Bolt takes out row of teeth

B

Bnhpr

Ben Hooper
A coworker of mine's brother lost several teeth and has undergone reconstructive surgery from a bolt failing on a Mossberg rifle.

The only details I have was that it was factory ammo, 30-06 and he is a left shooter, firing a right hand bolt and when he fired the rifle, the bolt came out and injured him quite severely.

Apparently, the bolt head rotated in relation to the bolt body and the locking lugs were not engaged, but the rifle was able to fire anyway. I have never seen the bolt, but he said some pin sheared inside.

The Savage has a separate bolt head also, I wonder if this is possible with them.

Any comments?

Ben
 
I am not familiar with the Mossberg action but this sounds very weird for a factory action.

The pin in a Savage is quite large and has nothing to do with holding recoil forces. I don't think you could shear it by closing the bolt.
 
I think part of the reason Savage changed to a smaller OD on the firing pin body was to be able to use a smaller hole in the bolt head retaining pin therefore making it stronger.

Part 2. You would think that a properly designed rifle would have kept the firing pin from being able to reach the primer unless the bolt was all the way forward. I think this would be taken care of by the clearance between the back of the bolt handle and it's recess in the receiver tang. If the bolt head did not rotate at all the bolt should have been rearward a distance greater than the firing pin protusion.

It could be that the shooter did not close the bolt fully and the bolt head was still in the lead in ramps. Still, with the bolt not fully forward the firing pin should not reach the primer ?!?! You would need to see the condition of the bolt hand to get some more clues.
 
I can't remember how the Mossberg bolt looks or how it's put together, but if it's anywhere similar to the Savage 110 style bolt the only way that a failure of the pin that holds the bolt head to the bolt body would lead to the bolt coming backwards would be a catastrophic failure of the case. That could let enough gas into the bolt to blow the body backwards.

It would seem to me that if the bolt body had been blown backwards on firing that the shooter would have suffered a whole lot more than some broken teeth. The bolt weighs a lot more than any .30-'06 bullet so instead of coming back at 2700-2900 fps it'd likely be 150-200 fps. Sort of like having someone smack him in the face a good lick with a hammer.
 
Here is a link to a picture of the bolt, from the article, showing the diameter of the cross pin that secures the bolt head. It looks smaller in diameter than the Savage. I heard that Savage had had some issues with their pins cracking in magnum applications, which may have been the reason for the change to the smaller firing pin diameter and correspondingly smaller cross pin through hole.
 

Attachments

  • STmossberg_061907J.jpg
    STmossberg_061907J.jpg
    34.2 KB · Views: 844
Last edited:
All the parts of the bolt were recovered, including the broken pin. The edges of the lugs were galled, indicating that the lugs were partially locked (a few degrees), but let go at some pressure.

This occurred during last fall's firearm season in Louisiana. The man has had reconstructive surgery on his face, and tommy says he looks ok, and has grown a beard. So, although I have not seen him, I know that he's taken quite a injury from it.

If anyone gets a chance to strip a Mossberg bolt, I would be interested in how this could happen.

Ben
 
Ben,

Could it be that your coworker's brother had his mouth too close to the bolt for some odd reason or maybe the butt of the stock not on the shoulder. I know this sounds strange, but strange things happen.

Concho Bill
 
LEFT-handed shooter, RIGHT-handed rifle........ I can't see the confusion. I shoot this way.

That "hammer in the teeth" analogy seems pretty accurate.

al
 
Bill Wynne said:
Ben,

Could it be that your coworker's brother had his mouth too close to the bolt for some odd reason or maybe the butt of the stock not on the shoulder. I know this sounds strange, but strange things happen.

Concho Bill
Click to expand...

Bill,

I think you need to read the post again.

The bolt came out, and severly injured the man. It knocked him down, and the bolt was found some distance from him and the rifle.

The fact that he was severly injured was only aggravated with the knob being on his side.

A right handed shooter may have only been slightly injured, or lost their eyesight, who knows.

Ben
 
I can see how it happenned

If, while camming down the handle, the pin that attaches the bolt head to the rest of the bolt sheared, it would have placed the remainimg part of the bolt "in battery", and capable of firing the cartridge. The luggs, however, would not have been "in battery".
Interesting.........jackie
 
jackie schmidt said:
If, while camming down the handle, the pin that attaches the bolt head to the rest of the bolt sheared, it would have placed the remainimg part of the bolt "in battery", and capable of firing the cartridge. The luggs, however, would not have been "in battery".
Interesting.........jackie
Click to expand...

That is the only way I see it too ... but why that pin would shear is beyond me... the pressures are all on the lugs... the only force that pin would get is when you cam the bolt closed... maybe it was heat treated too hard and was brittle...?
 
Bnhpr said:
Bill,

I think you need to read the post again.

The bolt came out, and severly injured the man. It knocked him down, and the bolt was found some distance from him and the rifle.

The fact that he was severly injured was only aggravated with the knob being on his side.

A right handed shooter may have only been slightly injured, or lost their eyesight, who knows.

Ben
Click to expand...

I stand corrected Ben. It must have been some kind of equiptment failure and it must be examined, as I am sure it is.

Concho Bill
 
Safety lug

jackie schmidt said:
If, while camming down the handle, the pin that attaches the bolt head to the rest of the bolt sheared, it would have placed the remainimg part of the bolt "in battery", and capable of firing the cartridge. The luggs, however, would not have been "in battery".
Interesting.........jackie
Click to expand...
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Interesting indeed,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I can understand that to happen on opening of the bolt, rather then on closing the bolt. It would make much more sense to me. However, I'm not disputing the fact, that it didn't happen that way.

I'm bit puzzled when I ask; "Where was the bolt handle (safety lug) when the gun was fired"?

If the lugs were only "partially" locked they would most likely act as a "delayed" roller locker blow back action (Heckler & Koch) without the springs and the weight of the bolt. This "delayed" action was most likely able to take the most of the pressure before it gave up.

But where was the damn bolt handle or a safety lug to allow the bolt to come out?

The modern, streamline, material and tool saving manufacturing is the way the whole World is driven today. Everything is about saving and maximum profits. A safety lug or a proper solid bolt handle serving as one would prevented the bolt from flying out.

The rifle bolt should be made solid (forged/cast) and if a separate handle is attached, the main bolt body should be made from a starting material large enough that it would form a one piece solid root for the bolt handle that would be solid all the way to the side edge of the receiver. So the welded/silver soldered handle joint would be far out of the possible "shear area" of the safety lug/handle.

I'm of an opinion that every action should have a safety lug/handle that should be strong enough to take a "blue pill" load safely even if there were no lugs on the bolt at all.

The factory and the popular after market bolt handles that are silver soldered/welded on directly to the bolt cylinder body don't go well with me at all.

As any material can fail, that includes the main locking lugs as well and not providing a bolt with a proper solid safety lug/handle is an absolute "piggery" where safety is concern.

Shoot better
Peter
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Guys

A very tight case and big ham handed guy might sear that pin, under the right conditions, when the bolt was closed. You would think Mossberg would be smarter than that.

One question. Was the bolt handle still on the bolt when it was recovered? If it was then the bolt wasn't closed when it went off.

I investigared a firearms accident involving a premature discharge. The firing pin never touched the primer. The case had been shot at least 6 times from the number of ejector pins marks on the casehead. meaning loose primer pockets and one of two things happened.
The primer backed out of the case and powder got between the primer and the bottom of the pocket.
1. When the bolt was closed it crushed the powder to the point that the powder went off.
2. The primer got crushed and it went off.

Either way it was shooter error. No law suit was filed against the gunsmith.

Dave
 
If the crosspin broke, both pieces would need to fall out to stop the head from turning. Might only take one more round to fall out though. The Mossberg appears to have almost no slot recess for the bolt handle, not that it being brazed on would hold.

On a related note, didn't someone like Hatcher uneventfully fire a mauser with no lugs at all?
 
Dennis, not sure if any of the Savage pins actually broke but Fred will know. They certainly did reduce the firing pin diameter and crosspin hole diameter, probably for a reason. My memory is terrible but wasn't there an early Savage head feature that kept it from being installed backwards and therefore keep the head from spinning if a crosspin broke?
 
The Savage bolt head has a keyway in the tenon and a little lug inside the bolt body which engages the key slot. The bolt head can only go one one way and as you said, both the pin and the little lug would have to fail in order to close the bolt without the lugs locking. I think the bolt handle would break first (they break a little too easily). Are the Savage bolts not still made this way?
Sometimes guys will use a lot of force in an attempt to get a tight fitting cartridge into the chamber. I had a guy bring in a P14 Enfield on which he had managed to actually bend the handle (beat on it with a chunk of wood. It's not easy to bend an Enfield handle) trying to get one of his buddy's reloads into it (it was a 338). He couldn't get the bolt to close enough to fire it and brought it to me to get the cartridge out. I did so but with great difficulty. Regards, Bill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top