Magnum Wheel Man
New member
so... 1st some back ground info... I bought a new Bisley flat top 44 Special for myself, for Christmas... I have many others, but this is my 1st Bisley... it was finally warm enough ( & Mrs. was at a quilt retreat ) that I'd try to shoot it this weekend... I've been loading for close to 20 years, I learned from my FIL, who died 6-7 years after I started loading... MRS & I inherited his collection, & his loading stuff, which we incorporated into our collection... I've shot many of the FIL's hand loads over the years...
so... I had some odds & ends ammo I wanted to shoot up, to free up some brass, 6 R-P old lead factory loads, & 6 WW old lead factory loads, & 20 or so 240 grain jacketed hand loads that were tagged as 12.3 grains of 2400, I assume loaded by my FIL, though now after the fact, they had an old neighbors name on the tag... I assumed FIL had loaded them for him... but in hindsight, perhaps he got them from the neighbor ???
I shot the lead factory loads 1st, at my CAS targets, then switched to the hand loads... 1st thing I noticed, was it kicked more... but I expected that, with jacketed hollow points... after 5 shots, the gun felt funny, & I looked it over more closely... when I noticed the small split in the cylinder at the cylinder stop notch on one of the chambers
so I pulled the cylinder, & had trouble pushing out the empties... the primers were flat, but the firing pin dents were not cratered... the one that had not been fired, dropped right out ( which I put in my pocket to check later )
some more back ground info, & in hind sight, should have caused me to check the loads better... FIL did not have a 44 special, so I assume he was shooting them in his Dan Wesson 44 Magnum...
down in my loading room, I pulled the bullet from the remaining cartridge... the powder did not look like 2400... looked like Unique to me, & the charge scaled 16.5 grains which is at least a double charge for the 44 Special, & nearly 1.5 times the powder maximum for the 44 magnum...
if I had shot the revolver more, or even a Bisley more, I would have known they seemed too hot, I could have possibly saved the cylinder... the base pin pulled normal, so it & the frame seem OK I don't know why people use locking base pins, as mine stayed put with gun destroying charges... I'm going to have my retired machinist buddy make me a new cylinder & check over the gun...
just posting this as a warning to those shooters out there that shoot others reloads... pull those bullets & reload them... I've not run across this gross of an error with the FIL's loads before, but it takes only once to wreck a gun, or worse, damage or kill the shooter...
I'm very anal when it come to my reloading... but a little lazy when it came to pulling down my FIL's old loads... you can bet I'll be thinking about this the next time I pull a box of ammo & find more of his handloads...
so... I had some odds & ends ammo I wanted to shoot up, to free up some brass, 6 R-P old lead factory loads, & 6 WW old lead factory loads, & 20 or so 240 grain jacketed hand loads that were tagged as 12.3 grains of 2400, I assume loaded by my FIL, though now after the fact, they had an old neighbors name on the tag... I assumed FIL had loaded them for him... but in hindsight, perhaps he got them from the neighbor ???
I shot the lead factory loads 1st, at my CAS targets, then switched to the hand loads... 1st thing I noticed, was it kicked more... but I expected that, with jacketed hollow points... after 5 shots, the gun felt funny, & I looked it over more closely... when I noticed the small split in the cylinder at the cylinder stop notch on one of the chambers
so I pulled the cylinder, & had trouble pushing out the empties... the primers were flat, but the firing pin dents were not cratered... the one that had not been fired, dropped right out ( which I put in my pocket to check later )
some more back ground info, & in hind sight, should have caused me to check the loads better... FIL did not have a 44 special, so I assume he was shooting them in his Dan Wesson 44 Magnum...
down in my loading room, I pulled the bullet from the remaining cartridge... the powder did not look like 2400... looked like Unique to me, & the charge scaled 16.5 grains which is at least a double charge for the 44 Special, & nearly 1.5 times the powder maximum for the 44 magnum...
if I had shot the revolver more, or even a Bisley more, I would have known they seemed too hot, I could have possibly saved the cylinder... the base pin pulled normal, so it & the frame seem OK I don't know why people use locking base pins, as mine stayed put with gun destroying charges... I'm going to have my retired machinist buddy make me a new cylinder & check over the gun...
just posting this as a warning to those shooters out there that shoot others reloads... pull those bullets & reload them... I've not run across this gross of an error with the FIL's loads before, but it takes only once to wreck a gun, or worse, damage or kill the shooter...
I'm very anal when it come to my reloading... but a little lazy when it came to pulling down my FIL's old loads... you can bet I'll be thinking about this the next time I pull a box of ammo & find more of his handloads...
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