Rifle explosion accident

[mickbr]

The fella was from New Zealand and survived. Not sure yet what went wrong from his comments- the expended brass and primer look fine, but he certainly had a catastrophic fail at the supressor end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UHll-3wHwY

[mickbr]

Wrong link previously, now working

[wvfarrier]

My money would be on the barrel not being completely concentric. I had a similar incident about 20 years ago on an 8000 rifle (paid for.by uncle sam). It was finally discovered that the rifling was out of true about 10" from.the muzzle which allowed the 300wm projectile to become unstable and slam into the muzzle brake. If I had not been wearing a ballistic helmet, I would be dead. The bolt went clear through the kevlar and lodged against the internal foam padding. The impact broke my neck in 3 places

[Bill in Oregon]

Gracious, Farrier! Thank the Lord you are still with us.

[marlinman93]

It could be the threading done to fit the suppressor that made it happen. Possibly the gunsmith got the threaded end slightly off, or threads too tight that constricted the bore. I can't help but wonder why he'd have the suppressor installed and not take the rifle to the range before his hunt to ensure accuracy hadn't changed after the work was done?

[Lastmohecken]

I feel like there had to of been a barrel obstruction of some kind, a mystery for sure.

[marlinman93]

I feel like there had to of been a barrel obstruction of some kind, a mystery for sure.

I wondered about that also. Maybe the gunsmith plugged the bore during the threading process to keep debris out, and forgot to remove the plug?

[4t5]

Not having a suppressor , could the wrong caliber suppressor be mounted ?
Like screwing on a 5.56 when you’re shooting a 30 cal .

[AJMD429]

.
NEVER shoot without safety glasses.

Sounds like the bullet fragmented for some reason, entered the suppressor expanded, then clogged it, so the entire muzzle blast blew out the back of the suppressor towards the shooter, bringing titanium shrapnel with it.

I wonder if the bullet was some sort of bad quality and fragmented from spin...???

But if so, what bulged the distal end of the barrel...? I could see a bullet fragmenting at the muzzle (over-speeding a varmint bullet in a fast-twist gun for instance), but not IN the barrel. Would the back-pressure from a plugged suppressor bulge the distal barrel without exploding the suppressor also...???

If I try to walk outside without my glasses, odds are I won't even find the doorway, so I wind up ALWAYS wearing glasses, and I get the polycarbonate type that are supposedly tough for shooting, and even though being dependent on glasses is annoying - I'm sure I'd be blind if I hadn't been wearing them during the many times I was 'just grinding a bit off this metal piece' or 'just need to split this brick with a chisel', or 'just shooting a little 22LR rifle' - and wound up with shrapnel embedded in my glasses (instead of my eyeball).

[KWK]

If I try to walk outside without my glasses, odds are I won't even find the doorway, so I wind up ALWAYS wearing glasses, and I get the polycarbonate type that are supposedly tough for shooting...

It sounds as if you have a high prescription. You might try Trivex some time. It's also tough but has less chromatic aberration. Until recently I used crown glass and kept my fingers crossed, but this stuff is just as thin, little worse for aberration, and much safer.

[piller]

I am another who has the need for glasses.

[AJMD429]

.
Thinking about this more, you wouldn’t send a rifle to a gunsmith just to screw on a suppressor, so it sounds like the gunsmith was probably threading the barrel. I’ve never done that, but I think if I did, I would drive a wooden dowel rod into the muzzle temporarily to protect it. I have no idea if that is standard practice, but I think it would work better than a piece of tape over the muzzle during the threading process. I suppose after the gun was threaded, they put the suppressor on to make sure it’s seated OK and then got distracted and never took the plug out or check the bore to be sure everything was clear and aligned.

In that case, I think there would be a bulge as the bullet got close to or impacted the wooden plug, then when the plug finally blew out the muzzle into the suppressor, it would tumble and fragment and screw the suppressor up, potentially plugging it to some extent. Then, as the bullet comes out into that mess with all the pressure behind it with a plugged up suppressor I could see how it might rupture out the back end or whatever part was weakest.

[Lastmohecken]

I wonder about that guy in the video. I might be reading too much into this, but I am assuming that he recently had his barrel cut and threaded for a silencer. And if that's the case, but we find him out in the bush hunting, I believe when it happened. I have recently had one gun barrel shortened and threaded for a silencer, of recent purchase, and before I shot it, I carefully examined the barrel, and the silencer, before shooting it, not to mention I will go through a sufficient sighting in process, etc. before taking it out into the field, which should have eliminated the possibility of a bore obstruction, etc. This is a bit of a mystery for sure.

Spending a good part of my life in a construction/fabrication shop, I guess I could see how, a machinist might decide to push something down the barrel to keep oil, cuttings etc. from going down into the barrel very far, but you would have thought that if that was the case, both the gunsmith and the owner messed up by not ensuring the bore was clear before shooting it.