An "interesting" little story I posted on TFL. It oughta fit nicely on this thread.
Ka-POP! A Stupid Story, Or, Don't Let It Happen To You!!
I'm at the outdoor range with a buddy and his friend. Both are gun people, but they own modern stuff, AR's and the like. I had brought a #4 Enfield and my trapdoor Springfield that day, and one look at a 45-70 and my buddy's friend HAD to try it. He'd NEVER seen bullets that fat for a rifle before. One of my favorite things is watching other people's smiles when they shoot the old Springfield, so I was watching when he pulled the trigger. There was a funny little 'pop', and he turns to me and says "It didn't go off." As I was watching, I had seen something hit the dirt bank, but there was NO recoil.
Hmmmm. That rifle gives you a pleasant shove without fail. And it's never misfired for as long as I've owned it.
Did my 100-year-old firing pin finally run out of luck? No, wait, what hit the berm...?
"Open it," I say, "something went off." So he flips up the breechblock and says "It's stuck." Huh?? Trapdoor extractors are known for ripping right through cartridge rims, just ask Custer and his boys. So I get him to hand the rifle to me and what should I find? This clown had a brain failure and put a .303 BRITISH cartridge in my 118-year-old rifle! The rim is the about same thickness as a 45-70 and had neatly dropped into the rim groove in the chamber. The primer had been hit on one side, and the case was too small in diameter for the extractor to grab it. I turn to this guy and tell him "You just put a HIGH-pressure SMOKELESS round in my 1882 BLACKpowder gun THAT HAS A RECIEVER MADE OF CAST IRON! WHAT THE F--- WERE YOU DOING?! I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO SHOOT THE
BIG BORE! .303 DOES
NOT BEGIN WITH A FOUR!!"
Needless to say, he turned white in the face and apologized. He really did know better, and knew all about putting the wrong ammo in a gun. I was more concerned about him getting hurt than spraying my favorite antique rifle all over the range, so I quit yelling at him as he was OK. At this point one of the R.O.'s was edging over to our little "discussion group" and kind of craning his neck, watching what was happening.
I took the cleaning rod out and pushed the case out. It popped out freely. The front two-thirds of the case had stretched to fit the chamber, neatly sealing off the gasses, and the neck had split. Brass is amazing stuff! The bullet had gone rattle-clunk down the bore and wandered off somwhere down range into the dirt bank. The difference between a .311 bullet and a .458 bore prevented any kind of pressure building up, which saved us all from a disaster. The range guy figured out there was no harm done (except to a bit of injured pride) and didn't say a word to anybody. My conclusion? Don't put different kinds of ammo on the same bench, even if they ARE drastically different.
I still have that ".303/.450" case. It makes for some wild speculation when people see it. Today's lesson: Ask for a raise, so you're not too poor to PAY ATTENTION!