Browning BL-22

[Mark Terry]

A good friend of mine lusted after, drooled over and finally purchased a used Browning BL-22 in very good condition. The seller told a story about how he's bought it for his daughter who promptly dropped it and scratched the stock (minor and the only thing that suggests it was ever handled). She decided she didn't like it and so Dad put it up for sale.

Good Friend takes it home, runs 50-100 rounds through it and proclaims it near perfect. On the event of a visit by his granddaughter, takes granddaughter and BL-22 out for some recreational shooting.

On the third or fourth shot, all heck breaks loose when the trigger is pulled. There were no injuries except to grandfather's feelings. He asked me to look at it and examine the pieces.

Two pieces appear to be a part of an extractor and a short plunger of some sort. It's apparent something went wrong. Shell casing is ruptured on the rim end. The action is partially open and won't travel to the normal closed or open positions (but will move). What appears to be a sheet metal cover that closes the ejection port when the action is closed is bent and/or out of place. My suggestion is to send it to Browning and let them sort it out.

Later, I call him and asked him to shine a bore light down the barrel and sure enough, there's no light. A cleaning rod pushes out the bullet (which did enter the barrel far enough to imprint the rifling.

My vote and advice is to send it to Browning but I thought I'd see if any of you guys had ever seen this with this rifle. My best guess is that the firing pin fell on the cartridge before the bolt was closed and locked. Shouldn't have been possible but....


Any ideas?

[gundownunder]

Heck, I wouldn't have believed a .22 would be capable of destroying a rifle.

Could the shot before the last one have been a squib?, thus making it an ammo fault rather than a rifle one.

[Mark Terry]

If we'd found two bullets (in the barrel), I'd have said that could have been the case but since we only found one, I think the preceding shot was okay. They claim to have seen a bullet hole from the preceding shot.

The rifle is, I believe, entirely repairable, so it's not destroyed.

[olyinaz]

I've not looked at this rifle closely enough yet, but could it be that a stuck extractor fired the rimfire cartridge before the bolt was fully locked, leading to a case rupture and an uncontrolled 24,000 psi blowout?

[Mark Terry]

I've not looked at this rifle closely enough yet, but could it be that a stuck extractor fired the rimfire cartridge before the bolt was fully locked, leading to a case rupture and an uncontrolled 24,000 psi blowout?

I suppose that's possible. I'm not familiar with the action either.

We spoke with the Browning Service folks today and it will go to them tomorrow. They asked that we send the casing and bullet. It will be interesting to hear their explanation.

I'll try to report back when it's returned.

Thanks for the input.

[Mark Terry]

Sent the rifle to Browning and it was returned last week, repaired. Cost was $120.

When I sent the rifle to them, I asked for some explanation of what had happened but I got nothing.

I will call and see if they could offer an explanation. What's to keep this from happening again?

[geobru]

Sent the rifle to Browning and it was returned last week, repaired. Cost was $120.

When I sent the rifle to them, I asked for some explanation of what had happened but I got nothing.

I will call and see if they could offer an explanation. What's to keep this from happening again?

Sometimes stuff happens. Was it a gun problem or was there something about the particular cartridge that made it prone to discharge from a light strike that would have no impact on any other cartridge that you would put through the gun? Nobody can really answer that question. Usually these types of incidents find their way into various forums on the net and this is the first incident I have heard of.

I would rely on the design of the rifle, which has a stellar record for thousands of shooters who own them and shoot often. If everything is in place in the action, that should never happen again. I would think that if there is a problem, Browning would be on it for fear of liability if that happened again!