Looks exactly what happened to my Model 19 years ago. Poor reloading practice - interrupted stages led to throwing too much powder when scale was bumped accidentally and not reset - resulted in top strap being blown off just as shown here. Luckily, I was firing a .38 in the heavier .357 M-19, and only felt the backstrap fly across my head as the gun exploded. Never found the backstrap, even though I used metal detectors extensively for years...........
Saw the top strap blown of a Ruger Super Blackhawk .44mag once dont know what powder it was we never found the top strap or half the cylinder,a friend ended up with part of a cylinder enbeded in his knee when someone blew up a .357 Taurus with a triple charged .38spl 12 yds away from him!
I managed to do this when I skipped down a line when reading my reloading manual. What I thought was a starting load was actually a double maximum load. I might have realized something was wrong if I wasn't loading a new heavier bullet weight. Since then, I use a highlighter in my reloading manual.
I'm no expert, but it appears that the cartridges in the other cylinders have also exploded outward, not crushed inward. So what would make multiple cylinders fire even when not indexed to the barrel? External heat perhaps, except grips not burned. A puzzle
5 comments:
OK, maybe 40 grains of Unique WAS a stiff load.
Looks exactly what happened to my Model 19 years ago. Poor reloading practice - interrupted stages led to throwing too much powder when scale was bumped accidentally and not reset - resulted in top strap being blown off just as shown here. Luckily, I was firing a .38 in the heavier .357 M-19, and only felt the backstrap fly across my head as the gun exploded. Never found the backstrap, even though I used metal detectors extensively for years...........
Moral of story? Don't be stupid when reloading!
-jwcoopusa-
Saw the top strap blown of a Ruger Super Blackhawk .44mag once dont know what powder it was we never found the top strap or half the cylinder,a friend ended up with part of a cylinder enbeded in his knee when someone blew up a .357 Taurus with a triple charged .38spl 12 yds away from him!
I managed to do this when I skipped down a line when reading my reloading manual. What I thought was a starting load was actually a double maximum load. I might have realized something was wrong if I wasn't loading a new heavier bullet weight. Since then, I use a highlighter in my reloading manual.
I'm no expert, but it appears that the cartridges in the other cylinders have also exploded outward, not crushed inward. So what would make multiple cylinders fire even when not indexed to the barrel? External heat perhaps, except grips not burned. A puzzle
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