Back in the day, when those retired Ordnance Employees who wrote for the American Riflemen were telling the shooting community that only high primers and worn out receiver bridges caused slamfires, I had two out of battery slamfires with Federal primers. Federal primers were/are the most sensitive primer on the market and, as it happens, the most slamfiring primer on the market. But, back then, officialdumb did not recognize any such thing as primer sensitivity.
In each incident my shooting glasses saved my eyes. I looked at the pitting on the surfaces of my glasses and came to the conclusion I would have had several large chunks of brass right down my pupil.
The second out of battery slamfire knocked the receiver heel into my face shattering my glasses. I am confident I would have lost vision in that eye if I had not been wearing shooting glasses.
Since I had reamed all primer pockets to depth and hand inspected each primer, to verify that they were below the case head, I began to suspect that the theory that “only high primers” and your worn out gun was bogus.
Everyone who has shot in Long Range matches will or has at some time experienced a pierced primer. M70 actions handle gas poorly and a number of times my shooting glasses have had globs of grease on them, from gas going straight down the firing pin shaft onto my eye.
The M98 Mauser and Lee Enfield will protect you from gas release, but they are in the minority of actions that have gas escape shooter protection features. The M1903 and all its derivatives are particularly bad in this regard. Given the inferior 03 action design and the crappy materials put into National Ordnance M1903A3’s, you better wear your shooting glasses:
http://forum.pafoa.org/general-2/535...gun-broke.html
The owner reported he had only 76 rounds of factory ammunition before the lug set back caused a cartridge rupture.
The original post was on the old Culver's, which deleted all of its old messages after the update. Luckily I saved the pics.
This young man was very lucky he did not lose an eyeball. I expect he had more facial damage than what you see in these poor camera phone pictures.
And he did nothing that was his fault. He simply fired enough factory ammunition until the National Ordnance receiver failed.
This is another account of a National Ordnance which blew up in the gentleman’s face.
http://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=8778&highlight=national+ordnance
Later he commented on his injuries
i was the guy who had the National Ordnance 03A3 blow up in my face. I like you am still pushing people away from those ticking time bombs they call rifles. I had one surgery after I last conversed with you. Had to have a tooth removed, piece of brass was blown into my nerve and the sun still burns my eyes from absorbing heat.
http://www.jouster.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2893
). A few months after while in the field sitting in my truck, a folded up whip antennae managed to work its way out of the nag it was in, flip out and smack me straight in my right eye. Severe cornea scratches that took a few weeks to heal, but changed my perspective on eye pro from then on. Won't go shooting ever without them, and I use em for anything that throws particles or dust into the air now. After that miserable week and the initial panic thinking I might never see right from that eye, it's not something I want to live through again.
