The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Stainless Tikka .243 exploded at the range today

PsychoSword · December 11, 2004, 09:58 PM

First of all I wanted to say that there were no injuries and that's gotta be a miracle because there were about 40 people there. I wish I had brought my digital camera because you would not believe what the pieces looked like if you saw it with your own eyes. I'm posting this to see if anyone else has heard of or had a similiar experience. (and is still alive

)

Was at the rifle range today shooting my MK9, P35 and .22 Ruger. Had a pretty good day, was impressed with the accuracy of my MK9 and I've almost got enough rounds through it now to consider it "broken in". My dad has packing up his stuff and I'm about ready to leave thinking I'll save the other value pack for another shooting session.

I was shooting the last of the Winchester 9mm 100 round value pack when all of a sudden I hear a loud clang and see a large piece of metal bounce in front of me. I stopped shooting and looked down thinking someone had shot part of their target off or something my dad goes, "what the hell"? And I says what is that a piece of someones target stand? Then I look to the right and notice nobody is shooting so I walked out a foot in front of the firing line and pick it up. It says something like "CAL .243 WIN MADE IN FINLAND *"

So right away I'm thinking "barrel". I look to the right and there's about 20 people standing around a bench at the other end of the range about 12 benches down. So we walk over and laying on the bench is an absolutely destroyed Tikka rifle. The guy's wife is standing behind the bench with a not too happy look on her face. This (what was once a rifle) has gotta be in over two dozen pieces if not more. The other half of the completely bent, jagged, twisted barrel is laying on the table. I tell the guy that the other half of his barrel landed in front of me at the far edge of the range and lay it on the table. Both parts of the barrel are separate from the frame, the frame is in several different pieces. The Simmons scope is destroyed, the front of it is bent to an oval and the glass is missing. The scope and mounts are still screwed onto a broken off top piece of the frame. There are many small pieces laying on the table. The synthetic stock is in many pieces, but the butt of the stock is largely intact.

The only thing that wasn't destroyed on this rifle was the bolt which was in perfect shape, the extractor was even in place and looked fine and had spring to it. I haven't seen a Tikka up close before, but I did notice that the broken up frame looked cast while the bolt looked machined out of barstock. I don't know if that's true, but that's what it looked like to me. A guy commented that he was surprised the bolt didn't come back and hit him. The only injury was that the guy's hand was a little red, he said he had been resting it on top of the scope.

The ammo he was using was 100gr. Federal Power Shok. I'm not sure if it was the Soft Point bullet or the Speer Grand Slam bullet, but it was definately 100gr. It was the stuff in the new blue boxes. He said he had only two and a half boxes of ammo through the rifle. The round that the rifle detonated on was round #10 of box three. I asked the guy if there might have been a barrel obstruction and if the last bullet had hit the target before this happened. He said yes, the last bullet had hit the target. Eventually him and a couple of other people went down to check the target and sure enough there was 9 holes in it when he brought it back. The other scary thing is that his wife had been shooting the rifle before him and his daughter before that.

The cartridge case was split in half evenly halfway down the case, the bottom half of the case wasn't buldged. So it looked like a normal case that turned into a "V". If I was thinking at the time, I would have looked at the primer to check for signs of overpressure. A guy commented that it was probably an overcharged round. Probably an ignorant statement, but I commented myself that I never thought a .243 could get overcharged enough to detonate a rifle in such a way, probably more wishful thinking than anything.

The last scare came on the way home when my dad told me that the guy that was standing in back watching had said the twisted jagged half of barrel that landed in front of me had gone waaaaaaaaaay up into the air and when it came down just about hit me in the head.

I had no clue I thought that it had rolled over! The more I thought about it the more it made sense though because they guy's bench had to be 50 yards away.

The guy happened to buy the rifle at my favorite gunshop. I don't know if he transfered it or what. I'll be asking if they found anything out next time I'm there. "Hey Bruce, you know that guy that brought in that detonated stainless Tikka..."

December 11, 2004, 09:58 PM	#1
PsychoSword Junior member Join Date: August 11, 2002 Location: North Dakota Posts: 1,486	Stainless Tikka .243 exploded at the range today - lots of luck First of all I wanted to say that there were no injuries and that's gotta be a miracle because there were about 40 people there. I wish I had brought my digital camera because you would not believe what the pieces looked like if you saw it with your own eyes. I'm posting this to see if anyone else has heard of or had a similiar experience. (and is still alive ) Was at the rifle range today shooting my MK9, P35 and .22 Ruger. Had a pretty good day, was impressed with the accuracy of my MK9 and I've almost got enough rounds through it now to consider it "broken in". My dad has packing up his stuff and I'm about ready to leave thinking I'll save the other value pack for another shooting session. I was shooting the last of the Winchester 9mm 100 round value pack when all of a sudden I hear a loud clang and see a large piece of metal bounce in front of me. I stopped shooting and looked down thinking someone had shot part of their target off or something my dad goes, "what the hell"? And I says what is that a piece of someones target stand? Then I look to the right and notice nobody is shooting so I walked out a foot in front of the firing line and pick it up. It says something like "CAL .243 WIN MADE IN FINLAND *" So right away I'm thinking "barrel". I look to the right and there's about 20 people standing around a bench at the other end of the range about 12 benches down. So we walk over and laying on the bench is an absolutely destroyed Tikka rifle. The guy's wife is standing behind the bench with a not too happy look on her face. This (what was once a rifle) has gotta be in over two dozen pieces if not more. The other half of the completely bent, jagged, twisted barrel is laying on the table. I tell the guy that the other half of his barrel landed in front of me at the far edge of the range and lay it on the table. Both parts of the barrel are separate from the frame, the frame is in several different pieces. The Simmons scope is destroyed, the front of it is bent to an oval and the glass is missing. The scope and mounts are still screwed onto a broken off top piece of the frame. There are many small pieces laying on the table. The synthetic stock is in many pieces, but the butt of the stock is largely intact. The only thing that wasn't destroyed on this rifle was the bolt which was in perfect shape, the extractor was even in place and looked fine and had spring to it. I haven't seen a Tikka up close before, but I did notice that the broken up frame looked cast while the bolt looked machined out of barstock. I don't know if that's true, but that's what it looked like to me. A guy commented that he was surprised the bolt didn't come back and hit him. The only injury was that the guy's hand was a little red, he said he had been resting it on top of the scope. The ammo he was using was 100gr. Federal Power Shok. I'm not sure if it was the Soft Point bullet or the Speer Grand Slam bullet, but it was definately 100gr. It was the stuff in the new blue boxes. He said he had only two and a half boxes of ammo through the rifle. The round that the rifle detonated on was round #10 of box three. I asked the guy if there might have been a barrel obstruction and if the last bullet had hit the target before this happened. He said yes, the last bullet had hit the target. Eventually him and a couple of other people went down to check the target and sure enough there was 9 holes in it when he brought it back. The other scary thing is that his wife had been shooting the rifle before him and his daughter before that. The cartridge case was split in half evenly halfway down the case, the bottom half of the case wasn't buldged. So it looked like a normal case that turned into a "V". If I was thinking at the time, I would have looked at the primer to check for signs of overpressure. A guy commented that it was probably an overcharged round. Probably an ignorant statement, but I commented myself that I never thought a .243 could get overcharged enough to detonate a rifle in such a way, probably more wishful thinking than anything. The last scare came on the way home when my dad told me that the guy that was standing in back watching had said the twisted jagged half of barrel that landed in front of me had gone waaaaaaaaaay up into the air and when it came down just about hit me in the head. I had no clue I thought that it had rolled over! The more I thought about it the more it made sense though because they guy's bench had to be 50 yards away. The guy happened to buy the rifle at my favorite gunshop. I don't know if he transfered it or what. I'll be asking if they found anything out next time I'm there. "Hey Bruce, you know that guy that brought in that detonated stainless Tikka..."