Low Number '03 catastrophic failure- recent.

[1mark]

I had a SHT Springfield receiver break on me and I was not even shooting it. I was disassembling the rifle as the bolt was stuck. It would turn but when attempting to remove is, it would not come out. When pulling back it would stick in the rear receiver ring. To get to move forward I had to tap it with a hammer. Used a brass hammer.
Finily I had had enough and set in the vise. Pulled the bot back to where it would stick. Than gave it a good hit with the hammer.

The bolt came out with a cracked handle, also a SHT bolt. The receive rear ring split at the rail. So now I have a trashed receiver. SO let see if these are that brittle. Set the receiver in the vise and really smacked it. It shattered into 5 or 6 pieces.

Lesson learned, I do not use any SHT receivers or bolts.

[PhillipM]

Have a friend who dented the chamber and ruined the barrel on a nice 98 Krag firing lead bullets ... Loose gas check? Who knows...

Personally I only have two type guns I am kind of careful to the extent of loading them down, a 1914 Winchester 95 with slightly excessive headspace and my Krags. On those guns I use standard published loads and drop them 3-5 grains more down from the minimum. I am not a cast bullet man except for .45-70.

All charged cases will be in a loading block and inspected individually with a Mag Light.

Read the guy's post and he said that 28 gr. load was 30,000 psi. If I owned a low number I wouldn't shoot it. I sure would not try a 30,000 psi load in it. The chamber pressure I remember having to learn in ROTC for the M-1 was 28,000....

M2 ball 50,000. Proof load 70,000

Hatcher tried to blow up an M1 and gave up at 120,000

[louis]

Bolts are not considered dangerous only the receivers have the possible failures.

[Griff Murphey]

M2 ball 50,000. Proof load 70,000

Hatcher tried to blow up an M1 and gave up at 120,000

Oops. Of course you are right. Muzzle velocity of 2800 FPS must have confused my drifting thoughts. Correction accepted and red faced at this time!!!

[Dan Shapiro]

Hatcher tried to blow up an M1 and gave up at 120,000

They did not want to destroy their measuring equipment.

[psteinmayer]

My Krag load of 17 grains of 5744 came from the 49th Lyman manual. I should look up the data for 30-06 and just see. Now my interest has been peaked! Regardless, I've heard enough of the horror stories associated with the SHT receivers and bolts enough to not want to shoot one in my lifetime!

[kragluver]

I use 22 gr of 4759 under a 200 gr cast bullet in my 03A3 to get about 1800 fps. 5744 and 4759 have very similar burn rates. 28 gr sounds like a lot of 5744. I doubt you could double charge the case with 5744 without overflowing it.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't assume cast bullet loads are necessarily "safe" in a LN '03. People seem to forget that it is not the normal pressure loads that blow the rifle up (or cause case head failures with good cases). Its the unexpected high pressure incidents (over-sized bullets, over charged cases, barrel obstructions, excessive headspace, etc, etc). Shooting lower pressure cast loads from you LN '03 won't provide sufficient margin if there is an error. You still end up with a destroyed rifle.

[pickax]

I use 22 gr of 4759 under a 200 gr cast bullet in my 03A3 to get about 1800 fps. 5744 and 4759 have very similar burn rates. 28 gr sounds like a lot of 5744. I doubt you could double charge the case with 5744 without overflowing it.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't assume cast bullet loads are necessarily "safe" in a LN '03. People seem to forget that it is not the normal pressure loads that blow the rifle up (or cause case head failures with good cases). Its the unexpected high pressure incidents (over-sized bullets, over charged cases, barrel obstructions, excessive headspace, etc, etc). Shooting lower pressure cast loads from you LN '03 won't provide sufficient margin if there is an error. You still end up with a destroyed rifle.

The OP in the original thread stated he purposely loaded the bullets long in the case to engage the rifling.In addition, he used excess lube on the cast bullets, which built up in the chamber.
I would think this would cause an over pressure situation that certainly didn't help. Do you guys think that would be the cause of the blow up, or just a contributor?
He insisted the once fired cases were properly annealed.

[kragluver]

Long bullets seated into the rifling and case lube buildup in the chamber could certainly raise pressures. This is usually "okay" with a light cast bullet load as the load is typically well below the working pressure of the rifle. A cast bullet will also swage down more easily than a jacketed bullet. However, with full power loads, this can raise pressures to the danger levels. Pressures can climb nonlinearly. See the book Firearm Pressure Factors (recommended reading for any serious handloader). His stated load of 28 gr of 5744 sounds like it may be near max. I don't know that for a fact as I haven't looked it up. Its certainly higher than the cast loads I use in .30-06. It may be a safe load in normal cases, but if it is near max, I would not be cramming the projectile into the rifling. Doing so will cause pressures to spike up very quickly. I would not advise doing this with any cartridge or rifle with powder loads near max (LN '03 or not).

I just looked at Alliant's loading manual online and they list 30 gr of 5744 as a max load for a 200 gr cast bullet giving 42KSI under "normal" conditions. His bullet weight was 210 gr and 28 gr of powder. He was up there but probably not at max. If the bullet was seated long, this could have definitely have caused on over-pressure condition.

[pickax]

Thanks, that post raised a red flag to me. Sounds similar to the old practice of greased bullets as well. He stated he learned it from other bench rest shooters.
Whether cause or contributor, I guess we'll never know.