doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com High vs. Low

That's 3 rifles I've seen or heard that blew up in the last few years. Even a late serial Springfield. There seems to be a pattern developing. Cast lead bullets and the double based powder 5744. Possibilities?? Double charge,lead carbon build up in the throat, bullet forced into the lands, or secondary explosion.

After rereading this entire thread, I was reminded of something General Hatcher talked about with reference to accidents involving low numbered Springfields.

One of the problems had to do with the issue ammunition used at the time, so called "tin can" ammunition, which used bullets with silver colored jackets. These jackets were notorious for leaving metal fouling in the barrels, so the shooters took to lubricating them with a Mobil Oil product which they carried with them to the firing line and dipped the bullets in before loading them in the magazine.

The problem was that the lubricant, if not carefully applied, tended to migrate to the necks of the cartridge cases and thence to the rifle chamber. Oil and grease are incompressible substances, and the result of having one of them in the neck of the chamber was the same as firing a cartridge with a neck thickness so great that the neck was unable to expand and release the bullet.

Is it possible that some of the lubricant from your cast bullets might have ended up in the chamber and caused the same event to occur?

I am not familiar with tumble lubricating cast bullets, so I have no way of estimating whether of not this could have occurred. All my cast bullets have been lubricated with a device which lubricates and sizes simultaneously, so this is not a possibility with them.

Thanks for the follow up. Even the later ser.# seems to have failed in a disturbing way, receiver cracking with little apparent bending, noting how the barrels could contain the pressure. It was mentioned way back, but the Quigley match blowups were attributed to the same powder intended for low pressure loading. Maybe unlucky combinations of brittle and unpredictable pressure spikes.

I was thinking of making up reduced cast bullet loads for my 9.3 Mauser using 5744. I think I'll wait until this blowup stuff gets sorted out.

You might be waiting for a while. None of the loads were "reduced" loads by any stretch. But why mine blew, I still don't know. Could have been my fault. Could have, but I just don't know.

Oh yeah, xusa - you asked about lube. Tumble lubing is just coating the bullets with Lee Liquid Alox. Pretty simple. Could be part of the problem but I don't know. I've not heard of this being an issue with LLA, but that can be added to the list of possibilities.

I wouldn't think bullet lube could cause anything more than leading. Can't see how it could create any situation that would result in a gun blowing up.

Not "cause" but I think could contribute. I think a gun blowing up is often the result of more then a single assignable cause. Kind like, "Your stars just didn't quote line up well"

I think figuring out the cause can be interesting, but some receivers and actions seem to handle over pressure better than others. There are also some powders that seem to handle lower pressure loading better than others. I tend to go with the thought that I may load and pull the trigger on a round that's unintentionally dangerously over pressure. Hopefully, for me and more particularly for other that may be near by, I kept the possibility in mind.

If what happened to the issues on the Springfield rifles occurred today the government would do a complete re-call and de-mil of all suspect actions. That didn't happen back then. Statistically speaking and understanding how government contract are written and military quality systems work today, I would believe that the contractors would have every rifle returned and proof tested at a minimum before returning to service.
The custom Springfield's we see here are oh so nice to look at and works of art. But maybe they should be just that, works of art for display. Its your face, and unfortunately the guy on the bench next to you or behind you watching, so you get to choose and maybe the others not so much, but anything more then a box of factory 30cal ammo I would not try and then I am not sure of that either.
As I said you get to choose......