A small kaboom from a shotshell

[bigbearbear]

Went to Coyote Valley for some trap shooting today and had a strange failure from a Winchester Super Target #7.5 1 1/8oz 1145fps shotshell.

When fired, there was a much louder than normal BANG!! and the bolt of my semi-auto Benelli did not lock back. When inspected, the hull of the shotshell is broken and shredded. I field stripped the shotgun and inspected the bolt, carrier and barrel, everything seems fine and I continued to shoot for the rest of the day without problems.

This is NOT a reload, it is new factory ammo. Does anyone know what can cause this?

See pic of broken hull:

[ysr_racer]

**** happens.

[scotus]

Maybe there was a small puncture on the side of the hull so that instead of directing all the force out some went to the side, blowing off part of it? Not sure, but glad the gun is ok.

[flatbedtruckin]

Material defect?

[Triggerease]

Cracked casing....

[bigbearbear]

Maybe there was a small puncture on the side of the hull so that instead of directing all the force out some went to the side, blowing off part of it? Not sure, but glad the gun is ok.

Material defect?

Cracked casing....

That's what I'm thinking too, some kind of puncture or crack on the hull due to defect.

I think I might have been lucky in that the Benell is inertial driven, so even when a hull ruptures on firing, there was enough momentum to push the bolt back slightly and allowed the gas the escape. Scared the heck out of both me and my wife who was close by pressing the button to launch the bird for me (Coyote Valley uses a manual press button to throw birds).

[Chubs T]

Common problem with those Super Targets. I stopped using them because of it.

[AAShooter]

Higher quality ammo

[SJulian10mm]

I had an old box of them a few years back, 4 of the 25 did that in my 870... brittle plastic


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[bigbearbear]

Common problem with those Super Targets. I stopped using them because of it.

I had an old box of them a few years back, 4 of the 25 did that in my 870... brittle plastic


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Aww....crap, I have 2 more cases of these!

Guess I'll have to take my chances with them.

I thought Winchester is a manufacturer of premium ammo and even their economy produce line is of good quality. I've always lumped Winchester, Federal and Remington ammo as of the same quality level, being made in USA and all that. Its surprising to hear their Super Target line has issues with brittle plastic.

[d33pt]

That's the one walmart sells right? I probably have about 1000 rounds through my shotgun with no problems. I have 500 left, hopefully they will be ok too.

[sandiego67]

That's the one walmart sells right? I probably have about 1000 rounds through my shotgun with no problems. I have 500 left, hopefully they will be ok too.

If you are buying them from WalMart (like I do), they don't have much time to go bad. Brittle plastic would seem to indicate age or heat.

WalMart blows through so many cases of these that they probably don't get stale on their shelves.

I have shot several thousand rounds over the past 9 months with no issues.

[JagerDog]

Aside from possible pattern disruption, it isn't gonna hurt your gun.

Tubes breaking/shooting off isn't all that rare. Higher grade hulls is a solution. Of the valupack stuff, I think the Fed Top Gun is a little better. Remington doesn't have anything in that price point.

[bigbearbear]

That's the one walmart sells right? I probably have about 1000 rounds through my shotgun with no problems. I have 500 left, hopefully they will be ok too.

If you are buying them from WalMart (like I do), they don't have much time to go bad. Brittle plastic would seem to indicate age or heat.

WalMart blows through so many cases of these that they probably don't get stale on their shelves.

I have shot several thousand rounds over the past 9 months with no issues.

Yeah, I got those from Walmart. If you're in Milpitas Walmart and see this couple gleefully loading the shopping cart full of shotshells, that's probably me and my wife.

It might just have been bad luck on my part. I've put something around 25k rounds through my shotgun so far and this is the 1st time I've had something like this happen. So statistically speaking, chances of it happening to you too is fairly small.

[bigbearbear]

Aside from possible pattern disruption, it isn't gonna hurt your gun.

Tubes breaking/shooting off isn't all that rare. Higher grade hulls is a solution. Of the valupack stuff, I think the Fed Top Gun is a little better. Remington doesn't have anything in that price point.

Good to know this JD. I was worried that this might turn my shotgun into a pipe bomb.