Blew up my 629 today..embarrassed

Well, I finally got to sorting and pulling cases. Not too much variation. I measured and sorted my assembled cartridge weights. It went from a low of 350gr to max of 372 gr. I pulled a random sampling of each group. My lowest weight had no powder in it, and my heaviest weight had 8.7gr in it. The other groups had correct amounts of powder in the cases, with a variation of .2 gr. The .2 gr difference was always light except for the 8.7 gr charge.
 
Thanks for update, Dutch, 8.7 is double charge, right ? But would double charge cause such devastation ?
 
dutch686 said:
Well, I finally got to sorting and pulling cases. Not too much variation. I measured and sorted my assembled cartridge weights. It went from a low of 350gr to max of 372 gr. I pulled a random sampling of each group. My lowest weight had no powder in it, and my heaviest weight had 8.7gr in it. The other groups had correct amounts of powder in the cases, with a variation of .2 gr. The .2 gr difference was always light except for the 8.7 gr charge.
Click to expand...

Now, we have to figure out how that happened. I am still leaning towards a stuck bullet, then a double charge. If you had ONE with no powder in it, it is possible that you had more than one. If during setup, while working on the seating of a bullet and made several trips of the ram to the top with a case in station 2 of your RL550B, then, that is how you could have gotten such a gross overcharge and since the powder didn't overflow the case, you now had a ticking time bomb in your ammo box.

I am just putting a theory out there, that is all.

If you are using Titegroup, which flows like water through a Dillon powder measure and you got one without powder in it, that would tell me that that case never went under the measure.

Please, when setting up a round, use this trick: Use a case with no primer in it for setting up your length and crimp. Even make one and store it away with Sharpie on it telling you what it is for. Use it to set your seating and crimp die, like a template. Then, one case at a time, run it through the resizing die, seat a primer, move it to the powder measure leaving the other 3 stations empty until you get the weight you desire. Then go to mass production checking every 10th case BUT, making sure you clear the press out each time. In other words, on the 9th case, make it the last one through, send the tenth and only the tenth through and check the powder weight again.

If you had one case with nothing in it, it is possible that you had more. A stuck bullet, while not usually catastrophic, if followed by a quad charge or something like it, could very well do so.....

Again, I am glad to say this: Thankfully, you or a loved one was not hurt.
 
10 gr is a double so this should not have happened. I don't have any serious theories about what happened. Without a bulge in the barrel I don't see how a squib happened, but who knows. I can see that my charger is throwing light charges so I need to pay more attention to charge weights.

I am very thankful that my pride is the only thing that was wounded. I do miss the revolver. S&W sent me a shipping label and offered to to analyze the metal for signs of fatigue. I'll take them up on their offer.
 
Just found and read this thread in its entirety. Very sobering reading. Very sorry to read of this accident. Extremely thankful that no one was injured. Gives me cause for pause as I have been saving money to buy a progressive press so that I can more efficiently load for my revolvers. Appreciate the comments made regarding powder choices, etc.
 
Situations like this are seldom any ones fault and certainly not any "things" fault. It is usually just NOT PAYING ATTENTION FOLKS!!!. It says on the can of Tite Group "A little goes a long ways". Now consider application?? The name alone kind of gives you the idea. The stuff is great in 38 wadcutter loads and some 45 ACP loads. For punching paper. I have been shooting 44 mag and reloading since high school some 40 + years ago. If you want to punch paper get a model 624. Save the 629 for hunting hogs with the "never let you down" Kieth load.
 
If you reload enough, or long enough, some kind of things will always happen. It wont always be this kind of result though.

I have had errors, and equipment jams, etc. In the case I referred to above, it could have been a real problem but I caught my buddies error before it got worse.

I always worry about the "double charge" a bit on the Dillon although I have not seen it happen yet. I use the 231 in 38s and it aint much there. But I suppose extra caution can be a good thing sometimes.

Anyway I am sorry for your 29 and glad no other injuries occurred. It also takes some fortitude to share your story or a possible mess up and remind all of us to stay focused.
 
Dutch,

I join the others in being thankful you were not hurt.

I join Skip and many others in their Titegroup concerns. I bought a pound to try and will use it up in medium load small volume cases. (By the way don't leave it in your powder thrower overnight!)

Here's where I may differ with some. I'm not willing to rule rule out detonation. Why?

When I started loading in 1972 and all the rage was Bullseye and PPC shooting. The caliber of choice for PPC was the .38 S&W Special. The load of choice was somewhere around 2.5 grains of Bullseye under a 140 grain lead wadcutter.

I'll bet millons of rounds worked their way downrange with enough energy to cut holes through paper targets... and only a few guns were reported to have blown up. The fix was to up the powder charge 2.8-3.0 grains of Bullseye.

And of course this didn't happen... just ask the powder company.;)
 
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My 'ACE' IDPA buddy has been talking TG up

to me for years so I bought 2 pounds but haven't used it. I have a few pounds of other powders to use. When I see him again, I'll give him a deal on the Tight Group...
 
S&W HE said:
Dutch,


When I started loading in 1972 and all the rage was Bullseye and PPC shooting. The caliber of choice for PPC was the .38 S&W Special. The load of choice was somewhere around 2.5 grains of Bullseye under a 140 grain lead wadcutter.

I'll bet millons of rounds worked their way downrange with enough energy to cut holes through paper targets... and only a few guns were reported to have blown up. The fix was to up the powder charge 2.8-3.0 grains of Bullseye.

And of course this didn't happen... just ask the powder company.;)
Click to expand...

I know of at least one person that consistently shoots 1.5gr of Bullseye under a 125gr lead bullet, has for years, with no problems whatsoever. No, it is not me. But they have done it for quite a while with no ill effects.

I do not recommend going outside of data on either end........This is just by way or information.
 
I know this is an old thread, but I believe I found the cause of why I had a catastrophic failure.

I have not touched reloading 44's for a while. Literally gunshy. I decided to man up, and re-examine my processes.

Loaded a tray of 50 by hand. Tapped each piece of brass to make sure nothing was left over from polishing. Each charge was weighed and poured from my rcbs trickler and dillon beam scale.

One case was filled to a higher level than any of the others. I couldn't figure out why. Re-zeroed the scale, re-weighed the charge going into the case, no change. Looked closely into the bottom of the case and saw some corn media stuck in the bottom like jigsaw pieces. It actually looked like the primer hole. What tipped me off was the off white color in the bottom of the case. It took some digging with a small screwdriver, but I dumped out 3 pieces of corn cob.

Soooo, I think I had the same situation with my blown 44 due to increased pressure because of the addition of stuck media in the case.

As you can tell I think about that day frequently.

Hope this helps someone
 
Hmmm, tiny pebble size. Would you be familiar with the Nerds candy that my nephew loves? That's about the size of the pieces I took out.

I only used them once when I first bought my vibrator...of course on the cases I'm loading. I changed to walnut media because that stuff is like sand, and doesn't get caught in anything. Now I don't polish much at all. I don't need ultra pretty cases.

As far as I could tell they stuck because they locked themselves together.
 
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I have my fingers, my hearing, and a little less pride. It's all good. And if I can pass along anything to help others even better.
 
Here's my reloading drill:

50 rounds at a time. Put fifty primed cases upside down in one reloading block, so I can see the primers and obviously there is no powder in the case or it would fall out. Have empty block on other side of the press ready

Throw power and weigh. Yes, I weigh every case. While scale is settling, I grab an empty and turn in in my hands, inspecting it

When it passes inspection(it always does), I put the empty case upside down in the funnel spout, double checking it is empty since powder would fall through.

When it's time to dump the powder, I pick up the funnel with case is in and turn it right side up, so case is stuck in stem of funnel, and pour powder.

Set case right side up obviously in empty loading block.

Repeat process 49 more times.

When all done, I check all 50 loads with a flashlight.

Seat bullets and set the seated bullet in other empty tray

Crimp them in at a time and throw in completed bin

50 rounds takes about 30 minutes. I know it slow but I can do 300-400 a week, in bunches of 50. More than I'll ever need and I have no worry if a double charge.
 
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