I WAS LUCKY! Always wear your shooting glasses!

[TOBY458]

Yesterday while shooting some long distance steel targets with a Tikka T3X in 223 Remington, I experienced something I’ve never experienced before. I was shooting factory loaded Hornady ammo, and had a cartridge case rupture in my rifle. It split down the side and peppered my eye and face with what I’m assuming was burned powder residue. Luckily it didn’t hurt me or the gun, but I consider myself very lucky! From now on, I will be wearing shooting glasses at the range. (I know I already should have been.)
On the bright side, the Tikka rifle handled this pretty well IMO. Like I mentioned, no damage to the rifle at all. And very little residue reached my face. So, be careful out there!

 

[Mekaniks]

Crazy! And I agree, it goes to show that things can happen unexpectedly... Glad it ended up ok

 

[deewayne2003]

Glad to hear your ok, I had a primer leak on me with my .300win while hunting a couple years back, certainly got my attention.

I was at a public range in college when a man fired a .308 in a 25-06; the gun didn’t come apart but the blast knocked him off the bench.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Yesterday while shooting some long distance steel targets with a Tikka T3X in 223 Remington, I experienced something I’ve never experienced before. I was shooting factory loaded Hornady ammo, and had a cartridge case rupture in my rifle. It split down the side and peppered my eye and face with what I’m assuming was burned powder residue. Luckily it didn’t hurt me or the gun, but I consider myself very lucky! From now on, I will be wearing shooting glasses at the range. (I know I already should have been.)
On the bright side, the Tikka rifle handled this pretty well IMO. Like I mentioned, no damage to the rifle at all. And very little residue reached my face. So, be careful out there!

Glad you’re ok. I certainly would keep pictures of this case and send it to Hornady and a letter. But keep the pictures and written down notes on what happened.

 

[pilar]

Yeah be careful for sure
I was hunting with a 270win loaded with 61gr 4831sc and had a blowout with a old Remington m700 , I was pretty lucky I only got a bit burnt

Unfortunately my 375Ruger only has hornday factory loads and brass ,
I think it’s inferior brass , but then again I’ve had cases rupture with federal premium 2nd loading before

 

[Green Chile]

Wow....glad to hear you are ok! Those are scary. Factory load...I would let Hornady know which lot it was from. No other issues with that box?

 

[Papa72]

Glad to hear you’re still good! +1 on calling Hornady….

 

[KEC]

Ammo recalls do happen. Let Hornady know what the load was and the lot number from the box, it might save somebody from getting seriously injured.

 

[SETH RINGER]

GOOD YOU ARE GOOD!

 

[BryceM]

Interesting it reached your face. I would have thought the Tikka design would have prevented this.

In reality, the things we shoulder are little bombs unless everything goes just so. Be careful out there. There are many, many ways to put the wrong ammo in the wrong rifle, goof up while reloading, or just having bad luck with factory ammo. Might have been a slightly oversized bullet. Might have been too much or the wrong powder. Could have been bad brass, but less likely. Might have been something in the barrel from a previous round.

Be glad it was a .223 and not a big magnum or DG rifle.

 

[TOBY458]

Wow....glad to hear you are ok! Those are scary. Factory load...I would let Hornady know which lot it was from. No other issues with that box?

No. All other rounds seemed fine. I think it was probably just a bad piece of brass. I fired approximately 35 rounds from the same box with no other issues.

 

[375Fox]

Glad to hear you are ok and the rifle handled it well. I have the same rifle and likely shoot it more than my others combined.