A firearm accident that killed a friend

A PREVENTABLE ACCIDENT
I was a telephone and email friend with Glenn DeRuiter. He was the parts manager for SARCO, Inc. in New Jersey. Our friendship was a mutual, even though we never met each other, face to face. Glenn would send parts for military rifles to me, with a bill. I once had a Swedish AG-42B that had a broken bolt carrier cover. He dug one up and sent it to me and the Ljungman rifle was back in order. He also helped me with my Swedish Military Rifle Book.
His accident proves, no matter what the level of knowledge a shooter has, never assume anything. He bought a near mint Winchester Model 1895 Lee Navy Rifle in 6mm Lee caliber. It is relatively weak action with a tipping bolt straight pull design. The bolt handle pulls straight back and cams upward at the rear to unlock the action. The receiver ring is relatively small and the rear of the bolt slides into the rear of the receiver to lock in place.

His first mistake was to assume the bore diameter was 6mm or .243" in modern terms. It was not. It was .239" and that made the bullets he used .004" oversize.

The cartridge cases he made for the 6mm Lee were formed from .220 Swift. The 6mm Lee is the parent case for the .220 Swift. The .220 Swift is a semi-rimmed cartridge and the rims have to be turned off to work properly in a 6mm Lee. The .220 Swift cases have a smaller case volume than the 6mm Lee. At the time the Lee rifle was made a lot of cartridges were made from balloon formed brass. In other words the primer pockets were made by forming from the rear of the case and this left a recess all the way around the primer pocket on the inside of the case. The .220 Swift cases were solid head cases and there was no recess around the primer pocket. This made the case volume capacity smaller with the newer brass.
His loads were starting loads for the .243 Winchester. The loads were far too hot for the relatively weak action of the Lee rifle. The combination of the bullet diameter, the smaller volume cases and a hot load for the rifle caused the reloads to be a bomb.
If he would have asked me, I would have told him to slug the barrel, consider the capacity of the .220 Swift cases, use lead cast bullets sized .239" and use 2400 powder in light charges.
Here is a narrative by Kurt Feltenberger. I have known him from several bulletin boards on military rifles. He told me to distribute this article, so someone might not do the same thing that Glenn did, with terrible results.


GLENN DERUITER’S ACCIDENT

I'm cross-posting this to all the email lists that have mentioned this incident (that I'[m subbed to). Some have had accurate pieces of info, some have not. Since I was there, I want to let everyone know what happened, as I saw it. There are some lessons in this and in the hope that Glenn's death not be in vain, I will present them so others will not make the same mistakes that Glenn fatally made.

I was at the Easton Fish & Game on Saturday, taking a Defensive Shooting class. During a break in our class, someone came down from the 100yd range and said, "Does anyone have a cellphone? Someone call 911. A guy shot himself. I think he's dead." I looked down and saw a cellphone on the table. I dialed 911 and handed the phone to someone standing next to me and took off around the corner to see what happened.

I was one of the first to arrive at the scene. Glenn was lying on his back, bleeding from a single wound to the center of his forehead. A quick survey of the scene showed his rifle in two pieces, looking like it separated at the receiver ring. I knelt down to Glenn and check for a pulse. I easily found the pulse in the carotid. A couple quick shouts to see if he were conscious were futile and he wasn't breathing so I pulled the jaw down and pushed the tongue down to open the airway. He took in a deep raspy breath. I then moved to the forehead. I gingerly felt the open wound for protruding metal. Finding none, I began to apply pressure to the wound. About this time, Pete showed up and immediately began to assist. For the next 12 minutes, Pete maintained his airway and I kept pressure on his forehead to stop the bleeding. He was unconscious the entire time, most likely from the initial explosion. Pupils were dilated and fixed for the entire period as well. When Pete & I handed him off to EMS, Glenn was still breathing on his own and had a good heartbeat.

After EMS took Glenn away, I began to examine the scene. Mixed in with the blood was brain fluid. This meant the skull was breached. Since there was no exit wound, this meant that either there was piece of metal inside the brain area or he had been dealt a glancing, ricochet type blow that had cracked the front of the skull. It looked like he lost about 1.5 to 2 pints of mixed fluids.

I looked at the pieces of the rifle. The barrel metal was completely intact, with the expended cartridge still in the chamber (more on that later), and the wood was badly splintered. It didn't take long to see that the receiver had failed. The upper half of the receiver ring was missing as were tops of the rails for about 1-2". Upon closer examination, the metal showed an obvious crystalline fracture, with the outer edge areas of the ring and maybe 1/2" back showing stretching/tearing, rather than crystalline breakage. The missing metal was nowhere to be found, although some wood splinters were recovered. The bolt would not return to battery. I couldn't tell if the bolt had been completely in battery when the round was fired but I am unfamiliar with the Lee so I don't know if it is possible to fire a round when the bolt is out of battery.

I then turned my attention to the barrel. The brass was stuck in the chamber. There was a hole in the brass, in the extractor area. The primer was missing, the base of the cartridge was blackened and slightly bowed out into a convex shape. Surrounding the hole in the brass was obvious flow into the unsupported area of the extractor. The semi-rimmed brass was now obviously rimmed. Obvious, major headspace problem. Obvious, major
overpressure situation.

Looking through the barrel, I saw that it was plugged. Obtaining a rod, I slid in down the muzzle until it stopped. Marking the length with my thumb, the obstruction was at or near the end of the chamber. A shake of the barrel was silent. Driving the rod into the barrel to drive out the brass took a few sharp strokes, the first couple feeling like something was wedging in the barrel. After popping out the brass, I inspected the barrel. It was free of bulges and the barrel actually looked quite nice - dark but with strong rifling. The chamber was in good shape as well, with no obvious deformities. Examining the brass, I immediately noticed that the bullet had never left the barrel because I had driven it back into the powder area of the brass when driving it out and that it was what I had felt for the first couple blows. I did not notice any rifling marks on the bullet but could not see it that clearly inside the brass.

I next turned to the shooting table, where Glenn had his box of ammunition. Glenn was apparently testing handloads because he had a few pieces of paper with different loads written on it. I recall them being 30gr or so of IMR powders but don't remember the numbers (I'm not a big reloader) with 100gr and 150gr bullets (Hornady and Speer). I do recall that one of the loads was 11gr Unique. Looking at the ammo in the box, I realized that the fatal shot was his second as there was only one previously expended round. Picking it up, it was obviously deformed as previously described: obvious brass flow into the extractor area, blackened & rimmed base, missing primer, except no hole in the brass. Looking at this first round, I have to wonder how hard it was to extract. It looked
like a hammer-beater to me. And that's as far as I got before the police started to impound everything.

It wasn't until later that I found out that when Glenn was taken to the hospital, x-rays revealed that a piece of metal 40mm on its long side had penetrated the brain, ending its straight though travel at the rear of the skull; destroying his sinus cavity in the process.

Lessons: It doesn't matter how much experience you have, if the brass is obviously deformed, stop shooting. If something looks wrong, it's most likely because it is.
Resist the temptation to take "just one more shot". Figure out what's wrong FIRST.
Always have a first-aid kit with you.
Always have latex gloves with you.

When you go shooting, make sure that EMS knows how to get to you, wherever you are.

A cellphone is no longer a luxury. If it works, it can shave valuable minutes off the emergency response time.

Glenn didn't need to die. From what I've read about him over the past couple days, I wish I would have met him in better circumstances, he sounded like a helluva guy. He was smart enough to notice that there was a problem. He either wasn't paying attention and missed it or he choose to ignore it; and continued shooting. Learn from his mistake.

No fancy closing words here, just a reminder that this is a dangerous sport and to be careful out there.


Kurt Feltenberger

wow...

I am going to assume that a 4mm part entered his brain and not 40mm, as 30mm is the last mark on a 1 foot ruler.

Tis a sad situation. My prayers go out to family and friends.


pictures of the type rifle

25.4mm in an inch. could have been 40... think you are thinking cm maybe?

Joe S. wrote:25.4mm in an inch. could have been 40... think you are thinking cm maybe?

yeah dumb ruler... ledgend says MM then shows major marks for cm

pinetor wrote:I am going to assume that a 4mm part entered his brain and not 40mm, as 30mm is the last mark on a 1 foot ruler.

Tis a sad situation. My prayers go out to family and friends.


pictures of the type rifle

40 MM is less than 2"

Doug

Sad -- BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!!!!!

Sad story, but always a good reminder of what can happen. Yall be careful!!

What a terrible accident!

Yikes!

Terrible.....

Such things are happen to some of us. And as i can see they are happen more to the " experienced guys" which are getting to much of routine in their work. Last year we had a accident at our range that went out good but only with a great portion of luck. A guy at here was always shooting a Swedish M38 with great success. He used reduced loads with a copper mantled lead bullet and the VV N110 powder since years. At this day he went to our range for some training and set up the tables from where we´re shooting in prone position. The Range Officer was left behind him and overwatched all the shooters. Suddenly there was a different noise from the Swede to hear. For not being careful during his reloading process the shooter had a double load in his round which was 23grs. of N110 instead of 11.5grs. The result was that the Mauser bolt went backwards and scratched only the cheak of the shooter and hit the wall directly at the RO´s left hip. The stock cracked and the shooter got some injuries at his right hand. No one was badly injured except the M38, and the Doctor solved the problems with a view stitches.
So, please do any reloading work concentrated for your safety and the safety of others!

I can and does happen ...

DOUBLE CHECK THE TYPE POWDER YOU ARE USING -- ONLY ONE POWDER CAN ON THE BENCH AT A TIME ....

CHECK YOUR CHARGE - LOOK IN THE MANUAL, WEIGHT THE CHARGE -- LOOK IN THE MANUAL AGAIN, RE-WEIGH THE CHARGE.

A sobering reminder. Hearing about experienced reloaders having sometimes tragic accidents lets all know it could be me if my mind is off for even one round. Capt'n said it best.

Dang, terrible. If it can happen to a pro like that it can happen to anyone. My cousin just got all his reloading equipment together and will be starting within a week. He has now only even been into guns for about 3 months. I am forwarding this to him.

Very sad. Sorry to hear it. Sometimes we can miss even the most obvious discrepensies. Condolences...

Sad story. I do a lot of shooting alone, makes you think.............

J.B.

Two words "trail boss"

If you blow yourself up with that powder then it's just your time.
Friend that was army EOD said when things become routine you die


Doug sorry for your los

This happened over 5 years ago. I still think about him often.

Doug

A friend from Florida lost his right eye during a bench rest session.
Best I can remember he was shooting a 264 Winchester Magnum and chambered a 7MM Remington Magnum
that had gotten mixed up with the 264's. The strong modern rifle he was shooting held together. Gas exiting
around the bolt burned his face and cost him his eye. No shooting glasses. When we met in the 80's and he
found out I was a fellow shooter he preached me a sermon on wearing eye protection. For which I was grateful
when 3 years later, while shooting a "reduced load" in a '06, a cartridge case separated and burned my face.