Ned Christiansen
08-06-14, 16:48
This has been discussed here before in other threads butthey would be pretty old by now. Did a little experiment today that I'd like to share.
I am probably the most fervent believer in the phenomenon of the possibility of a round firing by being hammered out, due to the two people who independently told it to me, one of whom was there and one who bought the rifle in question. The other was Robert Simonson, a top bench-rester in the 70's and well know for his uber-precise bullet-making dies that put a lot of people in the BR winners' circle. Probably the majority of them over two decades. Walt Berger was using Bob's dies before he got into the bullet biz.
Now.... the incident in question being at a benchrest match, they may have been more sensitive primers and flash holes that, having been uniformed, more easily passed powder to the primer anvil. Powder becomes compressed to solid, crunches primer anvil, firing the primer, igniting the powder, propelling the case out the back. The story told to me 30 or so years ago and reconfirmed 3-4 years ago was that the lady holding rifle to stabilize it for her husband doing the tapping was killed.
I believe the story. Even though.....
I tried to recreate this and was unable to make it happen. Took an AR barrel and removed the extension, made a nut to thread on with a disc that would hold a loaded round in the chamber. Using a piece of .212 drill rod that when put down the barrel from the muzzle end, contacted the bullet tip and extended about 2" out the front of the barrel. Held it from falling out with a little tape at first. The round was an American Eagle .223 (Federal commercial primers having the rep as some of the softer out there).
Dropped this, rod-first, down pipe about 4' long. About 20 X. Could not get it to fire.
Despite my experiment, I'm not betting my life or eyes or good looks on savagely beating live rounds out. The story is only BS if it never happened and somebody made it up-- which I do not believe.
Here's the result of today's test:
http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/oo125/NedChristiansen/DSC03956.jpg
I am probably the most fervent believer in the phenomenon of the possibility of a round firing by being hammered out, due to the two people who independently told it to me, one of whom was there and one who bought the rifle in question. The other was Robert Simonson, a top bench-rester in the 70's and well know for his uber-precise bullet-making dies that put a lot of people in the BR winners' circle. Probably the majority of them over two decades. Walt Berger was using Bob's dies before he got into the bullet biz.
Now.... the incident in question being at a benchrest match, they may have been more sensitive primers and flash holes that, having been uniformed, more easily passed powder to the primer anvil. Powder becomes compressed to solid, crunches primer anvil, firing the primer, igniting the powder, propelling the case out the back. The story told to me 30 or so years ago and reconfirmed 3-4 years ago was that the lady holding rifle to stabilize it for her husband doing the tapping was killed.
I believe the story. Even though.....
I tried to recreate this and was unable to make it happen. Took an AR barrel and removed the extension, made a nut to thread on with a disc that would hold a loaded round in the chamber. Using a piece of .212 drill rod that when put down the barrel from the muzzle end, contacted the bullet tip and extended about 2" out the front of the barrel. Held it from falling out with a little tape at first. The round was an American Eagle .223 (Federal commercial primers having the rep as some of the softer out there).
Dropped this, rod-first, down pipe about 4' long. About 20 X. Could not get it to fire.
Despite my experiment, I'm not betting my life or eyes or good looks on savagely beating live rounds out. The story is only BS if it never happened and somebody made it up-- which I do not believe.
Here's the result of today's test:
http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/oo125/NedChristiansen/DSC03956.jpg