Sage Rat Ammo Scare

[Fishing With Larry]

Made an anual spring break trip to an Eastern Oregon Ranch last week with a couple of friends and our boys. One friend had never done it before and we were working very hard to train his 6 year old how to get the rats in the sights.

An hour into it, I heard what sounded like a magnum rifle go off and turned to see a cloud of smoke and several wide eyes blinking rapidly. We found that the 10/22 clip had been blown to pieces out the bottom of the gun, the base of the shell had been melted to the firing pin, and the separated case was left in the chamber. The 6 year old was scared and thought he had done something wrong. After several minutes of making sure everyone was alright, we chaulked it up to that one in a million situation of a double dose of powder or weak casing brass.

I promptly gave him one of my youth model 22's and we were back at it. Several hours later, same situation, same ammo, the same boy, different gun, (both guns were in excellant condition, clean and maintained by me) the same thing happened. This time the explosion caused him to get discharge into the face. We were all wearing hearing protection but not eye protection. A quick check found him okay but frazzled and crying. Not what I try to accomplish with someone's first experience. Further examination found that again the brass casing, missing the base was lodged in the chamber. I pulled out a cleaning kit and cleaned it on the spot and found that everything in the second gun was operational after pushing the brass case out from the chamber. We quit for the day.

Thankfully, the boy and everyone else was able to get over it and continue to blast rats the next two days after putting the remaining 1300 rounds in lock up. We each were able to shoot about 800 rounds apiece in 3 days of good early rat shooting.

Upon returning, we took the ammo back to Wal-mart in McMinnville. They have since pulled all the Winchester X-pert 22 long rifle ammo from the shelves. Winchester has been contacted and they have paid to have the first rifle shipped for their inspection. So far they have shown extreme concern and I would urge anyone buying this ammo in the 500 round boxes to check with Winchester before using it.

It was a very scary situation where I believe someone could have been seriously hurt.

[Chug]

YIKES... Company Can trace the ammo lots & production batches. They should recall ALL ammo, based on that lot number..

Glad nobody was hurt or lost a eye.

[RoscoeP]

I was shooting the Remington ammo all last weekend with no problems at all (Jams, misfires, etc..) When we burned through 2,500 rounds of that, my Dad let me try some of the Win. Xpert ammo. What a bunch of junk that stuff is! Wouldn't even cycle the action on the Ruger's or Marlins, and was not nearly as powerful. Felt more like shooting a pellet gun. Anyways I would not recomment trying this brand, especially after the initial report here! Very scary.

[Hunt'nFish]

Originally Posted by Chug

YIKES... Glad nobody was hurt or lost a eye.

Yeah, me too. Glad everyone is ok.
Hunt'nFish

[BigSkyHunter]

Very lucky that everyone is ok. Thanks for the heads up and good for you to contact the retailer. I hope they get there apples in line before someone gets seriously hurt.

[LanceinOregon]

This is all the more reason to shoot a bolt action rifle.

Lance

[Fishing With Larry]

I'll report back on how they handle the situation from here.

I myself switched over to my Ruger target bolt 17. My, my, my. I was getting so caulky that I began calling my shots. "watch this, watch this. 134 yards standing up, bam.....pieces." The guys couldn't wait to watch what happened when my gun went off. I shot 430 rounds with well over a 90% kill rate. My best was three shots in succession at 168 yards. Each rat flew well over 15 feet with the impact and lead to a lot of laughter.

The neat thing is that I am just as confident with my magnum rifles. I can't think of any better practice for big game. If only I could do that well with my bow by practicing on 1" by 6" live targets.

[baltz526]

i'll guess it was not the shell that exploded that was the cause, but the shell before it, that was to light to push the bullet out of the barrel. i look forward to your report from the manufacturer

[WAID]

I just saw this on another board

News and Press Releases

PRODUCT WARNING AND RECALL NOTICE: WINCHESTER® WILDCAT® 22 & WINCHESTER® XPERT® 22

4/6/2007

Olin Corporation, through its Winchester Division, is recalling several lots of its WILDCAT® 22 (Symbol Number WW22LR) and XPERT® 22 (Symbol Number XPERT22) 22 Long Rifle rimfire ammunition.

Lot Numbers containing Letters: XN, YA, YB or YC

Through extensive evaluation Winchester has determined the above lots of WILDCAT® 22 and XPERT® 22 ammunition may contain double powder charges. Double powder charge weight ammunition may cause firearm damage, rendering the firearm inoperable, and subject the shooter to a risk of personal injury and/or death when fired.

DO NOT USE WINCHESTER® WILDCAT® 22 RIMFIRE AMMUNITION WITH LOT NUMBERS CONTAINING LETTERS XN, YA, YB or YC. The ammunition Lot Number is imprinted (stamped without ink) on the outside of the right tuck flap of the 50-round box, as indicated here:




DO NOT USE WINCHESTER® XPERT® 22 RIMFIRE AMMUNITION WITH LOT NUMBERS CONTAINING LETTERS XN, YA, YB or YC. The ammunition Lot Number is imprinted (stamped without ink) on the outside of the top tuck flap of the 500-round box, as indicated here:




To determine if your ammunition is subject to this notice, review the Lot Number. If the Lot Number contains the letters XN, YA, YB or YC return the ammunition to Winchester via United Parcel Service (UPS). Securely pack the ammunition into a corrugated cardboard box, write “CARTRIDGES, SMALL ARMS ORM-D” on the outside, and ship to:

Olin Corporation – Winchester Division
Tile Warehouse
Powder Mill Road, Gate 4A
East Alton, IL 62024
Attention: 22LR Recall

Please include your name, address, and phone number. Winchester will send you coupons good for replacement ammunition from your local Winchester dealer.

This notice applies only to WILDCAT® 22 and XPERT® 22 rimfire ammunition with Lot Numbers containing the letters XN, YA, YB or YC. Other Symbol Numbers or Lot Numbers are not subject to this recall and should not be returned to Winchester.

If you have any questions concerning this recall please call toll-free 866-423-5224 (U.S. & Canada), write to the above address, or visit our website at www.winchester.com.

We apologize for this inconvenience.

WINCHESTER

[GSD]

Good spot WAID! That should answer some questions.

[Fishing With Larry]

I was out of town so I just got to see this last post with the recall.

Yes, this is definately the stuff. We had two shells explode out of maybe 150 shots. It was definately scarey and the gun has been sent back to Winchester for examination. We have not had any other response other than the local Wal-mart pulled all the ammo from the shelves.

Just hoping everyone who has this ammo sees the notice and takes heed. Things could have been worse for us and there is definately a lot of sage rat weather left to come.