Last Wednesday evening I attended my club's weekly Lever Action Silhouette match. I brought a Marlin 30-30 with cast lead loads and, just for fun, an Enfield #4 .303 British with lead loads. Not a lever gun, I know, but our club is pretty loose on what you can shoot. I was pretty tired and not feeling so hot, but went anyway..
I did pretty good with the Enfield on the chickens, pigs and turkeys but then things went to the devil on the 200 meter rams. First shot hit in the dirt a few feet in front of the animal. "Wow, must have really jerked that one" I said to myself as I fed in another round (single loading, not from the magazine) Second shot neither my spotter or myself saw any hit at all, and we both decided it must have gone over the target a bit into the thick weeds behind the target. Third shot hit way out in front of the ram again. "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, self?" I said to myself, something amiss here for sure. While pondering and discussing with my spotter, I glanced down at my ammo box. There, in plain sight, among the load data inscribed on top of the box, was the source of my problem. "30-30 Winchester" it said!!
Strangely, there was no discernable difference in the recoil or the sound of these rounds. They just didnt go where they were supposed to go.
If this had been certain other calibers of rifles, with full power jacketed rounds, things might have been altogather different. With the relatively low power cast lead loads, there was no damage done other than to my ego. The photo below shows a 30-30, a .303 Brit and the 3 rounds in question. No, I didnt examine them as they came out of the chamber.
Fellows, the lesson here is when you pick up a firearm, you better have your head out where the sun shines brightly. The slightest few seconds of inattention to what you are doing can mean diasaster, including serious injury or death to yourself or others. I feel very lucky in this incident, and will never again go to the range with 2 firearms whose chambers will accept the other's cartridges.
