Epic Shotgun Shell Failure

[HughD1]

My boss’s husband went turkey hunting in Missouri this week. He called her at work yesterday fussing because he had missed a turkey. The gun jammed and couldn’t get off another shot. This is what he found. Part of the shell went past the turkey. The remaining piece jammed his Benelux shotgun. He pays a small fortune for these shells. $15.00 a shell. Anybody ever seen a shell do this before?

Hugh


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[HughD1]

Benelli shotgun. I hate spellcheck!

Hugh


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[Scharfschuetzer]

I've never seen a factory shell do that. I shoot skeet two to three times a week and see others shoot hundreds of rounds a week. Lots of the shooters stretch their reloads for shell hulls beyond what is probably practical, and I see at least one like that every few weeks. I've never suffered that personally, but it's always a possibility when you shoot a lot.

 

[murphydog]

Glad nothing bad happened to him or the gun. The turkey was probably relieved too.

What shotgun loads are $15 a round?! I would be sending a strongly worded message to that company along with a photo.

 

[biku324]

I had two Buffalo Bore 45 Auto Rim standard velocity factory loads split on initial firing. I called Buffalo Bore with the lot number, and they were immediately concerned and asked me to measure the fired cases. They were expanded, but not more than the rest which have not split (I've reloaded most of that batch 3 or 4 times since). It was a 2015 lot, loaded in Starline brass, and I use Starline a lot with no troubles. BB said they'd no other such reports, and I believe them - they spent a lot of time with me trying to figure this out.

Stuff can just happen, I guess.

 

[RCL-09]

What kind of shotgun shell costs $15.00 each?!

 

[HughD1]

Nitro. Supposedly they are sending him a new box for his trouble. Don’t know how long he has been using them. First trouble he has had with them.


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[6518John]

My bet is whatever caused the failure jammed the shell in the chamber and the ejector on the shotgun ripped the hull in two. Those Benelli’s have powerful ejection.

 

[Rudi]

I have never seen anything like that. He was lucky, no damage or injuries.

 

[2152hq]

.... Part of the shell went past the turkey. The remaining piece jammed his Benelux shotgun.


He pays a small fortune for these shells. $15.00 a shell. Anybody ever seen a shell do this before?

Hugh


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Did the upper portion of the hull (on the left in the pic) travel down the bore and exit the muzzle?..is that the "Part of the shell that went past the turkey" ??

That upper portion is ripped away from the lower portion of the hull. The separate inner base wad is visible pushed forward a little.
The shot wad never exited the hull.
The outside of the upper portion is scarred and beaten.
The brass head doesn't look smooth. Looks like lots of scars or 'work' lines in the metal. Might just be dirt or moisture on the brass though and nothing more than the pic.

It appears to me and this is just my opinion,,that the round was a reload using a hull that had been reloaded a few too many times in the past...
or...
The load used was perhaps a bit higher pressure than what the books may tell you to use.
Maybe both in play.

Are these shells an OTC commercial brand of ammunition?
Or one of the specialty house reloaded ammunition that's marketed to give better performance at a slightly higher price of course.
HeviShot or one of the other heavy non lead substitute loads. They can be extremely expensive. & use special reloading data.
But $15/shell seems a bit steep. But I must admit I haven't been hunting in a long while. The last time I hunted Ducks, you could use lead shot and there were no turkeys around except in the grocery store.


Trap and Skeet shooters that reload their empty hulls to the enth degree trying to get the last little bit of life out of them by reloading them 'just one more time' can experience this type of failure.

It's more common with the 410 shooters than others it seems,,but can happen with any of them.
Usually called Zingers,,the hull separates at or just above the brass head and that entire upper piece goes down the bore and out the muzzle.
Sometimes the shot crimp unfolds a bit,,sometimes not.
You get to eject the head of the shell.
Then you really know that hull is done.

 

[Hair Trigger]

I've seen that happen, semi-intentionally. I've seen guys "ring" a shotshell, cutting it just at the internal wad, almost through the plastic. When it gets fired, the whole 2/3 of the shell leaves the gun, with the cup and shot and end seal intact. It makes a slug out of a shot cartridge and is devastating to whatever it hits. Not really good for the gun, though.


I'm with everyone else, though, what makes those shells worth $15 each?

 

[TX-Dennis]

Hmm, Nitro TSS Premium turkey loads are around that price (68.99/5 MSRP), but the hulls are green. The round pictured sure looks like a reload to me.

 

[HughD1]

Nitro Ammunition Company. Never heard of them before yesterday.


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[MygunisaS&Wrevolver]

I would be curious how much the barrel/choke was expanded or blown out? Generally turkey loads are #4 or #5 lead shot and designed to keep the pattern small and used with a turkey full choke, definitely not made to have part of the entire shell pass through them. Benelli's do have good extractors. Was it a Super Black Eagle or a Nova? They have quite a few models but these two are the more common hunting guns and are generally excellent.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Don’t think I would want anymore of those shells.

 

[HughD1]

Super Black Eagle is what his wife said. I think it is a 3 1/2 inch 12 gauge. He is still in Missouri and I just got off work in Mississippi. Y’all have about all the info I can give you other than he found this company when they went to the NWTF shindig in Nashville.

Hugh


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[HughD1]

Yes. The hull went outThe end of the barrel . He found it past where the turkey was standing.

Hugh


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[Skeet 028]

Have seen worse than that. The old Blue Magics would shoot off like that from time to time. That looks like an older Win hull. Guided waterfowlers and saw lots of weird stuff. Large steel shot and Hevi shot is hard on hulls and guns. Worst brand of steel shot loads I saw were loaded by Kent. Saw a couple of 870's ruined by them.

 

[Babysitr]

I've shot Winchester supreme 3.5" forever..shooting XR extended range now..they're $40 or so a box (10)..both my son and I had ammo issues this season, he shot a bird and the round in the magazine poped out the overshot wad and his SXP was full of shot rolling around...I shot my bird, he started walking off like a drunk,gave him another and did the job well...when I recovered the empties,that first round the primer was sticking out of the brass and the base around the primer bulged out???..not real happy about it!

 

[Pisgah]

3.5" shell, 3" chamber...

 

[shocker]

I've tried the cut shell thing. Results are erratic, some behave like a slug, other produce what was shown above. No harm to the gun though as it was a pump action.

 

[LDM]

What kind of shotgun shell costs $15.00 each?!

Must be one of those heat-seeking high-explosive rounds that one politician was ranting about a few years ago. And don't forget the proximity fuse. Those goodies all add up.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Looks like a piece of junk to me.

If factory, new...............
get your money back, one way or another.

I don't even like how the brass base looks.............. !!

 

[pantannojack]

Paying $15 for each shell brings to mind a scene in a early 60's Peter Sellers movie: "the man who designed this rack should have his head examined."

 

[Oscar Zulu]

The new ‘thing” among turkey hunters is using fairly heavy loads of tiny TSS shot, 7’s, 8’s and even 9’s. They turn (reportedly) even a .410 into a turkey hammer even at long range. They are very expensive!
The only use of them I have personally experienced was duck hunting with my cousin. An 1 1/8oz #9 hand load was…… very effective. He said he got the shot directly from China, and his reloads still cost him more than 2$. He finished both a Pintail and a Snow goose swimming at what had to be 70+ yards. Swimming waterfowl are much more difficult to kill than flying birds.
A bit of a thread drift, but an attempt to explain the 15$ shell price.

OZ

 

[Nevada Ed]

A lot has to due with the density of the pellet.......
as to how much energy it will carry at a known distance, plus
the correct choke to get a pattern that will kill at that distance
and not just wound or cripple birds, that my become lost.

Lead pellets are rated at 11.3 grains/cc
Hevi shot is rated at ..... 12.0
Nice shot .................... 13.0 and the best.....
Tungsten super shot at... 18.0 g/cc

which is why it is so expensive.
A little #7-9 pellet has as much energy as a #4 Heavy pellet and
have twice as many pellets in the pattern.

Two pounds of TSS cost around $109..........
and most people do not waste it in 1 1/8 oz. payloads, due to the cost.

Fast 7/8 or "Mag" 1 oz. loads will usually fill the bill for bird hunting.

 

[Oscar Zulu]

Neveda Ed,
great explanation! I found out what TSS stands for. In hindsight I believe my cousin was using lighter than 1 1/8 loads. What brought it to my attention was the amount of wadding, carding, etc that was all over the pond.I think he put them in for spacing.
Maybe the hunter referred to in the original post didn’t quite get the formula right. My cousin’s loads look complicated. A 3 1/2” TSS going off would like a confetti cannon……

OZ

 

[Drm50]

I know idiots that have ruined the choke by firing ringed shells through them. A few years ago I saw a video entitled “ The Art Of Ringed Shells” a YouTube idiot saw a old reference to ringing and thought he uncovered a
“Lost Art”. I have seen many shells separate from over use. That particular shell looks rode hard. You would think a specialized performance company would use new hulls.

 

[Buford57]

Saw something like that on the job. We were supposed to clear the issued Remington 870 at the start of each shift and confirm that they were in ready condition. I did so religiously, others not so much. Besides finding cigar butts and candy wrappers in the barrels, one night I had a shell separate above the base in about the same location when I removed it from the magazine. Too many trips through the action.

On the Remingtons there was a technique for removing shells from the magazine without cycling the action. Most just racked the slide. In this fellow's case I can see him loading and unloading the gun at the beginning and end of each hunt. How long has he had these expensive shells and how many hunts have they logged?

 

[SmithNut]

What kind of shotgun shell costs $15.00 each?!

It sounds high, but recently I was shopping for .410 shells for my Grandson's new pump gun, and ran across these Federal Turkey loads....

Buy HEAVYWEIGHT TSS for USD 42.99 | Federal Ammunition

Cost was $42.99 for 5 shells (yes, that's qty. 5), so high performance turkey loads at $15.00 each doesn't sound out of place.....

Wow, it's cheaper to buy a dead turkey at Walmart than to shoot one with this new breed of shells....

Talk about "marketing".... %^&^%$...