Taper crimping?

Lizzie Borden said:

Just to shame myself further, I should also have realized that something was terribly wrong when my chronometer was clocking some rounds at 2900+ fps.

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That's it !

Into the time out corner for you !
Glad you weren't hurt.

Golden rule #1, never shoot someone else's handloads.

Did you re-size after pulling bullets while checking charges?
Re-weighing is not to be relied upon. Pull them.

I'm glad you were not hurt. And your honesty about the mistakes that were made will help out other reloaders in the future. Threads like this makes me slow down and start analyzing everything I do at the bench.

Yeah I think a blown barrel is probably plenty O' punishment as it is. The lmportant thing is you were not hurt and learned a bunch after as well. Something many of us have had to face in the past ourselves.

Don't beat yourself up too badly @Lizzie Borden . We've all done stupid crap.

Experience is merely a series of non-fatal mistakes.

It’s good to hear you weren’t hurt. Usually a squib load has a markedly different noise than a usual one.

Lizzie Borden said:

These are commercial reloads from Freedom Munitions in Lewiston Idaho. I pulled the bullets on 10 rounds to check charge consistency - they were okay for commercial reloads. I re-seated the bullets and taper crimped the rounds.

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If I understand correctly the squib was a result of your re-loading reloaded ammunition? I’ve never pulled a bullet and then reseated it without first re-sizing first, if that was the case. Perhaps others can comment, but I wouldn’t trust there’d be enough neck tension after a pull operation. Good luck!

"Commercial reloads"? I'd send the rest of the ammo back to Freedom Munitions with a few pics. They more than likely won't do much if anything, but they gotta know why a few hundred reloaders/shooters from this forum won't buy any ammo from them.

Gonna rebarrel that thing and get it going again?

It's there any bolt or receiver damage?

Lizzie Borden said:

The only damage is to the barrel, 4" above the gas port. Right now, I'm not sure what's going to happen to the rifle. Freedom Munitions is considering covering the repair. I'd planned to have the barrel cut below the damage, crowned an have a new flash hider and front sight installed.

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I would look it over (or have it looked over.) A force strong enough to blow out the barrel forward of the gas port probably put a LOT of velocity on the bolt and gas system. The energy that ruptured the barrel also went into the piston....unless there was bullet-on-bullet impact or something else.

Was (what was left of) the barrel clear of obstructions?

A bullet won't fall down a barrel past the gas port and then stop, as shown on the pic. It had to be pushed to engage the rifiling to get that far. Neck tension didn't cause this.

Clearly, this is a "short round" and if it is a commercial reload, I'd notify the co. about the problems. As a minimum, they should want to get back the rest of the unfired lot. However; you probably lost any standing when you disassembled their loads. If there was any other issues with their product, this is also a good place, THR, for a community service safety announcenent about the mfgr.

Lizzie Borden said:

Overall, I think we can all agree that I was stupid and unobservant. And I really appreciate having people tell me where I went wrong.

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We all have been there at some point. Even after doing it for many years, it can happen, it shouldn’t happen, but sometimes it does when we loose focus. The main thing is that you were not injured and the barrel can be replaced, everything else is secondary.

Lizzie Borden said:

Overall, I think we can all agree that I was stupid and unobservant.

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Those 2 words are a little bit strong. There's no need to be that hard on yourself. You weren't skating on any ice we haven't trod over ourselves !!

Let's simply say you've had an opportunity to become a quick learner ! From such experience "Experts" are born.

Glad you were not injured. Hopefully your rifle can be repaired.