The reason I posted that particular gun on the other forum was that I was trying to find out why this would have happened and if it had happened to others.

I wasn't looking to start a thread that got sidetracked into safe loading habits and whatnot. I simply wanted to see if this has happened to others before.

I looked at the actual gun last week and the owner said it was alright for me to post a thread about it.

The rounds in question were reloads. He drops his own 250 Keith's and puts 'em in front of 16.5gr of 2400. Yeah, they're hot and he knows they're hot. Apparently hot enough to bell the forcing cone.

In any case he's sending the gun to S&W and will see what they say.

23.4K psi actually. Handloader #221 had Speer's ballistic lab test this exact load in 2002; 250gr LSWC, CCI-300 primers, & 16.5gr/2400 = 23,413 psi. It was fired in a SAAMI piezo-electric P/V (pressure/velocity) barrel.

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As with the M19's, lead accumalation in the forcing cone has been stated as a prime reason for damage to there thin forcing cone/barrel breach.

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notsofast: If the barrel breach gets split that normally requires a new barrel, as long as it didn't damage the frame. If that barrel is no longer available then it's unfixable.

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Compare these two .44 L-frame forcing cones.

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M396NG forcing cone/barrel breach
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M69 forcing cone/barrel breach


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Waiting for the break of day