doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What made it blow up game. Care to play?

It is, of course, always harder to make a diagnosis from pictures than hands-on. There does appear to be funneling at each end of the burst & a bulging of the bottom rib, though doesn't appear to be in the top rib.
As to "Pistol" powders, shotgun powders & pistol powder have a lot of overlap. There are shotshell loads using Bullseye & pistol loads using Blue Dot & virtually all powders with burning rates in between.

I assume the mentioned substitution of pistol powder was meant as an overload of fast pistol powder in place of a heavier load of slower burn powder. An overload of fast powder should result in a chamber burst, not down ahead of the forend. Some other factor may well have been involved in that case which was overlooked once the powder mistake was discovered, hard to say without more info.

This barrel in the pictures does not look to be overly thin. It may well, however, have been struck thinner on the outer portion that the inner, which could account for the top rib not being bulged. I do not see it as being the result of "Tired Steel".

I will vote for an obstruction. Even I can be an expert on the internet.

I'd say there was a blooper and the wad didn't exit. Next shoot boom. I'd guess in a fast shoot (like a flurry) the shooter might not have noticed the blooper.

There is some suggestion of a "banana peel" burst

Chamber burst = too much pressure. Barrel burst = obstruction. The pressure could have been very high and the barrel could have been thin in that area also contributing to the burst, but I still go mainly with an obstruction.

I can agree with tut on this one. Only other possibility is a base wad but less likely that far up barrel.

The long-shot answer is a live round that made it that far up barrel and discharged when struck by the next fired round. The ragged break lines fore and aft of the rupture seem to indcate possibility of a very high pressure at this point. More so than an obstruction might cause. ???

John

I remember reading about a reload with wrong/damp powder where the ignition was delayed, and the primer pushed everything down the barrel just a bit, wherein ignition occurred a fraction of a second later, and split the essentially plugged barrel.

Just a guess but by the looks of the rip it looks like there was a smaller shell in the chamber and then a loaded 12 ga. hull or a stuck wad from the previous shot.
Where that rupture occurred pressure should have been down past half of chamber pressure if not more.

David,

I think you are right about the smaller shell in the barrel. The ripping of the forward part of the rupture suggests more than just a blockage. I can imagine that the smaller shell detonated and caused additional damage.

It is great fun trying to over interpret visual data.

When do we get to find out what the real answer is?

This evening, so get your answers in.