Injury at Little River today

[Tiger650]

Sent this to DTA importers just now.

Hello Gents

About 1.00 PM at Little River range a bloke shooting one of your bullpup rifles was injured moderately by what looked to me like a receiver failure, he bled significantly from the right shoulder and upper arm.

From what I could see the rifle was quiet badly damaged, the “stock “was split aft of the pistol grip but the bolt handle remained in the closed position.

The bloke was loaded into an ambulance about 30mins after the incident but prior to that was sitting upright and quiet lucid although a little pale and shocked.

The SSAA range officers tried to pack the rifle away in the owners hard case and then later announced that anyone downrange should return behind the firing line as the rifle “was being examined”.

All I saw on the shooters bench was plastic reload ammo boxes, certainly no factory ammo packaging.

I could guess what caused the rifle to fail but I reckon so can you.

What I do know is that any evidence was thoroughly buggered around with by people who perhaps should have known better.

Please feel free to call if you need but I know little more than what I describe in above

UNQUOTE.

From what i can recall these rifles can be field converted between .308W and 300 Winmag ?

It may be possible that the owner charged up a 300WM case with AR2206H or similar ?

[Oldbloke]

Hope the guy is Ok..
Not good, they had an injury there about 6 months ago and worksafe got involved. Had to make a few rule changes I think as a result of that.

[<<Genesis93>>]

Evidence? crime scene?
wonder if the fellas ok.....

Plastic ammo box might indicate he simply unboxed his factory rounds for the bench session....

2206h? I load winmag with that powder... its fine and like any powder, ok unless over or under charged, but I wouldnt necessarily assume it was a re-loading blunder....

and although it may be speculated that say, the bolt wasnt fully home when it discharged, the manufacturer will want nothing to do with it as soon as 'reloads' are mentioned.....


oldbloke; what was the rule change?? Wasnt that a user eff-up on a Bla-zer?

[Title_II]

I would absolutely assume it's a reload issue. But it's still just an assumption. Happens to be the way to bet, though.

Hope he is OK.

[huccl]

What I do know is that any evidence was thoroughly buggered around with by people who perhaps should have known better.

No doubt plenty of "experts" stepped forward to have a look so they could explain what happened.

[Bark]

Is there any more on this?

When that guy got the (harmless) ricochet a while back the story was blowing up.

I have searched for this latest one and can't find a peep.

[brett1868]

Adding all the pieces up I'm suspecting 1 of 2 things based on the reported information - bolt still closed, receiver split aft of the grip, Bleeding from shoulder & upper arm. The RO would have cleared the area on concerns there may have been a live round still in the chamber or in the mag which is the correct procedure.

1. A round went off in the mag. Being a bull pup the mag is adjacent to the upper arm and near the shoulder.
2. Bolt failure. Possibly the back of the bolt failed and was driven back into his shoulder. (Over / wrongly charged round maybe)

I have both the SRS and HTI from DTA so I'll be keeping an eye out for further developments.

[<<Genesis93>>]

We could speculate for days... weeks....

Squib load / bullet in tube.... next round... kaboom town.

I cant see a round discharging in the mag....is there anything peculiar about the DTS??

[brett1868]

Highly unlikely a round went off in the mag, that was a bit of a reach I admit after a bit more thought. Squib load is looking like a possibility but no report of barrel damage as I'd expect to see from a squib load. Rather then speculate further I'll let it sit for a week and give Aaron from Interdiction Logistics who's the DTA importer a call and see if he's learnt more. Good at least the guy will be ok and hopefully just a flesh wound with a speedy recovery.

[Supaduke]

I was also at little river on the day of this incident and I can add a few more facts

the round used was .243win
Hand load, apparently by his father
First shot of the rifle for the day
Not a squib as evidenced by a bullet hole in the blokes target collected at the end of the day
The magazine had exploded, shrapnel from it was all around the bench and the most likely cause of his injuries
I'm not sure if any rounds were in the magazine but definitely none had detonated

[Title_II]

Overcharge/wrong powder reload doesn't tend to ring a barrel, it usually blows out the receiver.

Even squibs lodge into the land engagement more than would be expected if you considered it to be random over the length of the barrel.

95% of the time a gun blows up it's reloads. Of course, it was never the load's fault.

[Oldbloke]

IMO Rather then speculate further wait and see what the evidence says.

[Chronos]

IMO Rather then speculate further wait and see what the evidence says.

But then how will we know who wins the internet?

I hope the blokes ok, terrible thing to happen to any shooter and bad for the image of the sport in general.

if there's one rifle i'd hate to have an over pressure situation with it would be a bullpup.

Chronos

[brett1868]

if there's one rifle i'd hate to have an over pressure situation with it would be a bullpup

And doubly worse for a 50BMG bullpup....read your post and had a mental picture of half my face missing

[Norton]

At least it would improve your looks

[Heckler303]

At least it would improve your looks

[brett1868]

At least it would improve your looks

Probably...would at least make both sides look the same

[Oldbloke]

At least it would improve your looks

Probably...would at least make both sides look the same

Try looking in the mirror when you apply the red nose and lip stick.

[Ed9362]

I was there today, I was told that the barrel was changed on the rifle but the bolt was not, maybe the bolt was to small for the cartridge being fired

[Farmjer]

the round used was .243win

I don't see .243 listed as an available cartridge on any of the DTA rifles online?

[Farmjer]

I was there today, I was told that the barrel was changed on the rifle but the bolt was not, maybe the bolt was to small for the cartridge being fired

Could have done something like chambering a .260 cartridge into a .308 barrel.

That would chamber and fire but the bullet would go through the barrel like a ball down a hallway.

Vice versa if you were loading cartridges with sharp ogives like match bullets and they were seated deep enough you could potentially chamber a .308 into the .260 barrel. That would definitely go boom internally.

(Just speculation in both cases here)

[Supaduke]

http://www.eurooptic.com/desert-tactica ... en-ii.aspx, others available, just an example

[Wobble]

I don't see .243 listed as an available cartridge on any of the DTA rifles online?

Wouldn't be the first shooting place that was bad at updating it's website.