Browning Gold blows up!!!

[r.c.a.1971]

...On Sat., my nephew went duck hunting in La. They had a few ducks flying. After making a few passing shots his gun blows-up. Instantly he sees a flash,gets an enormous recoil from the gun,lands on his #$% in the boat and then over into the water. Other than his wet #$%, a mushroomed gun barrel, and a 35-minute boat ride in 30-degree weather the day before his 17th birthday, he was not hurt. "Thank God"!!
After a few phone conversations with different gun stores, they think the wad got stuck which caused the explosion. By the way, there was no mud in the barrel. Does this happen often with shotguns? Is this just a freak accident? Or should he contact the gun and shell manufacturer for some sort of explanation???
Any opinions...??? Thanks!!

r.c.a.1971

[wellisIII]

What kind of ammo was he using?

[Seymore]

Did the shot just before the one that blew the barrel up sound and recoil like a normal round? May have had a dud shell that lodged the wad in the barrel. If it was a dud shell I doubt the action would have worked properly. Must have been the third shell he shot and when he reloaded it blew the barrel.

Glad to hear he is okay.

[jroc]

5 years ago the exact same thing happened to a friend of mine and I happened to be looking at the gun when it blew. He and another guy were about 100 yrds from us in a rice field he shot once it sounded funny (to me at least) and that's why I looked out at them, then the second shot.........BOOM! Just the end of the barrel blew up. Seems the wad from the last shot stuck in the end and the second one got it out but not in a good way. The gun was a brand new Barretta. He contacted the manufacturer and they said it was the shell (Federal) and of course Federal said it was the gun then they both said he must have had mud in the end.........total BS but on top the $700 he gave for the gun he had to shell out $350 for a new Barretta barrel.

I'll tell ya from a spectators point of view it was quite a show. Nobody was hurt so other than him having to fork out some dough all was good. My theory all along was/is that the choke tube wasn't in all the way and the wad hung on it.

[BeastMaster]

a few buddies and myself were shooting skeet this past august..... i was standing 15 yards away from the shooter watching him miss... he yelled pull, he pulled the trigger, click-then a quiet boom, pow... slight delay then boom and smoke went everywhere.... it didn't fire properly and the shell jammed and the wad was stuck in the barrell.... fire shot out the muzzle as well as the chamber...... my friends thinks that he picked up a shell that had a residue on the shell that may have caused some sorta missfire/reaction...... who knows but i was standing there watching it happen and my friend is very fortunate to still have all 10 digits and his eye-site........ strange things can happen........ clean gun and clean ammo are a must...... first thing i do when i take someone new to the blind is talk briefly about gun safety.... never take for granted that people know about swinging through and where and where not to shoot birds in reference to the other hunters...... happy hunting and be safe

[BAY KINGFISHER]

Wet federals will become duds real quick, but surprized gun would eject a dud, probably more to the story than we know. let us know if you find out anymore....

[crow]

I would suspect a dud first round that did not burn hot enough to push the wad out of the barrel but just enough to eject the spent shell. Then, the second normal round blew the barrel. Was he shooting a full choke in the barrel?

[Bustin' Ducks]

Had the same thing happen to me lst year ago....Although mud was not the culprit...Water was! I'd fell in a hole, gun went to the bottom of the river...I got it and CLEANED the mud toatally out of the barrell...It wasn't really muddy but I learned it didn't matter..The residue from the water made the wad not completely exit the barrell....The report from the gun wasn't as loud as normal but it wasn't noticably different...then the follow up shot, 2 wads in one barrell..as you already know..the end of my barrell went like a bananna...Better to replace the barrell than your face...

[h2o_dog]

I hear of that more often in pumps than automatics. The squib-fired round rarely has the recoil to eject the shell from the automatic, which should clue to the shooter not to jack another round in and fire until the barrel is checked for an obstruction. Pump shooters on the other hand just keep shucking shells and wind up with a blown up barrel.

[BR549]

Your right about the pump I've blown two through the years. You get to shooting with two or three others at the same time & you may not realize that your gun was the one not so loud one time. Some of these newer auto's will eject anything from light loads to the heaviest long bullits it very easily could happen though. None of these shells are completely waterproof. Some are better than others. The way I see it if you get any of them the least bit wet you need to shoot them up A.S.A.P. so keep the ducks flying!