SX3 burst barrel, anyone see this before?

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A little rust on the choke tube didn't cause the barrel to split open. Before I ditched the Remington 870 express I would put wheel bearing grease on the choke tubes yet they was still a little rust when I changed the choke tube. The 870 express is still in use today. I sold it to a friend who comes out to hunt a couple times a year. The barrel has never shown any signs of damage even shooting slugs and buckshot.
 
What about the rust pushing the choke tube in slightly giving a lip for the was to catch on?

Personally, I think he touched the ground and picked up mud or, since you said he was on gravel, a rock.

Glad he didn't get hurt though
 
I have seen a barrel bust due to mud. The barrel just cracked about an inch. The gun was taken to a gunsmith. The gunsmith just cut the crown off the barrel. A tiny portion of the crack remained. Then the gunsmith soldered a polychoke on the barrel. I know for a fact the gun lasted at least ten years. Unless there faulty workmanship one would have to drive a bolt in the barrel to make it split open like it did. A gob of mud is not going to create that kind of pressure.
 
My neighbor had something almost identical happen to his son's Mossberg. It's a Bantam 20 ga and they were hunting ducks. His was a verified glob of mud in the barrel. It ripped the last inch or two off the barrel. The reason that they knew it was mud is that my neighbor saw mud all over the muzzle end of the barrel and he didn't have time to stop him from pulling the trigger. So mud in the end of the barrel will cause damage like that. This was a shorter barrel at 22" (or 24" - I don't rememeber) so the pressure may have been higher but probably not much. He had a nightmare of a time finding a replacement barrel for it.

Matt
 
When I was a teenager the C-Lect choke and about two inches of barrel parted company with the rest of my Mossberg and is still somewhere in the marsh. It was not a squib load before it and there was no mud in the gun as we were hunting from an elevated enclosed plywood lined blind. Mossberg fixed it.
Now you see the difference between Mossberg and Remington customer service and most of the others. Winchester ammo may take care of you, even though I don't (and they don't either) think the ammo did it. Even with mud in the gun way out there at the end, I think it was a faulty choke tube for starters. I have seen a 12 gauge 870 purposely fired with a 20 gauge shell dropped down the barre first as a demonstration and it didn't do anything but go bang.
 
I have seen a 12 gauge 870 purposely fired with a 20 gauge shell dropped down the barre first as a demonstration and it didn't do anything but go bang.

My brother and I used a lot of the same gear when hunting and I dropped a 20 gauge shell he left in my vest in to my 12 gauge and nearly had a heart attack when I realized what had happened.
 
No word from Winchester ammo after two days. I'll pester them again on Monday. There was no mud in the barrel. The barrel blew up almost two inches in, and there is no mud in the pics. No way to get 2" of mud plug without getting mud on the outside too. And when was the last time you ever saw anyone load a tube magazine with the gun held muzzle down? Never, it is always muzzle up. I am pretty sure it was a stuck wad.

One update, after my son read this, he said that he actually reloaded the chamber and the magazine, putting a shell in the chamber, pushing the button to let the bolt fly home, then put two more in the magazine. The round that burst the barrel was the second shot, or the first one coming out of the tube magazine. It could not have been a squib load that left the wad in the barrel since it cycled the action to load the next round out of the magazine tube.
 
I almost always load a tube magazine muzzle down...

After 3 years of shooting 3 gun, I have seen 1 burst rifle barrel, and 1 burst shotgun barrel from mud/dirt obstructing the muzzle. The shotgun looked exactly like that one.

I have never heard of a wad getting stuck and causing such problems (though I don't doubt it's validity).
 
I have been hunting in places that would make a 3 gun event seem like panty party for well over 40 years. I have never seen a barrel explode like that. We drive deer in large groups. We use buckshot for safety of the hunters. We are all fairly close together. We hunt in large groups of 30 to as many as 60 men.

I have recently shot in my share of 3 gun events. How do you stuff your barrel full of mud? It is a 3 gun event not a MCRD. I have never seen anyone get their shotgun dirty much less stuff the barrel full of mud. One of the places I shoot has been the sight of the IDPA national championships. Either you all are running some unsafe events with poor range officers or we all need to buy some hip boots.
 
Some 3 gun events are not run at ranges that have your typical shooting bays. And yes, believe it or not, some events are shot in muddy and/or rainy conditions. I've shot both local and major matches where muddy and slippery ground was a problem.

When you are loading your shotgun from a low position for one reason or another, the barrel can get obstructed. Should the RO see it? Probably. Do they always? No.

And IDPA is generally nothing like 3 gun... Especially when it comes to stage design and shooting positions (3GN hoser stages aside).
 
That is a classic muzzle obstruction barrel failure.

Kid may have been fooling around with his friends and put the muzzle against a tree of something then fired a shot "To see what would happen"

I did the exact same kind of damage doing that exact same kind of thing to a 28" fixed full choked 870 barrel about 35 years ago.
 
Here is a thought from an old truck mechanic, who, admittedly has no experience with this type of choke tube.

Could an over torqued tube cause a fracture in the threads at the point of the last thread contact, eventually causing it to crack in a ring around the tube?

Tom.
 
Just wondering out loud here.....

I wonder what would happen if I poked the barrel of the gun in the water and fired a shell off?

Now, being that I've gained the wisdom of 51 years of experience, I don't think I'd try to to find out; I would probably noodle it over in my head and move on. A younger man might just try it to find out.
 
Claymore1500 said:
Here is a thought from an old truck mechanic, who, admittedly has no experience with this type of choke tube.

Could an over torqued tube cause a fracture in the threads at the point of the last thread contact, eventually causing it to crack in a ring around the tube?

Tom.
Click to expand...
Yes, an over torqued choke tube would damage the barrel. But unless he used a non standard choke tube wrench you would have to try very hard to over tighten the choke tube.
 
allaroundhunter said:
Some 3 gun events are not run at ranges that have your typical shooting bays. And yes, believe it or not, some events are shot in muddy and/or rainy conditions. I've shot both local and major matches where muddy and slippery ground was a problem.

When you are loading your shotgun from a low position for one reason or another, the barrel can get obstructed. Should the RO see it? Probably. Do they always? No.

And IDPA is generally nothing like 3 gun... Especially when it comes to stage design and shooting positions (3GN hoser stages aside).
Click to expand...
Every shooting bay in this area is red clay dug in the side of a hill. We have had so much rain this winter I cannot even drive my 4 wheeler because it is damaging so much property I would have to spend the entire spring rebuilding the paths on my property. Do you think we have not been shooting in the mud all winter? By the way IDPA does sponsor a lot of 3 gun matches. Just at the range closest to my house there are 2 three gun matches a month. We shoot pistol matches under the lights so the three gun match can be shot. No one has even come close to damaging a shotgun. We know the conditions are bad so we watch out for each other. I can't help it if you shoot with a bunch of jerks who think it is funny to watch someone blow up their barrel. I would find another place to shoot.

I would rather get DQed for interference the take a chance someone would fire a gun with plugged barrel. That match is just a piece of paper. That shooter has to go home to a wife and family.
 
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steel, 3", 1.25 oz. BB,
Click to expand...

depending on which grade of choke tube, this could be the reason why.

that choke tube looks like a metal failure. a thread will rip off, fracture at the end. it was so critical that mil-spec (at least in the early 80's when I was a tool maker) called for a thread relief and radii in the corners, with no sharp corners for a fracture to start at.
 
Who said I shoot with a bunch of jerks?...

I'm guessing no one in your club ever drops a gun, miss a grounding bucket, or have an ND during a course of fire, either? Anyone ever have a squib in your club that the RO didn't catch which then caused a burst barrel with the next shot? I've watched it happen, and the RO who missed it certainly isn't a jerk. Accidents happen. It shows simple-mindedness to try to call a group of people jerks simply because they either don't see or aren't able to stop a shooter fast enough after noticing a muzzle obstruction...
 
Even old Hoppes THICK grease, or RIG, or similar will do the job on chokes, but even with that, they DO need to be taken out and cleaned. That choke/barrel segment showed a lot of rust
 
A few years back I had some winchester T22 that was defective. I called Winchester and they sent a UPS label. A month went by and I received Coupons to replace the two defective bricks. $40 Total with a letter telling me the ammo I sent in was fine. The T22 had been splitting cases in my model 41 with very loud reports when fired. I called them Again after getting the letter. I had kept a box of the ammo and I found the rounds I opened were double charged compared to some older T22. On the phone the Tech insisted the ammo was fine and there was something wrong with My Gun. Since then I have fired over 20,000 rounds of CCI SV from that same model 41 with no issues not even 1 split case. Good luck talking to Winchester.
 
This a factory choke or aftermarket? Are we sure it was modified and not a full? I'd think BB through a full would hammer a choke apart. Maybe even a mod.
 
the reason I thought about the BB size pellets contributing to the issue and asked what grade of choke, is I meant whether or not the choke was rated for steel. there are choke tubes that show up on Winchester's site that are associated to that gun. If you magnify the image, it says they are not recommended for shot greater than a nbr 2.

the chokes for my Ithacas (King Ferry manufacture, not the new Ohio built guns) are not rated for steel. Specific ones are available as extended chokes that are rated for steel shot.

if the metal is slightly marginal to begin with, shooting larger than recommended shot through it can stretch the metal until it finally fractures. working in the multitude of machine shops that I did while I was younger, I saw lots of metal fractures. that is one reason I will not get on an airplane.
 
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