doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Anyone know the story behind this?

An account of the ASSRA match incident and the subsequent barrel steel discussion can be found in the Black Powder Cartridge Rifles Magazine Volume 2, Numbers 1 Through 6 published by John Baird. This material is also available bound as: ISBN 1-886029-11-3. I am quite sure Rudi Prusok has a copy in the ASSRA archives. In pre-internet times magazine articles and followup letters and articles were how such things were discussed. For Joe's benefit there are letters and articles from qualified metallurgists, and statements from steel companies, on this exact topic: the use of Stressproof (1144) or 12L14 in rifle barrels.

If you really insist on gunning for a "Darwin Award" I can also suggest that you take a featherweight stainless steel barrel hunting in below zero temperatures.

I would also like to know more about this latest incident. It has been reported here that it was a factory Winchester barrel, so presumably proofed. Was it a nitro proofed? Scary if so, because I would trust any factory or proof house tested barrel more than the "unknowns" we have been discussing. I suppose you can blow up most things with a bad enough mistake, but the idea of using better actions, barrels... is to create some margin for error.

Brent, Can't say about the noise, I was far enough away that the first I knew about it was people rushing to that end of the line. Score unkown, Harold had a stunned look on his face for quite a while, then asked "anybody got another rifle so I can finish this relay?"
Best, Roger

That guy is my hero!! Damn man is he tough.

Brent

Winchester had two proofs, a Viewed Proof (VP)where an inspector viewed the barrel and found no defects, and there was a Winchester Proof (WP)where the action was worked for function, it was inspected for fit & finish and then test fired.

Winchester did take sample barrels and load them up for failure.

Don't think it was "Nitro Proofed". If the finish on the frame is its original finish CCH, which looks to me like it is, then the rifle was MFG prior to 1903 when Winchester stopped case hardening frames.

Winchester also considered the 32-40 a Black Power ctg, and made very few 32-40 barrels in their "Smokeless" or Nickle steels.

The only barrels that I have found where Winchester consistently used Nickle steel in their BP ctg were the rapid taper Extra Light "Pencil" barrels. Not a whole lot of metal there. Believe it was supplied by the Midvale Steel Co. and will have a mark on the bottom of the barrel, M.N.S.

V/R

Mike

Harold said that he had been having some wild, unexplained shots during the benchrest portion of the match and also that he had some trouble inserting and extracting cases. He thought that the chamber was getting very dirty. When I looked at the barrel chamber pieces, I was struck by the way the metal looked crystallized. We all feel very lucky that no one was seriously hurt. His last shot did hit the target.

Regards, Joe

Joe

I would be very interested in the final opinion as to what happened here, hopefully the owner can join us and let us know what happened.

1878 Ok, so what’s up with lightweight stainless steels barrels? I’ve been using a Win model 70 extra light, stainless rifle as my main deer rifle for close to 20 years. Used it quite often in Alaska where I lived for a few years. LW Stainless guns are pretty popular up there.

Mike

Mike

Mike, not sure what you mean by "what happened". It appears that everyone agrees that 31 gr of H-108 did it as several more cartridges were found with that double charge in them. A friend is going to get a piece of it examined by a metallurgical lab to get a better description of the event, but the cause was too much of a good thing.

Brent

Brent

Ok..Thanks, I must have missed where that was confirmed. Was it a original Winchester barrel? If so what weight?

Thanks

Mike

Yes, it was orginal. I do not know the weight - I am guessing a 3 (there is a three stamped on the bottom flat near the breech). It looks like a three in the photo also.