Muzzleloader blowup. Caution, don't open if your squeamish.

Looks like the same pictures that were floating around two years ago

probably another "the powder is black so it must be black powder"...

it isnt another one of those muzzle loaders that were labeled as safe for smokeless is it?

@ the hand pic--OUCH!

%&#$ing nightmare !

The swelling will go down..

Mmmmm...looks like far too many pieces fer one Bbl.

Good lord, that doesn't look good. The guy must have not seated the bullet firmly and assumed it was unloaded (you should always assume every gun is loaded, period) or perhaps he thought that since Bullseye is black he could just shoot 100 grains of it.
Well... when I load 12 gauge with 700X I only need 17.5 grains and I get the same velocity as 81 grains of real black.

theshephard said:

The swelling will go down..

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Will the thumb grow back too?

Hi to all my fellow shooters/firearm enthusiasts My first post on this forum! Holy @#%$#@! ! He's very lucky to be alive from that, and hope the best for this guy.Does anyone know if this is something that happened recently? That was a bad one

dollar to a donut that's a consequence of about a hundred grains of Bullseye, or somesuch, under a ?!!!

I'd bet $500 the thumbless dude did something dumb.......real dumb.

With that much destruction, has to be smokeless powder a full hunting load of it. Any unconfined BP or sub could'nt build that much pressure. Not sure if a double loaded charge ( 6 - 50gr Pyrodex pellets or a huge amount of loose powder) and a projectile not seated all the way down could do this.

And thats why you dont shoot SMOKELESS powder in a muzzle loader! If the dang idiots would real the owners manual or the fact the barrel says " Black powder only".

Looks like someone got some smokeless in there. If he wanted to use smokeless in his muzzle loader he should have bought a savage.

i dont even think the savage would have saved this moron LOL. It looks like he put a ton of SML powder in there for it to twist and turn that barrel like it did. He was shooting it thats for certain, otherwise is left hand would not have been where it was.

Pulp, where are exactly are you getting those photos? I'm not doubting the story, but oftentimes a random accident photo will get tacked onto an account and get spread from place to place before someone realizes it's unrelated. The giant Alaska mankiller bear photos are a great example. So it's always good to source your photos with a link or description of where they came from.

Patocazador said:

Will the thumb grow back too?

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yeah, sorry if it wasn't clear - my post was intentionally an understatement registering my shock at the totality of the damage. This man obviously has far, far more to worry about with his hand than temporary swelling. :/

Given that Pulp knows some folks in common with the guy I would say that we have to take these pictures as related to the guy's story for now until proven otherwise.

And I gotta agree with the others that there's far more to the story than what the guy said while in shock.

First off why in blazes would someone clean their rifle then put some BP into the bore along with a cap to "flash" the gun? Seems like the powder would then require that it be cleaned all over again. Or could he have tried to clear a dry ball and picked up the wrong powder and got more into the chamber than he bargained for?


On a related note and just to cement the need to double and triple check the powders being used there was a fellow up this way that suffered a blown up gun, VERY serious injuries and from what I've heard the loss of his right eye. He was loading some handgun rounds then switched the machine over to rifle. Well, I guess you can imagine what he forgot to do, right? Near as anyone can tell he loaded up the rifle rounds with handgun powder.

Surprisingly enough the Remington 700 didn't blow up on the FIRST shot. There was a helluva BANG! that startled everyone but since they didn't know what sort of rounds he was shooting no one thought to stop him before he chambered the next and pulled the trigger. The lugs on the bolt snapped off, the receiver split into three parts and generally the whole middle of the gun became a pipe bomb. The bolt shot directly back and pulverized his eye and other lacerations and injuries were done generally to his upper body. But the eye and forehead were the key ones.

So just be doubly sure that you KNOW what powder is going into what casings or into flasks and the like. It's simply too easy to mess up if our minds are not on the task.

For my part during reloading the powder jar sits at the loader and on top of that when I've filled the hopper and graduated the powder drop a bit of masking tape with the powder and charge is put right on the hopper. It takes a few seconds and for the most part seems like a waste of time. But if doing so can jog my memory at some point in the future then all these added time wasters are worth the few moments.

Looks like he loaded it with flash powder.

Jaymo, that could be the case.

I'm no medical expert, I've only been to the ER a couple of times. One of which was when I nearly died choking on a piece of steak. And it was delicious even if it nearly put my 6 feet in a hole, lol. Death never tasted so good. Anyway, what are those little yellow bead looking things attached to his hand?

theshephard said:

yeah, sorry if it wasn't clear - my post was intentionally an understatement registering my shock at the totality of the damage. This man obviously has far, far more to worry about with his hand than temporary swelling. :/

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I understood. I was being sarcastic too. Sarcasm doesn't translate well in print.

We'd all like to think that Black Powder couldn't do this to a gun that was designed to shoot it. The reality of it is, we don't know what happened.

Pulp,

If you get more news on exactly what happened let us know. I'd prefer NOT to replicate his misfortune if you know what I mean.

Busyhands94 said:

Anyway, what are those little yellow bead looking things attached to his hand?

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I think that they're covering the surgical pins that are sticking out of the ends of his fingers.
Those pins might be holding broken finger bones in place in order for them to heal.
Two more can be seen sticking out of his lower hand.