Did my shotgun barrel get hurt?

[flip180]

I was at the range today with a friend of mine that is on the local Sheriff's dept. I brought my 870 equipped with an 18.5 in police rifle sighted barrel. He brought along some old dept ammo to shoot up loose in an ammo can. Winchester low brass quail loads. I really don't know the specifics. He was loaded up the 870 and fired a couple of rounds and had a failure to extract. He down loaded the mag and I had a look in the chamber as the fired hull was still in there. What I saw was a fired hull pushed about 1/2 inch in the chamber. He got a cleaning rod and tapped it out. We inspeceted the hull to find it was bulged just forward of the brass. We were like how did that happed. It turned out it was a 16 ga round. It probably fired as it should but during recoil, the smaller rim moved up into the chamber as the gun recoiled back. Is there anything that I need to worry about except to be more carefull next time. I need this shotgun for a shotgun class next month and really didn't want to buy another barrel if I don't have to.

Thanks, Flip.

 

[Snarlingiron]

Thank your lucky stars, and be more careful the next time.

 

[flip180]

I pulled the barrel and there doesn't seem to be any visable damage. The bore is shiny and symetrical and the chamber appears ok. We did fire up the rest of the ammo (ensuring it was all 12 ga) and the gun operated fine. I don't want there to be some feakish metalurgical stress fracture that's going to cause the barrel to blow up later down the road.

Flip.

 

[MAX100]

Don't worry no damage was done the 870 can take. But be careful.

You don't want to do that with a 20ga shell and a 12ga chambered behind it.


GC

 

[Regolith]

Newer shotgun barrels are pretty damn tough. There was a video posted in these forums a while back where they tested what would happen if you loaded a 20 gauge in front of a 12 gauge on accident in a Remington 870 and fired off the 12. Horrendous muzzle blast, the action was pushed open, but the gun was undamaged.*

I'd say a 16 gauge probably wouldn't have done much in comparison. I wouldn't make a habit of shooting 16's out of a 12, though.



*This probably would have blown up an older gun, though, so don't try this at home!

 

[flip180]

"I wouldn't make a habit of shooting 16's out of a 12, though."

LOL! It wasn't my choice. It was one of those things that there was a bunch of loose ammo and they all looked the same except one was a 16 ga. My friend is real resposible with firearms as he is one of the big wigs of his dept's firearms training section but, this was a freak thing that can easily happen again if one isn't carefull. I'm glad I didn't hurt anything.

Flip.

 

[rcmodel]

he is one of the big wigs of his dept's firearms training section

Well, promote the man!

They should make him Head Kukumo or at least Grand Poobah of the training section for that one!

rcmodel

 

[Pete409]

Flip,

I don't think anything could have been damaged in your gun from shooting a 16 gauge shell in it. If anything, the chamber pressure should have been slightly lower than normal due to the case apparently not sealing the chamber. Did the 16 gauge case split? What did the report sound like (weak, normal, extra loud)?

You may have gotten some blowback of gasses through the firing pin hole into the bolt assembly, but that's not a big deal. Just clean the bolt and trigger assembly good and inspect for visual damage (which is unlikely) and be more careful next time.

 

[flip180]

The hull bulged just above the brass and split a little farther down towards the end. I really didn't notice any differance in the report as I was not expecting anything like that to happen. It gets me spooked because, I have a three day shotgun class comming up at the begenning of next month. I'll be using new factory boxed ammo but, I feel as though I'll be checking each round before it goes in my dump pouch.

Flip.

 

[Z71]

I've seen 16ga shells get fired in 12 ga chambers before. Likely didn't do any damage.

I've heard of people wrapping tape around 16ga shells and firing them in 12ga guns too.

 

[9x19sig]

There is a guy on youtube that has posted videos of purposely lodging a 20 gauge round into a 12 gauge chamber then firing off a 12 gauge round on top of it. There were no obvious ill effects but who knows.