Sorry I don't have any details on this, just the photos. A friend emailed this to me and it was forwarded by someone else. You know how it goes. But, the photos are interesting. The email did not make mention of any injuries to the shooter. I assume it was grossly overloaded. Some of you more experienced with such a failure would know better, but I am assuming there was no barrel obstruction.

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Tony

i have seen this pic alot of times on other fourms this shooter was lucky

In all likelyhood, it was a double charge of powder or similar type of handloading error.

Bruce

You are only the 5th or 6th to post these photos on THIS forum.

at least...

That'll buff right out...

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Adopt a retired Greyhound :)

It was the locks fault.....

Too much beer and TV while reloading. Picked up the Bullseye can instead of the 2400. 21 grains of Bullseye is hard on 629's...and Super Blackhawks, not to mention one's reputation at the range.

That's my guess.

I've seen this several times too and everytime it looks like the cylinder is out of time. Could be a result of the "incident".

I think people keep this floating around to discourage us from reloading. Kind of like saying: "Stupid reloaders anyway."

If you are doing things correctly, this is not going to happen to you. If you aren't things like this kind of "purge" our sport/hobby, if you know what I mean!

I'll have to say that even with that much of an explotion the safety flag of the internal lock still seems to be in the onlocked possition.
& Some of the parts are still salvageable..SOME!!
Gary/Hk

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MightShowYouHisSmith&Wesson

A pessimist would say the cylinder is half gone.

An optimist would say the cylinder is half full.

And a realist would say that sucker is toast?

Thanks OKFC05, I had almost wrote what the realist would say, but it wasn't suitable content for a public forum. Those wascally wealists can be a wowdy wiot sometimes. Hahahaha.

Looks like someone found "the real upper limit" of the S&W 629.

have seen this yes...but thanks for sharing..reminders never hurt

No offense to the thread starter but those pics are becoming tiresome.

SAAMI has a load that they call "Definitive Proof Cartridges". To get the pressure that they are supposed to generate, take the maximum pressure for the cartridge and use the multiplier supplied by them for both high and low thresholds.

For example: 40,000CUP of the 44Mag. Low multiplier 1.3 or 130%, maximum multiplier 1.4 or 140%. I am going to round these numbers as they did on one of their charts.
Minimum test load: 54,000CUP
Maximum test load: 57,500CUP

Now conventional thought is that those loading towards the top of the data are in more danger than at the bottom. I want to put out there that isn't always the case. If you are using a slow burning powder like H110/W296 for the 44Mag and put the recommended maximum load of 24.0gr in the case and use their OAL you are supposed to develop 36,200CUP. What or how much powder are you going to have to put in that case to make it give you 57,500CUP?
According to SAAMI a handgun designed to take that 40,000CUP load is supposed to stand up to 10 57,500CUP loads without failure, if I read their data correctly.

So, what kind of round would produce that kind of pressure on just one round? How would you get there with a 44Mag case that already had 24.0gr of powder in it? If you were to put 28gr in it you wouldn't be able to put a bullet in it!

I think I know what kind of round and I want your thoughts too. Let's quit cowering when these things happen and try to find out exactly what did.

What if we change the equation and use a faster powder. Let's say Titegroup. The maximum load for that powder in the 44Mag with a 240gr bullet is 10.0gr. Pressure, 37,700CUP! Do you think you can put another 10gr of that powder in a 44Mag case? I can tell you right now that you could probably put in 30gr!

At a double charge of a fast powder like that what will the effective pressure be? Exponential! 37,700CUP will probably turn into 100,000CUP in a heartbeat.

So it becomes not so much a "hot" load but how we get to it.

What say you?

Prudent reloader especially with a progressive press should try to use bulky powders so a double charge would be evident by the spilled powder.

And that was probably what was done; heavy bullets & a double charge of uberfast powder. I knew a guy way back when did it to a RBH w/ RedDot. Thought he was loading BlueDot, swore he loaded BD, but I found a can o RD on his bench when we went to investigate it. Just one reason I do Not like to load uberfast powders in large cases.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

That is a good way to see the inside of the cylinder ...optimist

Yeah, you can now examine the inside of the chambers without using a borescope!

No offense taken. I had never seen this before and I hope I did not cause any unnecessary wear and tear on the Internet. I found the photos pretty amazing.

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Tony

Take a good look at those pictures. We always here how "A Smith and Wesson is weaker than a Ruger because of the bolt notch", and so on.

What ever happened to this revolver, while it does look like the cylinder faulted THROUGH the bolt notch, it surely wasn't where the problem started. If it had been the cases at that point would be ruptured first and the front might still be intact.

I am inclined to believe that the front of the cylinder let loose and it cracked THROUGH the notch. It didn't originate there.

Just a thought.

There are some people who don't have the brains or temperment to be reloaders. A couple of years ago there was a guy who came into one of the local gun shops looking for some Clays powder to use for Cowboy Action loads in his Colt clone in .45 Colt. I was hanging out BSing the owner of the shop. The guy who came in told me about the "Great Cowboy Load" someone had told him about. I said, "You need to check that load against a manual. That sounds like a load level that would be more appropriate for Universal Clays, rather than Clays powder." He was one of those guys who knows more than everyone else. (Just ask him and he will tell you that.) He got away with shooting that load at the first Cowboy match. At the second Cowboy match, the topstrap from one of his revolvers was launched into orbit and the cylinder broke in half exactly like the cylinder shown in the photos in this thread. The amzing part of of this story is that the IDIOT CONTINUED TO SHOOT THOSE LOADS IN HIS OTHER IDENTICAL COLT CLONE REVOLVER! A week or so later THE OTHER GUN CAME APART IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY! At his insistance what was left of the second revolver was sent back to the manufacturer by the dealer along with the load data. According to the manufacturer, that load was probably developing a minimum of 110,000 psi! The manufacturer was amazed that both revolvers didn't come apart at the first round. They were shocked (yet at the same time impressed) that both revolvers lived through quite a number of those loads before coming apart. After that, whenever I saw that guy shooting at the range I moved away from him in case he was using his reloads. Luckily he left town not long after that. He is someone who should NOT be reloading!

Can someone in the know explain why there are ruptured casings, one still has the bullet in what is left of the chamber, in the remains of the cylinder? Assuming the cartridge under the hammer exploded and the cylinder disintegrated, why did these cartridges rupture and why did that bullet remain there? I don't know if anyone can answer that, but I'm curious.

I used to reload plenty, many years ago to shoot more for the dollar. One screw-up of mine was lack of a powder charge. The primer propelled the bullet into the cylinder mouth and barrel throat locking up the cylinder. Luckily, the cylinder would not turn causing me to examine the problem and finding the cause. If the bullet had cleared the chamber and lodged in the barrel I'd like to think I would have examined the gun after an obvious weak discharge. But, if I failed to do that it could have been ugly.

I did not post this to knock reloading at all. I plan to get back into it when I have more time (retirement?).

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Tony

All of the revolver blow-ups I've seen usually left the bullet in the adjacent chambers. My assumption is that the overpressure from the cartridge that was fired was high enough to tear open the chambers and relatively weak casings, but didn't actually set off the powder within the adjacent cases. This would make sense because smokeless powder is a propellant and not an explosive. Since it isn't an explosive, it isn't particularly pressure sensitive. The bullets are heavy, so they want to stay in place rather than be thrown out like the pieces of the case. I'd be willing to bet that if the adjacent cases contained black powder (a low explosive) instead of smokeless powder (a propellant), the powder would have undergone a sympathetic detonation and the bullet would have been shoved out the case. I'm not an expert, so this is all a guess. If there are any experts on the subject out there, I'd like to hear their thoughts.

That would be my guess too.

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John

I know this is an old thread, but I thought this was a good place to post these. This was my friends 629 from today at the range. His load was H110 and a 240 grain bullet, this was the result of his first shot. He only received a minor cut to the forehead. No idea what was the cause.

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per Treeman;
"No offense to the thread starter but those pics are becoming tiresome. "

You got that right.

Definitely not a "Goodyear" !!!

Tiresome? I just took these today.

Look at the thread date.
This is an older thread. There are new pictures of a different gun, posted by a new member.

I wonder if he should've started a new thread instead of posting in a zombie thread.

I posted here because I did a google search and found almost no pictures of a 629 blowing up. My thought was an under charge as I don't think you can fit enough H110 in the case to do this.

Yikes, 2009? Nevermind.

I believe the only way this could have happened is with an overcharge of a much faster powder than H110.

Was this person an experienced reloader? He might have grabbed the wrong can, or had the fast powder left over in the powder hopper from loading .38s or something.

But for sure that was not H110 in that case. An undercharge would not do that.

Glad your friend is OK.

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USAF, 69-92
Vietnam, 72-73

I'm with the reply's that doubt that you could do that with H110. I introduce several people to reloading every year and I always stress keeping the powder burn rate in the area that will safely fill the cases. The few people that I know of that have gotten into trouble have been trying to get by with free powder or cheap surplus powders.

A few years ago I loaded some 300 grain Nosler's in my 629 Classic Hunter with H110. The case was very nearly packed with magnum primers. This load was extremely uncomfortable to shoot but killed a 175 pound hog very dead. The primers looked fine and 6 cases extracted with ease!

There are times when we read about detonation but it has never been proven. At any rate light charges of a fast burning powder are asking for double charges. Be safe! Geo. T.

I liked the one with the Chinese 44 Mag ammo better
Pretty rare finding that ya think????


closed thread

Pic's 629 blown up

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Still Running Against the Wind

Chinese .44 Magnum ammunition?? Say it ain't so!