About 15 years ago a friend called me one morning and announced that he had gone to the range and had somehow blown up his beautiful custom Mauser rifle. Unable to determine a cause, he asked me to come over and examine all of his reloading procedures for any possible errors he might have made. He was a meticulous loader, but I agreed to have a look anyway.
After an exhaustive examination I asked him to open the cabinet where he stored his powder and there was the cause staring me in the face. On one shelf, standing alone, there were two similar appearing cans of powder, one of Olin 296 pistol powder and another of Olin 760 rifle powder. I poured a small quantity of each into saucers and then managed to pry the magazine open far enough to get a badly bent loaded round out. We straightened it enough to pull the bullet and pour the powder out. By comparing this sample with the powder in the saucers, it was obvious that the powder in his 7X57 mm case was unmistakably the 296 pistol powder, fifty something grains of it. He had failed to carefully read the powder number on the cans, and had grabbed the wrong one, destroying a beautiful rifle and endangering life and limb. He had only scratches from flying wood but was otherwise unhurt. The front receiver ring had split on one side almost in two and brass fragments came back down the left locking lug raceway hard enough to knock a chunk of steel out of the bolt sleeve. The magazine box was blown out and the rounds were badly bent. The stock was toothpicks, but that wonderful Mauser bolt and receiver ring held.
Yesterday, some fifteen years after that event, at our Club's Military Matches, one of our shooters asked to address the group about having blown up his beautiful custom Mauser .257 Ackley Improved rifle. To make a long story short, he had done exactly the same thing my friend had done 15 years earlier and two thousand miles away - mistaken Olin 296 pistol powder for Olin 760 rifle powder and loaded fifty something grains of the pistol powder into the .257 Ackley Improved case. It blew the scope off and shattered the magazine box and stock, but the receiver ring and bolt held. The scope hit him in the head but did no real damage.
This gentleman said he had been in a time crunch and had made the mistake of handloading in haste.......he loads some 30 different calibers and has been a loader for forty years and knew better.....and he wanted everyone to know that the risks of hasty loading had come home to roost in his case bigtime. Fortunately, the round he fired was a test load loaded at the lowest powder charge shown in his manual.
I can only speculate about what would have happened in both of these instances if the loaders had been loading otsix-size cases with otsix-size powder charges.
Read your powder cans carefully. I'm sure you've heard that before.
JayPee
After an exhaustive examination I asked him to open the cabinet where he stored his powder and there was the cause staring me in the face. On one shelf, standing alone, there were two similar appearing cans of powder, one of Olin 296 pistol powder and another of Olin 760 rifle powder. I poured a small quantity of each into saucers and then managed to pry the magazine open far enough to get a badly bent loaded round out. We straightened it enough to pull the bullet and pour the powder out. By comparing this sample with the powder in the saucers, it was obvious that the powder in his 7X57 mm case was unmistakably the 296 pistol powder, fifty something grains of it. He had failed to carefully read the powder number on the cans, and had grabbed the wrong one, destroying a beautiful rifle and endangering life and limb. He had only scratches from flying wood but was otherwise unhurt. The front receiver ring had split on one side almost in two and brass fragments came back down the left locking lug raceway hard enough to knock a chunk of steel out of the bolt sleeve. The magazine box was blown out and the rounds were badly bent. The stock was toothpicks, but that wonderful Mauser bolt and receiver ring held.
Yesterday, some fifteen years after that event, at our Club's Military Matches, one of our shooters asked to address the group about having blown up his beautiful custom Mauser .257 Ackley Improved rifle. To make a long story short, he had done exactly the same thing my friend had done 15 years earlier and two thousand miles away - mistaken Olin 296 pistol powder for Olin 760 rifle powder and loaded fifty something grains of the pistol powder into the .257 Ackley Improved case. It blew the scope off and shattered the magazine box and stock, but the receiver ring and bolt held. The scope hit him in the head but did no real damage.
This gentleman said he had been in a time crunch and had made the mistake of handloading in haste.......he loads some 30 different calibers and has been a loader for forty years and knew better.....and he wanted everyone to know that the risks of hasty loading had come home to roost in his case bigtime. Fortunately, the round he fired was a test load loaded at the lowest powder charge shown in his manual.
I can only speculate about what would have happened in both of these instances if the loaders had been loading otsix-size cases with otsix-size powder charges.
Read your powder cans carefully. I'm sure you've heard that before.
JayPee
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