Last fall a friend of mine blew-up the barrel on his 300 Win Mag. The last 7 inches look like a peeled banana but it looks like there's enough left to avoid short barrel rifle legal entanglements.
It looks like barrel crowning tools are available for ~$80. So, I was wondering: is the barrel toast? Rather than re-barrel, is cutting off the damaged part and crowning an option? What should one use for cutting the barrel?
Any ideas? Cautions? Recommendations?
Thanks.
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Jimmy,
If the guy who blew up this gun is a friend of yours, do him a favor and don't try to take a barrel that has been stretched to failure and shoot it again. I'm trying to find a way to say that taking a barrel that has been fatigued like this and making it shootable again is anything short of reckless without offending you.
Metal in gun barrels fatigue over time and the result is cumulative. Each time a barrel is fired, it stretches a little bit in diameter like a snake that swollwed a mouse. As long as the metal stretches within the elastic limits, the barrel just gets a little more fatigue and never reaches the level where it fails.
This barrel in question has been stretched way beyond it's elastic limits and has been damaged. Just because part of the barrel didn't have a catastrophic failure does not mean it's not hurt. Anyone who uses due care and caution would never try to use that barrel again..... For anything more than a tomatoe stake. If you are a metalurigist or have access to equipment such as magnaflux testing you might be able to look at the grain structure and determine the extent of damage. Otherwise, I would write it off as a dumb mistake and put a new barrel on it. It's just not worth taking a chance that it will blow up again and this time closer to the face of the shooter. One mistake doesn't deserve another.
Tom Gray
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If I had done something like that, I'd hang it on the wall for a trophy! Especially when I would have both eyes, ears, nose and mouth to tell about it. I have a couple little trophies of something gone wrong, that were not much fun.
A new Krieger barrel would be much, much better. :dude: ............Dan
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I agree whole hearted with Tom I would never attempt to reuse a barrel that has been damaged in this fashion. It would be like trying to fix a bullet that has a void in the side with bondo.. Just not a good idea. What you see as visual at the end of the barrel where it is the thinnest has occurred throughout the length of the barrel, what you can not see is all of the fractures in the crystaline structure of the metal. Each one of those fractures lends itself to the possiblity of another failure. It is not a matter of if it will fail, but when it will fail. I strongly recommend that you tell this fellow that shortening the barrel and attempting to re-use it is extremely dangerous and should not be considered. A new barrel costs less than an eye, a hand or a life.
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Last fall a friend of mine blew-up the barrel on his 300 Win Mag. The last 7 inches look like a peeled banana...
AGREE! with all the posts on never reusing a failed barrel, except as rebar for concrete or perhaps as a hunter-safety course training aid.
I also recommend that he consider that the replacement be a few inches shorter and perhaps heavier barrel, so that the muzzle is less likely to drag in the dirt and become plugged with debris when he carries it around. This will also make it a little stiffer and hopefully more accurate.
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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Thanks for all the responses. AFAIC: the barrel's spent -- and I'll pass along your recommendations.
FWIW: I've taken a closer look at the barrel. The last half inch shows lots of copper-color on the lands and in the grooves -- even along the sides of the blow-out that used to be barrel wall. For ~ 1/2 inch behind that, there is a pronounced bluge and no copper. Then, ~ 1 inch behind the bulge, copper appears in half the grooves while the rest of the barrel shows no copper.
I think Ed's right: debis in the muzzle caused this incident. There are all kinds of ways this could have been worse: he and his son were side-by-side in a pop-up when he shot at a deer. As he tells it, “I took the shot. The deer didn't move. I couldn't believe I missed. I shot again and it sounded funny. I looked at
Ed, I'm wondering about your remark about a shorter, stiffer, more accurate barrel: would a few inches make much of a difference in - like this barrel - a sporter contour?
Again: thank-you all.
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I think Ed's right: debris in the muzzle caused this incident... I'm wondering about your remark about a shorter, stiffer, more accurate barrel: would a few inches make much of a difference in - like this barrel - a sporter contour?
A shorter barrel is less likely to get dragged in the dirt and pick up debris. And a heavier barrel, say .70 diameter at the muzzle for a .30 cal., will be enough stromger that while it will still bulge if fired with an obstruction, it is less likely to blow apart in shrapnel which could kill somebody standing nearby.
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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hmm... .70” happens a mere 3-1/2” ahead of the shoulder. Sporter contours? No way! Even the barely legal length I envisioned would give only .625” OD. Thanks, Ed.
...a heavier barrel, say .70 diameter at the muzzle for a .30 cal., will be enough stromger that while it will still bulge if fired with an obstruction, it is less likely to blow apart in shrapnel which could kill somebody standing nearby.
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Well lets see, a 300 Win Mag with a barely legal length tube should give a fantastic light display!
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"...a 300 Win Mag with a barely legal length tube should give a fantastic light display!"
No doubt!
It didn't appear in this thread but I exchanged mail with some others on this topic. Among other things, I remarked that I might consider shooting CBs out of it; however, the fact that it would still have a huge chamber did concern me.
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Just about everything ToM Gray said is true, but if you have access to a abrasive cut off saw and blade from HOME DEPOT or a cut off saw, or a radial arm saw where you “MUST” cut pushing away from you, cut the damn thing off square using a holding vise etc. Get at large ball bearing and and some crocus cloth 180 grit and crown the muzzle by working the ball bearing against the bore for 10 minutes until you see the crown form. If the resulting thing is small enough throw it in the oven at 375 F for about 2 hours and then shoot it and see if it ok. If it shoots OK fine, else toss it.
Charlie
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If it is a .300Win Mag it probably had a 26 inch barrel to begin with. Lop off 7 inches and you are down to 19. If it had been 24 inches to start with you are down to 17 inches now. You will lose a HEAP of velocity and likely go deaf (I SAID DEAF!) at the same time.
Throw it away and move one. Geez. Life is too short as is the barrel.
Cheers from New Zealand
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A simple cure for plugged muzzle troubles - stretch a piece of electrical tape across the muzzle before you go hunting. Been doing it for years - no problems. Glenn
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I've been doing the same as Glenn for 20 years, hiking around the Tennessee woods. Works great. I prefer shorter tubes for the type of hunting here anyways. Either a Model 70 Carbine or a 30-30. Both have 20” tubes.
The guy said “I took the shot. The deer didn't move. I couldn't believe I missed. I shot again and it sounded funny.”
Could you have an obstructed barrel (from mud) and fire a full power round without the barrel coming apart? I don't know. I'm wondering if the first round lodged in barrel because of a squib load and the second caused the failure. In either case, the barrels junk.
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A simple cure for plugged muzzle troubles - stretch a piece of electrical tape across the muzzle before you go hunting. Been doing it for years - no problems.
Glenn
A balloon or (unlubricated) Trojan stretched over the flash suppressor of an M16 or M4 works too.
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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I was wondering what I could use my excess supply for!.>
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