A failure and a Smith, seemingly. But ***??? Cases are crushed.


Part of me wants to say "fake".

Thoughts?

Attached Images

4C63CBF4-37B8-479F-B76C-3D4A4DEA240A.jpeg (130.9 KB, 918 views)

Obstruction, reloads,? You are a lucky man!

Not me. How would an (ie' "One") obstruction cause this?

Look at the casings, crushed?

Well, the best I could come up with was "HUH?!!!"

And now that I've thought about it some, and considered my life's experience, I can add "HMMMMMMMMMMMM?"-----AND I'm going to be extremely interested in a plausible explanation----none of which have come to mind; but I pretty much already said that.

It may very well prove to be embarrassing, but that's all I have right now.

Ralph Tremaine

I am beginning to lean more into the "fake" corner.

That looks like a non-pinned Model 19 with a 2-1/2” barrel. I moved this from S&W Antiques to the S&W Revolvers: 1980 to the present section.

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I doubt the photo is fake. The dented cases appear to be from the 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock chambers. The 12 o’clock chamber and fired case are long gone. A double charge of powder will blow the cylinder and peel the topstrap like that. Almost certainly reloads.

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"I also cook."

Doesn’t look like a fake to me.

Looks like a big overload.

But
1) two cylinders are ruptured
2) 2 cases are affected and they are crushed, not blown to kingdom come.

Has anyone ever seen an overload result in a case being crushed? Should be the reverse, right?

See my edited post.

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"I also cook."

Looks like a classic overload to me as well, how do you fake something like this?

Mothers Mag Polish isn't going to fix that!

That's pretty much how a revolver cylinder fails. I doubt it was an obstruction. The person doing the reloading probably used 15 grains of Bullseye instead of 296.

The cases that are crushed were not in the charge hole that exploded. They were crushed by the rapid expansion and disintegration of the charge hole that exploded, which also blew off the top strap. I suspect it was the first or last round fired, because a loaded round’s case would react differently than a fired round. But I could be wrong about that last part . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Looks like the result of "some over-pressure" to me

P.44
Sorry, the attached pdf is in German language,
but the pics are speaking for "the problem"

Attached Files

Cabriolets-1.pdf (1,017.7 KB, 262 views)

Looks (sadly) real to me.

What the man said (reading between the lines) is the explosion forced material stronger than cartridge case walls into those walls-----which surrendered without any resistance worth talking about.

In other words, the explosion was at the 12 o'clock position, and the force of the explosion radiated out in 360 degrees------which is a rather simple concept if/when you think about it-----which I did---eventually-----with some help.

Ralph Tremaine

I 'd have to agree with S&WChad's and rct269's assessments. The cylinder that ruptured came apart so violently it ripped off the adjacent half of the cylinder on each side of it.

Looks to me like the round at 2 o'clock still has the bullet in the brass - the mouth of the brass isn't crushed in like the round in the 10 o'clock position. This makes sense since the one in the 10 o'clock position would have been fired just before the one in the 12 o'clock position was fired, and the one in the 2 o'clock position would still be unfired.

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I saw a 44mag Ruger blackhawk that looked very much like that at a gun range in Springdale, they said it was a double charge reload. It took the top strap off and the cylinder top was gone. They had it to wake reloaders up to what can happen. The funny thing was I used to shoot with owner in combat matches. jrm53

That’s impressive, hopefully the guy was wearing safety glasses.

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-Matt

My guess is Titegroup. These days, it’s most likely to be Titegroup.

This sums it up.
And now for some fun, hopefully without offending anyone.

Grabbing the wrong can of powder affects the whole lot. There is no bullet in the case that was fired before the overload so I suspect the problem is more likely not being able to count to one. One powder charge. Double and triple powder charges can be assembled on single stage presses but that's rare. It is only common using progressive presses.

I have seen exactly the same thing. Usually from an overload of
fast burning powder. Suspect cases I saw was loaded on a Dillon
550 and somehow forgot to index case and got a double load
of bullseye, 231, clays etc. Reason Trail Boss powder was created.

A double charge of Bullseye will do that!

Give this man a hand! I think so, too.

Which is why I weigh every load. Which doesn't guarantee not making a mistake either, but it helps.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

You know what else helps? Not using an ultra-fast pistol powder in a magnum revolver round, even though data says “you can.”

I'd suggest reducing that load in 1/2 gr increments till a gun stays together.

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Lee Jarrett

His pants are dry. Fake!

What the heck kind of loads was that guy using? I'm thinking he used the column meant for RUGER when he did his re-loading.

ANY pic can be photo shopped...........I go with fake.

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S&W Accumulator

Just curious, but by whom and for what purpose?
To say "DURRR look what a dufus I am and what I did to my gun?"
Seems like Occam's razor applies here.
Here is an extreme zoom on the cylinder. I don't see any of the blurred edges or odd pixelation artifacts that are the telltales of a PhotoShop job.

Attached Images

BlowedUp22.jpg (73.5 KB, 141 views)

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

Looks amazingly similar to the 4" Model 19 I blew up in 1997. No obstruction, just over loaded private handload - last round of the day, actually. Blew the top half of the cylinder and the top strap into the stratosphere, never recovered, the rear sight was 20 feet behind me, the three cases in the "bottom half" of the cylinder were virtually powdered.

That ain't no fake. And I don't trust handloads accordingly.

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Come and take it!!

I'd suggest Renaissance Wax. Should make it look new again.

That's why I don't reload my own ammunition. I let a good friend do it for me.

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Kenny
Endeavor to persevere.

It appears that the blown cartridge and chamber are missing and are somewhere in the surrounding area.The force of the blast removed the top strap and the top of the chambers on either side. The downblast from the moving topstrap then crushed the soft brass cases or the same blast that took the chambers on either side was strong enough to crush the cartridges. Must have been one heck of a double charge or even triple or a case full of BE deliberately.

We are just two weeks in to 2021 and we already have a strong entry for Funniest Post of the Year. From the boss too!

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Possum—The other white meat!

Awesome image !!

Perhaps someone thought it was H110, but it was actually titegroup

Definitely not fake!

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Pine_Worker
Ex-LEO, NRA Life

My vote is "not fake" and "probable obstruction", and actually the crushed cases are the reason why.

My reasoning: If the barrel is obstructed, the blowback of the gases in the cylinder will attempt to escape out between the cylinder and forcing cone, leading to an overpressure inside the cylinder chamber, leading to the crushed cases as some of the gases try to exit around the case and out the back of the cylinder.

Also, it's difficult to tell from this one photo, but of the two cylinder chambers affected that are visible, the top one appears to still have the slug just in front of the empty crushed case. If so, this leads me to believe the shooter had a problem with the other chamber first but it didn't blow the cylinder apart, but instead of checking the weapon he just pulled the trigger again which is why the slug I think I can see didn't go far and the cylinder fragmented at that point.

The picture is just low-res enough, but it does appear that the barrel has a slight bulge in it which would be from an obstruction. If so then I believe there were actually three rounds involved in this order:

First round - weak load or bad round and bullet gets stuck in barrel.
Second round - normal round fired normally, fully packs barrel with the second bullet and gases escaping out the back of the cylinder crushes the case but the cylinder remains intact.
Third round - normal round fired normally, but the bullet does not enter the barrel (it already having two rounds in it) and the gases escaping out the back of the cylinder crushes the case and the increased overpressure from having the bullet remain in the chamber causes the cylinder to fragment.

Please note that in my scenario, the first round does not have to have been fired on the same day - it could possibly be the last round fired during an earlier session but the gun wasn't checked or cleaned before this incident occurred.

Just my two cents worth from one picture.

Ok, so who's going to step up and start blowing up some guns to test these theories?

It would be interesting to blow up some handguns; as long as they are not mine. There should be a safe way to do it.

Remote control? Hire someone else's kid to do the shooting?

Hey y'all! Hold my beer and watch this!

I see no reason to think it's fake. Several replies speculatively blame progressive presses but I'll note guys have been blowing up guns with double charges of fast powder since long before progressive presses became common.

Ironic choice of words. Hope the user still has his

This picture is pasted on the wall over my reloading bench.

Attached Images

posted over reload bench 2011 Nov.jpg (90.1 KB, 62 views)

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Looks very similar to a blued Mod 10 my LGS had on display about 40 years ago. The sign said the owner followed the instruction with the Lee Loader, used the little yellow scoop and used it to put 3 scoops of Bullseye in the case. (HMMM, 3 gr scoop X 3 = 9 gr).

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Here is what 22 grains of Unique will do to a 44 Magnum.

Bill

PSI, pounds per square inch, every square inch of surface in the cylinder and barrel is covered by whatever pressure the cartridge develops. Plugged, overload, whatever, this was "way" to much PSI. I'm going with not Faked !!!

Something like a cheap vise to clamp the grip frame in and a long piece of cord add a pulley or 2 and you could go behind a wall

I keep thinking about making a block of steel to hold a barrel and cylinder with a spring loaded firing pin. I want to see just how much a N frame 45 colt cylinder would take before rupture. If the cylinder holds together thee frame would.