I just got home from a terrifying range experience. I'll start by saying that I've been reloading for years, am very diligent and attentive to detail, tend to load conservatively and am generally a pretty cautious person with all things reloading.
That said, I picked up a new old stock Ruger M77 Mark 2 rifle from an online seller this past week. I wanted something with less carbon fiber and modern tactical vibes like most of my stuff is these days, and something with a walnut stock and some classic lines seemed perfect. The rifle came packaged just like I had teleported back in time to the 1990s. I loaded up some "conservative" rounds to get it on paper and start sighting in the scope I had mounted early today.
I went to the range, got setup to get it on paper at 50 yards after bore sighting it in. I load in 3 rounds thinking, chamber the first and setup for the first shot.
Then a boom, but the bad kind.
I saw a crazy red flash in my face and the rifle stock exploded all over the place. My worst nightmare as a reloader.
I escaped with some small cuts on my face and trigger hand, and of course some shock.
The RO and others at my club came over to help inspect and assess the situation. A gave up a couple of my loads for them to examine, captured it as a "range incident" and I was on my way.
Of course I was immediately questioning myself and what I might have done wrong with the load, imagining myself contacting Ruger to have the rifle examined, and wondering what I could learn from this and if I had just made an expensive mistake without recourse.
I got home and went to my reloading bench. One thing I had told the guys at the range was: "I don't load pistol cartridges, or possess any powder with unusually fast or slow burn rates". (given I primarily load for 4-5 calibers using a narrow range of powders - I have 4350, RL17, 4381, etc.).
I couldn't possibly have loaded the modest 30.06 case with enough powder from one of those to explode my rifle, right?
I went to my bench and pulled out the jug of RL17 I had used....to see that it was RL7, not 17. I've never intentionally ordered any 7, as I've not had any use for it. I did however order 3 jugs of 17 many years ago to stockpile for my 6.5cm that seemed to really like it. Apparently I received 2 of the 17 and one of the 7 and just never noticed it.
I had always remembered to keep the powder jug used for a given load, adjacent my chargemaster to ensure I knew what was being loaded at all times - standard best practice. Yet I stupidly assumed the only Reloader powder I owned was the 17 and didn't even notice the missing "1" from the front of the jug. Lesson learned. Now to see if the destruction is limited to the bottom metal and stock. Ruger will have to open the action for me as the bolt is jammed in place. I'm fearful the entire receiver could be damaged enough for this to be a total write-off attributed to sloppy reloading. I'm crossing my fingers Ruger has a decent proposal for to salvage it.
