Accidentally shot 25-35 round out of 30-30 rifle.

At one time I owned a G19 in 9mm and a G23 in 40 S&W. I once picked up the wrong mag at the range and fired a 9mm round through the 40 S&W. It went bang, I missed the target and the action didn' cycle. I manually ejected the brass and found a 9mm case necked up to 40 caliber. It didn't hurt anything, but that was the moment I decided I could live without a 40 S&W pistol. Especially since I also had a 10mm.

I also had a 280 and 30-06 at the same time. One piece of 280 brass once got mixed in with my 30-06 brass. I caught it when resizing and one piece of brass was a little tight. That was also the moment I realized I didn't need both a 280 and a 30-06.

but no, we cannot fit ALMOST any larger caliber cartridge into a smaller caliber relative’s chamber.
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I have a game warden friend who once arrested a night hunter. My friend SWEARS the poacher fired a 35 Rem cartridge from a 7mm Rem Mag. without blowing up the rifle. Seems impossible to me, but he says it happened. The only thing I can think of is the much shorter 35Rem case fit in the chamber much like a 300 BO in a 223 chamber. How a 35 caliber bullet squeezed through a 28 caliber barrel without blowing up is the part I don't understand.
 
Years back a buddy was shooting my .45 Colt Blackhawk. I was not a reloader at the time.

I bought some bulk ammo and dumped it in a GI ammo can. We were taking out 6 rounds at the time and shooting the gun back and forth.

On his turn he pulled the trigger twice. Bang. Bang. On the 3rd BOOM!!! He said something along the lines of … what the?. Tried to eject case but couldn’t. Removed cylinder and taped it out. Was a .44 mag marked case with same manufacturer head stamp as the .45 Colt ammo. I did not own a .44 mag at the time nor had any ammo laying around for one.

One of life’s little mysteries. Best I could surmise was the round was packaged by mistake from the manufacturer. Thank God it was a Blackhawk and not a .45 Colt Clone.
 
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It does happen one second of inattention can be distarouis. Years ago I was at the range working up a load for a friends rifle.
It was a private range with little traffic during the week, I had gotten there early and had been shooting for about 45 minutes when another shooter came in and set up on the bench next to me.
He had a rather unusual rifle, it was a Mauser action that he had modified to take several barrels in different calibers. He shot a while and I did too.
We talked awhile, as I was cleaning my friends rifle and talked I failed to notice the brush of my cleaning rod had unscrewed and stayed in the barrel.
Just as I was about to pull the trigger, something made me put on my shooting glasses. When I pulled the trigger the forend of the rifle blew off and the action was locked up. (Ruger #1 22-250).
After a second, I took a look at the rifle to access the damage. the stock was cracked and the forend was in pieces and the action was locked tight.
I called Ruger and explained it was my fault and if they could repair the gun?
About a week after I sent in the rifle I was contacted by Ruger and they could not repair the rifle but if the owner gave up ownership they would replace it.
When I told my friend he wanted to keep the rifle (to torment me for years to come).
About two weeks later I had come home and there was a note on the door from my UPS driver, It said look in the storage shed.
In side was a box from Ruger with a new #1 in 22-250 no charge no 4473!
 
Varminterror said:
The 300blackout is an odd and unfortunate exception, and rifles are destroyed every year because of it. This ONLY happens because the bullets used for supersonic loads in Blackout are generally short enough to be chambered shorter than the SHOULDER of a 223/5.56 chamber, because the shoulder of the 300blk is pushed back sufficiently far to allow it.
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Thanks, Varminterror. That's very good to know. I've been hankering for a 300 Blackout AR lately, and there's little doubt I will get myself one before long. However, our son-in-law is a big 223/5.56 AR fan. I'll have to be doubly cautious and warn him too when we go shooting together. :thumbup:
 
Varminterror said:
It was, until he ran it through his 6.5 creed die and trimmed it to length. He picked up an empty 270win case with his 6.5 creed empties, then gave it the ol' ugga dugga to inadvertently smash it into shape when he was sizing.
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Yeah, I was just surprised a person wouldn’t notice the extra length, at least at the point of handling it/putting it in the press to size. Glad it worked out ok!
 
It would seem that shooting a lower pressure or smaller caliber round than a rifle is chambered for poses a slight risk of catastrophic failure.

The rifle would obviously be able to hand a higher pressure round, and a smaller diameter bullet would just rattle down the barrel.

A .25-35 is rated for higher pressure than a .30-30 but is 6,000 psi enough to destroy a rifle? Maybe.

I guess everyone needs to pay a bit more attention regardless.
 
jmr40 said:
I have a game warden friend who once arrested a night hunter. My friend SWEARS the poacher fired a 35 Rem cartridge from a 7mm Rem Mag. without blowing up the rifle. Seems impossible to me, but he says it happened. The only thing I can think of is the much shorter 35Rem case fit in the chamber much like a 300 BO in a 223 chamber. How a 35 caliber bullet squeezed through a 28 caliber barrel without blowing up is the part I don't understand.
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A 100% reliable source witnessed a .308 round fired in a .280 Rem. he said that it took some doing to get the bolt open but claimed that the rifle showed no apparent damage.
 
Laphroaig said:
A 100% reliable source witnessed a .308 round fired in a .280 Rem. he said that it took some doing to get the bolt open but claimed that the rifle showed no apparent damage.
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jmr40 said:
How a 35 caliber bullet squeezed through a 28 caliber barrel without blowing up is the part I don't understand.
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I do now, from sources on this forum, some have fired a 9mm through a Mauser C96 chambered for 7.63x25 and the bullet literally just squeezes down. But pistol rounds are alot lower pressure than rifle, so how it's worth I dont know.
 
eddiememphis said:
a smaller diameter bullet would just rattle down the barrel.

A .25-35 is rated for higher pressure than a .30-30 but is 6,000 psi enough to destroy a rifle? Maybe.
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Okay, now I'm confused. Are you saying a 25-35 cartridge would develop "higher pressure" than a 30-30 cartridge when fired in a rifle chambered for the 30-30? How would it do that considering that the "smaller diameter bullet" would just "rattle down the barrel?":scrutiny:
 
I can already see this issue with 5.56 and 6x45. Chances a 223 gets chambered in the 6x45 seems very likely 🤔 I did buy clear Lancer mags for the 6x45 but I should probably take other steps....
 
.308 Norma said:
Okay, now I'm confused. Are you saying a 25-35 cartridge would develop "higher pressure" than a 30-30 cartridge when fired in a rifle chambered for the 30-30? How would it do that considering that the "smaller diameter bullet" would just "rattle down the barrel?":scrutiny:
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I was incorrect about the pressures of the two rounds- they are very similar. (When I looked at them I didn't see that one was CUP and the other was PSI.)

What I meant was, if a cartridge develops higher pressure, before the bullet starts to move, than the rifle chamber is rated for, then could it destroy the rifle? Maybe. Is my mis-quoted 6,000 PSI enough to destroy a rifle? Again, maybe.

A .25 caliber bullet going down a .30 caliber bore is going to lose most of its pressure immediately, thus the "rattle down the bore" analogy.
 
jmorris said:
Even knew a guy that shot 270 out of a 30-06, just to get idea of what kind of accuracy it had.
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I kinda did that. Had a miss marked .30-06 (marked .270) barrel that i set back and headspaced to a rifle....fired a couple rounds out of it before realizing the issue. Fired a few more after that just to see where the rounds would go....which js everywhere...

I also shot 30-30 thru a 32 special that had its caliber markings scrubbed.....
 
a 25-35 in a 30-30 is no problem to the gun, just dirty

I shoot 270Win factory rounds in my 35Whelens to make proper length Whelen brass

no harm

but such is not always the case, and you need to know what works safely and what doesn't

ie/the 300BO in a 223

As has been proven many times in the past, a lead bullet, or C&C bullet can be swaged down a LOT
but I'm sure there is a limit, physically, as to how much depending on the chamber shape

certainly NOT a good practice unless you KNOW what you are doing
 
My gun club opens to the public each Sept and Oct for hunter sight -in. Members serve as range officials . Several yrs ago, someone trashed a Win 670. I don't remember the mismatch but it flowered the barrel. I've seen 300 Win fired in 300 Whby guns. Interesting fireforming.
Now it's required to physically check and compare shooter's ammo to guns. We find several mismatches each year. The gun public can be scary!
-West out
 
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