This is a first for me, although I’ve gained an immeasurable amount of information from this and other bulletin boards, I have never posted anything, however, due to events that happened today, I felt the need. First let me give you a little background of my “friend” - she was a M96, Carl Gustof, made in 1918. The year was 1992, I was going through some hard times of recuperating from a divorce, and trying to start a new family (don’t ask). Anyway, while at a gun show, and looking for a deer rifle that I could afford, an older gentleman talked me into buying an “old military surplus” rifle in some obscure caliber that I had never heard of - 6.5X55. :confused: For the enormous sum of $110, I bought this old thing that had a barrel that was long enough to look like a water pipe for the house. It was so long, that I figured if I ever injured my leg while in the woods, I could use it as a crutch. Without knowing any better, I traded the stock for the cost of the machine work to have it drill and tapped, had the bolt turned down, and purchased a synthetic stock for it. I then purchased some Hansen ammo for it (about $5/box), so that I could shoot this up and reload the brass. After reading everything that I could find on this old caliber, I settled on IMR-4350. With 43 grains of this, and some 120 Sierra’s, this thing would shoot a .505” - 3 shot group. With 45 grains and the same bullet, it would put 2 slugs in a .30” hole (I pulled the 3d to open it up to a humongous 1.25” group). Needless to say - this sealed a relationship between this thing, that was almost as long as a sheet of plywood is wide, and myself.
At the time I purchased this, my little girl was about 1 y/o. Fast forward 11 years, my career has moved me to Alaska, and this little blonde haired pot bellied “little” girl is now 12 years old, 5’3”, and 115#, and active in basketball, track, and wrestling. This is the same little girl that would come up to me at the age of 5, and be pulling on my shirt, wanting to show me something. Normally this would be great, however, I happened to be shooting a silhouette match at the time, and I was “locked” in. Well - what could I say - “Ok baby - Daddy will be right there”. As a result of this exposure, as she got older, she got a .22, then later on a single shot 20 gauge, with which she got her first duck with (you couldn’t have beat the smile off of her face w/ a club, and I was just as proud!) With her coming of age, I decided that it was time for her to have a center-fire weapon, so that when the opportunity presented itself, her and I could go hunting together for either caribou or black bear. Seeing as how it was no longer original, I decided to take off 7” off the barrel, shortened the stock for her, and installed a Pachmayer pad on it, and gave my “old friend” to her. Her and I went out, and I made sure that she could shoot it accurately. Matter of fact - we went black bear hunting about 2 months ago, and she won $5 from a buddy of mine that is a guide up here, because of a shot that she made.
This brings me to today - I loaded up several weapons, and went to the range, just to do some shooting. The first one on the line is a recent purchase of a Rem 700 Classic in 6.5X55, and then the “old friend”. I broke out some Hansen ammo that I have had for several years, and sighted in the 700 Classic. I then picked up the “old friend” - loaded 2 rounds in it, and squeezed off the 1st round. This is where I lost my friend. I felt what seemed to be more recoil than should have been. Then I felt something hot peppering my L forearm. As a went to lay the weapon down, I noticed that something didn’t feel right. I looked down at the weapon, and the complete L side of the stock had been blown away. The buttstock was still connected, however that is using the term loosely. Upon examination of the R side of the weapon, the part that has the date and Gustaf writing on it, was missing a part from the breech, all the way up to the chamber, and about ¾” wide. As I was examining this, 1 of the 2 guys at the table next to me asked what had happened. I said that my weapon had blown up - to which the other guy said that he had gotten hit by a piece of the stock. The extractor was blown into 4 pieces - I found 3 of them. All in all, I have about 20-30 pieces, and have no idea where some of them are - i.e.- the feed spring and follower - GONE.
Upon examination, after hammering the bolt open, it appears to be 1 of 2 things. Either the ammunitions was some how double charged (possible - not probable - I don’t think you could get that much powder in there), or 2. - a case head failure. It appears that the gas exited at about the 7-8 o’clock position, and what didn’t blow out the bottom of the weapon/stock - went around both sides of the bolt, and blew off the extractor and part of the breech. I found the primer - it looked like someone had hit it w/ a sledgehammer, it was so flat. I say this to possibly alert someone that may still have some Hansen 140 gr, FMJ ammo floating around. I still have about 200 rds of this left, and I think that I’m either going to pull all of the slugs, or worst case scenario - just throw all of it away. This is the same ammo that I have used since I bought the rifle.
I’m still somewhat in shock over this, namely for 3 reasons - 1. - I lost an extremely accurate weapon today that I had been through a lot with, 2. Although I had some minor injuries (minor scrapes/powder burns) on my forearm and forehead - I could have been injured a LOT worse. However - #3 is the one that gets my hackles up and yet scares the he77 out of me - this was my little girl’s rifle, and that could have been her. This is only compounded by the fact that she shoots it L handed - it could have been an EXTREMELY ugly situation.
Sorry to take so long w/ this, just wanted to potentially let someone know about this ammo, and get some things off my chest.
RLTW

That's terrible news. Have you contacted Hansen?

Sorry for your loss. However, one lesson to be learned for all lefties, such as myself, out there is to take the time to actually find yourself a true left-handed rifle.

I have a daughter, myself, and wouldn't know how to live with it if something happened to her.

I shot RH bolt guns for years with no ill effect. But, we just never know, do we?

RSY

Yikes! What an experience. Sorry to hear about the loss of a friend, I think we all can relate to that one.

The best part of all of this, is the fact that the Lord protected you, and you are still in one peice, have your eyesight and all your digits intact.

Keep us posted with what you find in regard to the Hansen Ammo!

Glad you're a blessed man.

I wonder if this was an underloaded cartridge. There's a reference to a well documented blow-up in a Swede in this thread.
http://www.shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=13083

Bye
Jack

Gentlemen - 1st off thank you for your input and concern. Like everyone has said - "at least no one was hurt" (especially my daughter). When I composed this last night, I was still in what I think was a mild form of shock - the whole thing seemed so surreal. Today, I looked at it again, this time with a somewhat clearer head. Let me go into a little more descriptive details, or at least as well as I can, with out a digital camera (I really have to get one of them - I'm still an SLR type of person). Anyway - the primer blew out of the primer pocket, basically in tact. Approximately 1/2 of it is still in the original "cup" position, while the other 1/2 has been blown flat, so that it is on the same plane as the part that is hit by the firing pin (anvil?). Regarding the posibilities that might have occurred - 1. Double charge or more powder than is normal - Hmm - not sure on that one. Seems entirely possible, I just don't know. It seems kind of difficult, unless the loads were already at peak pressure already. 2. Reduced charge - initially I didn't think of this possibility - again - entirely possible. I have read where people say that it has happened, however, personally, I have never seen it happen before. The theory behind it seems plausible, where by, from my understanding, there this basically a primary and secondary explosion. By this, I mean that, if conditions are "right", not necessarily easily reproduced, (i.e. severally reduced load, possibly angle of the powder in the cartridge, etc), the ignition of the primer would basically "flash" across the top of the powder, causing pressure to build, then the rest of the powder below it would burn at a somewhat delayed rate. Granted, we're only talking nanoseconds here, but who knows - stranger things have happened. Similar in concept to gas vapor, when it is ignited. This theory surely seems plausible. 3. Case head failure - upon examination, I don't think that this is what happened, due to the primer being blown out of the pocket.
Other potential causes: Obstruction of the barrel - At the range, this was my 1st thought. I looked down the barrel at the range - and the rifling is still practically perfect, in addition, I saw where the bullet struck the target. While we were in the woods, my daughter had shot it while we were in the woods, then put it back in the scabbard, and it stayed there, until we arrived at home, and it got put back in the closet, until I took it to the range yesterday.
Possible degradation of the ammo: there are few things that I am anal retentive about, but storing ammunition is one of them. I keep my ammunition in G.I. ammo cans (I get them through work :D ), and I store them in cool areas. Again - I don't "think" that this was the problem.
Regarding the remaining 200 or so rounds that I have - initially I planned on pulling the slugs, and then loading the brass to my own specifications. However, now I plan on weighing every round, and see if there are any discrepancies - if so, then I'll go back to my original plan.
Aleyeska - I thought that about contacting Hansen, however, there are several problems w/ this. 1. Not only is the company out of business, but so is the COUNTRY. They seemed to have this little problem w/ a guy by the name of Milosevic and some ethnic cleansing issue. :rolleyes: Thus- I think I would have a better chance of finding Jimmy Hoffa or D.B. Cooper. :D lol - but thanks for the thought.
In summary - the BLUF is that 1. No bystanders were injured, nor was I (so to speak), 2. Although there was a lot of sentimental value to this particular one, I have an M38 in the closet, that I'll use the Timney trigger off of her old M96 on. Most importantly 3. - My little girl wasn't injured. BTW - this is going to be a fun one explaining it to her when she gets home :eek: - she's currently in Germany, visiting her mother for the summer (I'm a single parent). I think I'm going to look for a LH'd Savage in 308, and use some 150 grains in it. I doubt she'll notice the difference in recoil, and if she does - too bad! lol
Thanks all
RLTW

Well, escaping gas wrecked the gun. There's no doubt about that.

However, if there's one thing that late 1800's gun builders were aware of, it was that cartridges failed, and probably on what we'd consider a fairly alarming basis. Full case head separations, etc. - the old time catalogs were full of tools to deal with that. Today it's rare.

The 96 mauser doesn't have all of the features of the 98 in respect to gas handling, but I still wouldn't expect it to shatter at 45,000CUP or so pressures. After all the tensile strength of even mild steel is way above that, at least double, maybe more.

Now, one other possibility (other than high pressure) is that the receiver was improperly heat-treated, making it brittle. If you really feel like digging into this, that would be something that could be measured by someone with a Rockwell hardness tester.

There could also have been a crack in the receiver, which would concentrate stress. Any of the broken pieces look corroded at the edges? How about the bolt?

If the barrel isn't bulged, then I'm inclined to think that the pressures weren't all that high.

If the barrel was bulged or swollen at the chamber, then you can bet your last dollar that the pressures were very, very high :eek:

I don't suppose you ever measured the bullet seating depth? Or was the throat length marked on the disk on the buttstock - still have that?

Mike - improper heat treating is a possibility, however I question that, due to I had fire this thing about 100 times before this. Then again, "If you dance with the devil long enough....". But, with that in mind, I have access to a Rockwell tester up at the college I'm going to. When class starts back up, or sooner, I'll bring it up there, and test it. Reference the cracks - I had never performed a non-destructive inspection on it, i.e. dye penetrants/magna flux, to be honest I had never thought of it, nor felt the need. I can perform that test at school as well. But - no - it was bright clean steel where it let loose at. Oh yeah, I also forgot to post that it broke the frame near the rear locking lug, in addition to blowing off the front scope mount and bending the scope tube. All in all, quite an exhiliratiing time!
To the last question, no, and I have access to the original stock, however, it's at my Mom and Dad's house in Louisiana and I'm in AK.
Although I never chronographed any of the rounds that I fired through it, I did find a magazine article that showed the FPS of the new version of Hansen ammo, is about 200 FPS slower than a load that I had loaded for it, and my load was no where near max. (45 gr/ IMR 4350, 120 gr, approx 2700 fps). Bottom line - I'm stumped until further testing can be done.

If the receiver is brittle, that ususally doesn't show up until there is a major gas leak. It's the shock wave from the gas which shatters the action, not the pressure.

Not saying that was 100% the case here, but it would fit the theory.

I run about the same handloads in my Swede so I'm certainly interested in what you find out.

Well - I wanted to try to shed a little light on some information that I have found out. I weighed the remaining 15 rounds of ammo from that box. I pulled 2 apart - both had 37.7 gr of a ball type of powder. Both slugs weighed 138.7 gr (139 advertised). Casings - one weighed 189.4 gr and the other 187.1 gr. Of the 4 that I had shot - 188.7, 189.4, 186.8, 188.4 gr each. The remaining 15 rounds were measure total. The average weight of casing/powder/slug of the 15 remaing rounds was 365.5, with the high being 368.5 and low being 363.4 gr.
FWIW - I also weighed a box of Hotshot Ammo, distributed by Century Intl. Arms, w/ 139 gr FMJ slugs. The average for all 20 was 355.3 gr, w/ a high of 356.6 and low of 354.2 gr. This is ammo that I have picked up relatively recently (past 6-12 mos) - and have not shot any of this yet.
This ammo was weighed on an RCBS 10-10 scale. I zeroed it at the beginning, then re-confirmed zero at the end.
Other than the fact that there is some desparity between the weight of just 4 spent casings and the 2 pulled casing, this is the only thing that I see different. :confused:
Someone had brought up about having what's left of the receiver Rockwell tested - I haven't had a chance to perform that test yet.
Other than this, I'm still at a loss. Unless the Rockwell proves otherwise, I am inclined to believe that it was a combination of a light charge, conditions were just right, and it wasn't my day (or it was, whichever way you would like to look at it) :rolleyes:
Thank you for your suggestions.

Shovelhead,

I'm sorry to hear of your loss, but am really interested in your topic, as my brother, son, and I shoot a bunch of Swedes.

Would you be willing to comrrespond privately? If so, send me an email at
johnfader(atsign)bellsouth.net

substitute @ above.

Cheers/buffler