Mauser

Lets just let the pics do the talking for now.







OH NO YOU DID-INT!!!



One of the first rules of shooting, always inspect the magazine, the chamber, and the barrel for rounds, and obstructions.

dksuddeth

ouch, anyone hurt during that......exhibition?

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The_Dunedan

Well, I must say -that's- a new one!

Mauser

I had nothing to do with this, only found the pics on another forum.
Serves him right for using the sissy method to align a scope.

ratbastid

I thought things like that only happened when Bugs Bunny put his finger in the barrel...

JStrider

mythbusters did a thing on this banana peel effect in a blocked barrel...

even with a metal plug welded into the end of the barrel there was only a small deformation...

I dont believe it...

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mtsgsd

And I have to say I find that hard to believe too! I've seen pistols that were fired with obstructions in the barrel, and they just shattered. same with revolvers. Then again, shorter barrels mean higher pressures I suppose

I do have to say I'm surprised at the extent the barrel peeled back though. It's hard to imagine there being enough pressure to create the momentum required for the peices to fold back that far (it would disperse quickly once there was a large split.

Mauser

Mythbusters are entertainment, not real life and even the best scientists have a hard time replicating flukes.

The weapon was a fairly ordinary Savage bolt-action, older, with a conventional barrel. I believe it was in .30-06 or a related cartridge (i.e. .270).

This is more common in fluted barrels since stress would follow the thinnest part of the barrel. Just google "Sako KB", they even had a recall because the this exact thing happening.






Still a non-believer?

USMC6531

either way that is pretty crazy looking. Bet they wont do that again!

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Slims

Wow. I wouldn't have guessed that the results would be so dramatic.

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Carno

Although not stupid enough to try it, I am curious to see what would happen to a 12 gauge shotgun if it were fired with an obstruction in the barrel...

Crazy pics though, must have been exciting

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Zeraph

Fake. Hoax.

Unless I see it with my own eyes, or from a more valid source, there's no way I'm believing that. Not that I'm an expert but that's just not how exploding metal behaves.

The_Dunedan

I've seen KB-ed rifles like this on two occaisions; I was not present for either accident, but I did get to see the results when the owner brought the gun into our shop to be rebarreled. Sako, which is a -very- reputable manufacturer, had to recall a large number of their rifles about three years ago because of a metallurgical fault which was causing this kind of thing to happen. And you had better believe those pieces of steel were -razor- sharp. I also know of one person who had a National Match M1A destroyed like this; still don't know what caused it, but it wasn't a barrel obstruction.

And yes, that is how high-tensile steel behaves in an explosion. The Savage barrel in the second set of pictures is what happens when the chamber/reciever is destroyed by some malfunction in the rearward portion of the barrel; the OP was caused my an obstruction near the muzzle, which prevented the metal from "tearing" all the way back to the chamber. If you look closely, you can see how the "petals" of the barrel are re-curved near the muzzle: that's because that area was where the pressure behind the bullet first exceeded the strength of the barrel. Sometimes, especially in shotguns, a small obstruction will be enough cause the barrel to bulge (some gunnies call this "jugging") but not to rupture. In rifles, because of the -much- higher pressures involved, an obstruction of the barrel usually results in this kind of thing. Oddly enough, a frequent cause of this kind of accident is some numbnuts sticking the muzzle of the gun into some water. The water can't compress, and all that expanding gas has to go someplace...and kablooey she goes. Basically, a sudden, dramatic increase in chamber/barrel pressure is a death-sentance for a modern centerfire rifle.

Seaver

Sorry, put me in with the do-not-believe crowd.

The Rifling would create weaker points along which the twist runs due to the slightly lower level of steel in those regions. This would be seen as a slightly twisted, or extremely cracked appearance if the tears did not go along the rifle lines. These tears are perfectly straight.

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The_Dunedan

http://www.thegunzone.com/stop.html
http://www.thegunzone.com/m1akb.html
http://www.thegunzone.com/m1akb/762d19.html

Please note that in none of the burst barrels above have the splits/tears in the steel followed the rifling in the barrel. A catastrophic barrel failure is -much- too fast an event for the >1/16" grooves in a barrel to cause enough stress differential to make a difference. This is part of why nobody uses/manufactures the old-fashioned "pineapple" grenades anymore: in order for the scoring on the casing to produce the fragmenting effect which was intended, the casing had to be so thick (and the cuts so deep) that it made the grenade needlessly heavy and limited its's range. For cuts or grooves to play a significant part in an explosive failure such as this, they have to be pretty damned deep, and the object in question as to hold together long enough for the pressure to have time to "flow" against and rupture the weaker portions. A barrel failure simply happens too fast for that.

The_Dunedan

More info on that kB-ed M-1A:
http://www.thegunzone.com/m1akb/762r.html
Also turns out it was an M-14. Looks like the boys at Fulton Armoury did a full analysis of the ruptured barrel and nailed down the cause of the matter.

Mauser

"Not that I'm an expert but that's just not how exploding metal behaves".

Have you even seen shrapnel? Some of it looks like it was cut with a torch, and some of it looks like it was cut with a mill. Some of it is still in its original shape, and some of it has more twists and curls than a slinky.

Metal under extreme pressure seems to disobey the laws of physics sometimes. And this isn't a hoax. Sako, actually had a very public recall like mentioned twice before.

Also, who would want to do that to a gun barrel as a joke?