200rds later and My hands were BLACK!!!!!!!

J

Jamie Young

New member
This was the first time I fired more than a box of ammo out of my .38 Special in one day. After 150rds I looked at my hands and they were absolutely covered in Black. Is this normal to have so much gas blow out all over the place for Snubbies? Or are all revolvers messy like this?
 
You mentioned it's a snubby...
Short barreled handguns are notoriously inefficient burning powder.

As soon as the bullet leaves the barrel, the pressure immediately drops, and the remaining unburnt powder goes up in a big sooty yellow flash.

Smokeless powder's burn rate is directly tied to combustion chamber pressure.

Not so with black powder, which burns nearly as fast sitting in a pile on the ground, as it does in a chamber.

Low pressure burning of that 'smokeless powder' results in a very oily smoke.

Some brands of powder are worse than others.
If you reload, the experimentation is limitless.

Or, you can try other brands of factory ammo.

I sometimes wear thin leather gloves while shooting.
Not so much for recoil control, but to keep the lead and crap off my hands.

Also, I sometimes give the revolver a quick 'misting' of oil just prior to shooting.
Makes cleanup a heckuva lot easier.

-Kframe
 
You tryin' to say your hands got DIRTY?

Hummmm- - -
not really usual, no. More info, please. What brand revolver, and approximate age/use history?

What kind of ammunition? Handloads? Load details? Certain combinations lead to "Dirtier" results. For instance, soft cast lead bullets lubricated with old-fashioned Ideal lube, combined with certain powders, either pretty fast-burning (old Unique,) or unsuitably slow-burning (2400) lead to a lot of sooty deposits.

Also, a loose barrel-cylinder gap promotes leakage, of course.

Best,
Johnny
 
Its a Taurus snubby. I'm not sure of the Model:o It was UMC ammo but I was really surprised hos much came out between the barrel and the cylinder. You could see it all over the gun and all over my hands.:eek: I'm not complaining, I just couldn't eat my hot dog until I washed my hands:)
 
Wash hands before going to bathroom, or eating or etc.

Seriously.....the powder no big deal but the lead staphinate from the primers not good for you.

Washing after shootin applies to autoloaders and rifles too.

Sam
 
Hmmmm

Sure it wasn't the dog that dirtied your hands?
I mean, who knows what they really put in those things!?
 
?

If the cylinder was gapped too far from the Barrel how would I know? It feels tight and it locks up fine but this does seem a bit excessive.
 
I've had that problem using Bullseye. Turned my shiny chrome and stainless pistols into soot covered messes. I stick with Unique and Pb to avoid the soot cleaning problems.
Yah, and hot dogs scare me too.:D
 
I find that UMC ammo is a lot dirtier than the other stuff I have shot. Also wouldn't cylinder gap cause gasses and dirt to shoot out all over the place?

And as far as hotdogs, I only eat Hebrew Nationals. They're kosher so they must be safe right?
 
In my experience UMC=hot, dirty, & cheap. :D

Seriously, I shot some in my stainless sp101 357 and my 44mag SRH. It seems to be a very dirty powder. Possibly part of the reason it's so cheap?
 
You should see how much crud is left over from shooting red dot powder in a 45 acp revolver. Just loading and reloading gets a lot of crud on your hands.

And gee, after 12-18 shots with a black powder revolver you'll need to clean you hands AND your gun.

Have a smith check your flash gap.. maybe you have a problem.
 
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