Has Anyone Seen This Before?

I was shooting at the club this morning and one shot sounded funny but the target still broke. When I extracted the shell (factory top gun) this is what it looked like. I checked my barrel and everything looked fine and I continued the round without any problem. To me it looks like there is a bulge in the shell perhaps caused by a misaligned wad, but I don't know.

Any thoughts?

 

Definitely looks swollen in the middle.

 

You are very lucky a cocked wad can turn the load into a shape charge & destroy the gun/barrel -? what type of gun was the shell in ?

 

In my case, it happened with a box of factory target loads. The shell looked just like yours. I stopped using that lot immediately. A cocked wad can indeed turn a shotgun into a pipe bomb if the wad lodges in the forcing cone and creates an obstruction. You got lucky, the hull gave way instead of the barrel.

 

I’ve seen this exact thing a few times over the years, once with my own 12 gauge and a couple times with shooters next to me on the line.

 

The gun is a Perazzi TMS. I think I dodged a bullet!