Anyone have an Ithaca shotgun that set off a shell outside of the barrel?

Question

So I was shooting my shotgun earlier today. It is an Ithaca shotgun that loads and ejects from the same port on the bottom of the gun. I fired three shots, pulled the action back towards me after the third shot, and BAM! Fourth shot before the fourth shot made it into the barrel. Has anyone ever had this before? Could the force at which the spring in the shell storage tube be enough to set off a primer when it hit metal? Oh, and the firing pin being stuck out is definitely not what happened, as it never made contact with the primer. There are two theories.

1. The shell came out of the tube with enough force to hit a piece of metal to cause the primer to go off. Faulty primer maybe?

2. The shot end of the shell got caught on the lip at the end of the barrel, and the extractor caught the edge of the brass, bent it, puncture the side of the brass and ignited the powder.

First one doesn't seem to have any hole in my opinion. Second one does. The load/eject arms are too springy and would not be able to put enough force to hold the shell in without slipping around the shell. But I don't know... any professional opinions?

Here is a link with a few photos so that you and look it over and try to figure out what happened.
http://s1361.photobucket.com/user/T_Wheezzy/library/?sort=3&page=1

If the link doesn't work or you can't see pictures, let me know soon and I will try to fix it.

Answer 1

Potentially an improperly seated primer? In the pic looking back at the bolt face, you can see a clear mark of the shell below the bolt face, it appears the horizontal line on the primer matches up with that mark. I am assuming that you did not pull the primer and that the primer was actually blown out. That line is as clear as it is from the shell forcing itself back against the receiver after the shell was set off. It is unlikely that the ledge of the receiver could have done this, however that is the most likely scenario I can come up with.

Answer 2

You're lucky you don't have shards of metal in various body parts.



I really don't know what happened. Based on the photos, it's hard to say, but the second description you gave seems a lot more plausible given the square hole that was punched into the brass.



Time to take that Ithaca to a gunsmith, though, for reasons which shouldn't be too hard to figure out! Hope there's no permanent damage to you or your gun!



EDIT: Good point, Mr.357- the likelihood of the powder being set off in your second scenario is pretty close to nil. I may be confused, but some of the photos seem to show the primer separated from the rest of the shell. It also appears that something has struck the primer and caused a straight line across it- am I right? If so, I would guess that it is a combination of the two things you mentioned. Something hit the primer somehow, setting it off. Then, the shell somehow got mangled by the extractors.



That's all guesswork, and not particularly educated, at that.

Answer 3

The bb's might pass in each and every direction by way of fact as i might understand a shotgun and how it works: once you pull the set off a firing pin hits the primer of a shotgun shell and the front section is shot out w/ the bb's directing it out of the barrel by way of fact of all the potential and gases. Then while it leaves the barrel all of them purely unfolded. The gist of that's that the bbs might pass in each and every or almost each and every diverse direction. No garrentee's by way of fact i grew to become into never "clever" adequate to attempt it!

Answer 4

With your poor pictures, it is hard to tell. It does not look like the primer has been struck to ignite. Option 2 is not an option. There is nothing to ignite the powder.