I'm not sure where to start again but I would like to return to the failed case. In the early literature it clearly stated that the new 1903 Springfield rifle must withstand a ruptured case in order for it to be adapted. I've just touched on what I believe the problem is and I would like to discuss this more before I move on. I see some people do believe that if the the cartridge fails so goes the action. Lets look at this another way, how much pressure does it take for a brass case to fail, a modern brass case?
I don't know if anyone can say for sure how much pressure it takes for a brass case to fail. Of the two rifles I mentioned both times the case failed at the back, and neither should have been loaded to such a point that the pressure was out of sight. The pre-64 model 70 of mine was chambered in 270 Winchester. It happened on the 17th case out of 20 that were loaded with 60 grains of the original surplus 4831 powder behind a 130 grain Nosler Solid Base bullet. These were brand new cases that had been resized and chamfered before loading. This rifle had shot hundreds of this same load using the same case, primer, powder and bullet with nary a problem. The three remaining rounds were broken down after the accident and found to be loaded with exactly 60 grains of powder. In short, there was nothing out of the ordinary that should have caused this reaction. Several very knowledgeable people have told me that they don't think you could pack enough of the old 4831 in a 270 case with a 130 grain bullet to cause this, yet it happened. I really have to believe the case wasn't quite up to par because I can't, no one else has been able to either, find anything I did wrong.
The extractor was blown away to I know not where and the extractor ring was so distorted it was unusable. The stock was destroyed when the pressure blew open the floorplate. The follower and spring were destroyed in the process but the triggerguard and floorplate were able to be salvaged. When these four parts were replaced the rifle functioned just as well as it did before all this happened. The barrel was slugged and found to be well within the tollerances that it should be. As far as I know it is still in use today on a custom 270 rifle.
I will relate the following, although it has nothing to do with the discussion here, to show what can happen if a person puts themselves at a KNOWN risk. The downside to this accident was that because the ejector groove is positioned in the left lug raceway when the bolt is closed on a model 70 there is a direct path to the shooter's eyes if something like this happens. It was getting late in the day and I wanted to get these rounds fired and checked across the chronograph before loading them again. I had foolishly taked off my safety glasses. I had done this many times before but this time it bit me!! When I went to my Opthamoligist he informed me there were about 50 foreign bodies in my right eye and about 150 in my left eye!! I am extremely lucky that he was as good as he was because he saved both of my eyes. There remains one foreign body in one of my eyes but the rest of any consequence have either been removed or have worked their way out. Because of this experienced I will not carry any cartridges that are new or have new brass while hunting, I use only once-fired. I also am a big, big believer in shooting glasses!!
I might add that the LN 1903 I referred to destroyed the extractor and extractor ring but the stock actually survived the ordeal as well as the floorplate, follower and spring. The owner decided not to repair the rifle but I am sure it would have functioned with new parts because the bolt still worked fine. I might add the round that caused it was a factory 30-06 cartridge.
The bolts on both of these rifles opened fairly easily and the remainder of the brass was easily removed. The fired cases looked amazily similiar except one was a 270 and the other a 30-06.
Michael wrote the following
the weakest link in ANY rifle is the brass cartridge.
To me that says everything. Based on my own experience my belief is that a great majority of the LN 1903 blowups could very well have been caused by bad cases. I'm not saying that other things maybe didn't contribute to the problem, but I really have to wonder if substandard cases weren't the biggest culprit.
Sorry this got so long. I guess I thought it was a test.
