. The apocalypse is gonna be difficult enough with two working eyes and a skull without additional holes in it….why make it harder than has to be?
I suppose another moral of the story is: don’t shoot ammo of unknown pedigree…especially if such ammo is some monstrous high-pressure number like a .50BMG.
There are a lot of guys on YouTube with gun channels who engage in somewhat…..questionably reckless…..gunplay ‘for the views’. Usually its somewhat harmless….but there’s always someone who has to buy 250# of Tannerite, or make a stack of engine blocks to shoot, or decide to see if a lathe turned bullet made out of [unicorn horn/titanium/polystyrene/granite] ‘will shoot’. This guy does a bit of that but it looks like the ammo is at fault here rather than the shooter. But the point remains: your detonating a grenade-equivalent a foot in front of your face. Take precautions.
H/T to the thoughtful Friend Of The Blog(tm) who sent me the link.
Wow.
I came across this last/this morning after another sleepless night. My first thought was please don’t show any gore. My next thought after the gun blew was is someone else there with him? He was so lucky in so many ways. One of the most important lessons is safety glasses. If he had not worn them, he very well could have died with the cap in his brain. This vid is proof they work so wear them. My other lesson that I am guilty of myself is never go shooting alone. You never know, right? If his dad wasn’t there he would died right there.
Having lain on the side of the road waiting for an ambulance I can verify that personal protective equipment (PPE) is WAAYYYY cheaper than a trip to the hospital. Safety glasses are my pet peeve since an ER doc told me about the 5 layers of tissue on an eyeball and molten metal had penetrated 3 of mine as he was scraping it off.
Getting brake fluid in the eyes while working on a car has blinded people, so has working in an energized electrical panel. I got to watch an electrician get loaded onto a helicopter for a trip to the burn center after he got his screwdriver across some 480 volt gear at the local grocery store, the flash hit his eyes first and can be north of 30,000 degrees. Here is one, think of a willie pete hand grenade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO6see7_ODY
Gloves, long sleeves/pants (cotton based), glasses, etc. will take the brunt of most anything going wrong from a BBQ flare up, carburetor backfire, battery explosion, or a .308 reload from Bubba that wasn’t quite right.
PPE should be as basic as wearing a seat belt.
100% cotton is one of my obsessions. Nomex doesn’t breathe, so it sucks in hot weather. Wool is fine in cold weather — at least if you’re not allergic. But 100% cotton is cheap and it DOES NOT MELT. Something the US DoD fails to recognize every damn time they adopt a new ‘combat’ uniform — and then a year or two later have to supplement that with a ‘fire resistant’ version.
Cotton will burn. But it won’t melt onto your flesh. And you can pat it out with even a bare hand.
When blacksmithing cotton, pure 100 percent, is my standard gear
Yes. MANY youtube sites with some bad ideas about gun safety.
This reminds me of the dude who shoots .50 BMG rounds out of a 12 ga pump shotgun.
Seems insane, but the gun never blows up.
Trivial amount of pressure as the .510 projectile is blown down a .72 something bore.
Man, crazy stuff – thanks for sharing!
May I suggest carrying a good trauma/blow out kit? I keep one in each vehicle and one in my range bag in a dedicated pocket. I was sold on the concept after taking a “Stop the Bleed” class. Doc had been a medic in Afghanistan. Using your thumb might work, but a big wad of Celox-impregnated gauze stuffed into the hole followed by direct pressure might be a better solution.
This may be a good time to support an associate who has a sole practice, no BS filler medkit business – in truth, his wife is the one who makes them but he is the face of the business. Check out the crazy Cajun @ Solatac – https://solatac.com/home/
Back in 2004 I worked with a now retired Navy Captain in the development of his patented .50 cal non-discarding sabot round
His test weapon was a Barrett action with a Christenson carbon fiber barrel. We used custom developed Hodgden powders and the projectiles were custom milled etc
When we did test shots we had the weapon mounted in a vise with a 20 foot lanyard and wore goggles and other protective gear
At Yuma the .50 cal barrels were electrically fired and staff was in a block house
Home brew is dangerous for amateur shooters
George
I know that rifle will never be in my safe.
PPE is not a suggestion.
It appears the rifle was not at fault, but rather the ammo. Not sure a different gun would have fared any better.
See Rex Tibor’s posts on firing sabot rounds in rifles with a muzzle break.
https://www.youtube.com/c/TiborasaurusRex/community
TL;DR: It was the shooter’s fault for using ammo not meant for that rifle. (it likely was not out of spec ammo, nor an unsafe firearm)
While we’re on the topic, if you shoot 50BMG, you prob already know that yellow tip Dominican has a few grenades in the lot too. Pull down any questionable ammo of any caliber and load it back up to a level you KNOW is safe. If you dont reload, either learn how or give/trade your suspects to someone who does.
From the post explosion “forensics” the round was at least 50% higher pressure than the gun is designed for… so with a likely safety margin factored in, guessing it was loaded with twice the powder it was supposed to have. That is a pretty major screw up- glad the guy didn’t lose his life over someone else’s mistake.
If he had just shot a slap round prior to this round the round may have made it to the hydrant but THE DISCARDED SABOT SECTIONS were most likely wedged in the end of the barrel fish gill and protruding back into the muzzle bore. The first rounds center metal bullet would have continued out.. YOU SHOULD NEVER SHOOT SABOTS through a barrel with a FISH GILL MUZZLE BRAKE as the discarding sabot sections side displace outwards at the fish gill and were probably impaled in the brake at the front of the MUZZLE. NEXT Round BOOM.
K,
Does a plastic sabot stuck in the muzzle brake explain the large muzzle flash?
Seems to me to be an overcharged round, rather than a muzzle obstruction. What about blowing the “screw cap” off. Separation of the threads, at the weakest point of the thread seems to me to indicate excessive chamber pressure. Could a piece of sabot material (whatever it was) cause that and the big flash? A piece of metal (something or other) lodged in the bore would be more likely to split the barrel, rather than blow up the breech wouldn’t it?
With respect.
You may want to watch this video by Ian of Forgotten Weapons on the subject of what happened to Scott at Kentucky Ballistics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71OGayW7CnI
Made me think better of shooting some of the 1938 8mm cartridges I was given. I’m sure they are standard, as they are in their original boxes. Beautiful, shiny brass; even the boxes look new.
After 82 years the brass may well be age-hardened to the point that it will crack rather than stretch, allowing high-pressure gas back into the rifle’s action.
Good point regarding the sabot carrier sleeves.
Not knowing the pedigree of the rounds is the other real problem. .50BMG has been around a LONG time and in many conflicts with many different players. It is a common technique to leave booby-trapped cartridges behind intentionally filled with explosive or too much powder.
Regardless of the cause, he’s mighty lucky.
Never ever fire sabot rounds through a muzzle break unless you KNOW for sure that break is designed to do it safely. SLAP rounds were made for the M2 machine gun without a break on it.
https://www.youtube.com/c/TiborasaurusRex/community
RW,
Yes, thank you.
But why? Where is the data? What brand? All sabots? Why did all or some sabots cause problems?
All because of a muzzle break? Just because “they say?”
Doesn’t this still point to an excessive chamber pressures?
Was this caused by a sabot that somehow jammed in the muzzle break? A sabot that separated upon primer detonation/powder ignition and lodged in the bore which then created a barrel obstruction for the next round which then caused excessive chamber pressures which then caused the breach to blow up?
Sorry, I still don’t get it. To my pea brain, it doesn’t add up.
But…….
It has been rumored to be an old trick to leave behind purposefully sabotaged cartridges in the hopes of sabotaging an enemy.
Has the plot just thickened or is this still basic physics?
Where and what is the data?
The sabots start to separate as soon as the saboted projectile leaves the bore. Causing the sabot to strike the brake and cause a partial bore obstruction. Causing problems.