Damage To Swift Moderator By Hmr Bullet

[rimmer 33]

 

 

Well before calling the lad an idiot, perhaps you should learn to read, he took the moderator off and looked up it, THEN removed the bolt and looked up the bore, now who sounds silly eh? the cause of this is quite simple, he has had a round lodged in the barrel, fired the next round and was treated to a firework display, yes agreed he should have checked before chambering another round, after the click and delay, as I would have, assuming a problem, as I said earlier just another horror story to add to the catalogue of hmr incidents, personally I would not have one given to me.

Very doubtful

 

Really, well do enlighten us and tell us where you think the bullet from the first hangfire went then?

 

Well firstly lets clear up the hang fire and miss fire thing, a miss fire is a total failure to fire and a hang fire is a delayed fire.

Althought the first round was a hang fire the bullet would have still had enough energy to get it out of the barrel, it doesnt require too much pressure to push it out. the result of the hang fire could have been higher or lower pressure but in either case the bullet would have exited the rifle and the mod. if the barrel had of had a bullet lodged in it and a second shot was fired the barrel would have prob blown the pressure would have spiked and pop!!!!.

Are you now enlightend?

[charlie caller 3,654]

I can assure you that I know the difference between a misfire and a hangfire, but thankyou anyway, however you state that the barrel would have PROBABLY blown, but in this case it did not,if we assume as I think is fair that moderator and barrel are correctly aligned (owing to the fact that the op has used his rifle with success in the past) then the only possible explanation for "the firework display" and "multiple ricochets"can only have been caused by an obstruction, the fact that various parts of the internals of the moderator joining the bullet fragments downrange, strongly suggests, I am sure you would agree? That they have been in contact with considerable force,and that would be the explosion caused by the second bullet impacting the first, and the fragments hitting the moderator internals and carrying them out and downrange.

Edited July 30, 2013 by charlie caller

[rimmer 33]

I very much doubt that there would have been much of the mod left attached to the rifle if this had been the case. the fact that the first round fired means that there would have been enough pressure to push the bullet out, a magnum primer alone will push a 223 round out at about 12ftlbs. "multiple ricochets" could easily be one bullet or parts of. I agree that the most likely cause of the damage was an obstruction, but it was a misaligned mod and the rounds fired previously brought it a point that caused total failure, thinking about it the hang fire was prob just a poorly timed coincidence and had nothing to do with the main failiure.

[charlie caller 3,654]

But surely if the moderator was poorly aligned with the bore as you suggest "to bring it to the point of failure" then surely the op would have noticed a dreadful lack of accuracy from his rifle? (perhaps the op would care to comment) due to the bullets clipping the inside of the moderator, no rifle on earth will shoot like that, no I am afraid I am sticking with my theory, and yes Rimmer I understand what you are saying about the bullet exiting the barrel, but lets not forget the op said the case was split, and smoke was pouring out from the back of the bolt, my guess is the case has ruptured, and has not produced enough forward energy to propel the bullet up the total length of the barrel, and it has rested at the very end, hence the damage to his moderator, in fact if memory serves this is what happened to a chap on the stalking directory, except in his case the following round blew the extractor off his bolt, so in his case the bullet travelled only a short distance, perhaps just onto the rifling lands.

[rimmer 33]

to be honest no one can say what happened for sure its all conjecture.

[kenj 131]

When the "hangfire" occurred, there was a lot more smoke from the breech, than I've had before, plus a flat sounding report from the mod. The case ejected cleanly, so assumed the bullet had been sent somewhere. I'm with charlie caller, the second bullet hit it somewhere near the end of the barrel and it shattered, hitting the first baffle and crushing the spacer. When I removed the mod, I could see the hex shaped outlet in the cap through it. The fact that I then head shot another three rabbits out to 120 yards, says that all was still in line. It wasn't until the fourth shot at yards, that the baffle had started to move and be clipped, missing by a foot and falling short. That's when I got the targets out and saw that it was firing well off for this rifle at 50 yards. Two shots 20 mm apart. At that range it usually shoots through holes. The last shot was worse still taking out the steel target support on the outer ring of the target. From a safety point of view, I was shooting down towards a bank and hedge, well away from any public areas.

[rimmer 33]

You can be fairly sure that your first bullet left the barrel and mod, if you want to think that a few damaged baffles is the worst that can happen if you get a bullet lodged in your barrel you could be in for a bit of a shock should you actually get a bullet lodged in the barrel and then fire another. your hang fire was just a coincidence not a cause.

[charlie caller 3,654]

Yes I totally agree with the op, it was the second bullet hitting the first

Edited July 30, 2013 by charlie caller

[rimmer 33]

Just had a real bezzer of an idea Charlie caller, we can prove this one way or another. why dont you pop down the garden wedge a round in your barrel then try and clear it by firing another one one!!!

[charlie caller 3,654]

I would but I usually leave that kind of thing to the (shall we say) intellectually challenged, do let us now how you got on.

[rimmer 33]

do you recon the insurance company would pay out??

[charlie caller 3,654]

Yes mate definitely, but make sure you film it.

[rimmer 33]

Video nasty !!!

[Alsone 789]

You'd have seen fireworks with any obstruction to be fair as lead doesn't spark so the fireworks will have come from the baffles being ground against one another as the mods internals were ripped apart.

 

You didn't say at 1st that you got lots of smoke from the breach after the 1st round. That's not a hang fire but a misfire as quite clearly the cartridge had fired.

 

I'm still with rimmer on this that its highly unlikely that the 1st round was stuck in the barrel through simply being fired. As I said earlier it only takes a few pounds to push 20gr of bullet out of the barrel, there would have needed to be virtually no pressure at all to spiral it by only 18 inches or so and then have it run out of energy and stop dead. Not saying it can't happen, but very very unlikely. The fact that so much smoke came out of the breach suggests the powder had expanded so the bullet had been accelerated up the barrel.

 

If anything it may indicate that the barrel was blocked but that being the case I'd still think that it lodged against an obstruction in the moderator and it was the obstruction that caused the blockage and subsequent damage.

 

It only needs any part of the moderator to have failed and obstructed the bore to cause any subsequent bullet to meet and potentially lodge. Even so, with a rifle bullet at full speed, it should easily have gone through moderator metal. It could just have been an unfortunate combination of a lower than normal velocity bullet and a partially obstructed bore.

[DeerhoundLurcherMan 997]

You can be fairly sure that your first bullet left the barrel and mod, if you want to think that a few damaged baffles is the worst that can happen if you get a bullet lodged in your barrel you could be in for a bit of a shock should you actually get a bullet lodged in the barrel and then fire another. your hang fire was just a coincidence not a cause.

 

How else would it be possible to get a bullet lodged in the barrel?

 

Genuine question coming from a newbie to firearms.....