MacAR
Member
Last night, I decided to do a bit of armadillo hunting down in the hayfield. So I grabbed up my 1866 in 38 Special, some extra ammo, a good light, and 'ol Sam (my cur dog). We'd been pretty successful, knocking off three in about 30 minutes time. On the fourth, my luck changed. Sam took after it and managed to bay it, and I fired one shot at pretty close range and missed. The critter ran, and I racked the lever on the '66. It hung up. I figured that I'd had a swelled crimp (some of my rifle loads were a bit hard to chamber) and so gave the lever a pretty good smack. BANG! I couldn't hear anything, and I'd dropped my light. I scrabbled around for the light, and looked at my rifle; the round detonated outside the chamber. As my rifle was out of commission, I started the hike back to the house (about 200 yards). About halfway back, I noticed my t-shirt was wet. Looking down, I was bleeding pretty good from center of my chest. Needless to say, I picked up the pace. Got back inside and let the wife patch me up; she's a pretty good hand at that. My face also caught some powder burns, but nothing major. She managed to pick the shrapnel out of my chest and sew it up (did I mention she's a good hand?) and cleaned the rest of the small cuts and etc.
Afterward, I examined my rifle and found that the bullet from the exploded cartridge was still in the chamber, and the case head was on the lifter. So, I worked the case head out through the loading gate, and then used a heavy brass rod to punch the bullet and case neck out of the chamber. On further examination, I found that there was a broken case in the chamber and it was stuck pretty hard. But after quite a bit of work, I managed to pry it up enough that I could drive it out with my brass rod and then cleaned the rifle well. I believe that the broken case was one with a cannelure around the middle of it, and probably loaded too many times at that. Unfortunately, I'll be unable to find the other piece of it so I'll never know for sure. And to make matters worse, I've scarred the chamber slightly in my "prying" and will have to do some polishing on it.
At the end of the day, I've learned a couple lessons. The most important one being "don't force cartridges into the chamber!". I'm also on the hunt for a broken case extractor for this rifle, and my other calibers.
Mac
Afterward, I examined my rifle and found that the bullet from the exploded cartridge was still in the chamber, and the case head was on the lifter. So, I worked the case head out through the loading gate, and then used a heavy brass rod to punch the bullet and case neck out of the chamber. On further examination, I found that there was a broken case in the chamber and it was stuck pretty hard. But after quite a bit of work, I managed to pry it up enough that I could drive it out with my brass rod and then cleaned the rifle well. I believe that the broken case was one with a cannelure around the middle of it, and probably loaded too many times at that. Unfortunately, I'll be unable to find the other piece of it so I'll never know for sure. And to make matters worse, I've scarred the chamber slightly in my "prying" and will have to do some polishing on it.
At the end of the day, I've learned a couple lessons. The most important one being "don't force cartridges into the chamber!". I'm also on the hunt for a broken case extractor for this rifle, and my other calibers.
Mac
