Reload blowout

G

gearchecker

New member
I had an "incident" this past weekend that could have been fatal, but thankfully wasn't.

My wife & I were staying at a fire tower up near the Canadian border for the weekend. We took all of our guns with us to get in some range practice.
We were almost finished shooting and I had some ammo left for the .38. We decided to shoot it off and get in some more target practice with the Model 14.

While we were shooting we had some reloads malfunction (to use the term loosely).
I was using a box of reloads that I friend had built.
For the record, he has been reloading for nearly 30 years.
I unknowingly had 4 casings split on me while ranging in my Model 14. One bullet is now jammed in the barrel after slamming into another that apparently was jammed in the barrel from the shot before.
I had only fired 23 rounds prior to the malfunction. #24 & #25 was the end of the shooting day for my wife & I, needless to say.

2 shots involved here. I will try to keep them straight.
It seems that the "1st" shot casing split and only pushed the bullet partially thru the barrel. My wife & I never noticed the malfunction. The "1st" shot felt and sounded normal (BANG), no difference from all the others, same sound level & standard recoil. The "2nd" shot darned near took of my hands. It made a "BOOM" much louder than my .357 and the recoil was worse than anything I have ever experienced.
The "1st" bullet popped out as if in slow motion. My wife and I saw it actually bounce off the target and back toward us. Her face was nearly white and she asked me what just happened, as if she thought we should be dead or something.
I told her that I thought the gun had just "BLOWN UP".
I put it down to make sure it was safe and a few minutes later picked it up and checked out what had happened. I opened the cylinder, popped out the casings then looked at the barrel. I was shocked to see the bullet in the end of the barrel.
I picked up all of the casings and discovered that 2 of them were cracked, nearly from top to bottom. I then started scouring the ground for what had "popped out". I thought it was the bullet from the shot before and it had been pushed out of the barrel from the last shot. Well I guess I was right. I actually managed to recover the "1st" bullet after about a 1/2 hour of looking. It is shown in the pics.
100_0156Small.jpg


CrackedCasings.jpg


The "2nd" bullet jammed in the barrel and my Model 14 is now useless, and pics will show that too.
Look at the reflections between the jammed bullet and the ejector pin. You can see the curves in the reflections showing the small bulge in the barrel.

100_0154Small.jpg


When we got back to our room I searched thru all of my brass and discovered that 4 casings had been split.
I am taking my Model 14 to the gunsmith this week to see if there is any damage the to rest of the revolver, and see if it can be salvaged by just replacing the barrel. I don't know if the frame or cylinder were damaged in the back blast. He will know for sure. I will let you know later.
The end of the story is I will never fire anything but factory loads from now on.
NO MORE RELOADS FOR ME, Thanks !!!

Thanks to Smith & Wesson for building such a strong barrel and a quality gun. It saved my life!
 
Before you write off ALL reloads, perhaps you should think about reloading your own.

You might try getting that bullet out with a drill bit. Start with a small one and see if you can then remove the bullet. Just don't go TOO big and do damage to the inside. Then a smith can tell you if it has to be replaced or not..
 
Glad you're OK.

There is definitely some sort of major problem with either those cases or the load he worked up. I suppose it could, in theory, be the gun but that seems exceedingly unlikely.
 
I was using a box of reloads that I friend had built.
For the record, he has been reloading for nearly 30 years.
Click to expand...

Am I reading this correctly that these were not your own reloads? Lesson learned and glad no injury occurred. My rule #1 about reloading: Never shoot someone else's reloads. I also don't allow anybody to shoot my reloads either in my guns or theirs. I couldn't live with myself if an errant load caused them harm.

That said, I wouldn't rule out reloading for yourself entirely, though. You know exactly what went into the load. And if you mess up, it's all on you. ;)

You can also try a tap with wooden dowel down the barrel to get that bullet out.
 
I am taking my Model 14 to the gunsmith this week to see if there is any damage the to rest of the revolver, and see if it can be salvaged by just replacing the barrel.
Click to expand...

The barrel is only a problem if it's bulged. If it's not, it should be fine. Since you're taking it to a smith anyway, have him remove the bullet.
 
Never shoot someone else's reloads.
Click to expand...

Truer words have never been spoken.

I saw the bulge in your barrel before I read your post and thought, "Is that a bulge in the barrel." Darn shame, it brought tears to my eyes.
 
You know, the cracked brass is also interesting. Everyone is focusing on the stuck bullets, but no one has addressed the cracked brass yet.

Care to show some pics of the primers? From what I can see, they look almost underpowered like they didn't fully obturate the primer pocket when fired. It doesn't jive well with split cases. Normally that's an overcharge or just ancient brass, from my experience.

For .38 brass to go bad though... that's some REALLY old brass.
 
Well... If you don't want to reload anymore, I'll take the reloading equipment off your hands :p

j/k

I wold pass on trying to remove the bullet yourself. While it wouldn't be difficult, if you messed up the rifling on a salvageable barrel it's on you. I would think that a slight bulge like that could be fixed with the proper hydraulic equipment.
 
It's hard to tell from the photo due to the flash, but are the casings brass?
Click to expand...
I was thinking the same thing as the only yellowish areas look like stains. Almost look like aluminum cases, which I never reload.
 
The cracked brass and the squibs are independent. I have seen thousands of cases split over the years and it is not a problem except that it may degrade accuracy somewhat. You just throw away the split cases. I have a half a five gallon bucket of them. The yellow color on the cases is nothing more than the nickel worn off through repeated reloading exposing the brass, again no big deal. The bullets sticking is another matter. What happened was you had a squib load failed to send the bullet out the barrel. This may be due to an inadequate powder charge or contamination of the powder, probably the former. The next shot knocked the first bullet out. These kinds of accidents seldom hurt anyone seriously at least if you are wearing safety glasses which you should always. I have seen several revolvers blown up with little or no injury to the shooter, though bystanders can be in more danger. So, now you have a bullet stuck in your barrel. They can be the devil to get out. I had this happen to a Ruger 454 and I beat and beat and beat and beat with a big hammer before it came out. You need to send it to a good gunsmith or maybe S&W. You may be lucky, it looks like the barrel was not damaged. I don't blame you for being leery of reloads. I have loaded and fired many thousands and rarely had a problem and even more rarely a serious problem. Reloaded ammo can range in quality from excellent to garbage and it can be hard to tell the difference especially if you are inexperienced. Even factory ammo is not a guarantee of perfect performance. Advice for the future, don't let someone stand beside the gun, wear eye protection, if loads are inconsistent don't shoot them and if a shot doesn't feel right, stop and examine for a bore obstruction. One stuck bullet is a major hassle to remove but will not wreck your gun. The bullet fired behind it can, usually does hurt the gun.
 
I partially gave in to someone elses reloads: Just picked up an EAA Windicator in .357 and was telling my neighbor about the excitement.
"Heading to Wally World to pick up some ammunition... I just gotta shoot this new gun"
"Oh, really... what is it?"
"Eaa Windicator in .357... figured I would buy some at Orschelin"
"Hold on a sec", waks off and comes back "Here, take these, I don't have a .357... they're reloads"
"How are they reloaded?"
"Don't know, the pastor of my church reloaded them". Fast forward to the range, and I'm not liking the feeling I am getting. There's four different bullets and three different COALs None of them would fit: Most had a COAL that was too long, and a lot of them were too fat to get in the cylinder.
 
I don't know how old that brass is or where it came from but it looks like a batch of Speer .38 brass that I came across. I don't remember the recipe exactly but I was using 158 grain JHP's and a load that was closer to starting load than max load. Yes, I quadruple checked my powder measure and did spot checks, I was using Win 231 and think it's the best metering powder I have ever seen.

Long story short the same thing happened to me, I had three case failures in one range day (maybe 50 rounds total). I cleared and checked for a squib after the first case failure and proceeded to shoot/load one round at a time. Five rounds later I had another failure. I switched batches of reloads and the first one out of the box I had a failure that resulted in a squib.

I did not fire a round behind the squib so I had zero damage to the gun. I threw out all the reloads I had using that brass and heard similar stories from other guys who got the same brass at the same place as I did.

I would strongly advise you to take your gun to a smith to have the squib removed and to have the gun checked out. I am a huge fan of nickel brass for reloading and have used it for .40 and .45 a LOT. Maybe there was just a bad run of Speer nickel brass or maybe the cases in that caliber are more fragile than most. Could you confirm the headstamp on that brass and post any other markings? I might still have a handful of my problem brass laying around.
 
Bad Brass? SIGMA 40 BLASTER

Funny, but every one of the bad casings are stamped "Western .38 Special".
The box has 3 different brands of casings and I have shot all of them equally.
I'm not sure if they are Hornaday bullets but I guess that's not the issue here. Just passing along all of the info I have.

Here is the info from the Hornaday loading data card with the ammo.
.38 Special
Primer: W & N
Powder 231
Wt. 4.7 gr.
Bullet 110 Gr HP/XTP #35700

I learned the lesson to never use anybody elses' reloaded in my weapons!
Never, Never again
 
Reply to Suwannee Tim - The corkscrew

QUOTE "P.S. I hope you are not thinking of trying to use that corkscrew to get the stuck bullet out, cause it won't work." QUOTE

No - it was used to open the bottle of wine, celebrating that neither of us was injured.

Thanks !! You made me laugh about a serious incident!

GQ
 
Saving the barrel

When my Smith removes the barrel I am going to have it framed in a shadow box with the 1st bullet that I recovered.
Something to show off in my gun collection that most guys don't have in theirs.
If you have an old Model 14-3 that isn't any good let me know. I may just buy it from you
 
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