Tubular Magazine pre-ignition

[BrushBuster]

Because I would like factual rather than speculative information on the following question I have come to the forum that I hope can provide an answer to a concern I have regarding cartridge pre-ignition within the tube magazine of the higher powered lever action rifle.

I understand that a major limitation of lever action rifles is the possibility of this occurrence within rifles of relatively high recoil and bullets that tend toward a Spitzer bullet design.

My question is:   Are there dimensions and recoil force limits established and known by gunsmiths that place the gun owner in the danger zone, and if so, what are they?

As an example, a .348 Winchester that delivers a recoil force of 26 ft.lbs and has a hard bullet with a meplate dia. of .200; how far is that away from the area of concern?

Thanks for any help with this.

[gunnut69]

I've not seen any hard data as to what the danger level is.  A 348 is a heavy recoiler but .200 inch is pretty close to the outside diameter of a large rifle primer cup there should not be much problem.  The number of rounds in the magazine and the springs tension must also be taken into consideration.  I have seen 1 instance of a 30-30 AI that split a magazine.  I didn't see the actual occurance but did examine the aftermath.  The damage was much less than I'd annticipated.  All rounds were said to have fired but is you've ever burned a loaded round you'd know the really dangerous projectile is the case...usually.  The shooter wasn't hurt nadly but was shaken up.  He did have some splinters from the forearm in his hand but there didn't seem much damage.  Remington in their M141(or 14?) solved the problem by forming a groove in the magazine tube that caused rounds in the magazine to stack in a spiral.  This ment no round directly behind the prime, no chance of magazines exploding.  I would guess it is a mote point because the cartridges for which most lever rifles are chambered are fairly mild and spitzer ammo doesn't really give much ballistic benefit until the 250-300 yard mark..  where most of these rounds should not be used anyway..

[RonF]

Please don't color me an expert on this, but it seems to me that with the large rim and significant case taper on the .348 Win. there won't be much contact between the primer and the bullet just behind it.  I don't think I'd worry much about this.  The Remington 14/141 was chambered for some rounds, the .35 Rem. being a case in point, that didn't have so much case taper and were rimless, where the geometry was such as to pretty much line up bullet tip to primer in a regular tubular magazine, hence their solution.

Just my half nickel....

RonF

[John Y Cannuck]

Dig up the Gun Digest. 2002? There was an article, where the author made up a Marlin tube mag, put several rounds in it, and discharged the back one. The result was a bunch of un burnt powder from the first case rupturing, and bullets seated slightly deeper for the cartridges ahead of it. No chain explosion.
Now that doesn't conclusively prove it can't happen, but it does point to it being unlikely.
He also beat a spire point to mush, trying to make it fire an empty primed case by smashing the bullet against it with a hammer. No luck.

Then we have things like reloading manufacturers saying not to use Federal primers in their tools..... :roll:

[BrushBuster]

Thank you for your responses:
It would seem there are no hard and fast rules regarding this type of occurrence.  If anyone should have information, I would think it would be those that modify and rechamber all variety of rifle actions.

I do feel reassured that I can blast away with confidence, and worry about more serious things; like where did my bottom plate go?

 :shock: