I don't believe this is real. You know what it takes to do that to a barrel? You'd pretty much have to weld it shut.

Who in their right mind would shoot with a welded rifle?

This is why you treat the barrel of your rifle like a dinner plate.
Always keep it clean, and away from any dirt.

I see another Mythbuster's YouTube Special coming out of this.

^ Here's what I found:

With today's video editing capabilities, who knows for sure if ANY videos we see are real - I for one HAVE seen this happen to a rifle in real life so I tend to believe it! I've also been standing up close and personal when a Shotgun exploded... Lot's of fun and a mass trip to emerge - My friend split his eardrums and we all got pellets in our exposed skin.

what a surreal video. that weird whistling sound in the background made it all the more effective.

remember, we have a *fail channel now!

Adding video to channels (Fail) - requested by ponceleon.

Yes this is real, it does happen sometimes, usually because someone is using hand loaded ammunition. With factory loads they keep the pressures well within the safe range but some people who load by hand will try to push the tolerances as high as they can because they think that's cool. This is what happens when a hot hand load meets a slight barrel flaw, could be as simple as some water in the barrel when it fired or a manufacturing flaw.

It's not common but it definitely does happen. The good news is I've never heard of anyone being seriously hurt by this kind of malfunction.

And, Ponceleon, is it still a fail if he hit and killed the game animal? It looked to me like the bullet exited pretty well, it's hard to say whether his shot worked out or not.

here is hollywood's take

>> ^Drachen_Jager:
And, Ponceleon, is it still a fail if he hit and killed the game animal? It looked to me like the bullet exited pretty well, it's hard to say whether his shot worked out or not.


And with that I can no longer take you seriously. If you mean to say that a rifle which ends up being split in the middle can still hit what you were aiming for...you have no idea what you're talking about!

Over and out.

This is what would have happened to the chick's AR-15 prosthetic leg in that Grindhouse movie thingy.

>> ^griefer_queafer:
what a surreal video. that weird whistling sound in the background made it all the more effective.


That weird whistling is an elk... or someone using an elk whistle/bugle.

As for the gun barrel splitting like that, I have a lot of trouble believing the video. The barrels of modern rifles are made to withstand a lot of pressure and for a barrel to split along the sides like that it would have to have not one, but two incredibly rare flaws in the metal on each side of the barrel. Then it would have to also have an enormous amount of pressure inside the barrel.

And rasch187 is right. If it was possible for the barrel to do that, there is no way the bullet had any accuracy or power whatsoever.

>> ^Drachen_Jager It looked to me like the bullet exited pretty well, it's hard to say whether his shot worked out or not.


Wow. Did you seriously just claim that the bullet could have made a straight flight path? Or that you could SEE the fucking bullet leave the barrel on a shitty internet video?!?!

I'm feeling the need to self *promote this video and the discusion!
Edit: oh ya, two point - darn... that's ok!

Post cannot be self promoted by original submitter Sagemind because Sagemind does not have enough Power Points. (You can always purchase more Power Points.)

Let's try this again... *promote

Self promoting this video back to the front page; last published Monday, June 8th, 2009 11:20am PDT - promote requested by original submitter Sagemind.

"If you mean to say that a rifle which ends up being split in the middle can still hit what you were aiming for...you have no idea what you're talking about!"

Actually I was a weapons tech in the army for a few years so I do have some idea what I'm talking about. The way the barrel split from the muzzle end like a banana shows that the bullet was probably at least 90% of the way out the barrel before the barrel started to split because there would be no pressure at the muzzle end of the barrel if the bullet hadn't reached that far yet. As such it's entirely possible that the bullet could have had most of the normal firing velocity. Note I didn't say the bullet must have exited normally, I just said it's possible that it exited well enough that the shot worked out, we don't know from the video what the range was but presuming the bullet had at least 50% of it's normal velocity and wasn't thrown too far off course by the barrel explosion it's entirely possible the shot was on target and deadly.

Same for you Gunrock, I didn't say the shot DID work out, I just said it's possible.

^ ^ smacked down by Drachen! a-s-s u m-e

>> ^Drachen_Jager:

OH SNAP! Rasch and Gunrock got played!

Well, you buy a gun from ACME this is what happens. Same effect from a carrot in the barrel or a gloved finger.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Gun, Blows up, Split, barrel, Hunting, Riffle, Shoot, Gun' to 'Gun, Blows up, Split, barrel, Hunting, Rifle, Shoot, Gun' - edited by burdturgler

Siftbot is right about the 90% part. I would guess that the shooter is a reloader. Squib rounds are common with reloads. the first charge is not strong enough to send the round downrange and it jams in the barrel; the second round comes through and the added pressure either pushes the squib round out, or the pressure exits via the barrel. the bolt is locked in the breech and the pressure needs to go somewhere. the barrel is the weaker of the two and it goes, rather that driving a broken bolt through the shooters face.

sorry, i meant Drachen_Jager