Use the right powder! NWS

[Robin128]

[John25]

Years ago, at Milppol, I was running the firing point for a general 'plinking' session when there was a louder than normal crack from my right.

A mate, let's call him Kevin, was struggling with the bolt of his number four.

After checking with him that the gun had fired, I got my rubber mallet to bash it open.

No luck. Then I saw that the bolt was bent slightly upwards in the middle. What load are you using Kevin I asked. I forget what it was but for arguments sake let's say forty grains of Nobel number two. (Whatever the load was it was well within that reccommended for Nobel number two rifle powder)

That should be ok I said, did you visually check each round to see that you hadn't over charged? Yes he said, we went through all the usual checks, dry chamber, same bullet, crimp etc. He then said "weeeeeeeeeeeeelll - I did run out of rifle number two so I topped a few up with pistol number two!!!"

I told him to go home and say a prayer thanking the gunmaker and write a letter to the Home Office saying that he had de-activated his gun!

I believe that similar incidents caused Nobel to change their powder identification method.

There are some silly buggers out there!

[Rich]

It's perfectly safe to use BP in a Savage 10MLSS, it's when you use smokeless that problems may occur. I should imagine he used too much or too fast a powder. Or perhaps he left the ramrod in, who knows?
Anyway, a very nasty injury and I wish him a speedy recovery.
Rich.