Revolver Kaboom

[pedalman]

What a waste of a perfectly fine wheelgun. There has always been a soft spot in my heart for S&W revolvers. My first wheelgun was a 686.

It's so easy to screw up on the loading bench, but it can also be easy to do it right and safely.

[pedalman]

Could you imagine turning this pistol into your armorer?

"It doesn't work right".

If somebody did that, the armorer would be completely justified in beating that person to death with that revolver.

[CompVest]

That's why I do not reload and do not shoot any reloads.
I got a squib from a batch of reloads once and stopped using them since then. I figured if I could get a squib, I could just as easily get a K-BOOM and it is not worth it to me.

Truth to be told I have seen just as many squibs and other ammo issues with factory as I have with reloads. I feel better shooting SRVA's reloads than I do shooting factory!

[PUCKER]

CRAZY - you know why it's CRAZY??? Because I had a dream about a S&W revolver going KABOOM last night!! Seriously...haven't seen this thread until today!! Dreamt I was getting chased by a water moccasin and I turned around to shoot it with a S&W .357 loaded with snakeshot...I remember the snake being blown to bits, along with my gun...and I also remember getting the gun replaced under warranty and the same thing happened again (snake, shoot, kaboom)....wierd dream!

[KFP]

Now, the question is will he try to pull that bullet that's half out of the cylinder and try to resuse it?

My thoughts exactly!

[HankB]

Wonder what the bullet's velocity would have been if the revolver had held together . . . but in this case, it might have been equally interesting to put the photoscreens above the gun, to see what the topstrap velocity was.

[03Lightningrocks]

Twenty five or so years ago I did something very similar. At the time I reloaded for my 357 and my 44. I don't remember now what distracted me but when I went back to the bench I grabbed a tray of 44 mag shells and started dropping my powder in them. I went to the range a few days later and commenced to shooting these rounds through my Ruger Redhawk (which is a stainless steel pistol). Rounds one and two made me the coolest guy on the range as the gun sounded like a cannon going off. The guy beside me even backed off a few steps as I fired my third round. The gun jammed after that and the cylinder would not turn. The stirrup( I believe that was what the gun smith called it) had tweaked and the cylinder was now locked up tight. When I got back home I went to the reloading bench and saw the can of powder I had used sitting at the front of my bench. Turns out I was dropping Blue Dot instead of 2400. 9.5 grains of Blue Dot worked great for a 357 magnum but 24 grains under a 240 grain bullet is a bit much, even in the 44 magnum. I bet Elmer Keith never tried that load...LOL. The gunsmith I took the gun to told me he thought the only reason it didn't blow the cylinder apart was because it was a stainless gun. He pointed to a model 29 with the top blown off just like the one posted here and said it was from a similar situation. Anyway...it can happen if you get too relaxed about following procedures or allow yourself to be distracted. To this day I am not sure why I put the Blue Dot in the hopper when loading for the 44 Mag. heck...maybe I started out to load 357 and got sidetracked when I walked away for a few minutes.

I haven't reloaded since. I still have all the equipment. Maybe I will start up again.

[57Coastie]

CompVest says,

Truth to be told I have seen just as many squibs and other ammo issues with factory as I have with reloads. I feel better shooting SRVA's reloads than I do shooting factory!

Quite true, CompVest. I suppose I have fired, faultlessly, at least 1000 rounds with my wife's S&W Airweight and my Ruger SP101, and, depending on my attire or location at the time, I always carry at least one of them, if not both. My initial motivation (until I fell in love with revolvers late in life) being an occasional FTF with my semis.

Took my son to the range a couple months ago, and introduced him to the Airweight. He brought with him a box of .38s, bragging about "the good deal he got on them."

After two rounds the snubby jammed. Nothing would move - neither the trigger, recessed hammer or cylinder. After son (at 40+ years of age, with CHL) received a quick lesson on handling an FTF I determined the cause. His "real good deal" was for a box of Russian ammo. After he fired his last shot, Newton's law came into play, and when the S&W moved back in recoil the inertia of the bullet in the next round (obviously loose in the case) moved it forward far enough to jam the cylinder and everything else.

Contrary to popular myth, revolvers will FTF, particularly if one uses faulty ammo.

Jim

[quoheleth]

Wonder what the bullet's velocity would have been if the revolver had held together . . . but in this case, it might have been equally interesting to put the photoscreens above the gun, to see what the topstrap velocity was.

On the highroad thread I linked to earlier, someone ran the data through QuickLOAD and came up with the theoretical velocity of over 1800fps, had it held together.

If a physicist is handy who wants to work up velocity on a topstrap and the top third of a cylinder, I would be interested to see those numbers.

Q