Our 11 year old daughter has the SA-20 for trap shooting. She has been using it without issue for several months now. Today at the range she had a serious problem. She loaded a round with the safety on. She closed the action and went to raise the gun to aim and the weapon fired in her hands, but the round was out of the battery.
Some things went very right (a big thank you to the engineers who deigned the weapon) and all of the load went out the barrel. However, she had powder burns on BOTH hands - not severe, but evidence that her hands were, as we also saw, no where near the trigger. The powder burns were minor and the pattern was almost all linear, if that helps. She dropped the weapon when the incident occurred and raised her hands.
When we got to her, my husband racked the action back and found that the round was definitely out of battery, safety on. The shell brass was separated from the case. The hull was jammed in between the battery and the action, mangled. We kept it and the brass. The brass shows a strike from the firing pin dead center - at least it looks like it.
So, what do we make of this and what do we do now? I fired it another 30 times without issue, but obviously I cannot risk the safety of my daughter. She is lucky she has no injuries from this and I need to keep it that way. Since you are the experts, we are turning to you for help. Please advise.
Some things went very right (a big thank you to the engineers who deigned the weapon) and all of the load went out the barrel. However, she had powder burns on BOTH hands - not severe, but evidence that her hands were, as we also saw, no where near the trigger. The powder burns were minor and the pattern was almost all linear, if that helps. She dropped the weapon when the incident occurred and raised her hands.
When we got to her, my husband racked the action back and found that the round was definitely out of battery, safety on. The shell brass was separated from the case. The hull was jammed in between the battery and the action, mangled. We kept it and the brass. The brass shows a strike from the firing pin dead center - at least it looks like it.
So, what do we make of this and what do we do now? I fired it another 30 times without issue, but obviously I cannot risk the safety of my daughter. She is lucky she has no injuries from this and I need to keep it that way. Since you are the experts, we are turning to you for help. Please advise.