44 year old dies a violent death.

Savagenut · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:02 am Post subject: 44 year old dies a violent death.

Yes he was young to a degree. He suffered a violent death in the hands of my son on September 25 2009 at 3:23 pm on a beautifull cloudless day, that was when he fired his last shot! Thank God my son was wearing saftey glasses hearing protection and gloves. Vintage 1965 Ruger model 44, 44 magnum rifle semi automatic that shot 1-1/4 inch groups all day long at 100 yards malfunctioned and blew the reciever up in his hands, splitting the stock, the reciever housing and curling the reciever bolt slide.
The funeral consisted of the family paying its final respects with glue and a hacksaw. The friend of many years now resides in its final resting spot a place of promenance over our fire place, non-functional, but never the less a hunting companion and a never forgotten friend...

chambered221

.........you need help!!!

Pumpkinslinger

Did you determine a cause of death?

stovepipe

Double charge. Mad

Sorry for the loss, those were cool rifles.

Savagenut

Firing pin was stuck causing a early death. Kinda hard to double charge a 44 mag case with 800x but it was'ntmblew rear half of case off did discharge the bullet down range and left the other half of the case in the throat. No don't need help Just miss the rifle had it for 25 years

stovepipe

I like IMR's stuff...800X too. A double of that would make a mess and be hard to miss.

Still, a drag that shooter is gone.

Vince

Commiserations Savage...not familiar with that particular rifle...but to hear of any old rifle passing hurts.

I'm at a bit of a loss trying to understand how a stuck firing pin could cause a catastrophic failure such as you had though. Confused

Cheers, Vince

Donut Slayer

"I'm at a bit of a loss trying to understand how a stuck firing pin could cause a catastrophic failure such as you had though."

Yeah, me too. Maybe some pics are in order?? wtf

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5946

The Ruger 44 is a semi-automatic rifle. If the firing pin gets stuck, or if it flys forward before the bolt (common in military arms), the rifle will actually ignite the primer before the bolt locks.

This is called a "Out of Battery Fire" and they are common with military rifles and older commercial semi-automatics.

Dirt or grease in the firing pin hole, pieces of the previous primer getting stuck in the hole, military "free-floating" firing pins that will slam forward before the bolt, burrs on the firing pin that make it stay out instead of come back in with the spring.

Dimitri

Donut Slayer

Dimitri wrote:

The Ruger 44 is a semi-automatic rifle. If the firing pin gets stuck, or if it flys forward before the bolt (common in military arms), the rifle will actually ignite the primer before the bolt locks.

This is called a "Out of Battery Fire" and they are common with military rifles and older commercial semi-automatics.

Dirt or grease in the firing pin hole, pieces of the previous primer getting stuck in the hole, military "free-floating" firing pins that will slam forward before the bolt, burrs on the firing pin that make it stay out instead of come back in with the spring.

Dimitri

I hear what your saying, but some machine pistols used a fixed firing pin for full auto fire with what you just described. They fire from an "open bolt" and to stop the fire the bolt is held to the rear. Like I said, I really want to see pics, just out of curosity.

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5946

Machine Pistols that fire from open bolts do not use such high power ammunition and they have return springs that are much stiffer to allow the bolt to go back slower then what a "normal" semi-automatic rifle would have to aid in the slow release of the bolt backwards.

Dimitri

chambered221

So how do you explain the case failure???

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5946

Case failer is common when you get a out of battery fire.

Because the case is not supported, you get case expansion at the point where the case is somewhat supported, and where it is not supported. This shears off the material kind of like a reverse shearing operation from the inside out. Which causes the case head seperation.

Its one of the reason Glocks with their not totally supported chambers are so hard on brass. The company designed it to work with virgin ammunition good for the first time and did not consider reloading as a primary factor as the pistols primary intention was the LE market which uses factory ammunition only.

Dimitri

chambered221

I don’t know D !!! It would seem to me that the case would have been pushed into the chamber and once seated coming to a halt would have been when ignition would have occurred.

By the way, I know of two Glock 40cals and a 9mm that fired out of battery..........none of them had a case failure nor were the guns destroyed in the process!!!

wiersy111

What are you shooting through there TNT?