Horatio Chapple, 17, died after the animal attacked a camp on Spitsbergen island in the Svalbard archipelago, in the Arctic circle. Accounts suggest a warning tripwire system, used to set off flares that might have scared the animal away, failed to go off. Police are checking a rifle that apparently failed to fire four times before it was successfully used to kill the bear.
I don’t think I can remember more than two times in my entire life when I have seen a rifle misfire.
I have a bunch of WWII vintage ammunition for my SMLEs. It misfires about one in twenty times. The 1950s stuff with sealed primer fares better.
I don’t think he knew how to shoot it………..
They were all pretty young.
I was a range master for a rifle and pistol club in the 70s and saw a few while shooters were trying home loads. I had a rifle that was finicky about the brand of ammo going through it recently as it had a soft strike. I traded it in at a gun store and advised the gunsmith of the problem. I would not trust a weapon that displays that type of problem. If the weapon was not properly prepared for the extreme conditions they were in misfires are a possibility.
The group should not have been there to begin with as it was an ECO tourism thing!
Good point Grumpy. Familiarity with the weapon is important. The reason I shoot on a regular basis is to keep it fresh and to check my equipment. I doubt there was alot of shooting going on when they were hoping for bear sitings. I myself would have been having daily target practice, and would have been hoping for no bears, if I had been there at all.
Yeah, I got one that is picky also. Won’t mention the name of it because it is a bit rare, but the pure gas op demands clean, new rounds. Hand reloads usually work but 10-20% it will jam. Ah well. It needs to fire in the pinch of an emergency so I keep clips of pristine rounds nearby. At the range who cares.
But the rifle in this story is said to be a Mauser k98k …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karabiner_98k
Looks like a solid built bolt-action 8mm jaw buster. Supposedly the first four rounds did not fire (presumably he ejected each after trying). So it had to be bad ammo (as opposed to broken firing pin, etc) or else the fifth round would not have fired.
The politically incorrect question is WTF they were doing camping up there. On the WUWT thread someone said: “The attack took place on the Svalbard archipelago, which is home to about 2,400 people and 3,000 polar bears …”. At first glance it looks like the adults should be prosecuted. Perhaps Algore and and the other eco-loons as well.
The way they are so afraid of hurting a bear, I am surprised that they had more than one round for the rifle. Sort of a Barney Fife approach.
When I go shooting, I only have to ask my son what size hole he would like to make today.
It is likely that they over oiled the weapon and rarely traded out the ammo for fresh. Oil is the enemy of ammo.
I heard of a game warden found shot to death with his revolver in his hand. He had three misfires in a row, and died. It turned out that he regularly sprayed his pistol and rig with WD-40 after being out in the cold to prevent condensation upon coming indoors. He obviously did not swap out his ammo often enough (like every day, considering the WD-40). Wiping down the pistol occasionally would have been a great idea, also.
If only some sort of sharp shooting Norwegian gunman had been nearby to save the day…
With the type of rifle he was using it is possible to operate the bolt and empty the magazine and not be able to fire it. I expect he didn’t know this and had the bolt set to “safe” until he possibly knocked it into the “fire” mode by accident.
@ Higley7 Yes, WD40 will turn your ammo to duds. Penetrating oil — or similar very low viscosity oils — will seep into the microscopic joint between casing and primer, and then mix with and destroy the chemicals in the primer. Result? No bang.
I remember hearing about a law enforcement officer a couple of decades back who died when the rounds in his service revolver did not fire. He had been in the habit of spraying his revolver and ammo in WD40.
On the range I have had “Soft” strikes and put the ammo back through to have it fire. Whether touchy ammo or touchy weapon, don’t know. Do know the ammo worked fine in another weapon and other ammo worked fine in that weapon. Ammo was all off the shelf from various manufactures and variations from the same manufacture. I like to run a few hundred rounds through a weapon to get the feel of it.
I lost confidence in the model of weapon and do not own any of that model. I continue to use the brand of ammo on the range but have preferred ammo for emergency purposes which I cycle through at the range from time to time to keep the loaded ammo a bit fresher.
By soft strike I mean a small dimple in the primer.