Mike, yes it was. I got a fantastic deal on a VZ 24 nicely sporterized and barreled to .22-250. The seller gave me his pet load which he said would group under 1/2" all day long. A buddy who had sold his .22-250 and bought a .220 Swift traded me his .22-250 dies and 7 or 8 boxes of brass for a stock finishing job on his flintlock.
He was the kind of guy who started at max and worked his way up from there, and he didn't keep track of how many times his brass had been reloaded. I should have scrapped it all. I didn't know his gun had a short chamber and my new gun was in tolerance, but near max. headspace.
I bore sighted the gun with a 12x Redfield scope and fired a shot. The bolt was hard to open and the primer was very flattened. Like a fool, I tried another, and the same thing happened. The first two shots were almost touching, and I decided to try one more. When I pulled the trigger, it felt like Mike Tyson hit me in the face, and when I opened my eyes, I was totally blind and could feel blood on my face. At first, I thought I was feeling eyeball juice. I had a complete head separation with that old brittle brass. As I said, it was a good 1/2 hour before I started to see little blips of light, and another 1/2 hour before my vision cleared enough to drive home. I had the range to myself that evening which hardly ever happened, and that was a long wait in the dark. I yelled for help, but there was no one within earshot. I thought about not being able to work at my job anymore, and having to learn Braille, and getting a seeing eye dog, and a white cane, and a lot of other things. When I got to my truck and looked in the mirror, I had a strange vee shaped pattern of powder and brass particles around my right eye.
After a while, I tried the gun again, with the same load and brand new brass, while tied to an old tire and fired with a long string on the trigger. Absolutely no problems, and the primers were barely flattened at all. They looked almost unfired except for the firing pin indentation. Later, I actually increased the charge by about 1 grain with no change in accuracy. A few years later, I read an article in RIFLE magazine by Mauser expert Ludwig von Olsen, and he demonstrated the improved gas handling of the M98 by intentionally weakening a .30-06 case and firing the gun with a piece of card stock behind the action with two X's where your eyes would be. The vee shaped pattern left between the "eyes" was exactly what had been left on my face. Paul Mauser knew his stuff. I had made several mistakes that day, and number one was not wearing shooting glasses. Number two was seeing obvious signs of a problem, and deciding to keep shooting. I was young, and I wish I could say that is the craziest thing I ever did. A lot of folks would say that any of us who shoot Damascus are crazy too.
I've told this story here before, but don't mind repeating it if it prevents someone who hasn't seen it from doing the same thing.
I did not know that the M88's and M98's were proofed to the same pressures. Can the same be said about other Mausers? If so, what is behind the thinking that M93's and M95's should be held to lower operating pressures other than lesser gas handling characteristics and lack of third lugs, etc.?
