John Ross
Absent Comrade
Shown below is the THIRD ruined 500 I have personally handled. (I took these pictures).
In all three cases, the owner said it was a load of 17 grains of Titegroup (yes, seventeen in all three instances) and a cast bullet in the lower weight range for a .500 (370 grains or less).
Relevant comment I posted before:
Detonation?
Detonation is what allegedly can happen when too little of certain powders is used. I say allegedly because the powder companies insist that detonation is a myth, they have never been able to make it happen in the lab, and all purported examples of detonation are actually double charges or other human errors such as mistakenly using the wrong powder.
The theory (espoused by those that believe detonation actually happens) is that with too little powder and too much air space in the case, the powder sometimes doesn’t burn progressively, but rather the primer ignites every grain in the entire charge at the same time and it goes boom all at once, like dynamite or some other high explosive.
I have seen one .500 with its cylinder deformed and flattened against the top strap. The shooter was a very experienced reloader with hundreds of thousands of rounds experience. He said his load was a charge of Titegroup that was a few grains below the starting recommendation with a lightweight cast bullet. He believes he got detonation. Hodgdon says that’s impossible, and that he loaded a double charge. Smith & Wesson understandably would not replace the gun under warranty. Which was it, detonation or double charge?
In my opinion, there have been far too many reports of weird things happening when extra-light charges are used (most of them by cowboy action shooters) to dismiss them all as reloading error. Again, there’s a simple way to avoid any possibility of detonation ever happening to you: Stick with loads that fill most or all of the available case capacity. Want a lighter load? Use a slower powder. If the load still kicks too much, the .500 isn’t the gun for you.
In all three cases, the owner said it was a load of 17 grains of Titegroup (yes, seventeen in all three instances) and a cast bullet in the lower weight range for a .500 (370 grains or less).
Relevant comment I posted before:
Detonation?
Detonation is what allegedly can happen when too little of certain powders is used. I say allegedly because the powder companies insist that detonation is a myth, they have never been able to make it happen in the lab, and all purported examples of detonation are actually double charges or other human errors such as mistakenly using the wrong powder.
The theory (espoused by those that believe detonation actually happens) is that with too little powder and too much air space in the case, the powder sometimes doesn’t burn progressively, but rather the primer ignites every grain in the entire charge at the same time and it goes boom all at once, like dynamite or some other high explosive.
I have seen one .500 with its cylinder deformed and flattened against the top strap. The shooter was a very experienced reloader with hundreds of thousands of rounds experience. He said his load was a charge of Titegroup that was a few grains below the starting recommendation with a lightweight cast bullet. He believes he got detonation. Hodgdon says that’s impossible, and that he loaded a double charge. Smith & Wesson understandably would not replace the gun under warranty. Which was it, detonation or double charge?
In my opinion, there have been far too many reports of weird things happening when extra-light charges are used (most of them by cowboy action shooters) to dismiss them all as reloading error. Again, there’s a simple way to avoid any possibility of detonation ever happening to you: Stick with loads that fill most or all of the available case capacity. Want a lighter load? Use a slower powder. If the load still kicks too much, the .500 isn’t the gun for you.
