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Have heard of this but in 10's of thousands of rounds this was a first.

I took my Marlin 39A down into my field to test a couple of different brands for accuracy and afterwards was having a bit of fun shooting at cans. One of the rounds went kind of poooof instead of a nice crack. There was smoke coming out of my rifle around the trigger, lever and out of the little hole put in the side of the receiver in case this actually happens.

I ejected the brass without thinking and couldn't find it. I cleared the remaining ammo from the gun, the next one in line was blackened along the side. Took the gun apart, checked for damage. Found none, just a couple of small pieces of brass. The chamber and bore looked normal as did the indention's from the firing pin strikes; so put it back together and loaded one round - worked fine.

I went on a loaded the gun and shot a bit more then gave it a good take apart cleaning. Neither gun nor I was hurt but it is a good demonstration that no matter how unlikely it is to happen it is a very good idea to be wearing some eye protection. Just glad it didn't happen with a high intensity centerfire round.

FWIW, the ammo that did this was Winchester Wildcat bought Friday.Have used this stuff many times.

wharvey wrote:Have heard of this but in 10's of thousands of rounds this was a first.

Thanks for the post Harvey. People do get complacent when they shoot thousands of rounds with out a hiccup and then pow! Always wear eye protection. I am glad that you are okay.

WildBill wrote:

wharvey wrote:Have heard of this but in 10's of thousands of rounds this was a first.

Thanks for the post Harvey. People do get complacent when they shoot thousands of rounds with out a hiccup and then pow! Always wear eye protection. I am glad that you are okay.

Always! And ear protection, even for .22lr. My father has lost a significant amount of hearing thanks to farm equipment in the past 50 years. Hearing damage is cumulative, and even if it doesn't seem like "a lot" of noise, it adds up over the years.

Aren't Marlin 39's fun to shoot? Could have been a weak or damaged case or even a defectively cast bullet at the crimp creating a gap that allowed gas to escape behind. C. Rodney James had examples of both in his book. Always check to be sure the bullet has cleared the barrel when you have round that doesn't sound right.

puma guy wrote:Aren't Marlin 39's fun to shoot? Could have been a weak or damaged case.

It's my favorite. Love taking a row of cans down. Working the lever is so much more fun than just pulling the trigger on a semi.

After taking the gun apart and checking every thing I came to the same conclusion. Just wished I hadn't lost the case.

wharvey wrote:

puma guy wrote:Aren't Marlin 39's fun to shoot? Could have been a weak or damaged case.

It's my favorite. Love taking a row of cans down. Working the lever is so much more fun than just pulling the trigger on a semi.

After taking the gun apart and checking every thing I came to the same conclusion. Just wished I hadn't lost the case.

Glad they was no damage, especially to you. I took my older brother out to shoot my 39 many years ago. I took a little Model 62 Win also. He complained the 39 was broken and wouldn't shoot. I loaded it up and it shot fine then handed it back after loading it up. I watched as he worked the lever to chamber a round and realized the problem. He is left handed and was laying the rifle on it's right side as he levered the rifle. The round fell out of the ejection port before he could close the lever. There was a pile of .22 cartridges on the ground where he'd been trying to shoot. I gave him the 62 pump to shoot.

puma guy wrote: Glad they was no damage, especially to you. I took my older brother out to shoot my 39 many years ago. I took a little Model 62 Win also. He complained the 39 was broken and wouldn't shoot. I loaded it up and it shot fine then handed it back after loading it up. I watched as he worked the lever to chamber a round and realized the problem. He is left handed and was laying the rifle on it's right side as he levered the rifle. The round fell out of the ejection port before he could close the lever. There was a pile of .22 cartridges on the ground where he'd been trying to shoot. I gave him the 62 pump to shoot.

That is as funny as the ball falling out of the Kentucky pistol on Top Shot last season. Never could figure why they didn't patch the ball.