Bad day at the rifle range

[Mowgli Terry]

Why don't you folks start another thread on trusting manufacturers?

 

[someguy2800]

Why don't you folks start another thread on trusting manufacturers?

Why would we do that? It is completely on subject of this thread. Rifle blows up and 30 people in a row say it can only be the handloaders fault. That’s not necessary true.

 

[Mowgli Terry]

Let's agree to disagree. Get too heated and Santa will bring us sticks and ashes. How would talking about Walker triggers have anything to do with a Savage 116? How would my trust or lack of it have to do with this KB? Many of us felt defensive about the reloading comments. Post are still being made about reloading safety. Starting from the simplest to most complicated answer is the way to start. That means if the gun is blown up start with the cartridges. Incidentally, another large forum banned threads about the Walker trigger. One comment was it was a bunch of talk that went in circles on those threads. Take care and be safe.

 

[mshootnit]

Anecdote Alert:

A friend once dumped his powder measure into the wrong can, Varget + 2520. Six or seven pounds of powder involved, he needed help.
I went out to my agency laboratory and borrowed some testing sieves. They are ten inch diameter made in sets with a range of screen openings for determining particle size distribution of granular materials. We found one that would give a clean separation of the extruded Varget and Spherical 2520 and salvaged his powder.

I wish I had friends like that.

 

[Glockula]

OK no analogies. Not trying to convince anyone that they should reload or not reload.
Yes, shooting handloaded ammo has a level of risk. But don't be lulled into thinking that factory ammo is 100% safe. It most certainly is not. As I said earlier, if you research ammunition recalls you will find that many mistakes have been made in the manufacture of factory ammo including, too much powder, not enough powder, wrong powder, wrong primer, etc. Again, we're not even sure if the old man was shooting reloads that he made, reloads someone else made, or factory ammo. The OP said they "looked like reloads" but it sounds like he isn't exactly sure. We're also not sure if the gun itself was the cause.
We should all try to be as safe as we can when shooting firearms. If you choose to reload, safe practices will minimize the risk. If you choose to shoot factory you can minimize the risk by researching and making sure your ammo, and your firearm for that matter, does not have a recall that might be dangerous.

My mistake then. They were definitely his hand loads.

 

[Robert]

After 7 pages I'm calling it done. We don't have the rifle or the ammo to inspect so we may never know what happened.