Happened at DWs shoot yesterday. I was shooting Federals. Opened up this box of Winchesters and this is the first round. The bang was so loud it knocked the earplugs right out of my ears. They're still ringing this morning. Sprayed power residue in my face. Good thing I had my Costas on. It also messed up my primary dove gun. Lucky I had my turkey gun as a backup. The turkey choke helped when they started flying high later in the day!!

A first for me

I've never seen a shell do that! Glad you are ok!

Dang man. I didn't realize that. Glad you are ok.. Never seen that before. I would send Email to Winchester..

I have come to conclude that universals are junk

Send an email to winchester with the pics and I bet they at least send you a box of shells.

I would email them. One of the reasons i dont shoot cheaper shells.

I have heard of it happening with older Remington shells. Never with winchester. Glad you are ok.

Probably go overboard. That's bad

Wow. Glad you are okay. Never had it happen before but I did have a barrel fail once on a brand new Remington 11-87. Barrel bulged right where the choke threads started at the end of the barrel. Remington sent me a brand new barrel.

My brother had this happen a few years ago. Winchester sent him coupons for several hundred worth of ammo. They also paid to have the bad ammo sent back to them.

Also a good thing you weren't shooting lefty!

Was the action closed all the way, as in you had to pump it to take this picture, or did it shoot with the bolt in the position pictured?

It looks like it was the later to me, and if so this isn't the fault of the shell.

That was a really way overpressure load for some reason. Definitely contact Winchester.

Kinda looks like ht hull wasn't properly constructed.

Woulda been bad if it had been me.

From what you are saying the action was not fully closed not the shell it is the guns fault. If action was closed it wouldn't have blow powder in your face or been that loud. If I were you I would try dry firing it with the action open to see if it will fire. I don't know about all pump guns but my 870 will not shoot with the action open. If yours does you should take it to a gunsmith before you get hurt.

Glad nothing bad came of it..... I shot 4 boxes of Winchesters with no problems.....must've been something weak there.....

I did that yesterday. The gun will not fire unless it is fully closed. I sent this pic to a busy of mine and he think it's a problem with the crimping. He says it looks line too much pressure built up and exploded backwards.

Please be safe and check your gn out thuroughl before this happens again. This would have been way worse with a heavy turkey load of buck shot.

The bolt came open, there is no way the base could have blown out like that if it had stayed closed. It is a matter of physics, the chamber didn't bulge, so what was inside of it can't be bigger around than what it is. Did the wad even make it out of the barrel? From looking at the hull it appears that most of the pressure went out the breech.

I would pull the trigger group out and see what it looks like. The bolt may have been all the way forward when you pulled the trigger, but it didn't fully lock like it is supposed to do to keep this from happening. Excessice crud or wear could cause such to happen.


I personally don't buy into the crimp issue.

Definitely case head separation due to not being in battery. I noticed my 870 was doing that this weekend. I could close the action, and where you would normally have to depress the button to open, mine would open with a little wiggling. Haven't investigated as to why.