You know you overloaded when . . .

P

Prof Young

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You know you over loaded when . . . (Even though I followed published formulas) . . . you have to take the cylinder out of the 44 mag super black hawk and use a rod and mallet to drive the empty brass out . . .

Ah well . . .

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
Yikes! What was the load and who published it and when? Others need to be made aware it is invalid. Were you starting with the starting load? I'm forever pointing out I've occasionally found published starting loads that were already at maximum for the gun I was working with, but I can't say I've ever seen a starting load that was over.
 
Prof Young,

You weren't firing 44 Special loads prior to shooting 44 Magnum loads by any chance?

Don
 
Yep, how true. I found that out with Unique in my younger days. It was a published load... Backed off and all was well. In .44 Magnum, 10g Unique under 240g SWC is as high as I will go. I will use a slower powder like 2400, 4227, H110, etc. if I want to push the .44 Magnum to its potential.
 
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(Even though I followed published formulas) . . .
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There are two basic things here, one is the possibility that while you THOUGHT you were following published (assumed safe) loads you actually didn't (wrong powder, wrong amount etc), if so that would be your mistake.

The other possibility is that you did do exactly what the load listed and that it is simply too hot for YOUR GUN and component combination.

We've said it over and over, reloading data are GUIDELINES, and while results are generally SIMILAR they are not necessarily identical, and what works in their test gun MIGHT not give you the same results in yours.
 
FWIW,just so you know what you are likely dealing with,

Brass is resilient to a degree. It expands,then relaxes back some. That should make it easy to eject.

Under too high of pressure,the actual steel chamber in the cylinder stretches and expands. Of course,the brass does,too.

The steel stretched enough that when it comes back to size,it has an interference fit on the brass.

Kind of scary to think about stretching the cylinder that much.

I've fired some heavy H-110 loads in my SBH and never had difficult extraction.

No lecture intended,I'm glad it all held together.

I wonder what a good micrometer study over the cylinder diameter might reveal.

What was your load,if I may ask? Its also possible to misread the powder scale,or have a scale out of calibration.

Beware chain of custody on your powder.Contamination is possible.
 
By chance the loaded shells weren't hard to push into the chamber were they? I don't shoot 38 Special in my 357 Mag because of the powder build up in the chamber. I also don't shoot 44 Special in my 44 Mag for the same reason. When hard to push in, they are really hard to push out, been there before.
 
Thanks and . . .

Thanks for all the thoughts and feedback.

I was shooting 200 gn plated Rainier on top of the max suggested load of Blue Dot in my Lee tables. Part of the problem here is that there is no table for plated and I'm adjusting from the lead bullet charts. (Yeah, I know, so that isn't really a published formula. My bad.)

And, truth be told, I only had to dislodge four of them with the rod and mallet, but still . . .

I had about fifty rounds. Took them all apart and started over.

Life is good.
Prof Young

P.S. . . . (see post about under weight Rainier bullets) These were actually 180 gn bullets not 200 like the box said.
 
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Wow . . .

Wow. Guess I'm lucky I didn't blow up my Super Blackhawk. It's tough gun but . . .

Information is life.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
Since you learned a lesson and there was no harm, then there's no foul.

I can one up you in the "what was I thinking" award, but I was using factory ammo for this one.

I have 9mm adapters to shoot in .410 handguns and I have shot them in my Judge no problem. More recoil than I would have expected, but 9mm has more recoil than .38 does.

Anyway, so when Shortlane makes their adapters and they say they can shoot 9mm from your derringer, they don't mean any or every derringer, they mean Bond Arms, but they fail to specify that. I have a Cobray derringer and if you're familiar with that the one thing it's not is a Bond Arms.

So, the first shot felt as expected, but the second shot was noticeably hot. Turned out that the primer was pierced and I can't say it was ammo loaded over spec (it was steel case Winchester) but IDK. It could have also been using the adapters and that firing pin weren't a match made in heaven, but IDK.

The barrel latch release is a rod with two textured end pieces and the second shot blow one of the end pieces off.

I'm retiring that derringer to snake shot and Trail Boss loads of .45 Colt only from now on.
 
In addition to Mehavey's link, here is the Alliant warning that goes with it. It's a peculiarly worded warning that is hard to wrap one's head around. No .41 Mag loads of any kind. No 125-grain bullets in .357 and stating heavier bullets in the Alliant recipes are OK, but when you look, their published loads include one for a 110-grain bullet and 140-grain bullets. Just no 125's or 135's.

I asked the guys at the Alliant table at the NRA Annual meeting about it three or four years ago, and they just sort of looked at the floor and mumbled about just heeding the warning. Clearly, they were instructed not to discuss it with anybody for liability reasons. So, something is funny about that powder in some magnum revolver cases, but given that it only applies to 125-grain .357 Mag bullets and all bullet weights in .41 Magnum, but none in 44 Magnum, I can't guess what it is. I don't have any Blue Dot currently, and don't plan to buy any without some explanation of what is causing the problem.

I suppose it could be they simply concluded there is just too much unsafe published load data for the banned catagories. That would make it easier to declare them universally unsafe for liability reasons. Alliant doesn't make its own powder and they have changed plants and sources and processes in the past (cleaner-burning Unique and Bullseye, for example). Maybe a Blue Dot change didn't go well for the exponentiality of its pressure rise with charge increase. But there is no point in speculating. I am just not buying any without some explanation I can make sense of when other powders work just fine.
 
Alliant doesn't make its own powder and they have changed plants and sources and processes in the past
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My fairly fresh can of Bullseye says "Made with pride in the USA."
I figured they were getting it as a sideline from Radford AAP.
Well, I now see that BAE is running Radford, so Alliant is likely buying powder from them.
Yes, I know their rifle powders are foreign imports.

I recall when .38 Super Major was "discovered," Blue Dot was the powder of choice. Complete with "Super Face" and steel backed grips for those who did not redevelop their load with every new lot of BD.
 
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