Safety: barrel blockage

[BadJuJu]

this conversation came up this year during a rainy/snowy weekend of spring turkey huntung in central Wisconsin.

due to the weather i was concerned about getting water and snow in my barrel. our land hoast gave me some electrical tape and told me that would be plenty to keep debris out of the barrel and still allow me to fire.

i was always under the inpression that this was a terrible idea. remembering my hunter safety class we were led to beleive that ANY abstruction in the barrel was very dangerious and should be cleared/prevented before attempting to fire.

what are your thoughts on this?

 

[jak67429]

The tape works fine. also will not affect your shot placement. Remember your barrel is sealed the air pressure will blow the tape off long before the bullet gets to it.
Also a finger cot from the drug store works even better doesn't leave any adhesive.

 

[essayons21]

Tape is fine, condoms and a rubber band work better and have a time honored tradition.

They even make little thin plastic barrel protectors just for that purpose.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Tape is fine, condoms and a rubber band work better and have a time honored tradition.

Yep, condoms work. Most of the duck hunters I know use that method.

 

[zombienerd]

We used condoms on the end of the M14 and M500 in the Navy. Kept the water and snow out just fine.

 

[TX1911fan]

Use the little finger things from the drugstore. Cheaper than condoms and don't look as stupid.

 

[PT1911]

Yep, condoms work. Most of the duck hunters I know use that method

LMAO.... paranoid duck hunters...JK, the ingenuity of the human mind will never cease to amaze me...

 

[TexasRifleman]

Use the little finger things from the drugstore. Cheaper than condoms and don't look as stupid.

And easier to explain to your SO why you have a box of them in your range bag.

 

[BadJuJu]

thanks guys, i feel much better about this now.

another safety question. if something is stuck IN your barrel, would you be able to shoot it out?

for example a small amount of dirt (1/2"), if for some reason something happened and there was a 1/2" of dirt blockage, would that be a safety risk?

what about 1" or 2" of blockage? at what point do you risk serious danger/damage?

 

[Tom488]

ANY blockage IN the barrel is dangerous. See this clip for a potent demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofwo02lHr7w

 

[mugsie]

Sorry Tom, but I just don't buy the clip. Trick photography. Barrels, metal, doesn't react that way. Don't believe everything you see, and nothing you hear (especially if it's coming out of our present administration - sorry - I degress but I just can't let an opportunity to bash them go by without taking advantage of it)! There's even one going around with someone shooting with a bore sighter stuck in the barrel and it splits nicely into 4 sections - that one too is false.

 

[Tom488]

That's OK... I'm not selling it. It's used to demonstrate the danger of having an obstruction in your barrel. Real or fake (I happen to believe it's real... having heard of similar incidents in the past), it illustrates the point: keep your barrel clear. NO amount of obstruction is ever acceptable. We can agree on that point, yes?

 

[PT1911]

i suggest you watch the clip on mythbusters when a gelatin finger in the barrel of a gun cause the barrel to swell.... it didnt "banana peel," but there was a definite affect... Bore obstructions, no matter how insignificant, are seriousl

 

[Fremmer]

tape is going to get blown off the barrel easily, so it won't be a safety concern.

I try to use the "keep the dang barrel up and away from the ground" method, myself. Follow with good cleaning and oil.

 

[MinnMooney]

from Mugsie (post #11) :

Sorry Tom, but I just don't buy the clip. Trick photography. Barrels, metal, doesn't react that way.

Sorry Mugsie but I, on the other hand, am not quite so paranoid. I know there is a lot of trick photography out there and if done by professionals it can look fairly real. BUT, there is almost always telltale fakery just behind the item that's been retouched. The scenery is a little different or blurred. None of that is in this video on Youtube. These are just some young men filming one guy's shot at an elk in the rain. What's not to believe? In frame-by-frame studying of the video, I can't find any flaw. Can you, to back up your claim?

 

[LaserSpot]

There's even one going around with someone shooting with a bore sighter stuck in the barrel and it splits nicely into 4 sections - that one too is false.

So guns don't blow up, or they blow up in a different way? Why do they fake it?

 

[Dookie]

In my hunters safety class they recommended electrical tape, a balloon, or a condom for protecting the bore as material does get jammed in there.

As for the video, I am leaning towards real as I am a skeptic for all things I cannot or have not seen with my own eye, but I could see no obvious tampering. But we had a very good example of a rifle that did just that in our HS class. The difference was that it peeled back and stuck in the shooters neck. Pictures and the rifle itself were part of the curriculum.

 

[1911Tuner]

Sorry Tom, but I just don't buy the clip. Trick photography. Barrels, metal, doesn't react that way.

Oh, yes they do. I've been an eyewitness to one such event.

When I was but a young pup, in pursuit of Peter Cottontail after school one afternoon with a couple other fools...one bright lad who'd borrowed his father's Sweet Sixteen Browning decided that it would be interesting to stick the muzzle a foot deep into a lake and pull the trigger. (Or was it his grandfather's? It's been over 40 years, so my memory may be a bit fuzzy.)

No matter...

Before either of us could stop him...he did it. The barrel split into 4 sections almost to the chamber, and peeled back to about 60 degrees to the former bore centerline. His daddy was not amused, though we laughed so hard we didn't see the rabbit run right past us with a pack of hounds in hot pursuit.

 

[heron]

The clubhouse at the range I use has a banana-peeled rifle on their wall. Think about it, mugsie; you're setting off an explosion in a tiny volume of space, and if that pressure can't find a way out (by pushing the bullet) it will make a way out. I personally bulged the barrel on a revolver, due to a squib, and I think the pressure relief from the B/C gap may be all that kept the gun from blowing up.

I think it's odd that the barrels don't split along the lines of the rifling, but they don't. The photos and vids aren't lying.

Some people attach muzzle devices (brakes or flash-hiders) specifically to prevent a complete obstruction, but one shouldn't count on that as any guarantee of safety. I expect someone to come along soon with a story of a mud-plugged muzzle device being blown off.

Always keep your barrel clear of obstructions.

 

[essayons21]

It seems that barrels often start to split along the lines of the rifling, giving the petal appearance. They are where the metal on the barrel is thinnest so it makes sense. However after the barrel starts to split, it seems that the remainder of the metal shears more or less in line with the initial split.

 

[killchain]

thanks guys, i feel much better about this now.

another safety question. if something is stuck IN your barrel, would you be able to shoot it out?

for example a small amount of dirt (1/2"), if for some reason something happened and there was a 1/2" of dirt blockage, would that be a safety risk?

what about 1" or 2" of blockage? at what point do you risk serious danger/damage?

Remembering your HUNTER SAFETY CLASS, you know this is a bad idea.

 

[sonier]

dont think i really need to post a comment, keep barrel clean and when in doubt use protection! http://www.condom.com/

 

[benEzra]

due to the weather i was concerned about getting water and snow in my barrel. our land hoast gave me some electrical tape and told me that would be plenty to keep debris out of the barrel and still allow me to fire.

i was always under the inpression that this was a terrible idea. remembering my hunter safety class we were led to beleive that ANY abstruction in the barrel was very dangerious and should be cleared/prevented before attempting to fire.

The tape isn't in the barrel. Rolling up the tape and shoving it down the bore would be a problem; a thin membrane outside the barrel isn't.

for example a small amount of dirt (1/2"), if for some reason something happened and there was a 1/2" of dirt blockage, would that be a safety risk?

what about 1" or 2" of blockage? at what point do you risk serious danger/damage?

How fast is the bullet moving when it hits the dirt blockage? If a soft tip hunting bullet traveling at Mach 3 hits packed dirt, it will either expand, or it will try to push the dirt to the side and go through the middle. If that occurs inside your rifle's barrel, think about the likely outcomes...

 

[Zoogster]

Some combinations are more resistant to damage from obstruction than others.
Meaning some calibers and barrels can withstand slightly more material before a catastrophic failure, or even a bulged barrel.


Generally speaking a firearm shooting a very fast low weight bullet at high pressure is going to be the least forgiving.
While a low pressure firearm shooting a large payload is going to be more resistant to minor obstructions.

The barrel construction as well as that of the chamber also playing a role. A strong bull barrel withstanding more pressure before damage than the lighter one barely meant to meet SAAMI proof specs.



A shotgun for example fires a huge payload at low pressure and low velocity. (The barrel of course is not that strong because it is meant to operate at low pressure.)
This means a minor obstruction is a relatively small increase in payload size if pushed out of the way.
But in something like a .17 Remington or .220 Swift with a light round and high pressure and velocity even just moisture in the barrel could be a significant increase in payload and pressure.

Or in handgun comparisons, something like a .45ACP at low pressure with a relatively large payload will be more resistant to minor obstruction than something like a FN 5.7 with a light weight projectile at high pressure and velocity.