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Buddies 22 creed blew up…. Any ideas

HOOFER

HOOFER

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Mar 15, 2007
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lewistown, MT, Colorado
Buddy was doing some load testing.. “very proficient reloader”. 🙃

My first thought was an accidental overage.

which he had shot the load previously… with no pressure signs…..

** he was shooting 44g of Varget!!!!!!

Bullet hit gong. So I think it rules out an obstruction.

Sheared extractor off bolt and case head separation? Brass failure?

Brass was twice fired copper creek 22 creed brass.

62 grain controlled chaos bullets.

Criterion barrel

Luckily the action contained all the shrapnel and he just got a wake up call and a little fire ball.

Gun had 200 rounds through it.
 

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More pics
 

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Damn is right. That looks like the brass in the middle with the case head just about gone.

You can't double charge, I don't reload 22 Creed (I do 22x47) which is close. I use 40.5g of 4451 in it. 44g of VARGET does seem a bit spicy.
 
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missed said:
Damn is right. That looks like the brass in the middle with the case head just about gone.

You can't double charge, I don't reload 22 Creed (I do 22x47) which is close. I use 40.5g of 4451 in it. 44g of VARGET does seem a bit spicy.
Click to expand...
Yeah I’m running 41 grains of 4350. 42.5 I hit pressure..

Overcharge I meant. Not a double
 
Glad to hear your buddy is ok.

Supposedly copper creek loads their ammo hot so perhaps the brass was weak from the first couple firings and finally gave out.

I’d have him contact Ted (@karagias) the owner of American Rifle Company as he made be interested in looking at the action to see the damage.
 
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I agree, glad that he's OK, and it does like the Nucleus action controlled the kaboom very well. I have a Nucleus 1.0 which on it's first barrel had a shouldered Barloc barrel from PVA. Your friends rifle looks like it also had a Barloc barrel.

To me it looks like the case head failure and subsequent gas venting into the action blew the extractor and fractured the stock. As to why it happened, which is the most important part, I'm not sure.

The barrel didn't come off the action did it? I'm assuming that your friend took the barrel off in order to get the action apart and see what had happened.

Is it possible the Barloc came loose and the barrel unscrewed enough to cause excessive headspace? I shot my first barrel with the Barloc almost 3,000 rounds and bad on me I never checked the torque on the Barloc. It had loosened over time and in a match I hit the barrel on a barricade and my next shot was in the dirt like 10 feet in front of the target. I tightened the Barloc between match stages, re zeroed and finished the match, but I learned my lesson. I have since opted not to use the Barloc barrel attachment on my 2nd barrel on this action.

If not excessive headspace, I would have to guess a weakness in the brass caused the failure or the 44 grain charge in his rifle was dangerously overpressure.
 
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Its amazing to see these incidents because you would never expect this to happen. Luckily he didn't get injured.
 
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My smith just told me about a 22CM he built where the guy changed brass from sized down Hornady to Alpha or vice versa and used his normal charge weight without accounting for the significantly different case capacity and blew up his gun.
 
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Holy shit. Glad your buddy is ok, could've been much worse.
 
I'd like to make sure I understand this, and I'm unfamiliar with the round. A quick search shows that 4100 ft/s is about 1/3 over the typical speed for the round and bullet weight.

So is this like running a 308 in the 3200ish ft/s range?
 
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bluegrasspicker said:
I'd like to make sure I understand this, and I'm unfamiliar with the round. A quick search shows that 4100 ft/s is about 1/3 over the typical speed for the round and bullet weight.

So is this like running a 308 in the 3200ish ft/s range?
Click to expand...

Yeah I’m running my two 22 creeds with 75s at 34-3500.

I about fell out of my chair when he told me that..
 
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Once again we see the term “proficient” used instead of “doing it wrong for a long time”

Lucky he can still see.

If he’s also proficiently loading magnum calibers…I’d tell him to stop shooting and pull all bullets.

They won’t be as forgiving in the same situation.
 
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brianf said:
Once again we see the term “proficient” used instead of “doing it wrong for a long time”

Lucky he can still see.

If he’s also proficiently loading magnum calibers…I’d tell him to stop shooting and pull all bullets.

They won’t be as forgiving in the same situation.
Click to expand...

I’m gonna remove it….. maybe I gave him a little too much benefit of the doubt 😂😂😂

I guess lessons learned the hard way are still lessons learned.
 
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First off, glad he’s ok.

Secondly, this is why it’s important to A: understand what burn rates work in what and B: understand that “it’s not high pressure in my rifle” is never the case.

Even if you’re not able to see pressure signs (or missed them) for X amount of rounds, it’s still there. And it only takes one slightly weaker case.
 
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Hoplite Arms Ammunition said:
First off, glad he’s ok.

Secondly, this is why it’s important to A: understand what burn rates work in what and B: understand that “it’s not high pressure in my rifle” is never the case.

Even if you’re not able to see pressure signs (or missed them) for X amount of rounds, it’s still there. And it only takes one slightly weaker case.
Click to expand...


Yeah upon further information I knew what had happened.. as soon as he said the powder and the speed I was like uhhhhhhhh

“Pressure signs” that he was looking for weren’t there… he will now be using a micrometer above the extractor groove. And maybe some quick load…. 😂😂

Glad he’s ok too. But now I can haze him about it.
 
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Krob95 said:
@orkan test this load with that OCD alpha brass please 😂😂😂
Click to expand...

I hit 3980fps with a 75GR eld-m with it. 4150 with that light of a bullet would be easy. Though testing is one thing. Regular loads is another.

I would guess this was old brass… not new OCD. The old stuff couldn’t even hit 3300fps without showing tons of pressure.
 
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