One dead after gun malfunction in Lackawanna County

Dale Alan said:

I feel for his family and other person injured . I guess others see it more like....damn,what is the govt going to take a way from us now ?

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Don't misunderstand I feel bad for the families and the injured person. I tried to submit rebuttal to so, but their system would not submit my response to the article. With many other causes of catastrophic failures that can occur, many listed in this thread.

Dale Alan said:

I feel for his family and other person injured . I guess others see it more like....damn,what is the govt going to take a way from us now ?

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With the way things are going these days our entire hobby is a game of checkers. Gotta look a few moves ahead. Yes it sucks for the folks involved but we have to immediately be on guard for what’s going to come out of it that will hit us. It will smack us square in the back of the head if we aren’t paying attention. Keep your guard up.

I NEVER buy re-loads. The "baggie" ammunition is an immediate turn off for me. Once in a very great while you get bad factory ammunition but usual it's a lack of powder than the opposite. You can get a squib load and ruin your firearm or yourself, but that's so rare in factory ammunition that it's national news. With re-loaded ammunition you are taking a chance. I saw two guns destroyed with re-loads. A S&W .357 blown apart but luckily no injuries. The owner got the ammunition from a Friend who re-loads.. The other, a Bushmaster AR went to pieces with Gun Show re-loads. This was my Nephew who I had warned not to buy re-loads.

This is why the reloaded I know personally don’t let other people shoot their reloads. Half the reason I still buy factory ammo at all is for other people to shoot if they want to go with me. The ammo manufacturers make more ammo in an hour than I’ll make the rest of my life. I’m certain they’re way better at it.

I talked to a salesman at a LGS when the ammo crunch was tighter than now. He said he was working as a gunsmith during the last one. There was a steep upswing of people bringing in damaged guns that corresponded with a steep increase of reloading equipment sales.

stillquietvoice said:

..... painting shooters, reloaders as stupid morons that just add extra gunpowder Willy nilly.

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It doesn't help matters that there are plenty of people, including some members here, who are very flippant about excessive chamber pressures, using incorrect ammunition, and rechambering firearms in cartridges which produce far higher forces than the weapon was designed to handle.

Unfortunately, as we see more people venture into reloading due to the loaded ammunition shortages with no experience and a facing a poor selection of available components, these tragedies are likely to increase in frequency.

Controlled explosions in your hands and directly in front of your face is not something to be cavalier about, but some folks just can't be told, have to learn the hard way.

MachIVshooter said:

It doesn't help matters that there are plenty of people, including some members here, who are very flippant about excessive chamber pressures, using incorrect ammunition, and rechambering firearms in cartridges which produce far higher forces than the weapon was designed to handle.

Unfortunately, as we see more people venture into reloading due to the loaded ammunition shortages with no experience and a facing a poor selection of available components, these tragedies are likely to increase in frequency.

Controlled explosions in your hands and directly in front of your face is not something to be cavalier about, but some folks just can't be told, have to learn the hard way.

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It’s for that reason I went away from progressive presses for anything more than revolver case resizing, decapping, flaring, etc. I just didn’t feel comfortable about safely watching powder amounts as things went faster after I had a couple of light loaded .357 Mag. I had one that sounded and felt light after I fired (no bullet stuck, just light-feeling.) I stopped using these and shot different ammo the rest of that session.

At home I pulled a few bullets and the cases weren’t charged with the right amount. I pulled the remainder of the batch and started powder-dropping and seating by hand after that. I know it’s slow, but it’s kept me from a mess like those pictures above since I started reloading this way in 1995.

I hope someone is able to figure out what happened at the range in Pa., I’m sure the family would appreciate knowing the true cause of his fatal injury.

Stay safe.

DMW1116 said:

Half the reason I still buy factory ammo at all is for other people to shoot if they want to go with me. The ammo manufacturers make more ammo in an hour than I’ll make the rest of my life. I’m certain they’re way better at it.

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I occasionally buy factory ammo for one of 2 reasons, I didn't have the time nessasary to load or I need the brass cases to make more.

Factories can and do produce more than I do, but mine work better in my, or my old, guns because they are specific to said gun. Factories produce ammunition for use in any gun, have test barrels to ensure their products meet saami pressure specifications, have quality control to inspect the rounds before it is sold.

As a reloader you are the quality control. Your guns tell you if the pressures are OK, if your reloads aren't on or over the edge it would be OK for a friend to shoot your loads in your guns. I'm not saying shoot others reloads in your guns or shoot yours in someone else's guns.

Is the factory loaded cartridges as accurate in your guns as your reloads? I understand you not wanting someone hurt using your ammunition, but it could still happen with a factory round too.

Funny how this drive-by-biased-report has stirred up memories of OPs (other peoples) reloads.

We don't even know what took place. And I doubt we'll ever know.

stillquietvoice said:

Perhaps, but a reporter needs to try and verify their information instead of winging it and calling into question an invite industry that might have's failure every million rounds or so as well as painting shooters, reloaders as stupid morons that just add extra gunpowder Willy nilly.

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Reporters?

We do a really fine job ourselves...

kcofohio said:

Funny how this drive-by-biased-report has stirred up memories of OPs (other peoples) reloads

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Yes, indeed - most worrisome

rust collector said:

Sorry, no interest in watching people get hurt, exploded or exploited. Shame has been replaced by monetization, and there seems to be no end in sight

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I don't like watching local TV news. Too much of it seems to be about people who died in meaningless ways, or in tragedies that it does me no good to know about.

On the other hand, accidental death is actually pretty unusual, which is part of why it is newsworthy. And it can tell us about problems with things, like roads or cars or drivers, or things to do with fire safety, or even crime. So a lot of the time it can be a service to society.

I don't understand your comment about "shame has been replaced by monetization" in this context. I can understand it in regard to celebrity gossip, or meaningless sex "scandals", but not here.

kidneyboy said:

This article is in USnews, a very left leaning, anti gun, anti USA media operation. The owner and editor in chief, Zuckerman, used to own The Atlantic and wrote speeches for Obama (hard to get more left wing than that).

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Boy, the first thing I thought when I read that was that you were not alive in the 1960's. I was. Trust me, it is NOT hard to get more left wing than that. It really, really isn't.

The rest of your post seems to be an objection to facts being reported. An unusual kind of death in a public place is the kind of thing that often makes the news. The article to me seems to be a brief and un-sensationalized account of a rare event. As far as I know, it did not make the national news in any major way; I only heard about it here.

And objecting to the truth being reported if you don't like the truth, or feel that the truth needs to be packaged just right, is not something I can really get behind. Frankly, the fact that this kind of occurrence is so rare speaks very well of the handloading community, and of the safe gun handling practices of the large majority of American gun owners. That is the point I would make about it, anyway.

There isn't much info on the accident on the local level either.

Monac said:

you were not alive in the 1960's

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Turn 66 this year. Maybe a youngster to some on here
I stick by my commentary. The anti gun narrative is as strong as I have ever seen and every headline should be suspect of carrying that narrative.

kidneyboy said:

Turn 66 this year. Maybe a youngster to some on here
I stick by my commentary. The anti gun narrative is as strong as I have ever seen and every headline should be suspect of carrying that narrative.

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A) You are still wrong about how being a speechwriter for Obama is about as far left as anyone can be. But nobody can stop you from believing what you want to.

B) You are also wrong about that story having an anti-gun narrative, but you can find anything anywhere if you are determined to do it.

C) I don't think you will mind if I don't reply to you any more.

PS - I am actually a trifle younger than you, and I can remember the left in the 1960's and 70's being much further left than Obama and Biden. I wondered why you couldn't. Than it hit me - it's part of the right's narrative now to claim Obama and Biden are extremists. Reality need not apply, I guess. So much has to go down the memory hole in order to make history conform to the demands of the present.

rust collector said:

I was responding to Glockodile's video link. Stupid human tricks to increase views and hopefully make money. Sorry, I should have been more specific.

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And I apologize for not reading the thread carefully enough to understand what you were saying before popping off. Thanks for explaining, and for the civility of your reply.

Man Dies in Gun Malfunction
That's the angle put forth to support the new attack on manufacturers to try and make them open to civil suits.
Same angle as other lawfare being waged across the board.

From the news article:
"Another man was hospitalized with an injury to his cheek, Archbald Police Chief Tim Trently said.

Officials believe the gun, owned by Hamm, used reloaded ammunition. Trently said such ammunition is cheaper and is bought by some consumers who use reloading equipment and who may also add extra gunpowder".

Actually the largest fallacy of the article lies with the police chief. The reporter merely parroted the police chief who it appears is misinformed. I would also venture that every day in America guns explode for any number of reasons so what happened here is certainly no exception to any rule. Some just get more attention than others especially when there is loss of life. Years ago the gunsmith at my local indoor range had a display case filled with blown up guns Again, a single instance involving, tragically, a death and a much less than informative article at that. The reporter could have done maybe more homework and the police chief's comments leave much to be desired.

Lately there seems to be a large focus on gun related deaths and violence. I happen to live in Cuyahoga County, Ohio (Greater Cleveland Suburbs) During 2019 Cuyahoga County led the entire US in drug overdose deaths. I figure we are still a national leader. Yet, my local and national elected officials seem to be worried about my gun? "In 2019, 70,630 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States". Seems like a wag the dog? Anyway this is just a single story and really nothing new. Poorly written and vague with comments from a police chief who is apparently clueless. Guns blow up every day and unfortunately sometimes take a life.

Ron

Monac said:

C) I don't think you will mind if I don't reply to you any more.

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Don't mind at all. Appreciate your comments and rather different point of view.

shootstraight57 said:

Even watching it on the news leaves much vagueness to what really happened!
I've used that range many times and is about 45 minutes from where I live. They had to close down the extended range part due to people shooting at the water tower!

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Very sorry for the loss of the individual.

The next time you are at that range, ask someone what happened, and tell us! Word of mouth gets distorted, but you should be able to find out if it was a rifle or a pistol, and if the shooter was hit by weapon fragments, or something else.

Reloaders blow up rifles and pistols all the time, then send the thing in for warranty work. Manufacturer's see this constantly. A guy who worked for Remington Huntsville told me of M700's sent to the factory after blowups. The owners claimed factory rounds, wanted the weapons fixed under warranty, but the factory with their equipment (don't know what they used) were able to come to the conclusion, reloads.

gyp_c2 said:

Man Dies in Gun Malfunction
That's the angle put forth to support the new attack on manufacturers to try and make them open to civil suits.
Same angle as other lawfare being waged across the board.

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If you were writing about this incident, what would the headline have been?