Blew up my Redhawk

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Smaug

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That didn't take long, seeing as how I just got it yesterday. :mad:

So I took it to the range today, intending to zero the scope for about 1/2" high at 25 yards. Just to get used to shooting a big 44 again, I loaded up one of my Light Magnum handloads. 240 gr. Ranier plated flat point bullet, over 6-12 gr. of Unique. should be about 44 Special power level. I'm 100% sure these loads are OK. Not double-charged or any of that jazz. I shot half of this batch probably 3 years ago in my S&W 29. They are beautiful loads. Very accurate, not too much kick.

So, I draw a bead on the target, cock the hammer, and cut 'er loose. BOOM clunk, clunk, clunk. It took a second to register what happened. The gun's weight was cut in half. I looked downrange, and the barrel/scope assembly had just stopped rolling.

I'm thinking the guy that traded this in somehow broke it. Maybe HE did a super-hot handload? Then glued it back together and traded it in on something. I don't believe gun shops test fire trade-ins, right? They probably just clean them up, give them the once-over, and mark them up 100% over what they paid, right?

Anyway, here's the gun:

bustedredhawk1.jpg


bustedredhawk2.jpg


bustedredhawk3.jpg


Look at the cross section at the break. I'm no expert, but I didn't think gun barrel steel looked so... hollow. Doesn't that look like broken JB Weld to you guys?

The question is now: What do I do? Have any of you had something like this happen? The shop that sold it to me has a 30 day warranty. But I'm sure they'll ask what ammo I was shooting, and when I tell them it was a light magnum handload, they'll probably just slam the gate.

If I give the whole story to Ruger, they might fix it, but they also might not. I could of course furnish them with a couple of my handloads for them to disassemble and analyze if they ask. But I might have to pay them $100 or something for the service.

I wonder if I can get out of this without getting burned.
 
I loaded up one of my Light Magnum handloads.
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no, i'm sure you are mistaken.
you shot factory ammo right?
bottom line:
this gun was an accident waiting to happen. factory defect?
point is, let ruger figure out what the problem was. if it was defective out of the factory you'll get a new gun.
if it was blown up......well, they'll tell you that too.
JMHO
tom
 
Bad casting, severe over-torquing, or a combination of both.

Trust me...a handload didn't do that.

Call Ruger & make arrangements to send it back.
 
over 6-12 gr. of Unique
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Which was it, 6 or 12? Twelve would be a significant overcharge (about 40000 psi) with a 240 grain bullet. But that's not how it should fail.

I wonder if I can get out of this without getting burned.
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The scope is worth $200+ (maybe a lot more). The gun looks OK, just needs a new barrel. I agree, the break shouldn't look like that (it should be shiny). I think you got screwed, but you'll come out OK.
 
An overcharge would have taken out the cylinder. Your barrel just snapped in half. Looks like a defective barrel, but it is coincidental that it broke on the first shot you put thru it... being a used gun.

Jim
 
The break will be rough. And a little dark because of the burning powder charge in it when it let go.
Did the bullet make it out of the barrel?

Jim
 
That is a metalurgical problem, NOT an overpressure issue. If the cylyinder had ruptured, questions about the loads might be relevant. That failure looks like clorinated solvent induced cracking or some such.
 
So, what's a rebarrel gonna cost ya if'n Ruger don't want to make it good? It probably won't break your bank account and you have a new barrel, whatever length you desire.

Oh, BTW, if the scope is damaged, ITS A LEUPOLD!!

I think you meant to say 6 1/2 gr. of Unique, did you not?
 
Not the first time I've heard abouot this

Although I can't remember exactly where I heard it before, but I do recall hearing about a guy who had the barrel come off of his Redhawk, some time ago.

I don't think your reload was the cause, but I do think you ought to find a better way to describe it. Saying 6-12gr Unique sounds like you don't know what is loaded in the case. Is it 6gr? or 12gr? or somewhere in between?

Call Ruger, and contact the gunshop where you bought it. The gunshop will have a record of who they got it from, and if it turns out the barrel came off on him and he JB welded it back on (unlikely, but not beyond possibility), there ought to be consequences for him.

Ruger will want the gun, and want to know what happened. BE HONEST! No matter how much it hurts. Yes, all the makers say that reloads void their warranty, but except for Glock, I have never heard of one not honoring the warranty when the reload wasn't the cause of the problem. Also there is the gunshop 30 day guarantee, and I would think that any costs Ruger imposes (and there may not be any) ought to be borne by the shop, not you.

The metal in your pictures looks crystalized, which is a flaw, not damage from your reload. An overcharged (overpressure) round in a revolver normally blows out the cylinder wall(s) and bends the frame. It does not shear off the barrel.
 
tplumeri - You're right, I was mistaken. It was in fact a factory magnum.

Sarge - I just sent a contact email through Ruger's website. They will supposedly contact me within 3 business days. (I'm hoping tomorrow)

zxcvbob - My 48th Edition Lyman reloading manual says 10.3 - 11.5 gr. of Unique for a 240 gr. jacketed bullet. 11.5 is at about 39k psi. I'm 90% sure this was more on the high side of the 44 Special loads, like 7 gr. The recoil was not in the same ballpark as a 240 gr. factory magnum. I don't have the load data any more. I had it in the Lee Shooter program, which crapped out on me. From now on, it is all going on good old fashioned paper.

laytonj1 - Yep, the bullet made it out. The barrel is still clean inside. It hit in about the right area of the target. Look at the bottom photo in this thread. That was shot at about 25 ft. I expect it would be low if the previous owner had it zeroed for 50-100 yards.

I'm already kind of a Ruger fan; if they make this right, I will be impressed. The more I look at it, the more it looks like bad casting.

I just hope they don't replace the gun. This one has a VERY nice trigger. Much nicer than the new Super Redhawks I've tried.
 
When did Ruger get into investment casting? Was it about this time, (1983) or was it much earlier? Maybe they were in their infancy when this one was made...
 
Burned???

You want to get out of it without being burned?? You have got to be kidding?? You are lucky you did not get hurt. You should go out and buy some lottery tickets immediately!!!

Honesty is the best policy. I would first ask the dealer for a refund, but you may not get one. I would then contact Ruger, and tell them the truth. They are not dummies. And the truth can go a long way.

However I agree with you. IF this was the first shot you took with the pistol then I would be a bit pis*** at whoever traded it in. I imagine there was a problem with the pistol, and the original owner wanted to get rid of it. I have a hard time believing the gun dealer would be involved. If you could prove that then he would be in a terrible liability position. Go talk to the dealer first. Tom.
 
Casting

The Ruger's are and have been casting. That is why the S&W's cost more. S&W machines their pistols, and that costs more. Tom.
 
I remembered something about Ruger having problems with barrels breaking due to the thread lubricant used in initial assembly. Found this on Wikipedia. Send it to Ruger and they should make it good.

On Wikipedia said:
Problems with the Redhawk
When Ruger started to scale up the GP-100 to build a .44 Magnum version, they began to have reports of failures in the Redhawk revolvers. Some Redhawks were reported to be separating at the junction between barrel and frame. It was not known at the time why this was happening; the Redhawk had been on the market for years with no reported problems, but Ruger decided to address the issue anyway, by extending the frame 2.5 inches past the cylinder face, all the way to the end of the ejector rod, to provide a massive surface into which to thread the barrel. The extended frame also provided enough length to allow scope bases to be mounted on the frame, rather than on the barrel as was done on the scoped versions of the Redhawk. It was eventually determined that the barrel separations on the Redhawks were due to a change in the lubricant used when attaching the barrels to the frames, but by that time the new Super Redhawk design was already well underway and the extended frame was kept.
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Yup, known problem.

I suspect that the previous owner didn't shoot it much and that this is one of the batch (from quite a few years ago) that had the barrel separation problems.

Ruger will take care of you, no doubt about it. When you send them the gun, ask them to clean up the trigger while they have it. Might as well get a little something for your trouble. ;)
 
Couple things. You can't stuff enough Unique in the case to blow up a .44 Redhawk. Ain't gonna happen. These guns can take nearly 50,000psi in .45Colt. However, don't tell Ruger you used a handload. They have always recommended factory loads only in their guns. If the handload was the problem, the cylinder would've blown as the barrel does not contain the pressure. But Ruger 'could' use that as an excuse to charge you. I have heard of this happening with the first run of Super Blackhawk Hunters as the barrel shank is smaller than on the Redhawk. The added weight of the scope increased the leverage the barrel had against the shank and SNAP! I have not heard of it happening to a Redhawk but that doesn't mean anything. What you have is a defect, period.

Send it to Ruger, they will fix it and it will likely not even cost you shipping. Their customer service is unparalleled.
 
If it comes up, I will be honest then about the loading. But if it was a known problem, it doesn't seem like the load had anything to do with it, and they probably won't even ask.

That must have been some damned corrosive thread lock, to eat into barrel-grade stainless steel like that. I suspect it was a bad batch of castings, and they didn't want to admit that this could happen with their castings, since the S&W were looking for a chink in the armor already. ;)

Thanks for that quote, Sport45. It seems like this would have happened even with the extended frame at the front. (which I think looks hideous, by the way)
 
Agreed with comments so far. There is no way that was caused just by a reload.

Pretty much the only way you can screw up a revolver barrel is firing into a squib/obstruction.

Can't tell much from the pics, unless you can get a real close macro of the cleaned surfaces. But that radial ridge in the metal looks scary. Possibly overtorque of the barrel, but it'd really have to be extreme. Improper heat treatment, forming defect, or previous abuse would be my prime culprits. Barrels strike me as something that would generally only undergo sudden brittle failure without leaving metallurgical traces (like say a driveshaft or connecting rod would), so who knows how long it was like that.

edit: well, looks like you guys diagnosed the problem before I finished typing :)
 
Wikipedia??

Isn't that the outfit that makes up history when it does not know the truth??

It said Ruger started to "scale up the GP-100 to build a 44 magnum version". This line is "Hogwash". The GP100 came out after the RedHawk, not before. And the Super RedHawk could no way be considered a "beefed up GP100". Tom.
 
To the best of my knowledge, Ruger has been investment casting since the 1960s, but they have never used investment cast barrels.
 
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