If so, what happened?

If so, what happened?

Well Ken, exactly the same thing as when I fired a .44 Mag in a .45 Colt!

The bullet took a hike from the main group and the extracted brass had an odd swelling chuckle!

The reason I ask is that I have a slight problem. Somehow some of my fired 41 magnum cases got in to my bucket of 44 magnum brass. I think I've found and removed all of them but... I also went over all my loaded 44 magnum cartridges. Found two that looked just fine BUT were loaded with 41 magnum cases. The upper part of the brass where the bullet is just stretched out to the proper diameter. The lower part did not. I think I've found all of these but...

But at least you didn't experience a major pressure problem I gather.

I'll admit to it.... The funny thing is that the group was still semi decent.... Less recoil but it kinda messed up the cases... It did take a little thump to extract the cases...

I did the same thing. I had a bag of old ammo that I thought was 44. I was firing my 329 when one round did not hurt and was much lighter in recoil. I ceased firing and had difficulty ejecting the case as it swelled to seal the chamber. Lucky me, neither the gun nor I was damaged and the case did not rupture.

I didn't think to check the ammo as I sold my 41s some 20 years ago and I thought I gave away all the 41 ammo. A stupid mistake on my part that I will not repeat.

Nope, cause I don't have any .429 magnums.

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JOE MACK aka .41FAN

I accidentally grabbed a 41 and fired it in a 29-2 years ago. The case swelled up & split at the mouth end. I had to tap the case out of the chamber with a brass rod. No damage was done to the gun.

I'm amazed that the case neck didn't split when it had an oversized slug forced down.

Surprised you didn't get lead spitting from an off center round firing a slug off center into the forcing cone.

Glad you're all right.

Can't happen in my house, a .357 is pretty obvious in a .500 Mag chamber, the only revolvers I have! Don

Doesn't happen. No problem seating the bullet whatsoever. That surprised me. Loaded cartridge doesn't even look all that odd.

You do, however, get two chances to realize that something is wrong. There is no resistance as the case comes out of the sizing die. That's the biggest warning. And there is a chance that the case will pop out of the shell plate as you try to seat a primer.

A friend of mine fired several 41 rounds in my 44 mag 94 Winchester. I thought they sounded funny when he fired them and the brass sounded funny when it hit the concrete. The cases were split, but no other damage.

When I used to shoot some "combat" matches in the early 80's I used a 6" 29-2. My buddy used a 6" 57. We had a match where we were a team. You guessed it, we got the speed loaders mixed up a bit and I grabbed one of his by mistake.
I fired 6 rounds, noticed a lack of recoil and my shots keyholed. The brass split, but came out easily.
These loads were around 1000 fps, so not real hot.

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Have Canon, Will Travel

Here is a good one for you. 38 special in a 30-30 lever gun. These had a Win 94 chambered in 30-30 and 357 and idiot A picked up the 30-30 thinking he had the 357. Thank god they were shooting soft lead bullets. It just split the case but the chamber neck squeezed the 38 down to .30 cal .... kinda scary

Watched a guy on the range shoot an entire 20 box of .44 mag 240 gr factory rds through his 25-5 .45 Colt. NO problems....but poor accuracy.

I once shot .45-70's through what was supposed to be a .45-70 Trapdoor, but in reality it was a .50-70! Split cases and poor accuracy but again....no problems.

FN in MT

I loaded a .41 mag case once while loading .44mag.The case ruptured and it was very loud. no one hurt though. it is an easy mistake to make!

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blkhand

I accidentally put a cylinder full of .44 Mags through my 625 .45 Colt MG once. They were .44 SPL level loads and shot fine. They all hit the paper at 25 yards but the group was more of a pattern. No harm done to the gun or the brass.

That's when I made a hard rule that .44s and .45s do not go to the range together.

Just another case of you can never be too careful: I bought a box of .45 ACP that had one .40 S&W in it that I never noticed and I loaded it into a mag with .45's. It was held by the extractor and fired...kinda sounded like a weak fart and didn't operate the slide. That is when I found it with the case split.

<span class="ev_code_RED">WHOA!!!!!</span>
Ken-
This is a DIFFERENT situation from your original question-
A 41 mag rd fired in a 44mag is usually not going to give a major problem because the bullet allows so much clearance, pressures will not go very high, so you will PROBABLY not have a catastrophic case failure.
With a 44 bullet loaded in a 41 case, you might not get off so easily. With the larger 44 slug sealing the bore, the high pressure might cause a CATASTROPHIC case failure.
I would pull those bullets!!!

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Weird. Exactly the same happened to me Sunday. One .40 S&W round out of a 25 round box of Remington Golden Saber .45 ACP HPs. Caught it before it made it into the mag.

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I need ammo, not a ride.

I don't see it... Obviously he needs to pull all the messed up cartridges that is a given. I don't think it would be catastrophic failure, as in extra pressure blowing something up. I could see some problem with gases blowing around/thru a ruptured case that may be very undesirable.

I have a fondness for Sig autos. I had a 226 out one day years ago plinking away with a paper sack of odd ammo from traded in guns- you know a gun that has loaded mags when I traded for it or bought it at my shop.
Well, I'm banging away, everything is good, till one round makes my face burn, and the gun is smoking out the rear of the slide. I stopped shooting, got to a mirror, and picked little bits of metal out of both cheeks. Dropped the mag, and found a 380 rd mixed with the 9's. I did not put it there, so someone had brought in a 9mm with 2 380 rds in the mag. When I shucked them out of the mags, I usually did not inspect them closely.

What happened- The Sig is a "controlled round feeder", meaning the rd slides up under the extractor as it goes forward. It is always "controlled", as opposed to something like a 700 Rem or Ruger 77, which are "push feed", the rd NOT being under control- just pushed into the chamber. Apparently, the extractor held the rd firmly enough for the firing pen to fire it, but my guess is that the firing pin blow pushed it forward into the chamber and out of the extractor. That excessive headspace allowed the primer to blow out into my face. I was not wearing glasses, but my eyes were not hurt, Thank God.
I never found the case- I was shooting in pasture grass. I really wanted it, and hunted long for it. Vintage 226's have a small triangular area that is "open" beside the hammer slot, allowing bits of the primer to come straight back.
It's a wonder I'm still as pretty as I am....

Duuuuuhhhhhh- do I need to tell you to check your ammo AND WEAR GLASSES?

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Key phrase-NOT what I said. I said "catastrophic CASE failure". The undersized case head, even in a recessed chamber, might allow plenty of brass and GAS to be blown out, and it's gonna be HOT, and MAD!

Read my post above- picking brass out of your face on a hot, sweaty day is annoying.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Read my post... "I could see some problem with gases blowing around/thru a ruptured case that may be very undesirable."

OK "catastrophic CASE failure" inside a 44Mag chamber is still going to be all enclosed... It is already backed up against the recoil plate, worst case, no pun intended, is pieces may come out the sides after a case separation. Not trying to trivialize this, as all mistakes of this sort should be a gut check on your firearm and safety awareness. It just ain't catastropic... I've been shooting for 44 years and this is the first time I've ever chambered and fired the wrong cartridge. And I was more than a little upset with myself and it basically ruined a fun day of shooting for me.

ONLY SPEAKING OF THE 41 44 RELOADING SWITCH..... DIFFERENT CARTRIDGE SWITCHES CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS AND POSSIBLY FATAL.

I guess we just have differing opinions on what catastrophic means.... But I'm sure we both agree on the definition of "avoidable".

Firing a 41 in a 44
I did. It ejected ok but, split the 41 case.

Never..I pay attention when I reload, and load guns.

My point, as illustrated by the Sig fiasco I posted above, is the possibility of what 30,000 or so psi of hot gasses and/or brass could do when exiting the rear of a gun. There is a hole in that recoil shield you speak of- where the firing pin comes through. It points directly at the shooter's face, unless he is hip shooting.
I was also pointing out the difference in the title of the thread and the different actual scenario the author had created with the 44 bullet in a 41 case.
It would be utterly foolish to create a situation that could possibly direct gasses and/or brass at one's face at the heat and pressure levels involved. Witness the accidents where people have allowed fingers to get too close to the barrel-cyl gap on the 500 mags.
Maybe the author could test fire the 44/41's for us, and submit a report?
Maybe not.....

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

I've made my share of gaffs, but so far no crossed loads.

I did find something interesting and even to mention it makes my palms sweat - so here it is as a warning.

I have a 25-7 and a .454 Casull. Just to ease my mind that it was an impossibility as the rounds must surely be of different dimension, I realized that a .45LC could fire in the Casull, but the .454 shouldn't chamber in the 25-7... right? WRONG!! My .454 round slipped right into the 25-7 and the cylinder rotated just fine. The hair on my neck is standing as I type this, so a word to the wise - never take the Casull to the range with the 25-7 and make positive that you always segregate .454 from .45LC.

I keep the .454 in a red box and I use a cast TC bullet exclusively for it and I never load a TC for the LC, this way I have 2 levels of safety so I never confuse the two rounds.

HTH.

Back in the 70's,I had a 6.5" blued M29 and a 6" blued M57, nearly identical guns except or the longer barrel on the M29. I fired 6 or 12 rounds of 41's in the M29 with only split cases to show for it. Last year I was shooting my 45 Colt New(small)Vaquero with rounds out of its cartridge belt. Unfortunatly, they were 44 Specials. Needless to say, I ruined those cases too. On the range during my LE days, I've seen 380's shot in 9's, nines shot in 40's, and 40's shot in 45's, all by folks who should have known better. All it takes is inattention, or in my case 57 year old eyes, to make a mistake. I have taken to color coding my ammo boxes for my revolver ammo using the Boxes from Midway. Orange for 41 mags, green for 45 Colt, and red for 44's. Couldn't hurt!! Bob

That sounds like a Jug Johnson Special.

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OFT/NRA LIFE MEMBER

OK I guess I can't argue if you keep up with completely dissimilar events... You do know there is a difference when a case fails in a revolver a apposed to a auto loading pistol? The pressures required to separate a case in a revolver would be pretty tremendous I would think, as would having enuff force to blow the hammer back and get pieces of primer in da face. As for S&W 500 thing... Yeah I read that one and the biggest joke was the idiot with the hot dog test... WTH?? Bite a hot dog with enuff pressure to break it in half, now bite your finger with the same force, I doubt if you would even make a dent... BTAIM A 41/44 does not a 500 make.... Last post, you already know what you know and I know what I know.....

BTW How many rounds would be a sufficient test?

DT,
I did not really enter this thread to argue.
I was merely trying to point out to Ken how different his title was to the actual 44/41's he had loaded, in case he got the idea from the answers that shooting them would be a piece of cake.

In the 70's and 80's, I was involved in the commercial reloading business. I shot most of our defective ammo IF it would chamber. That included many 1000's of rounds of 38 WC that was SPLIT FULL LENGTH. With that mild a load, I did not sweat it wearing glasses. It was free ammo, and we got more for scrap brass when the lead was separated. I have fired quite a few split full house 357's and 44's, counting on the higher pressure to provide obduration, which it usually did. I have fired split 45 ACP's and 9mm's IF they would chamber. I have fired most, or all, of the above with bullets loaded upside down, with bent cases, and with case mouths folded INTO the bullet.
I would NOT fire Ken's 44/41's.


Well, I wouldn't feel too bad. I got my first 22 in 1957. The 380 in the 9mm Sig fiasco happened after more than 40 yrs of shooting for me, and it is also my first and only WRONG ammo accident. It didn't make my day, either.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Hmm, he's right! Speer Brand does fit tho Winchester didn't..
It even chambers in the Taurus Judge!

You had me a little nervous with this one. I just tried and empty (resized) 454 in 625-6 MG. It would not chamber. Would have made a really fine trigger actuated grenade though.

This is why I don't have a .41 magnum.

J.B.

as i recall...i have accidently tried to insert a 44 mag.case into a 41 mag.shellholder during reloading..would not fit and drew my attention to this mixup at once...sometimes its difficult to see the headstamp as to weather its 41 or 44

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SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

OK, had one take place with a NooB at the range.

He put some 44mag cases into my 25-7. Fortunately they were loaded to 900fps, so no harm.

Cases looked like ****, and the shots patterned at 20yds, but no harm to shooter or pistol.

We had a quick review of safety proceedures, needless to say.

Even a hot loaded 44 Mag shouldn't harm a 45Colt revolver as the bullet, being quite undersized for the bore, would not seal and there'd be lots of room for the excessive pressure to vent around the bullet. Still, scary stuff you guys are talking about. I've been shooting and reloading for 40 years and haven't had something like that happen, although did have a squib once.

At the risk of being redundant- I've reported this before-in the mid-70's a friend of mine, who sold guns at a major Denver area sporting goods chain and was also a graduate gunsmith, sold a Nickel M58- that came with a M29 cylinder. The customer who bought it complained about the split cases and my friend figured out the problem and acquired the "Factory Error".

Good shooting!

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Good shooting.

Accidently shot a 44 special round out of a 25-5 years ago. Weak report and lots of gas escaping clued me that something wasn't right. No harm to revolver but that shot didn't hit paper.

Somewhere in my stuff, I have a .357 magnum case with a 350 45/70 bullet in it.. I tried it just to see if I could do it.

I get some weird looks with it once in a while.

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Eccentric old coot

Had all my mountain guns laid out on my shooting bench. Picked up the 625, loaeded it and ripped off 6. Sounded funny. Not very accurate. Ejected 6 ea. swollen 44 mag. cases.
Scary but nothing hurt. I recond those cast 250's pushed by 20 gr/2400 just rattled out that .45 barrel.

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S&W Accumulator