A Word To The Wise--Blowups Happen

R

Robert Foote

New member
FWIW--a friend of mine blew up his S&W M60 3" FL .357 this past weekend. Top half of the cylinder is gone and top strap is bulged and has a crack at the frame joint, but is still there. No injury.

Exact cause unknown but a double charge of powder (6.0 gr Industrial Pistol Powder) behind a 158 gr. lead bullet seems likely.

The owner is a careful sort, loads on a Dillon 550. We wonder if a visitor to the house (he has relatives coming and going) got the urge to play with something and yanked the handle to see what it did. We will probably never know. Meantime we will box up what's left and see if S&W will rebuild it.

That makes two of these I have been around. The other (also a friend) involved 'mystery' ammo given to him.

Personally I still prefer bulky powders and like to put the charged cases in a block so I can visually inspect ALL of them for proper powder level. I still use an old reliable C press for the maximum control over my product. And, of course, this is another reminder to wear good eye protection.
 
Glad your friend is OK Robert and very good post.

Your mentioning use of more bulky powders is interesting to me as a long time shooter but new handloader. Like 95% of other people first thing I wanted to do was build some nice target loads. Virtually all the powder suggestions I got for my first loading session were of course the fastest burning easiest to double charge without detection brands.

I know the burning traits and physics are what they are regardless of what we'd like. But it is something to think about...
 
Glad nobody was hurt. :eek:

It's never a good idea to leave the loading process in an unfinished state. Sizing, priming, etc., jobs are fine to leave "in process" for a while, but it's not a good idea to leave the actual loading process in the middle to complete "later".
 
I don't do progressives, but a double charge scares me silly.
For best accuracy, I have always used powders that have filled up the case at least 95% up to the base of the bullet.
It also does help to prevent double charges.
It costs a little more, but accuracy is what I'm reloading for, not cost savings.
I'm contemplating using bullseye to reload .45 auto and it scares me, because of the 1/2 empty case.
 
You mean....?
Possibly 12 grains of Industrial P Powder ?
That would indeed be stout.
Any comment on recoil, sound etc ?

When you say top half......talkin bout spliting through the center hole ?

I had a 696 come apart like that, cylinder split through the center hole into two halves.
Never did find the rear sight.

But it was with commercial cowboy load.
Three smiths determined it was a bad cylinder.
Recoil normal and sound normal to all around. Bullet hit point of aim at 35 yds.

Never saw an overload split the cylinder. Always blow out a chamber or three but leave the center relatively intact.

After months of hassles.....Smith replaced the gun.

If you send it to smith....photo document everything from multiple angles. And have a few folks look at it before sending. Keep copies of ALL correspondance, including transcripts of phone conversations.

Their first response will probably be "overload" and offer of replacement at discount. When I asked for gun back, it came without cylinder. When asked, they said cylinder was totally destroyed during testing. I insisted on getting what ever was left for independant lab testing. Never got cyl. Did get replacement gun.

Sam
 
Yikes Glad nobody was hurt. Saw a guy at the range blow up his 1911 up with a home grown reloads he double charged with Unique powder we thought he had shot himself the way he was acting but he was in shock but not hurt . It cracked part of barrel and link and cracked the grip and split the frame. The funny thing its not that uncommon for people to have mishaps like that the Range I shoot at has a display case with about 6 different handguns that have blown up.:eek:
 
Double charge is easiets and most common cause of catastrophic failure. I bulged cylinder in Clot New Service in .45 Colt when buddy's hand load contained 16 grains of Unique rather than the eight he wanted to put in. This is why I avoid loads that allow double charge to fit in case. Slower powders shoot better, anyway.

Only one I ever did wrong was a .243 Winchester in a Ruger #1. Some of the powder stuck in the funnel and got dumped along with full charg into next case. Happened to be using chronograph at time so I know that 3,400 FPS can be attained with a 100 grain bullet but I don't recommend it.
 
3,400 FPS

in a 243 with 100 grainers? DA*N...

good thing you had a stout rifle wrapped around that charge!

I don't think I'd try that on purpose, for all the $ in the world!
 
M60 Blowup

C.R., you raise good points. I called S&W and somewhat to my surprise they volunteered that upon receipt they would want to do a metallurgy test on the cylinder. My understanding is that the intact half of the cylinder was towards the bottom. We have recovered two other (longitudinal) sections of cylinder which gives us about 75% of it.

As you suggest, we will document everything possible, photograph it, and see what comes of it all.
 
I DANGED sure wouldn't wanna see my Mauser .243 after that round went off in it... (or what would be left of my Mauser...)

Or my buddies Ruger 77 Ultralight .243...

all I can say is "wow" and that I am glad nobody (and no gun) was hurt!
 
Double charge possible...

A double charge might be the culprit, but I would more likely suspect a squib load that left a bullet in the barrel. Even a light load will quickly destroy a gun when the barrel is obstructed.

This is a good time to mention that reloading equipment should be safely locked away when not in use. As with a firearm, the uneducated, unskilled, or just plain curious can come up with some really unique ways of unadvertantly causing trouble.

Brad
 
The Kuhnhausen SW revolver manual shows the typical Kaboom scenario: an "empty charge" round is fired parking the bullet in the barrel followed by the "double charge" round which blows the top half of the gun off. If a "double charge" were fired into a clear barrel, I doubt it would do that much damage.

BTW: in 1911's, a carbon steel barrel will typically survive a double charge with no damage and a stainless one will blow up itself and the slide. That may apply to wheelguns as well.
 
Even a light load will quickly destroy a gun when the barrel is obstructed.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. The peak pressure is transient and quickly dissipates due to heatsink cooling and leakage. If the structure can handle the peak pressure (and it's extremely unlikely that it cannot), the gun won't be destroyed. It won't be helped either.... :D
 
Okay, okay.....

So next time I'll say, "Even a light load could destroy a gun when the barrel is obstructed".

Picky, picky......:D

Brad
 
I once saw a Ruger .44 Super Blackhawk blown by an idiot who loaded a "triplex" load of three different powders (confirmed by breaking down some of the remaining ammo). He had read about that load in some gunzine article written by another idiot.

Jim
 
Absolutes never are....

And next time I'll say, "No, it won't. Contact Jim Keenan for more information."
Click to expand...

Blackhawk, you might want to be careful before stating "facts" in such absolute terms. An obstructed barrel can indeed lead to an exploded pistol, even with light loads. Should you want to disagree more, I will have to defer the discussion to the scars on my hand. They would like to have a word with you....

Brad
 
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The usual circumstances

Stupidity and ignorance. In my youth I let a friend talk me into using some of his dad's "special" reloads in his worn out old .38 Spcl top-break revolver (unable to recall mfg and model).

We were doing fast six-shot strings, and I was into my 3rd or 4th string when it happened. The top strap broke and the cylinder split. Some fragments cut across (thankfully, not through) the back of my left hand. The cuts ended up being small enough to only need a couple of band-aids, but it cut one of the blood vessels in the back of my hand and for a couple of mimutes I bled like you had cut my entire hand off (squirting and everything). I ended up having to drive back because my friend totally freaked out about all the blood and was alternating between hyperventilating and puking. Luckily we were in his mom's car (insert sarcastic chuckle).

Later inspection of what was left of the gun showed a bullet lodged firmly in the barrel (we couldn't even drive it out with a hammer). I didn't know the term "squib load" then, but I knew that I had probably pulled the trigger on a gun with a blocked barrel. I vowed to be much more careful after that. I count myself very lucky that the only payment for a very important lesson learned is a couple of small, faded scars.

Live and learn, baby. Live and learn...

Brad
 
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