I WAS LUCKY! Always wear your shooting glasses!

[ftrovato]

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

First, happy your eyes are ok!
Note: We only get 2 eyes to last us a lifetime. One should always wear safety glasses when shooting....period.

 

[gbflyer]

Was it 75gr match per chance? I had a box that was blowing primers in my MK12. Crazy hot.

 

[TOBY458]

Was it 75gr match per chance? I had a box that was blowing primers in my MK12. Crazy hot.

No sir. It was their 55gr SP in the pack of 50. Relatively cheap stuff. Like $44 per box of 50.
Unfortunately, my friend lost the brass, otherwise I would have sent it to Hornady. He scooped it up and threw it in the trash with the rest of the brass before I asked to see it again. He has a huge plastic drum full of brass with a tiny opening at the top, so I wasn’t going to try and pour all of that out to try and find it.

 

[Rule 303]

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.

No, Tikka lets a fair bit of the gas back to you. I know of a 9.3X62 where the PPU brass failed in the head, due to verdigris inside the case. The bolt held ok but as the head was cracked back to the primer pocket the bolt shroud was blown off and broken up. The other a 223 I think but some ot the Hornady bullets the automatic load were double the length with two cannelure. Blew the bolt stop out, blew the extractor and part of the lug away. Both blokes were wearing eye protection. None of this was the guns fault, bad ammo or components.

The PPU 9.3x62 ammo is lot 1701. Case from this Lot have had the bullet pulled and cases sectioned by numerous people and all have verdigris and clumping powder in them.

 

[Cucuy]

Glad you’re ok! If you shoot long enough, things happen. I had shooting glasses cause a minor injury. I had a hot piece of brass end up behind my shooting glasses. The glasses trapped the brass under my eye and I got a slight burn.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Lots of issues going on with Hornady ammunition lately.

I'm relieved to hear that you're safe, Toby.

Always wear safety glasses. Eyes are the most valuable of all our sensory organs. Without them, a person essentially becomes a living corpse trapped in a prison of eternal darkness.