GUNS/RLTD Make sure it is the right caliber!

[lgsracer]

This can happen to even experienced shooters, so be safe and check your ammo.

Safety Advice: Be Careful When Shooting Similar Cartridges
Filed under: News — Tags: 223 WSSM, 6mmbr, A-Bolt, safety — Editor @ 5 am

http://accurateshooter.wordpress.co...-be-careful-when-shooting-similar-cartridges/

The .223 WSSM and 6mmBR Disaster
Report by Dr. Jim Clary
Under most circumstances, shooters don’t have to worry about chambering the wrong cartridge into the wrong rifle. After all, the cartridges are well marked and we all know which rifle we are shooting on any given day. In many cases, incorrect cartridges cannot be chambered — larger cases will not fit in smaller chambers, for example. No problem! That being said, I can tell you that even an experienced, careful and normally safe shooter can make a mistake.

The following is an account of just such a mistake that could have resulted in death or dismemberment. Fortunately, the shooter was not hurt, but the rifle was completely destroyed.

Last year, a friend purchased a Savage Precision right bolt, left port, single shot bolt action in 6mmBR Norma. It was an incredible prairie dog gun and he spent the summer burning powder and busting dogs. In October, he purchased a stainless steel Browning A-Bolt Varmint in .223 WSSM. The weather in the upper Midwest turned sour by the time he got the brass tuned up and he only got to fire it a few times before he was “socked in” for the winter. Thus, he spent his evenings loading ammo for the spring thaw.

During a break in the weather, he grabbed both rifles and a couple of bags of .223 WSSM and 6mmBR cartridges and headed to the range to check out his new loads. In case you are not familiar, the 6mmBR is smaller in diameter and a mite shorter than the .223 WSSM. Because of this, it will chamber in a .223 WSSM, but the .24 caliber bullet is too big for the .22 caliber bore. That is what happened to my friend.

The rest is history; when he squeezed the trigger, all hell broke loose. The entire bottom of the rifle blew out, including the magazine assembly. The explosion actually cut the stock into two pieces. However, the bolt held and amazing as it may seem, the .243 bullet was “swaged” right out of the .223 barrel.

One Small Mistake Is All It Takes

Now, realize that my friend has been shooting all manner of firearms, safely, for over half a century. He is meticulous, thorough and conscientious in his approach to reloading and shooting. However, he made one mistake. He put some lose 6BR cartridges in a baggie as he packed up from a prairie dog hunt last summer, without noticing that the baggie was marked .223 WSSM in black marker. Then, when the break in his winter weather came, he grabbed the bag, believing it to be the WSSM cartridges and didn’t check the head stamp.

Couldn’t happen to you? How many times have we emptied our pockets of cartridges and dropped them into a plastic container on the shooting bench? How many times have we set down to a marathon reloading session, loading several calibers in a row? How many times have we put the wrong bullets, cases or primers into the incorrect container? My point is that even the safest of us can make a mistake. So, look at the picture above and take a bit more time when you reload your ammunition at home or chamber a round in the field. It might save your life.

Story and photo © Dr. Jim Clary, All Rights Reserved.

Photo caption:
6mmBR (left) and .223 WSSM (right) cartridges above the remains of Browning A-Bolt rifle.

 

[Worrier King]

Dang, if that shooter wasn't seriously hurt and didn't lose some body parts, and it doesn't appear he did, it's a miracle.

It HAD to of hurt the trigger hand like hell, and I would guess safety glasses saved the eyes....

Interesting.

 

[vulcan]

It can happen to the best of us. I accidentally loaded a 9mm cartridge into my .40S&W magazine. I had a pile of ammo laying on a chair and was loading the mag up. I picked one up and pushed it in and stopped. I looked at it and thought it looked kind of small. I took it out, looked at the headstamp and sure enough it was a 9mm. My friend was nearby loading his 9mm handgun. I don't even want to think about what would've happened to my (brand new) handgun.

 

[mikedonathan]

A guy that I teach Hunters Ed has a rifle that looks very similar. He's an experienced reloader with close to forty years building his own loads. Somehow he managed to load up some rifle rounds with pistol powder and ruined a nice Remington 700. Fortunately, he was shooting from a bench and didn't have his left hand near the fore stock. Shrapnel everywhere and a hole in the bench but no injury. Very small error with potentially catastrophic consequenses. Gotta read the numbers everytime.

 

[Miracle]

Yeah -- I did roughly the same with my first shot with my new Tikka .308.

Grabbed a handful of .308's with a .243 mixed in. Shot at 20yd target and noticed that it keyholed. Was trying to figure out what was going on and checked the case.

Was one of those holy carp moments.

 

[HeliumAvid]

Fired a 308 in my 30 06 ONCE... Wow talk about fireforming the brass... The neck was completely gone on the 308 case.... Always check the headstamp and barrel stamp.

My 30 06 looks a lot like one of my 308's.... Gots to be careful..

HeliumAvid

 

[Satanta]

bout thw worst I've done is inserted a .45acp backwards in the mag, but I found it later when cleaning and reloading the mag.

That would have been a serious issue if I need that mag in a gunfight.

 

[Brutus]

Yeah -- I did roughly the same with my first shot with my new Tikka .308.

Grabbed a handful of .308's with a .243 mixed in. Shot at 20yd target and noticed that it keyholed. Was trying to figure out what was going on and checked the case.

Was one of those holy carp moments.

Hey, at least all you ended up with on that one was one more piece of fire-formed brass for your .308.

 

[Brutus]

AND HERE'S ANOTHER TIP:

Don't ever assume just because a guy works in a gun store/owns a gun store/etc. that he knows what he's talking about.

I once had a young gun store employee tell me that he wasn't worried about running out of ammo for his 9mm pistol because he had plenty of 9mm Makarov ammo and he'd just shoot that in it.



You see, what we Americans generally refer to as "9 millimeter" is officially called 9mm Luger, 9mm NATO, or 9x19. It's a .355 diameter bullet loaded into a 19mm long case.

9mm Makarov uses an 18mm case. If that was the only difference, it probably wouldn't matter, but the biggie is that the 9mm Mak. uses a .365 diameter bullet, as opposed to the 9mm Luger's .355 bullet.

All sorts of badness could result from that little screw up!

 

[TECH32]

Yep - was at the range when a police officer accidently fired a .40 from his .45. No damage but the people around him noticed that the shot sounded "different".

 

[Hammer]

So I have osme surplus ammo with no headstamp, at least not one that indicates the caliber. I know what it all is by the ammo cans, but let's say I find some ammo laying aroung and this is that case. How do you go about determining what the ammo is and what you can shoot it in? Let's assume this is in a post internet world so you can't just Google the headstamp.

For example I htink I have some 30.06 that is just stamped KSA (IIRC).

Hammer

 

[Dex]

Almost put some CCI Stingers through my brand new Browning Buck Mark Hunter a few days ago. The dang box says LONG RIFLE on it and does not mention a word about the case actually being longer than LR so it was VERY misleading and I'm surprised they are that irresponsible in labeling their ammo. If I had not caught a reference to stingers in my 10/22 manual I probably would have proceeded to jam my Buck Mark with the longer cased stingers. It would have not gone into battery and probably been noticebly off but you never know.

I guess the lesson there is you can't even trust the manufacturers labeling in some cases so you REALLY have to know your gun inside and out which means RTFM thoroughly.

 

[Brutus]

So I have osme surplus ammo with no headstamp, at least not one that indicates the caliber. I know what it all is by the ammo cans, but let's say I find some ammo laying aroung and this is that case. How do you go about determining what the ammo is and what you can shoot it in? Let's assume this is in a post internet world so you can't just Google the headstamp.

For example I htink I have some 30.06 that is just stamped KSA (IIRC).

Hammer

Hammer,

Here's a good link for you to check unknown headstamps:

http://stevespages.com/intheadstamps.html

I didn't see "KSA" on there anywhere, but "KA" is South Korean.

 

[Satanta]

So I have osme surplus ammo with no headstamp, at least not one that indicates the caliber. I know what it all is by the ammo cans, but let's say I find some ammo laying aroung and this is that case. How do you go about determining what the ammo is and what you can shoot it in? Let's assume this is in a post internet world so you can't just Google the headstamp.

For example I htink I have some 30.06 that is just stamped KSA (IIRC).

Hammer

Personally? If I cannot ID it then it does not go in my weapon.

Just like food-if I cannot tell what it is I aint eatin' it. Don't care if the label is white and says "FOOD" right there on it. I won't even open the can as it might be a descriptive verb about the holder of said can rather than the contents.

 

[Hammer]

Hammer,

Here's a good link for you to check unknown headstamps:

http://stevespages.com/intheadstamps.html

I didn't see "KSA" on there anywhere, but "KA" is South Korean.

So that tells me where it was made/who made it, but what if I didn't already know the caliber?

Hammer

 

[Hammer]

Personally? If I cannot ID it then it does not go in my weapon.

Just like food-if I cannot tell what it is I aint eatin' it. Don't care if the label is white and says "FOOD" right there on it. I won't even open the can as it might be a descriptive verb about the holder of said can rather than the contents.

So if it is a SHTF situation and you find some ammo that "looks" like it would fit your weapon, that you have run out of ammo for. How do you tell if it is hte right ammo? Measurements? See if it will chamber tightly and if the bullet will go into the end of the barrell? Measure it against a known round?

You say if you can't ID it it does not go into your weapon, but my uestion is are there other ways to ID it other than a headstamp. And can you always rely on headstamp. What if someone resized some brass and reloaded it for another caliber. Even the headstamp might not be right.

Any ideas?

Hammer

 

[Brutus]

I don't know how you'd do it in a SHTF situation.

As far as I know, the only ammo you'll ever encounter that doesn't have the caliber listed on the headstamp would be military/mil-surp ammo. That would limit the calibers somewhat.

In a non-SHTF situation, you could spec it out by measurements and ask around here. For example: a .30-'06 case has a rim diameter of ~.473 (between 7/16 and 1/2"); it has a .308 diameter bullet; it's overall case length is ~2.494 (just shy of 2 1/2" - and that's overall CASE length, not overall CARTRIDGE length).

You seem to understand a bit about reloading (you mentioned re-forming brass to other calibers); do you not have a reloading manual you can consult for dimensions?

??????????

 

[Satanta]

So if it is a SHTF situation and you find some ammo that "looks" like it would fit your weapon, that you have run out of ammo for. How do you tell if it is hte right ammo? Measurements? See if it will chamber tightly and if the bullet will go into the end of the barrell? Measure it against a known round?

You say if you can't ID it it does not go into your weapon, but my uestion is are there other ways to ID it other than a headstamp. And can you always rely on headstamp. What if someone resized some brass and reloaded it for another caliber. Even the headstamp might not be right.

Any ideas?

Hammer

Take a eapon from the boies piled up around me like sandbags and use their weapon. If I am out of ammo then there are going to be bodies all over the place ,presumably armed.

I was more concerned with whatever was inside the can eating me than actually running out of ammo.

 

[Satanta]

Oh and if I find a quantity of unknown ammo and no weapon then that ammo will replace my known ammo in my anti personel devices litterring the countryside so I do not HAVE to shoot it out with the zombies-let them amble along and blow a nut or two off for all i care.

~clink~ *BOOM!!!!*

 

[Double_A]

Almost put some CCI Stingers through my brand new Browning Buck Mark Hunter a few days ago. The dang box says LONG RIFLE on it and does not mention a word about the case actually being longer than LR so it was VERY misleading and I'm surprised they are that irresponsible in labeling their ammo. If I had not caught a reference to stingers in my 10/22 manual I probably would have proceeded to jam my Buck Mark with the longer cased stingers. It would have not gone into battery and probably been noticebly off but you never know.

I guess the lesson there is you can't even trust the manufacturers labeling in some cases so you REALLY have to know your gun inside and out which means RTFM thoroughly.

Would you do us a favor and measure and report the case length of each?

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't .22 rimfire chamber on the rim? Isn't that what enables it to chamber and fire .22 Longs and .22 shorts.

ETA:
I just checked and LR cases were ~.59 and I found a box of stingers in my stash the case runs ~.71 Never paid much attention as my Browning T-bolt eats them all I guess it's chamber is deeper. Found this warning on my (20yr old box?) "Stinger cartridges are intended for use only in firearms with chambers and bores that comply with industry standards for .22 Long Rifle as specified by the american National Standards Institute. Dimensional incompatibility has been found in some foreign made firearms."

 

[Brutus]

Would you do us a favor and measure and report the case length of each?

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't .22 rimfire chamber on the rim? Isn't that what enables it to chamber and fire .22 Longs and .22 shorts

Same thing I was thinking, DA.

It would have to have a REALLY short cut chamber to not chamber and fire Stingers.

 

[Mr. Mason]

That pic was scary.

Many years ago I was shooting a Ruger 10/22 from the hood of my truck rapid fire and... bam, bam...pop...BOOM...

Bad round with little or no powder, just enough to lodge the bullet about 1/2 way down the barrel, shot the next round into it.

Blew the back of the cartridge off, blew the extractor off the bolt and left little pieces of brass all over the hood of my truck and rung my ears.

Ringed the barrel about 1/2 way down, sent it back to Ruger and they fixed it for free.

 

[Christian for Israel]

stingers can be used in any modern, american made .22 long rifle firearm (or any modern firearm made for the american market).

there was a rifle (or what was left of it) mounted above the door of a range i used to go to. the story behind it was of a guy who was shooting a .30-06 and set it aside to shoot his .25-06 instead. he didn't bother putting the larger cartridges away first and of course one found it's way into his gun.

the explosion took 3 fingers off his left hand, two off his right and stuck a piece of the bolt in his face. he recovered but was never the same again. the pieces of the gun were gathered and mounted to show others why it pays to be mindful of what you're doing. it was effective as there was never another such accident at that range.