I have to admit that over the years I have gained some wisdom and it came at some expense to my nerves and pocket book. Here is an example of my reloading and having a scotch just relax after a long day at work. Warning not for the faint of heart.
Enjoy at my expense.........

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Wanna sell that, I need a pencil holder for my desk?

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Vietnam 1969-1971

Wow... I was hoping to see some nice 28's.

I guarantee that pencil is a lot sharper than the man who reloads while drunk...

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SWCA #2777

Two thoughts, 1- I hope no one was hurt. 2- Thanks for sharing a valuable less, about how careful you have to be when reloading.

Possible captions for those photos:
1. Reloading and Scotch do not mix.
2. Next time I won't listen to Uncle Stumpy when he says, "I bet you can put 1 extra grain of powder in those cartridges."
3. "Well, I was in a shoot out and the gun was hit by a stray round."
4. "This was the results of a physics experiment. Honest."
5. "I thought it might cure my carpal tunnel syndrome."
6. "Blankety-blank, 'Rasum-frasum' cheap S&W's. It's going back to S&W and they better treat me right."
7. What happens to your guns if your wife thinks you spend too much time at the shooting range.
8. "Well, after I was abducted and probed the little green guys took my S&W for experiments and this is how I got it back."
9. "I got dry eye problems and cannot make tears and I thought this might cure it."
10. "Yep. Scotch and reloading do not mix."

Seriously, I agree with old bear. Thanks for sharing a valuable lesson about being careful when reloading, and I also hope no one was hurt.

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Scoundrel & Ne'er-Do-Well

Not to make light of a bad and potentially dangerous situation (hope the shooter faired better than the gun), but how many grains of that scotch did you load?
Seriously though, I am sorry about the gun and I learn lessons all the time. Luckily I still have my fingers & eyes.
And I think you admitting and showing the WWW the dangers is a good reminder what can and does happen.

Sort of reinforces the no booze till the job is done. What powder were you loading with? Personally I never use anything but a powder that fills the case to the point a double charge can't happen, and back it up with an inspection of every case in the loading block with a flash light to make sure they are all the same. Glad you weren't hurt.

That is the result of one scotch? I guess it is good that you show what happens when you reload while distracted (under the influence, whatever) but I probably would not have admitted to being such an irresponsible dumb **s.

By the way, it is not that nice old model 28 that is less than perfect...

I've come close to doing that without the scotch, but I get the point.

I opened the thread hoping to see pictures of slightly ratty 28s that still shoot great. This is the first picture I've seen of an N frame .38/.357 that burst. There is a lot of steel surrounding those chambers so you must have loaded multiple charges of a fast burning powder. Like others have posted this is a good reminder that we need to focus our attention on the job.

That ain't going to buff out.

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'Merica!

Are you saying you loaded those shells with Scotch instead of powder?
Might have gotten away with it if you had used a slower burning Scotch.
I'm sure you will keep your bottle of Scotch off the loading bench from
now on.

And I thought 27s and 28s were indestructible.

YIKES "KABOOM"

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John

Maybe he did just that with Bullseye.

Ease up guys this happened over 40 years ago when I was young and stupid. Lessons learned long ago and remembered to this day....

Handloaders for rifles do it all the time and are perfectly sober.

It's winter and a load seems anemic even though it's at the recommended maximums from several references. So up goes
the charge and then the ammo is taken out during the summer
and allowed to warm and warm.

And KABOOM.

The manuals attempt to take into account all weather conditions,
variances in brass, loading dies and sometimes even scales.
So sometimes a load seems "wrong" but it's not.

My response would have been different if you had stated in your first post that you had done this over forty years ago. In your original post it seemed to me that you were pretty nonchalant about drinking while reloading and destroying a fine revolver.

A double Scotch is OK (no driving) but a double charge not so much.

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Jim
Many K and N Frames

So the OP tries to turn a negative into a positive by using his error as a warning to others. Makes him a stand-up guy.

You dump on him for it (doesn't matter when the kaboom happened, forty years ago or yesterday), and declare that your policy in the event of a royal screw up is never to tell anyone what you did.

Got it.

Nah, just a little bit of Flitz and a Saturday and it will be right as rain.

It takes a big man to admit a mistake!

I probably would have kept mum.

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You're shy a few manners.

I have told my sons and grandchildren on numerous occasions that the most valuable things they can learn from my example is what NOT to do! Sometimes that is more valuable than what TO do. My dad used to tell me that I should always learn from the mistakes of others since I would not likely live long enough to make them all myself.

I am always pleased if others can learn from my mistakes. I'm not very proud of some of them, but I am thankful to have survived them and to have learned from them myself along the way. The older I get, the more I try to pay attention when others make mistakes so I can avoid the consequences of making them myself. I appreciate those who share their experiences that provide an opportunity for me to learn from them. Sometimes people seem to brag about their mistakes and wear them as a badge of honor. I don't get the feeling that the OP was doing that here.

I, for one, appreciate his willingness to share his experience and emphasize the results by posting those pictures. A picture seems to have more impact than just words. If that had happened to me, those pictures would be posted up directly in front of my reloading equipment on a permanent basis. I have cleaned up after many hundreds of vehicle crashes that involved a "touch" or more of alcoholic beverage. I retain a few pictures of those as a reminder to me of the possibilities. Of course, these things also happen without the involvement of alcohol. You don't have to be under the influence to either be careless or make a mistake, but the consequences are the same either way. Thanks from me to the OP for posting this graphic example of consequences. But like the consequences of serious car crashes, it's easy to see them and think that I would never do something like that ... it won't ever happen to me ... but that kind of thinking will never be of any benefit to those who think that way!!! Forewarned is forearmed ...

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So long ... Ken

First of all - thanks for sharing. One of the reasons that I do not reload. Although I don't drink, I am easily distracted and I would always be scared that something like this would happen because of my negligence.

But your photos leave me with a few questions:

1. Was it the first round that "reconfigured" your cylinder?
2. Did the kaboom ignite rounds in the adjacent cylinders?
3. Was it just one bad round, or was it a bad batch?
4. Did the bullet stay on target?

Thanks again for sharing,

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

I'd like to know the details on how this happened. My guess is that a fast powder (like Bullseye) was double charged?

In nearly 40 years of reloading I had one 357 get by with no powder, and a 243 Winchester get 1.5x the powder when half a charge stuck in the funnel and then got dumped into the next round. Fortunately it wasn't a real hot rod load and the gun was a strong Ruger #1 so all I lost was the case (had to be hammered out of the chamber).

I blew the chamber on a 1917 45 Colt with a friend's handload with a double charge (16 grains Unique).

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No life story has happy end.

I did the same thing to a K frame model 10 no dash snubby. Minus the alcohol but I thought why not try a .358, 200 grain 35 remington hornady ftp in the little guy. Well correct load of powder for a 158 grain hpswc and that bullet equaled same result.

Now had I been drinking i probably would have reconsidered this attempt.

I cried...

Kudos for sharing. Takes a man to admit his mistakes and use them to help others learn.

Those Ruger #1's are tanks, aren't they!

When I fired the over charged round in the #1 I happened to be shooting over the chronograph so I got the velocity. Was running about 2600 and that one went 3400 FPS. I don't think the 243 is supposed to go that fast with 100 grain bullets.

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No life story has happy end.

I have loaded several hundred thousand shot shells so I am not a beginner or careless but mistakes happen at the best we can do. One day I was shooting and I had a shell without powder and just laughed and said I bet I have one with double powder. It never entered my mind that it could happen. A few more shots and a big kaboom that nearly kicked my eye teeth out. I was shooting an ounce of shot with Red Dot powder. It didn't hurt the gun. People that don't make mistakes don't do much. Larry

How do you double charge a shot shell? The loaders I've used have a bar that you slide back and forth dumping powder in one direction and shot in the other. If you get that out of order the mess would be obvious.

Incidentally, I've been reloading since 1973 and the only damage to my guns required the help of two friends. The first wanted me to test his Dillion 450 reloads for accuracy in my S&W 1917. One of his reloads with no powder stuck a bullet in the barrel just before the cease fire siren blew. I set the 1917 down, changed targets, then went in the lodge to warm up by the fire and settle all the political debates of the day. A second friend who ordinarily would have been welcome to do so fired my 1917 at a bad time. Oops! *** happens. I had the replacement barrel cut to 4".

Since I didn't see it asked I'll ask the most important question. What kind of Scotch was it? Name? Single malt or double? Aged for how long? Do you still have it?

Gunshow description: Lightly used S&W Model 28 with slight cosmetic damage.

I was using a MEC Grabber. I don't know how or why. It or I just did. Maybe the powder clogged in the tube and the next charge jarred it loose. Maybe a leprechaun was in the tube and blocked the first charge. The one thing I am sure of is that MISTAKES HAPPEN and that mistake jarred my noggin. Larry

I've never blown anything up myself.
A friend "Charlie" blew the barrel on a nice Victory model... 30 some years ago when they were cheap shooters. He admitted he mistakenly used loading data for .38 Special rifle. He returned it to the factory... they did not have a correct barrel of course, but did replace the barrel with a Model 10 barrel for a reasonable cost.
A friend "Doug" blew the case head on a race 1911 45ACP, blew the mag out & apart and grips off. I was glad I wasn't holding it. The gun had been heavily throated... but never failed before or again after repair. We never found if a round was double charged or had bullet set back... He pulled every bullet in that batch without finding any empty cases.
Painful lessons learned...

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NRA LIFE
Reserve Officer 9yrs

Well, you're close. If I made a mistake while reloading such as inadvertently using W-760 instead of W-748 because they are in similar containers and I mistakenly poured the wrong powder into my powder measure, or if my scale was indicating a wrong measure because I moved it on my bench and didn't check the calibration before continuing to load. I would post that to let others know how important it is if you have several different types of powder in similar containers to check twice before filling your powder measure and to periodically check your scale to ensure that it is still set correctly; I have no problem sharing mistakes that I have made. If I was slamming Scotch while reloading, that isn't a mistake, that is wreckless irresponsibility. You are right, I would not have posted that.

That had to be some awesome overload.
WAY back when I was young, and started handloading (working at a LGS at the time), I had acquired a brand-new-on-the-market Ruger Security Six and proceeded to make REAL magnum loads for it. At that time, that meant using either Hercules 2400, Hogdon H110, or WW296. Might have gone over the manual suggestions a few times.
The Ruger survived, despite all this.
Decided I needed something with more heft to go 'to infinity and beyond'. Traded a got a 6" M28, and am ashamed to this day of some of the loads I put through it. Being young and dumb, it became, by 'custom loads', my '.44 mag.'.
And yes, it survived handily, just barely loosening up by the time it went away on some trade.
Usually the Lord looks after fools to a degree.

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275