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

From my experience in combat, that does NOT look like his rifle exloding did that...

I have seen two other sets of wound photos when a modern inline barrel went up, and that looks typical, though the loss of the thumb makes me think in this case this was the largest of the three loads of which I have seen the aftermath.

Loose BP is not gonna do that.

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Well probably not in a rifle barrel, BUT don't think that can't happen with loose powder in a thin walled barrel like a shotgun or musket. If you poured say 80 grains down a barrel that had some residual grease, and coated a portion of the barrel with some powder while the rest went to the breech, and then touched it off... the secondary ignition of the powder that stuck to the grease could very well cause a secondary explosion that acts like a bore obstruction, if it was far enough away from the thicker breech area of the barrel.

LD

smokeless

Not that I want to fan the flames of speculation here but....

Acetone (acetalyne) fumes from cleaning and a cap to clear the barrel could = REALLY BIG BANG!!

Wow! I wonder if the feller that was holding his beer is OK?

Foto Joe said:

Not that I want to fan the flames of speculation here but....

Acetone (acetalyne) fumes from cleaning and a cap to clear the barrel could = REALLY BIG BANG!!

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Only if there were also a bore obstruction. Besides, that would take a lot more than a few post-cleaning fumes to blow like that.

THIS is how you blow up a muzzle loader!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7GNFFcSOK8

Well unless Pulp returns with more details, it's all speculation.

Maybe he didn't know where you could just go and buy black powder, or thought there was some special licensing needed. So Mr. Johnny Smart Guy decided it would just be easier/cheaper to take apart a couple hundred black cats and use the powder. After all, it explodes vaguely like BP, doesn't it?

Really hope his thumb grows back

A muzzleloader kaboom. Think it was a failure to seat the bullet on the powder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtY1bT4Hh2g

Sad Sad Bone Headed accident. and NOPE Thumps don't grow back they can take a toe and sew it on.

That looks plenty painful!!

as a complete new guy" a while back when i was researching muzzleloaders, i youtubed muzzle loader exploding, etc. why does it seem to be inlines? i know it can be any BP firearm are the inlines just more prevalent? i noticed in the video posted above if you read the comments i see somebody recommending using a little smokeless in your load not the first time i read that, but thats some bad and dangerous advice
gene

345DeSoto What do you think caused that ? ?

why does it seem to be inlines?

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I think there are several factors. Most of the folks shooting traditional are more knowledgeable about black powder. It would for example be pretty unusual for someone to buy a flintlock and load with smokeless. And there is confusion about whether modern inlines can or cannot take smokeless. The fact that they are modern may make people think they're stronger, when in fact they tend to have thinner barrels compared with traditional ones. If you look at a traditional rifle the barrel walls are incredibly thick steel. That's a hangover from the old days when the steel was much lower quality. But with modern steels using the same dimensions, you end up with an extremely strong firearm that will tend to hold together even when abused.

Cosmoline said:

I think there are several factors. Most of the folks shooting traditional are more knowledgeable about black powder. It would for example be pretty unusual for someone to buy a flintlock and load with smokeless. And there is confusion about whether modern inlines can or cannot take smokeless. The fact that they are modern may make people think they're stronger, when in fact they tend to have thinner barrels compared with traditional ones. If you look at a traditional rifle the barrel walls are incredibly thick steel. That's a hangover from the old days when the steel was much lower quality. But with modern steels using the same dimensions, you end up with an extremely strong firearm that will tend to hold together even when abused.

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thanks, thats kinda what i was thinking
gene

Its not just Inlines.
http://gandersmuzzleloadingblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/rush-it-this-could-happen-to-you.html

Compare that picture to some of the guns here in this video.
http://youtu.be/gmsBF6CXs18

Sorry, I'm calling BS on this one, there has to be much more to this story. Looking at the blown up scope in the picture, I wonder what his face looked like, as there is no way only his hand was injured.

Popping a cap on a freshly cleaned barrel won't do anything. A short started round ball with a proper charge tends to rupture the barrel at the point it's obstructed - this ones split down to the breech. I would guess either smokeless powder was used or an overload of bp plus a heavy conical to get the pressure needed to destroy the barrel.

What nearby town newspaper had the article?

100 plus grains of pistol powder ?

Pulp, where did the operating room photo of the hand come from? That's not from any newspaper, so presumably you've got some connection to the guy. If possible it would be great to get more info on this. Otherwise we're all kind of guessing. What does concern me here is the magnitude of the injury. Any of the tyical KB's usually do not cause that level of destruction. If it was nothing but a forgotten roundball stuck halfway in the barrel and a standard load of black behind it, that should have bulged the barrel or ruptured it, not caused the total destruction seen here. Which is why folks are thinking it was a smokeless pipe bomb.