Mike95 wrote:Out of interest, I did an internet search to see what actions had led to the "blowing up" of a modern rifle...the main culprit seemed to be the reloading of a fast powder in large quantities into a rifle cartridge which required a slow rifle powder. The reloader did not have their specs on and picked up a pot of Trailboss, or something similar, rather than the correct slow rifle powder. The various pots of powder looked similar....this is a rather basic mistake but might suggest that the powder containers should be better marked, possibly with very large print..or colour coded.
I could not find much else which had resulted in serious damage to.a modern rifle. No powder at all, followed by a second shot may bulge the barrel but I could not find any published example of a rifle seriously wrecked.
Incorrectly identified powder seems to be the main problem to consider.
Mike95
To be fair Mike, the one I am aware of was brushed under a carpet. I reckon that unless they are reported, many go away quietly as a lesson learned.
There were circumstances that pointed directly to the likely cause but those involved are still about so least said.....
I made the mistake of fessing up to an ND with an air rifle on the BBS years ago and got such a hand bagging I wish I had not bothered.
All I wanted to do was highlight how easy it was to take a PCP air rifle to a safe place, believing it to be safe but having had a brain fart and missing something (Actually easier than with a cartridge rifle as the PCP has its own power source regardless and can be difficult to see if its loaded or not).
You would think I had farted in church....I bet there were quite a few thinking "Jees that is exactly what I did" or "There but for the grace of god", but few will admit to it which is a shame.
Interestingly, since having the Scorpion, the ACF adopt a very sensible unload procedure that involves exactly what I should have done after finishing, although at the time I never saw anyone else I shot with "Clearing" PCPs in a safe direction. Normally I would have done but got distracted by a red kite (rare in our area) and missed a beat.
If people are aware of others mistakes, the sensible will learn from them. Some never learn but then Darwin was not always right (I have this re-affirmed every morning on the M bloody 27!!!)
In the aviation world (I was AAC not a crab
) we had a system in a safety magazine called "Anymouse" (It was a play on anonymous) where you could fess up to those "Happenings" where nobody got hurt but you wanted them off your chest or someone to be aware that it was possible and give a heads up.
It should never have needed to be anonymous but the services were such that back then, there would be an instant witch hunt, so people kept quiet and hoped.
They also inlcuded accident reports and various articles like "I learned about flying from that" and others. Some were tragic and avoidable, but many were down right funny (Like the erk that charged the donkey engine with Avpin by accident rather than OX15...cranked the thing once and the cylinder head went through the hangar roof, just missing his head). I bet he never scraped fluids out of drip trays under Lightnings again......But he had seen others do it so who's to blame?
Anyhow, I digress 100% as usual but the point is, I dont suspect we know the half, particularly in the larger countries like the States, Eastern yerp and Russia.