Remington 1100 Barrel Blew Up

[tjtM38]

The problem is if you invest in a new barrel or send the firearm to Remington for repair, it would probably not be economically feasible. If you could find a used barrel you could fix it and designate it to lead shot only. Then you need to find something else to shoot steel safely.

[WeldonHunter]

The problem is if you invest in a new barrel or send the firearm to Remington for repair, it would probably not be economically feasible. If you could find a used barrel you could fix it and designate it to lead shot only. Then you need to find something else to shoot steel safely.

This gun isn't going to Remington. It's probably 35+ years old and this was caused by misuse. I have the gun here now and have taken pictures but the battery died. I'll post up what I see but I can see there's a bulge about one and a half to two inches back from the end of the barrel. It bulged before it let loose. I also talked to the boy and he said he thinks it's possible he put it in the mud but can't say for sure. I have the gun apart and there's no other damage to it besides the end of the barrel. The receiver is fine. The new bolt buffer I put in it did it's job. I still need to take the action spring out but I replaced that before this and it should be ok too. Bolt and locking lug are good also. It's dirty though. He was looking to get a different barrel with replaceable chokes before this happened so he could use different types of ammo but I don't think this was an ammo problem. You'll see when I post the close ups. We'll look at all the options including a used barrel. I'm not even sure a new one is going to be available so we may have to go with a used one. I'm sure he'll want an original barrel for it but he also wants one that gives him more options. I think eventually we'll be getting both. This gun also has water in it (water droplets) and already has some rust. We're going to have to talk about proper gun maintenance. The boy probably hasn't pulled it apart all week to oil it up. Normally that would be ok until the season is over but not when it's being used on the water in the rain.

[WeldonHunter]

OK here we go. Keep in mind this gun was completely clean a little over a month ago. I replaced the bolt buffer, gas piston, piston seal, barrel seal, action spring and completely pulled it apart to clean every part of this gun as well as repaired the Gas cylinder. The magazine tube, the trigger assembly, the action spring tube and parts as well as the receiver. I touched up all the white metal with Oxpho Blue. I didn't disassemble the trigger assembly. I cleaned it with Hoppe's and a tooth brush then degreased it and blew it off with compressed air and lubed it up. He did bring a round from the box of what he was shooting. The actual spent shell ejected into the lake. He also said he was aiming up with the gun shouldered so it wasn't a submerged barrel. The bottom line is it looks like this was a plugged barrel. I stressed that he tell me everything no matter how insignificant he may think it was and that most importantly we're not trying to place blame. We need to know what happened so it doesn't happen again.....ever. I told him we're just glad he's ok and it could have been a lot worse.

[BubbaDX]

I am glad the kid was OK. I am sure he needed some clean pants after that one. And I am sure he realizes how lucky he was to not be injured.

[bunkysdad]

It could have been worse is right. For instance.........
https://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_ur ... eUmkpFIGIw

[WeldonHunter]

I am glad the kid was OK. I am sure he needed some clean pants after that one. And I am sure he realizes how lucky he was to not be injured.

Yeah he's I'm sure it got his attention. He's a pretty tough kid though. I have seen the way he reacts when something happens he wasn't expecting. Like the time I let him shoot the Garand. He'd never fired one and wasn't expecting the enbloc ping. He sat back and looked at the clip on the ground then looked at me and thought something had let loose. Once I explained it to him he thought it was one of the coolest things he's ever seen. Keep in mind he never came close to dropping the rifle and even held it on place where it was on the bench while he looked for whatever the heck that was that flung out of the rifle.

[WeldonHunter]

It could have been worse is right. For instance.........
https://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_ur ... eUmkpFIGIw

Hey Russell I tried the link and it seems to be going to some sort of page where there's a bunch of videos. Which one are you talking about? The one with the strange shotgun loads?

[A J]

Good thing nobody was injured. Thanks for posting as a reminder to all of us to focus on safety when handling firearms. We can never be too careful.

As a battalion commander in a USAR unit, during a field exercise, a young soldier politely pointed out of me that my M16 was on "fire" not "safe". I thanked him and pointed out to others that he was right and I was wrong. All of us will make a mistake at some point, whether it's accidentally getting some mud in the barrel or leaving your selector switch on "fire."

We're all stupid humans and there's only so much a Remington barrel can take!

[Longcolt44]

I have to vote for an obstruction in the barrel. From where it came apart I'm betting mud. Damn, he is a very luck young man.

[WeldonHunter]

Good thing nobody was injured. Thanks for posting as a reminder to all of us to focus on safety when handling firearms. We can never be too careful.

As a battalion commander in a USAR unit, during a field exercise, a young soldier politely pointed out of me that my M16 was on "fire" not "safe". I thanked him and pointed out to others that he was right and I was wrong. All of us will make a mistake at some point, whether it's accidentally getting some mud in the barrel or leaving your selector switch on "fire."

We're all stupid humans and there's only so much a Remington barrel can take!

Yeah sometimes I feel like I sound like I'm a bit over the top, whether it's having shoots here or discussing whether to headspace a military surplus rifle here on this board. It's always best to err on the side of caution. This stuff does happen and can even to the most seasoned shooter. I just got off the phone with my buddy, this boys dad and he seems to think this was might even have been water sitting in the barrel that bunched up at the choke. He also told me this gun has had a whole lot of steel shot through it. He reminded me where he got this gun. It was his great uncles that gave it to him 6 months before he passed away to keep his druggy cousin from getting it. I looked up the date code on the barrel which is most likely the original one and it'a ABM which translates to either march of 1933 or 1955 or 1981. The three dates are because Remington used the alphabet and it turned over every 26 years. Since the 1100 started production in 1963 it's a 1981. Now to find a barrel.

[Fred_G]

I would like to raise a toast to the fact that nobody got hurt. I would suspect an obstruction.

[mogunner]

Kid's name isn't Elmer Fudd was it, and he wasn't "hunting wabbits"?

[WeldonHunter]

Kid's name isn't Elmer Fudd was it, and he wasn't "hunting wabbits"?

Ha yeah funny how those kind of things are based in fact. I remember seeing guns blow up like that on cartoons when I was a kid or on the Three Stooges.

[Junk Yard Dog]

[millman]

I am pretty sure that steel shot was not the best idea in that barrel, but the law is the law, and I am sure he had no choice in that respect. A new steel rated barrel would have taken care of that problem, but that is NOT what caused that catastrophic failure. There was an obstruction in that barrel.

[WeldonHunter]

I am pretty sure that steel shot was not the best idea in that barrel, but the law is the law, and I am sure he had no choice in that respect. A new steel rated barrel would have taken care of that problem, but that is NOT what caused that catastrophic failure. There was an obstruction in that barrel.

Yeah I agree Eric. I have the gun here and I can't see much evidence of what actually happened. Any mud would have most likely been blown out. There's really no evidence of anything on the outside of the barrel unless it got packed on the way back from the blind last time and he wiped the mud off the outside of the gun. The bulge near the end of the barrel says it all though.
These guys are avid hunters and his dad told me he's run thousands of rounds of steel through it and that was before I originally worked on it. I didn't see any evidence of bulging and I looked that entire gun over during the few weeks while I worked on it and waited for parts. I've found a new Remington barrel for about $200+. It's the same exact barrel, 3" chamber, 30" long vented rib but has a removable choke with a long list of different choke inserts that can be used in it. He asked me before this to find him a replacement barrel that he could change chokes on because he wanted to be able to shoot different loads for different game. Like the extra full choke for turkey and specifically rated lead or steel. I looked but only found a few aftermarket barrels but I found this one and it's factory Remington. He doesn't know I found it yet so when I tell him he'll be real happy. The downside is he now no longer has the original barrel but it probably would have never been used again. That's not a big deal really. Would be nice to have but this gun will most likely never leave the family and the new barrel is an upgrade.

[Rongo]

At least he is OK.

[WeldonHunter]

At least he is OK.

Yeah he's fine. Dad told me this gun won't be used to duck hunt once I get it back together. I think this gun will be used mostly for dove, squirrel and turkey from this point on and only by dad. The boy has a 20ga he's been using since but I'm not sure who's gun that is. Might be another one of dad's or his grandfather's. Before this all happened a few weeks ago dad asked me to look for a few shotguns for the boy for Christmas. He was looking at either a Remington 11-87 or a Benelli Nova. Something in a synthetic stock and camo. The boy really likes the Nova.

[WeldonHunter]

Greasemonkey just PM'd me this as a possible cause of this and it makes sense to me. Even if it isn't what happened here I think it's an excellent suggestion and something I'd never thought of and more importantly something we should watch out for.

No being much of a shotgun person, I do own a few however. Just out of curiosity, do you have a 20gauge? I once heard a fellow talking in the shop about an autoloader once that blew the barrel just like that. He found that a single 20 ga shell worked into the 12 gauge ammo. The person points the weapon down thinking it was an empty chamber or thought it was a misfire, seeing no round on the ground, then proceeded to rechamber and a normal 12ga shell chambered. All the while, the 20ga shell had slid down the barrel and stuck in the choke, when fired and blew out the end of the barrel. A 20ga will drop right down into a 12 ga barrel. It's commonly called it a 12/20 burst.

Just an idea. If plausible, feel free to post the above info

That makes perfect sense Carl but I doubt that's what happened. I'm not ruling anything out at this point though. His mama had just bought him a brand new box of 12ga Super-X shells he was using ( I have one he brought when he dropped the gun off) but this was the first and only shot of the day. Now that doesn't rule out this being a round stuck in the barrel from the previous day. They do have 20ga shotguns, he's using one right now to hunt with since this happened.

I was also told by another friend he's seen wadding not exit the barrel and the next shot doing this. There's a lot of possibilities. The bottom line is he's going to have to pay closer attention to the barrel. The main thing being to keep it out of the dirt. Even though we're not sure if that's what happened it's one less thing to worry about if it does just that one thing. I'm going to post this. Others need to see this. Thanks Carl.

[millman]

That is called a 12/20 burst. I watched two dumbasses on the NRA tv show try that with a Bennelli . Nothing happened. The 12 blew the 20 right out of the barrel, cycled the action and was ready to go for the next shot. I was amazed. I expected to see what you have here with the 1100.