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4/4/23 - Indoor gun range explodes with customers inside

NHCraigT

NHCraigT

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LEXINGTON, S.C. (WIS) – The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department (LCSD) is investigating what caused an indoor shooting range to explode with customers inside on Sunday.
Investigators said they were called to the Kilo Charlie Shooting range on Litton Dr. around 4 p.m. on reports of an explosion ...
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... An LCSD incident report claims the blast happened in front of firing lanes eight, nine and 10 with at least 13 people present.
“I was firing, and I noticed on the floor, it looked like sparklers were going off. And at that point, I stepped back and the whole floor exploded,” said an anonymous customer who was present for Sunday’s blast.
The anonymous customer said the indoor shooting range was flooded with dust and shrapnel when the explosion occurred.
LCSD’s incident report said one man was hit in the face with debris and drove himself to a nearby hospital....
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unburned powder on the floor?

anyone dealing with combustion equipment knows that 100% combustion is not achievable. There is always some unburned fuel that passes completely thru the system. It would be safe to assume that when a cartridge is fired, some unburned powder escapes the barrel and is deposited on the floor in front of the shooting stalls. If it's not cleaned up and continues to accumulate, and there's an ignition source, I can see a situation like this happening.
 
Makes no sense to me. Powder on the floor would just burn. As we all know you need containment and pressure to cause the release of energy so I guess we shall see.
 
HARRYM said:
Makes no sense to me. Powder on the floor would just burn. As we all know you need containment and pressure to cause the release of energy so I guess we shall see.
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"Exploded"

It's probably artistic license by the witness. Distinguishing between deflagration and conflagration, in open air by, the untrained, will never happen.
 
Mesatchornug said:
"Exploded"

It's probably artistic license by the witness. Distinguishing between deflagration and conflagration, in open air by, the untrained, will never happen.
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Sure but how much powder would have to be on the floor to cause such a flash point, it just seems unlikely to me.
 
HARRYM said:
Sure but how much powder would have to be on the floor to cause such a flash point, it just seems unlikely to me.
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It's not the first time. I don't find it hard to believe there are commercial ranges that don't sweep the down range area frequently enough.

If enough shooters are running short barrels, it'll only exacerbate it. With popularity of AR pistols, I'd not be surprised to see a lot of powder collect daily.
 
Turns out, all of the victims were named Charles. They should have known going to a place called Kil O'Charlie.

I would say some a-hole dropped some BP on there???
 
namedpipes said:
The most seriously wounded drove himself to the hospital, so there's that, but still you don't really want buildings blowing up with you inside it!

Years of dust and unspent powder "soaking" into the cracks in the floor until the wrong spark hits it? Without a doubt!
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Fixed it for you.
 
HARRYM said:
Makes no sense to me. Powder on the floor would just burn. As we all know you need containment and pressure to cause the release of energy so I guess we shall see.
Click to expand...
Pistol powder can get pretty fast especially if you figure at least some of the retardant is spent during the firing of the round - a double base powder could get pretty close to an explosion
That is why you don't use powder that smells bad (acidic) - it could go boom instead of bang.
 
A few decades ago Smith & Wesson had a similar fire get started on the range in their small repair building across the street from the factory. They lost the building and the entire inventory of parts for their early guns.
 
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