My gun blew up what do i do?

Friendly said:

Perhaps there are bad people infiltrating certain jobs they should not have.

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Ah, yes. The 'sabotage by the enemy within' hypothesis. I propose background checks at gun manufacturers to weed out these evil liberals.

Or maybe background checks to weed the wingnuts out of the forum.

Glad you were not hurt bad. The advise I have is to contact both the ammo manufacture and rifle manufacture. Explain in detail what happened. Don't send them any parts-pieces. Keep a log of everything since this has happened. Good luck.

First off, thank goodness you were not injured. That is just about as close to a very serious disaster as any of us want to come. The gun's redundant safety features worked as they are supposed to and held it together even though part of the bolt had failed.

Second -- Take a deep breath and get your head together. Start collecting everything that's relevant, take lots of pics, make copies of any documentation about the gun and the ammo. Then call the manufacturers of both. Be prepared to have to work through their customer service systems a bit, which can be frustrating, but having a blown up gun should get you some expedited service! Record, or at least take notes of, every conversation. Who you spoke with, date, time, and what they said (promised, offered).

Be as polite, calm, and clear as you're able, but be firm that you were almost very seriously injured and you want them to make this right. They will!

I'd be very surprised if this was an ammo issue. As others said, looks like failure of the bolt's locking lugs, and the fact that they held on for just a few rounds indicates that there was a manufacturing problem. That does happen, and that's why companies have warranties. Yours isn't the first blown up gun they've ever seen, and they replace guns for a lot less severe problems than that.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Longing at your photos two of the brass looks very normal. Two do look darker but still not bad. primers do not show any pressure issues. I would believe that there was a issue with the bolt. Something with the bolt could be be out of spec. Contact browning but go over the heads of the CS dept . You do need to talk to some in charge. They will want the photos sent to them. Take more photos. See how they react. Browning will replace the rifle. They will also send a shipping label to send the junk pile back so they can look at any issues that may cause a recall!! Glad your OK but contact them quickly. Hold on to the ammo. You can ask winchester about 243 ammo issues?? You could bend a couple rounds back even but not the box yet. but the brass you have does look fine. Good luck.

LemmyCaution said:

Ah, yes. The 'sabotage by the enemy within' hypothesis. I propose background checks at gun manufacturers to weed out these evil liberals.

Or maybe background checks to weed the wingnuts out of the forum.

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Liberals?
Why do you bring up liberals?
I was not referring to liberals. I was referring to those people who would like to see harm to Americans, that's all!

I agree, weeding out the wingnuts from the forum would be good all-around!

Perhaps there are bad people infiltrating certain jobs they should not have.

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Unqualified people in quality control positions?

Or penny-piching corporations eliminating qualified people from quality control positions altogether?

We may speculate, but it is too early to know for sure. There is a reason though that ammo companies issue recall orders on certain lot numbers of ammo.

The solution is very easy. You need to send the gun, ammo and ammo box to the ammo manufacturer. You will get a new gun from someone,

A friend brought a new Ruger Vaquero in 45 Colt. He brought a box of Remington ammo and shot the gun on the range. Sometime during that box one of the chambers blugled. He sent the gun and ammo back to Remington and they replaced the gun.

Contrary to the previous comments American gun and ammo makers stand behind their products.

First of all, I'm glad you walked away with your head still in one piece. From he looks of the photo you almost didn't!

Second, I think the others are on the right track when they say it was a complete failure of the locking lugs. The bolt handle served as an emergency third locking lug. I don't think you could ever pour enough rifle powder into a 243 case to cause that kind of catastrophic failure, and the chance of a 243 round somehow getting charged with pistol powder is almost unimaginable.

Have you looked down the barrel to see if there's a noticeable bulge anywhere along its length? I don't suspect a squib, since all your bullets were accounted for on the target, but maybe something to look for?

I went back and looked at the pix again, and the ones of the bolt and receiver just give me the willies. When I looked at the pictures of the cases I noticed the one with the bright ejector mark looks to have a bit of soot on the case head. I wonder if that isn't a result of the bolt lugs beginning to fail and leaving excessive headspace for the next-to-last round? If you have a set of calipers it might be interesting to measure the lengths of those four cases....I wonder if each one is just a bit longer than the one before as the bolt lugs stretched under load? Just as a guess, let me postulate that what we will eventually find out is that this bolt somehow missed being heat treated and left the factory as a piece of soft, annealed steel.

If the manufacturer doesn't take care of you then be sure to let all of us know, and if they ever tell you a definite cause we would be very interested to know that as well.

I would think carefully about sending the gun and ammo back since it is the only evidence you have at this point. You have incurred hospital costs and may have other economic damages.

Talk to a lawyer.

I see no pics of the damage. Were they edited out?

I see no pics of the damage. Were they edited out?

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Apparently so. For whatever reason the OP desires that no one know what kind of gun this was.

Not really anything more to add, I just wanted to say that I'm glad you're okay.

To the OP, I'm also glad you're OK.

As far as the Pix's go, it sure wasn't rocket science to figure out what make the rifle was.

Thats scary stuff. Hope dealing with the company works well and its all fixed for the better.

As for the secrecy of the pics/gun model. I dont see the big deal....

You guys are saying it was possibly a locking-lug failure, do you suppose it was heat-treatment issue, or something else?

Personally, I think the OP should say what type of rifle it is so this doesn't potentially happen again. Perhaps there's a recall or technical service bulletin currently out on the rifle or within a certain serial number range

Don't get a lawyer from the start, but do record info on who you speak to about what and when. I would only start with a lawyer if I was seeking damages for injuries. Chances are they will ask a lot of questions but still bend over backward to make this right. Have the ammo handy so you can give them info including batch number.

vtbluegrass said:

Don't get a lawyer from the start, but do record info on who you speak to about what and when. I would only start with a lawyer if I was seeking damages for injuries. Chances are they will ask a lot of questions but still bend over backward to make this right. Have the ammo handy so you can give them info including batch number.

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+1 on this. Lawyering up will incurr a large legal fee that may not be necessary. I'm pretty sure that the manufacturer would like to make this right for you and recover the rifle for test and analysis to ensure that they do not have a larger safety issue that will require a recall of any kind.

This looks to be a strait forward warranty issue and not a civil liability issue.

My bet is that the manufacturer will more than take care of it in a quick and effecient manner.

Don

The rallying cry of "Get A Lawyer" leaves me a little disappointed.

If you go in with legal guns blazing, likely the manufacturer will respond in kind. I had a similar event a couple of years back with another gun product, and I prefaced the initial conversation with :"I would like to speak with someone about a potential warranty issue that nearly resulted in a serious injury. Fortunately, nothing serious happened, and I would like to have the firearm repaired. Can you direct me to the right place?" The correct verbal tone doesn't put them on the defensive from the start, and likely you will have a new gun, as I did in a few months. Yes it will take time, so be patient. The more lawyers who are involved will only cost you, and drag this out for some time. This quick rush to the legal bandwagon early on is what is killing America; go that route only if nothing else gets resolved by some time down the road.

I didn't know that Glock was making bolt action rifles, weird.

BTW - I am a Glock fan, but I had to make the joke.

GLAD that you are ok. A rifle can be replaced, you cannot. Please let us know what happens as the story develops.

I did not consider compension for medical injury and suffering since the O.P. said he was not injured.

So if you decided to sue you have a expensive battle ahead. First the ammo and the gun will have to be tested by a reputable lab. Then the companies will challenge the findings with more testing. Then you will have discovery by all three sides. Be prepared for them to try to prove you were at fault. The lawsuit will drag out for years. Since the corporations have lawyers on staff full time they can easily fight the case. Eventually a settlement will be reached and not necessarily in your favor.

Oh, you will be forking out big bucks to your attorney.

OR

Send the ammo and gun to the ammo manufacturer. They will contact the gun company and someone will make good with a new gun in a short period of time.

Lets do a little reality check...

BSA1 said:

I did not consider compension for medical injury and suffering since the O.P. said he was not injured..

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What remains in this thread is he says he looked in the mirror, it doesn't say he went to the.. nevermind.
Saying one/a thing does not make "it" true.. it remained/remains to be seen if he were indeed injured and he never actually broached that.

This whole thread is very curious indeed.

First he refuses to say what kind of rifle it is.
Then he takes down all the pictures of the bolt and action that would have made it even remotely possible to figure out what might have happened.

I say let him figure it out himself if he refuses to let anyone know what he is even talking about.

Nobody can even hazzard a guess what happened without seeing photos of the the results.

rc