The only failure I've seen that was as dramatic was a post-war K-38 which was destroyed by a double charge of Bullseye behind a 148 gr BBWC. We did find all the missing parts, except the rear sight. The cylinder failed in two pieces. We found the last piece as we were leaving. It was on the hood of my '63 Impala. It hit the windshield with enough force to punch a tiny pinhole all the way through the safety glass.
That was the first round fired that day of those reloads, and the last. When examined, all the remaining rounds were double charged. They had been reloaded on the club Star "Automatic" press. Someone had reconfigured the machine to load 158 gr SWCs with 5 grs Unique and neglected to change the rather complicated powder charger back to the usual setting for 2.5 Bullseye.
My two cents: I think this had to be an overpressure situation. In the late '60 through the '70s I stopped using Auto Rim brass. For one thing it was hard to find and when you could the cases were prone to failure. On a couple of occasions, cases split form the web to the case mouth and around 180 deg of the base. They had to be punched out with a section of cleaning rod, but there was no damage to the revolver.
Glad you are alright. Guns can be replaced. Fingers and eyes, not so easy.
Last edited by Texas1941; 10-24-2010 at 08:12 PM.
Reason: sp as usual
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