Did you guys see this-- 50bmg Kaboom
 

Credit Laramie in MT for finding it.. I'm just passing along...

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/s...d.php?t=258040

All I can say is... ouch. I'd say a sign something is wrong when you're closing the bolt w/ a hammer, but I have no experience reloading rifle.

IGF

:wow: !

:wow::wow::wow::wow::wow:

:wow::wow::wow::shocked::shocked:

There's some debate in that thread over whether he was actually using the hammer to close the bolt on this particular round... My opinion... he may not have been, but when a 2lb sledge is part of your range bag... I'd say there's a pretty good chance you need to stop and seek some assistance.

and newbies wonder why more experienced folks are so anal about them reading and rereading books.

For some reason the more I read that thread, the more I realise how significant Jack's words in my signature are...

IGF

I couldn't have said this any better. I can only imagine what that kB sounded like.

there is nothing in a reloading book about not using a hammer on the bolt..

Kind of one of those things when you see obvious warning on objects and just wonder who was the moron who caused the warning to be on the label. I kind of want to see the pics of his hand though.

LOL.. well I guess you got me there... :)

Maybe Janet Reno was right... some people just shouldn't own guns. :whistling:

Jack

It is very common for guys that shoot bolt action 50s to use a dead blow to open the bolt.

Hammer, no. Dead blow, yes.

Head 'owies' just bleed alot! Despite that.......nothing I'd like more than a new Barrett M82A1 semi-auto in 416 with the requisite hardware, scopes and such, lots of ammo, coomponents, the BOS system. Definitely a "force multiplier".

One of the posts in that absurdly long thread, suggested he had an arterial spurt coming from his wrist(which apparently took the brunt of the injury)...

I've seen arterial spurts, and they do kinda look like that, but i would expect more blood.

IGF

Gotta use a tiny bit of common sense when dealing with a controlled explosion.

Um... That would have been in the manual that came with the firearm.

True they dont specify Hammer or Crowbar or Pick Axe but the "Do not force a cartridge" covers that imo.

I wonder if he read the manual?
Praying for him

Treehomocideophobia - fear of instruction manuals.

I have a 2lb hammer in my range bag. But is for pounding my target stands into the ground and too stake down tarps for the brass.

tagged

Possible, but he also has a claw hammer in the bag beside the 2lb sledge... I figured he was using that to stake targets..

IGF

I bet that scared him a bit.:wow:

All I could see when I went was the blood trail on the ground. Bandwidth exceeded...


edit:

now the pics came up... you can see the case head in the action... looks like that hurt just a bit.

This idiots lucky hes alive. I have seen this before, a guy opening his bolt with a hammer, got the hell away from him as quick as i could.
A 50 he wants to play games with !! Does common sense not exist anymore ?

Barrett offers armorer's courses for the bolt as well as semiautomatic rifles.
If I had the bucks for a Barrett, plus the accessories, (not to mention ammo!!) I'd surely sign up for an armorer's course!

The .50's that I have fired had some issues with opening the bolt and extracting the spent case. I would just give the bolt handle a really good yank and it usually came free. I could see tapping a bolt handle back with a dead blow.

IIRC back in the early days of BMG target rifles the shooters would hit the gun with a hammer if there was a hang fire. This was to ensure that the gun was actually in a safe condition to open the bolt. I imagine a BMG going off in half battery would end up close to what happened to this guy.

That is just awful, hope the guy is ok atleast...

At this point it's unclear exactly what happened. Those who claim to know the injured shooter say that this was his first time at that particular range with the gun and that he did not use a hammer to close the bolt.

You know how we always say that you're "innocent until proven guilty" and insist that such a standard be used when others judge us? Well, it seems to me that we should use the same standards here.

Is it possible that the shooter did something dumb? Of course. Do we know that he did? No. Someone with experience with the specific kind of rifle the injured shooter was using may be able to provide some insight into what specific things can cause the gun to fire out of battery (which is apparently what occurred, but again, I do not know that's what happened -- the visual evidence supports it but that's all we can say for now). From what I've read, there are multiple ways such a thing could have occurred with that particular rifle.

So please go easy on the poor guy until, at the very least, you know what happened.

Here's hoping the guy recovers fast and completely...