Had one friend who had one of their shotguns blow up in his face, and was marked for life, another lost an eye to their ammo. Yes it was long ago, but temping fate is not how I roll. I distrust anything they make to the point, if it as a 5 on one fight and was offered a knife or turk gun, I'd take the knife.
Fair enough explanation resonates around Russian Shotguns 70's-80's . I was shooting semi pro Trap ,Clays . One evening during a league shoot on 16 yd. line ,a fellow shooter 2 stations away experienced some sort of a catastrophic detonation . I recall seeing person between us go down ,shooter dropped his shotgun ,so it appeared just before I was hit with shrapnel .
Shooter had head wound bloody hand splintered stock ,shooter between us was declared diseased at the scene ,he had received a sizable chunk of the chamber directly to the temple area . That screwed up our range facility for couple of months and implemented rule changes pertaining mostly to handloads !.
Call it what You will Karma Ironic Fate or destiny ; #4 months later same shooter George ( knew him for 30 years Good Guy ) was shooting another Range league shoot ,as was I and several others . A northern Calif. gent was on the line when George had some type of load mishap **and George was Killed , Northern Calif. man was next too him and had minor debris facial wounds . I was eating down at the snack shack when word came to us .
Policy changes took effect shortly there after ,Reloads practice only , NOT allowed in sanctioned meets or competition thereafter Period .
What I do know positively from the forensics examination ,as well as the temporary confiscation of ALL of Georges reloading equipment is Was determined George was using an unidentified powder bushing in his Mec reloader . As he owned a sizable Welding fabrication business ,it was determined he had made it . Knowing George for the length of time I had and doing business with him on several occasions ,I called Bullshit on that theory ,as he wouldn't have wasted his time . I suspect what really happened was ,he PURCHASED someone Else's equipment . Possibly even for one of our range members ,it wasn't uncommon practice .
Knowing he had switched powders to Clays powder as we had talked about it weeks before **,I suspect he neglected to change the powder bushing and that resulted in OVERCHARGES . His ammo was approximately 2.5 over charged according to PD report .
** George had asked a couple of people including myself about ,Tight Crimping and had mentioned he was either changing Wad brand or type as he had some difficulty getting decent crimps . He was anal retentive with an A personality disorder and arrogant ,if you didn't know him or vice versa . Welding fabrication he knew ,shooting and reloading he wasn't all that slick on but was learning .
