Incident

[Sentryduty]

The main issue, as outlined by others previous, is the lack of facts in this incident account.

The only thing that can be reliably concluded is there was a firearms malfunction, and the shooter was not seriously hurt.

Claims:

• Ishapore 2A1 in .308 had a case head separation
  
• The case remained stuck in the chamber without the head.
  
• Used unspecified powder from an unknown source to reload own ammunition.
  
• Fired 1 round of this ammunition.
  
• "Bolt" blew backwards, towards the shooter.
  
• (Some part of the rifle) Struck and broke shooter's eyewear, and small projectile injury to the forehead.
  
• Shooter found powder to be contaminated with other powder flakes.
  
• Rifle bolt is damaged.
  
• "Bolt head" "departed" but not the bolt.
  
• Bolt and striker function normally.
  
• Shooter supplied photo shows a damaged bolt head that is missing the extractor
  
  
  
• Had to open bolt with a hammer.
  
• Shooter supplies load data from round fired:
  
  Lake City Brass, once fired, surplus. (Sentryduty comment: Could be Machine Gun fired surplus brass, which would have a "very hard" 1st firing, combined with incorrect powder could be a contributing factor in the case separation)
  Powder was "assumed" to be H380 loaded to 40 grains
  Bullet 168 gr Sierra.
  Primer CCI
  
• Shooter custom loads another cartridge with similar load of unknown powder, and shoots through a different rifle "K-31" - flattened primer and hard to eject. SD Comment - Classic signs of over pressure and poor judgement
  
• Shooter fires 5 additional rounds of unspecified origin, claims no case head separation. Ejecting cases with cleaning rod, suggests the shooter is still using the damaged bolt head.

Claims end

Sentryduty comments:

Given no other information it appears the 2A1 rifle broke the bolt head locking lug upon firing a round which was loaded by the shooter from unknown powder. This appears to be a result of an over pressure condition/faulty ammunition.

Shooter failed to exercise safe reloading practices by using unknown powder from an unsealed container.

Shooter failed to heed caution by attempting to fire the same powder through another rifle after the incident.

A weakened surplus cartridge case may have contributed to, but would not be a primary factor to the case failure.

I would like to say there are some lesson to be learned here, but there isn't anything new, all of the above could have been prevented with proper knowledge and practices. Reasonably ought to have known better.