What hapens if a cheap shotgun self destructs

shannonpowerlab

I am really curious now after all the talk about cheap guns what exactly happens when it goes ka-put.

I could imagine a barrel popping off the receiver.

rowa

i don't think cheap shotguns are as likely to blow up as the more expensive guns , the reason being cheap guns are heavy and crude , i had a baikal single barrel as a first gun and it had a very heavy barrel etc , the better makers are more worried about weight and balance and these guns would have much thinner barrels to get the balance back towards the action .
i read an article with a gunsmith who specialized in english guns and that was his take on things too , a purdey he reckoned has very thin barrels of excellent steel and if neglected or abused would be far more dangerous than a mass produced gun.

Cass

Can't say i fully agree with that rowa. The bigger, older gun manufacturing companies have more money to spend on r&d. I know some of them have overpriced guns that are the price they are simply because of the name on the side of the barrel. Put it this way, buy one of those samurai swords you see in these poxy ninja shops in Dublin for say €100. Made of recycled coke cans and as useful as a chocolate fireguard. Now look at the original samurai. €20,000 starting price. Hundreds of years of experience and craftmen that study the art of forging the blade for years. Both will maim and injure, possibly kill (the real one will obviously) but the real one is still the most successful, light and tough sword available.

The same deal applies to firearms. now i've shot with old cheap guns, and have also owned expensive (in my opinion) guns and fired really expensive guns and i can feel the difference of them in my hands. The cheaper one over time loosens through wear and tear no matter how well i try to look after it. It doesn't give that same feeling of security, functionality and peace of mind when i pick it up as the more expensive guns would.

By your own words the cheaper guns have big, heavy, cumbersome barrels. This is not a sign of reliability its a sign of price effectiveness. Rather than spend hundreds of thousands or millions researching the best mixture of alloy to put into a shotgun barrel they simple drill a lump of bar thick enough that it won't explode in your face at the first shot. (I know that sounds snide but i'm trying to get my point across no insult intended)

I know i'm going to have alot of lads saying how old their shotgun is and how cheap it was and that its still firing away, but seriously put a cheap o/u on a machine and a dear o/u on a machine. Test fire them to destruction and see which goes first. To end on a light note check this out.

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

rowa

I sort of agree with you ezridax , i was just using extremes as an example , i have been lucky enough to see a purdey and a holland and holland in the flesh and the barrels were light on both of them , these makers prided themselves on making some of the best guns in the world and if they were big cumbersome planks of things they wouldn't sell , in comparison a lot of the american made semi's and autos seem to have very heavy barrels .
To be honest i don't see the barrels of any well maintained modern shotgun exploding without being provoked by doing something extreme or stupid .
I watched an episode of mythbusters a while ago when they jammed various items down the barrel to see if they could get the gun to fail , they couldn't ,even when they welded a plug into the bore it just blew it out and bulged the barrel .
I don't fancy doing that myself but it just goes to show how robust a barrel is .

shannonpowerlab

On the other thread I read that someone saw a Baikal falling apart in someone's hands as he fired a shot...Whether it was not assembled correctly or not I do not know. But it sounds quite worrying.Also Yildiz loosening up after a couple of hundreds shots.Should guns like that be circulated in the market? It is a rather serious safety concern...It is just my concern.

Bananaman

What hapens if a cheap shotgun self destructs

Same as if an expensive one does - you ask someone to get you a new pair of kaks.

I have never heard of a gun coming apart though - surely both the lock and the hinge would both have to fail for the barrels to come away from the breechface?

I have seen what happens to a shotgun if the barrell, un-noticed, gets plugged with snow and then fired - barrel burst - not pretty. Is that what you are talking about?

B'Man

shannonpowerlab

well if the barrel is blocked I'd imagine it would destroy any guns... Probably even a famous AK47.I meant under normal operating conditions. Say taking it to a clay shoot etc every or every second sunday shooting 100 each time kind of thing.I would imagine shootign through a blocked barrel is in terms of analogy same as driving a car into a wall and say 'oh the car is too weak'....No?

Cass

shannonpowerlab wrote: »

.....I meant under normal operating conditions. Say taking it to a clay shoot etc every or every second sunday shooting 100 each time kind of thing........

Every gun barrel is tested with a higher load prior to being assembled as in the proofing house in Birmingham, England. This is done again and again but is still not a foolproof method. They could test fire it 100 times and assemble the gun. You buy the gun, fire it 50 timess, and on the 51st time the barrels bulge, give, explode whatever. Point is no-one can foresee the future and no matter how much manufacturers try even they are prone to impure alloys going into the mix and slipping through the passing procedure and making it onto the shelves. These events occur few and far between but it can happen, cheap gun or dear gun.

As to the every day use, i use the shotgun for clays every weekend and with the hunting seasons upon us out in the field also. I'd fire more than 150- 250 at least each week. I take the gun apart after each shoot and clean and oil it thoroughly. Every few months as with rifles i give all the hinges, joints, screws etc a quick check but it is more of a visual check. You can tell by the feel of the gun in your hand whether its loose, or just feels wrong. No-one knows a gun better than the man that owns it.

Same as if an expensive one does - you ask someone to get you a new pair of kaks.

P.S. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Bananaman, you should take up comedy.

deerhunter1

shannonpowerlab wrote: »

I am really curious now after all the talk about cheap guns what exactly happens when it goes ka-put.

I could imagine a barrel popping off the receiver.

A cheap gun has the same chance of of going ka-put as an expensive one just like a car Lada-BMW. They have to be up to a certain standard before they can go on the market

shannonpowerlab

I guess they should satisfy applicable industrial standards before it goes on EU market but...I never saw any CE marking on them....?So you recon these stories are rather unreliable and they are safe no matter what brand it is? Yes?Because if you take a car for example, a gun falling apart in someone's hands is like an engine falling off your car in the middle of motorway driving despite all the scheduled maintenance being carried out...And if someone said so we'd say "nah! Can't be right."Becasue the car may be legally required to be recalled from the market....It is a serious issue so I was just wondering.What is a pair of kaks anyway?

foxhunter

shannonpowerlab wrote: »

I guess they should satisfy applicable industrial standards before it goes on EU market but...I never saw any CE marking on them....?So you recon these stories are rather unreliable and they are safe no matter what brand it is? Yes?Because if you take a car for example, a gun falling apart in someone's hands is like an engine falling off your car in the middle of motorway driving despite all the scheduled maintenance being carried out...And if someone said so we'd say "nah! Can't be right."Becasue the car may be legally required to be recalled from the market....It is a serious issue so I was just wondering.What is a pair of kaks anyway?

I think you should not take everything so literaly .
I suspect you are not irish and are taking everything that people say as the Gospel 100% literal meaning.
When someone says he witnessed a gun falling apart in someones hands after a few shots I suspect he means it became very loose very quickly and didn't actually fall apart.
But I may be 100% wrong on all of the above just my view.

Rovi

shannonpowerlab wrote: »

What is a pair of kaks anyway?

It's a contraction/corruption of 'undercrackers', which itself is slang for 'underpants'.

shannonpowerlab

I get it now.Ok, it was probably some exaggerated talk.

shannonpowerlab

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRKP1OkR1fA

I saw this in Youtube...

It is not a shotgun but I would imagine that's what happens if the barrel is blocked...

You are probably right about needing a fresh pair of kaks after this.