Duck, I mean Duke Venturino may not have ever seen a handgun blown up with factory loads but I have. The latest was last Sunday. The gun was sold new that morning at the gun show I was at and returned the same day missing the top of the cylinder. A 44 Spl Charter blown up with Winchester silvertips.

I have also personally had a ka-boom with factory ammo in a SIG 228.

Skip;
Thanks for the vote of confidence-I'm touched.

In general, I do NOT shoot "other people's" handloads for all of the reasons stated. I have a couple of friends that I trust, but I tend to err on the conservative side.

Our local club ran the Police Department OPEN MATCHES (between Departments around the state). I was score keeper and we scored "in front of God and everybody" in the open in the indoor range adjacent to the outdoor range where the matches were held. There would be several hundred competitors (all policemen).

At the time, .38 Special revolvers shooting PPC was the contest of the day. From our position inside we could hear the shooting going on in the background. From time to time we would hear a "double charge" - the sound was quite distinctive.

Most were using the target load of 2.7 Bullseye behind a 148 gr wadcutter except the "quick reload stage" where they used lightly loaded 158 round noses. For obvious reasons, most ammo was loaded on Progressive presses. Some was loaded by individuals and a lot was loaded by "department reloaders". There was also beginning to be commercial reloaders in the mix.

We did this for the police for a couple of years (until politics "put paid" to the matches). During this time of many thousands of shots and a "few" double charges no one exhibited a damaged handgun. Thank the man above (and S&W and Colt) for strong handguns...

Dale53

quote:

Seriously, good advice above. Duke Venturino has an article in the last AH concerning "blowed-up guns," and makes the comment that he personally knows of no gun blown up by factory ammo;

I had dinner with a guy who ran the old Dan Wesson plant. In the 80's Dan Wesson revolvers were very popular with the pistol silohoutte crowd. This was before the "topple" point rule, and some guys were reloading their rounds hot.

He made the comment that all the blowed up revolvers were due to reloads. And those 80's vintage Dan Wessons were pretty stout revolvers.

Kind and Jessie, thanks for your input. I never said that there had never been a gun blown up by factory ammo, just that I'd never seen one, other than the previously mentioned AR. In the case of the Ruger Super Blackhawk, I'd strongly suspect a bad cylinder, but who knows? In the case of the Charter Bulldog, well, it is a Charter Bulldog.... The late production Bulldogs I've seen have been awfully sloppy, with horrendous fit and finish, and I'd sure suspect metallurgical issues.

The Sig 228, without knowing lots more, I'd be most inclined to point the finger at the ammo, but again, who knows? I do know that a Sig P-220 will take more pressure than you'd ever imagine to blow up, because I've seen two of them take triple charges of canister Bullseye (slower than consumer-grade Bullseye-not much faster than Unique)under a 230gr. FMJ, and only a slight frame crack resulted in each. Driving an extra 230gr. bullet into the barrel, just ahead of the chamber, and firing another 230 behind it, with a normal charge, resulted in no visible gun damage to the one gun in which we did that. (Don't try either of these tests at home, kids.) I'd expect the 228 to be as strong, or maybe stronger.

One of the first ammo and firearm product liability suits I ever handled involved a Glock 22 on which the barrel had split longitudinally along both sides of the chamber, with factory ammo being fired at the time. (Probably.) Examination of the edges of the split barrel revealed that about half the length of the split showed light rust, and had fractured in an intragranular fashion. In other words, it had been cracked for a long time. We also learned that the gun had fired several hundred rounds of reloads of unknown origin, on several occasions, before the barrel finally let go. Not a factory ammo problem, and not necessarily a gun problem, either. One round of reloaded .40 with the bullet shoved way back in the case could have produced enough pressure to crack the thin chamber walls of the Glock, or perhaps it did have a heat treatment defect. We'll never know for sure, but there was zero evidence of a defect in my client's factory ammo.

Altogether, I trust factory ammo from the big makers, and some of the small ones, and I trust my reloads. There is one factory (a really big one) about which I am intimately familiar with QC, and the likelihood of a double charge is so remote as to be almost inconceivable. I trust my reloads, and those of a very select few others, and I won't shoot reloads of unknown origin, not even in your gun!

quote:

In general, I do NOT shoot "other people's" handloads for all of the reasons stated. I have a couple of friends that I trust, but I tend to err on the conservative side.

Dale,
You have stated an oxymoron! There is no way possible that one can ERR on the conservative side! That's the reason conservative is called the "RIGHT" "RIGHT" side!

Now let me as another question if us conservatives are right what is left left over? The "WRONG" "WRONG" side!

I know, we were talking about something else but I just had to throw that in!

Factory loads seem to be the standard to which handloads are compared. I trust my handloads more than factory ammo. I have had factory ammo that was defective. Soft brass, double punched flashholes and unfinished rim cuts. None of these resulted in dangerous conditions, but they would not have occured in my reloads. These occured in either Remington, Winchester, Federal or Norma ammo. I will not shoot brands other than these. One exception is Buffalo Bore that I have used enough to have confidence in. There are probably other brands and custom loads that are excellent I just don't know about them. I absolutely will not shoot anothers reloads or allow others to shoot mine.

i shoot 5.8 grs. 231 in my ruger 44 special and my smith model 21.with someone elses loads break it down.

i broke down my cousins reloads to get at the brass and bullets.i would shoot my shooting friend's loads,but that's the only person's ammo i would trust.

besides think of the fun you'll have breaking them down.dan