Kaboom At The Range Today

[Darrell]

No, it wasn't me, and no, I didn't see it happen, but I did see the pieces picked up afterwards. A guy was shooting handloads in a S&W model 29 .44 magnum, and blew the gun up on the firing line. One of the guys working at the range showed me the pieces--the top strap was nicely bowed and separated from the gun, and he had a chunk of the cylinder, split across two adjacent chambers. They said the shooter got hit in the forehead by the brass, leaving a pretty good divot across his brow. The shooter said he'd used 9 grains of something or other, the range guy and I wondered if he'd actually used 18 grains. I didn't catch the name of the powder he used.

[Fivetoes]

Unless he was using a faster powder like Blue Dot or Unique, 18 grains is not a max load, I don't think even for heavy bullets. Most minimum loads use more than 9 grains.

[Bullspit]

Unless he was using a faster powder like Blue Dot or Unique, 18 grains is not a max load, I don't think even for heavy bullets. Most minimum loads use more than 9 grains.

Besides the mostly unproven 'detonation' two things cause blowups like this. Double (or triple) charges of fast powder or two bullets in the case.

Double charges of fast powder happen easily in big cases like the .44 magnum. It is very easy to dump two dippers of powder in etc. and unless you visually check each case you won't notice it because the case won't even be 1/2 full.

Two bullets can get in a case when your seating die gets gummed up with lube and a bullet sticks up in there. You dump a case of powder and if you aren't thinking you just accept that you forgot to put the bullet on the case. In reality the bullet got shoved up in the die and stuck there. The next case gets loaded with the bullet you put on the case and the bullet that is hiding up in the die. The stuck bullet pushes the other bullet down into the case almost on top of the powder. The stuck bullet then gets crimped into the proper spot. This results in greatly reduced powder expansion space and very high pressures, not to mention twice as much bullet mass to move.

I've been fortunate to avoid both, but I'm knocking on wood!

I tend to prefer to use bulky powders in the .44 magnum (Unique and 2400 are favorites) and in the .45 Colt I use Unique for long range loads and Trailboss for Cowboy Action loads.

Trailboss was developed specifically to be bulky so that you can easily see the level of powder in the case as you load and this makes it harder to double charge the case.

Be careful out there!

[rightisright]

Wow. Kabooming a Model 29 takes some effort

[Netpackrat]

Trailboss was developed specifically to be bulky so that you can easily see the level of powder in the case as you load and this makes it harder to double charge the case.

Looking up the price per pound at Midway, it also seems kind of expensive compared to something like Unique. Particularly as it is meant to be used with case-filling loads. I think I'll be sticking with unique and 800X for the majority of my handgun loading.

[blackeagle603]

Isn't the deal with cowboy loads and Trailboss that it has a lot of volume and consistency on light loads == even relative to Unique?

[randy]

Besides the mostly unproven 'detonation' two things cause blowups like this. Double (or triple) charges of fast powder or two bullets in the case.

I'd also add Squib loads, low powder charge in first round, bullet doesn't clear the barrel (or even the chamber) shooter doesn't pay attention and fires the next round with second bullet already almost in contact with first and cannot move far enough to clear the case. IOW a variation of the 2 bullets, 1 case BAD scenario.

[Combat Controller]

I love Unique, especially in cases where you can double charge. I have never doubled with it, and it pretty much is my go to powder. I have others and load them up for fast and furious fun, like H110 (zippy as hell in .44 mag) but like to stay with a consistant powder with a compressed or semi compressed load for even burn.

I had a squib a few months ago with my 29 and it jammed between the cylinder and the forcing cone. Locked that puppy up solid.