Impact/concussion/slam fire in a revolver?

T

thebaldguy

New member
Hey folks! First post from a rookie! I like the forum a lot! I haven't seen this problem before, so I thought I'd ask. This happened years ago and it hasen't happened since. I have a Rossi 971 .357 Magnum. A friend and I were shooting it with some cheap .357 Magnum ammo. I think it was some reloads purchased at the gun shop and/or some American or Accurate ammunition. I was in college, and I was trying to save a few bucks on ammo. We shot it for a while, no problems. Seemed to work ok. Then, my friend pulls the trigger and we hear two pops. He tried to pull the trigger for the next shot, and the cylinder was frozen. It turned out that another cartridge also fired, and the partially fired bullet jammed the cylinder preventing rotation. We removed the bullet, examined the revolver, and things seemed to be ok. We had used up the cheap ammo, and I haven't used it since. Has anyone else had a slam/impact/concussion fire with a revolver? Is this a quality control problem with the ammo? By the way, this budget revolver is actually pretty good. Not very pretty, but actually pretty accurate.
 
To me it sounds like a cartridge with no powder and a high primer that was set off by recoil.

I believe it there had been powder in the case they'd have needed a gunsmith to open the cylinder and I suspect that there'd have been some damage to gun and shooter.

You and your amigo were blessed that day. Welcome to TFL.

Doc Hudson
 
This is the kind of thing I would expect in a cap&ball revolver(chain firing) but if you shoot enough allmost anything can happen. Got to agree with Doc Hudson's diagnosis.
 
WOW....I'll bet on high primer. Odds on havin high primer and little or no powder in the same round kinda high. You living right!

Sam...bang is good, BANG is gooder, KABOOM sucks.
 
I had the same thing happen with a 22LR Taurus 94. I didn't hear two pops, but a much louder report and noticeable recoil. Stopped firing and carefully opened the cylinder. The next case to be fired had already gone off. The bullet apparently squeezed past the frame with very little lead smearing. The gun never did it again in the thousands of rounds since. Before you ask if I had the rotation on the cylinder wrong, I will point out that the case had no firing pin mark and had obviously been fired.
 
FWIW, a low pressure, lead bullet round like the .38 Special firing into the frame like that will not usually harm a good quality gun. It is a very rare occurrence, but it has happened to other people. I agree with the high and/or sensitive primer hypothesis.

Jim
 
So wait a minute...
He heard two "pops" but instead of stopping and trying to figure out what's up, he pulls the trigger again?!

Hope I never share a range with that guy.

-Kframe
 
A year or so ago I was set up at a gun show next to a guy selling unique welding equipment. He had a man come to his table carrying a cheap .22 double action revolver with a large gouge out of the side of the frame asking if he had anything to repair the damage. The welder man, not being gun knowledgable, told the guy he did but he might want to talk to me to determine what happened with the gun.
Upon examing the gun the first thing I noticed was there was no exjector spring. The ejector assembly had "bounced" when the gun was fired and set off one of the rimfire cartridges next to the one aligned with the chamber. I gave the guy the number to Gun Parts Corp..
Chances are that there was a round in it with a high primer. But even then it should not have fired the second round. This would indicate to me that it has either a warped crane, causing the rear of the cylinder to ride too close to the recoil shield, or a weak ejector spring. Even though it has had several rounds through it since then I would highly recommend having it looked at by a gunsmith. I'm not a gunsmith nor do I pretend to be one on the Internet.;) But it sounds like you were lucky once. I would not tempt fate again.

Oh, and as Kframe alluded to, never fire another shot when you suspect that anything may be wrong with the gun or ammo. The fingers you save may be your own.;)
 
Wow! Great responses! Thank you! I no longer use cheap ammo-that was a lesson well learned. Not worth the savings. The cheap ammo was actually pretty bad. The Accurate/American? I thought was new but it didn't look like it. One reload had a bulge around the base. The gun shop didn't do anything when I took it back. Great place, huh? I pretty much use CCI Blazer and American Eagle(Federal) now without any problems.

This is one mistake I won't make twice.
 
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