Wow, Ruger blew up!

Colt Boom

I had a kaa boom with a Colt Delta Elite about 20 years back.

I was using PMC ammo mat an indoor range and with the first shot I felt a bee string-like feeling in my hand and my face was burning.

Apparently the fired round was triple charged. The slide locked (thankfully) and most of the gases were directed via the grip...blowing off both grips.

Colt acted immediately and replaced the gun.

I later discovered that the PMC ammo was known to have been manufactured incorrectly and was to be destroyed but was sold to a distributer instead.
 
I did this one two weeks ago today at a Cowboy Action match. Armi-Jager .38-40 - most likely a double charge of Clays, which would have been 53% over Hodgdon's max. After 45 years of reloading, I finally made a wall-hanger.

 
Something interesting here: you notice how these things aren't spitting metal back at the shooter?

From top to bottom: we know what happened with the bad batch of Redhawk barrels. The wrong lube was put on barrels on Friday, dried out by Monday, barrels got over-torqued.

The second is damned impressive. A bad round blew but NO pieces scattered. Very cool from a safety perspective.

In the third, we see a fairly typical Ruger blowup. The topstrap bends buts holds, cylinder cuts loose. Metal goes sideways, not straight back.

In the fourth it was worse but wow, it STILL won't throw metal backwards. Nice.

These pics are I presume in response to a blown-up S&W pic recently. Which lost it's entire topstrap which went God only knows where, possibly straight back. Not as cool.

You can blow anything up. Worst case, a Ruger is less likely to hurt you in doing so. These pictures aren't a condemnation of Ruger but rather a vindication of their metallurgy.

I trust my life to a Ruger daily, and nothing in these pics causes me to re
Click to expand...

Ruger FAN BOY post of the decade award goes to Jim!!! :D Sorry Jim I couldn't resist. :p
 
attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • 2016-06-27-19-55-28-31660062.jpeg
    2016-06-27-19-55-28-31660062.jpeg
    8.8 KB · Views: 734
kaboom

As for issues with factory ammo...
I was in the middle of a carry class shooting lake city ammo in a pretty new FN FNP .45
Fired several rounds then CRACK! and a slight buzz in my hand. Blew the mag out and decocker lever off but seemed ok otherwise. We stopped everyone firing, reloaded and fired another magazine. Performed perfectly. Afterwards we found the case with a rupture at the rim. Sent it back to FN and was sent a new gun and entire shooters package free.
 
I have been reloading for eight years, but my fear of creating a disaster like this stops me from ever wanting a true progressive press - I know I'm not ready for one yet. As soon as I bought my Lee classic cast turret press, I removed the auto indexer (I'd previously been using an RCBS Partner press). I use it solely for the ability to keep the dies screwed in and settings preserved when I change calibres and nothing else.

The cylinder of that third blowup way back on page 1 looks like a refugee from a mutant tap and die set!
 
Here are 3 Colt revolvers I have blown the cylinders on.

I have bought a lot of guns to try to blow them up. It is much harder than I thought, especially compared to calculating the stress on steel. It seems the yield strength for steel vs RC harness is not based on a 0.001 second pulse.

In 2001 for destructive test I bought (5) Colt police positive police surplus 38 specials for $80 ea +$19 shipping and FFL = 5/$495.... bargain.

But I loved the design, and have been collecting more. The Python cost me over $1400. Colts have not been a cheap date.
 

Attachments

  • 38 special revolvers blown up.jpg
    38 special revolvers blown up.jpg
    69.2 KB · Views: 102
  • Colt 32 blow up.jpg
    Colt 32 blow up.jpg
    36.2 KB · Views: 85
...but my fear of creating a disaster like this stops me from ever wanting a true progressive press...
Click to expand...
Progressives are no different. I do the same thing with my Dillon's that I do with my single stages. Just visually check the powder charge before seating the bullet. Their powder check buzzer also works well.
 
Yeah, I think your right. I've been loading heavy bullets in a Max for some time and that seemed a little hot to me.:o That light bullet load should be reserved for a rifle or Contender, the forcing cone looks like it's been through hell.
 
That is the max published load for a 125 xtp ( wwpowder.com ) same load i used to shoot a bunch of......until it trashed the forcing cone on my GP100
 
Running those numbers through my Quickxxxx reveals over 52K psi generated through a 6.5" barrel. Just an approximation--but pause for thought for me.
 
No wonder it was so abusive. I got away from high power light bullet loads on my revolvers many years ago. Too much Fury at the forcing cone!:eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top