Blown primer
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Was checking sight=in in preps for saturday and had a blown primer on the wife's 7mm mauser in Ruger 77.
Old remington ammo circa 1992 according to Remington rep I talked with.
Noticed it immediately as smoke came wifting out around the bolt after the shot. Thank god for modern bolt actions that vent escaped gases away from the face, otherwise I might be blinded in right eye like Paul Mauser.
I'd wiped the bore and chamber, first prior to sight in, and it was on second shot that it blew. I've never had a blown primer that bad before. The face of the bolt is now etched around the primer edge and it also cut some streaks heading towards outside face of bolt. It had to be hot. The brass was not corroded in any way from outside. The bolt came up with normal resistance and I swabbed the bore and gave a visual inspection. At this point I looked at the first brass shot and it had a classic flatten primer showing excess pressure with flow around the primer. Two hot shots and that point I called Remington to see if I had missed a recall? No
They are sending me a envelope to send them back what remains in box only three left and of course the brass that I'd kept prior for many years.
After putting on some shooting glasses, duh, I fired a round from another Remington lot and it appeared as normal pressure.
Decay of powder? It's most likely that this ammo may have seen a season or two in the field, but doubtful that it rode around in the truck for seasons on end because this is the wife's ammo and she mostly just hunts out back. 19 years, hard to know exactly how it was stored.
I sent the remaining box to Remington with their prepaid label it will be interesting to see what they have to say
Case stretching? nothing visible, but did not have a caliper to check.
Remington said corrosion between bullet and neck of cartridge increased pressure, though I could not see it from the outside. Those cartridges may seen a few years in the wife's coat
they sent me a 20 dollar check, a good company
One should always wear glasses while shooting. Perhaps not while hunting if you don't normally wear them but certainly while sighting in and similar target shooting.
I have had factory target ammo in .22rf burst and spray my face with gas and powder. Had that happen a few years ago with Eley Black box .22rf ammo. Supposedly the best and most expensive stuff. It was however 10-15 years old and apparently the brass case had corroded and gotten weaker. Luckily all that was lost was a few points on the bulls-eye with a lower shot placement.
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I lot of things can go wrong, aside from manufaturing issues, a bullet compressed into the shell chamber from storage, banging, or chambering and unchambering can change the pressure dramatically (compare the overall cartridge length with a similar round you know is good), or headspace, deformed bullet; dirt, grease or dust that leaves the bolt a fraction out of battery, dirt or cleaning material left in the chamber, etc. Did you notice any case stretching? The physics of ballistics have a lot of variables. That's a nice gun, hope you figure out what the problem is.