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Old 10-24-2010, 10:18 PM
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Smithhound Smithhound is offline
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Could powder have 'bridged' in the hopper tube and then dumped an over charge when that one was in the drop station? Perhaps the couple of rounds that passed thru the charge station got almost a full charge but left 1/4 or so each, then that one got the overcharge when it was cycled? That has all the looks of a bad overcharge, I can't see a situation where metal fatigue would would fail with enough force to launch the top strap.
The only catastophic failure that comes close to that one i've seen in 30 years of reloading was caused by a 10 grain overcharge (17.5 instead of 7.5) in a M57 and it was not that bad, the top strap was buckled and the top of the cylinder looked like yours, the only thing holding the barrel in was the pin, it wobbled. (Not my reloads but a friend who had been distracted by one of his crumb crunchers)
That could be explained by the thinner wall of the cylinder in a .45 vs a .41.
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