JOC Fan
FNG
On April 17th 2019, yours truly in the company of 7 trusted friends went on a guided snow Goose hunt near Vegervilled. It was a great day and we bagged a few of them white geese. However, an incident happened that day that could have had catastrophic ramifications. The reporting of this incident has been on my radar screen since then but I have been inundated with work and never got to it. Just the other day, I was talking to my friend Lee and he asked me why I haven't shared it with my circles of hunting friends yet? So, here we go!
It was roughly 7 pm and we are all tucked in our snow camo in a pea field, sitting amongst 2,000 decoys waiting for them geese to arrive. They started coming in small groups and in one occasion, I raised my Browning Cynergy O/U and sprayed two 3 1/2" BB shells towards them. One of the birds dropped but on my second shot, the gun's recoil felt different and somewhat choked. I quickly broke the action open to insert two new shells. The top spent case ejected normal but the bottom shell, ejected half way. I noticed that the primer had been struck but as I pulled the case out, "some" powder spilled on my lap. This was really strange! I then looked through both barrels and obviously smoke was still stagnant. I blew the smoke out and the top barrel which had no issues cleared. The bottom barrel however was still dark. I then quickly realized that it wasn't smoke that was obstructing the daylight. Carl & I grabbed the rod from one the decoys and rammed it down my lower barrel. We quickly realized that the wad was stuck in the barrel. With all our efforts, we were not able to push the damaged wad out of the lower barrel and I basically ended up with a single shot for the rest of the day.
The learning lesson here is that if you ever feel something is not quite kosher after you fire a shotgun or a rifle, take a pause and examine the situation. Had I not done that and in the heat of the moment inserted a new shell and fired at the next flock, I can say with certainty that the lower barrel would have blown up. The 14,000 psi pressure behind 1 1/2 oz of steel is large enough to create enough pressure not only to blow the barrel but to send schrapnels towards your face and those around you. It is also a reminder to always wear safety glasses when you shoot or are in the vicinity of people who are shooting.
I don't want to preach but this is precisely I favor break action shotguns over semi automatics or pumps as it enables the shooter to quickly look down the barrel and observe what is going on. I rather have one less shell to fire at birds than "potentially" jeopardize safety.
In case you were wondering, the ammunition used was Federal's Black Cloud 3 1/2" shells loaded with 1 1/2 oz of steel BB pellets at 1,500 fps. However, I think any brand of ammunition could have a faulty primer that could cause a semi combustion such as the one happened here.
It was roughly 7 pm and we are all tucked in our snow camo in a pea field, sitting amongst 2,000 decoys waiting for them geese to arrive. They started coming in small groups and in one occasion, I raised my Browning Cynergy O/U and sprayed two 3 1/2" BB shells towards them. One of the birds dropped but on my second shot, the gun's recoil felt different and somewhat choked. I quickly broke the action open to insert two new shells. The top spent case ejected normal but the bottom shell, ejected half way. I noticed that the primer had been struck but as I pulled the case out, "some" powder spilled on my lap. This was really strange! I then looked through both barrels and obviously smoke was still stagnant. I blew the smoke out and the top barrel which had no issues cleared. The bottom barrel however was still dark. I then quickly realized that it wasn't smoke that was obstructing the daylight. Carl & I grabbed the rod from one the decoys and rammed it down my lower barrel. We quickly realized that the wad was stuck in the barrel. With all our efforts, we were not able to push the damaged wad out of the lower barrel and I basically ended up with a single shot for the rest of the day.
The learning lesson here is that if you ever feel something is not quite kosher after you fire a shotgun or a rifle, take a pause and examine the situation. Had I not done that and in the heat of the moment inserted a new shell and fired at the next flock, I can say with certainty that the lower barrel would have blown up. The 14,000 psi pressure behind 1 1/2 oz of steel is large enough to create enough pressure not only to blow the barrel but to send schrapnels towards your face and those around you. It is also a reminder to always wear safety glasses when you shoot or are in the vicinity of people who are shooting.
I don't want to preach but this is precisely I favor break action shotguns over semi automatics or pumps as it enables the shooter to quickly look down the barrel and observe what is going on. I rather have one less shell to fire at birds than "potentially" jeopardize safety.
In case you were wondering, the ammunition used was Federal's Black Cloud 3 1/2" shells loaded with 1 1/2 oz of steel BB pellets at 1,500 fps. However, I think any brand of ammunition could have a faulty primer that could cause a semi combustion such as the one happened here.
