Blowup!!!!

[Bucks Owin]

Ran across this photo on the web and thought I'd share it. Great dramatic photo I think.....

(And food for thought for us handloaders who love lots of velocity and heavy charges! I'm using it as a desktop pic...) :coffee:



http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a356/BucksOwin/blowup.jpg

[1Shirt]

Sure should make the max vol folks think. Should also make those who shoot bullseye and the like think about double charging.
1Shirt:coffee:

[AkMike]

LOL, So how was the recoil??? Did he hit the target?:D

[Bucks Owin]

LOL, So how was the recoil??? Did he hit the target?:D


Only with shrapnel....:-D

[Dale53]

Bucks Owin;
I would like to read the details of the blow-up. I've never done that, and upon reflection, don't care too:mrgreen:

Dale53

[Char-Gar]

Looks to me like an intentional blow up. The pistol is in a Ransom rest and appear to have a wire to a pressure gage. I suspect this was done under controled conditions to see what it takes to blow one of these things to smithereens.

[Bass Ackward]

LOL, So how was the recoil??? Did he hit the target?:D



You guys got this all wrong. That guy was a regular here. He read that muzzle breaks were bad for cast. This was his solution to avoid those nasty slots.

[AkMike]

That sounds "Bass Ackwards"!

[Bucks Owin]

Yes, it is an intentional blowup. Details unavailable, sorry....

Dennis

[TCLouis]

Super BlackHawk that was one shooting sun of a gun!!
Accurate and LOVED cast boolits.
NEVER shot any of the other kind out of it.

Hefty . . . HEFTY load of XYZ powder. Double hefty. (LONG stupid . . . STUPID story here)
Not really any louder.
No significant cange in recoil or bullet impact.
Went to shoot next shot and sight blade was missing.
Tipped gun up and WHOA NELLY . . . Where is the rear sight AND topstrap AND top half of cylinder???

Frined found the top strap of cylinder about a year later!
Put it on shelf over loading bench!
Gun replaced at a reasonable cost from factory.
The replacement will hit a barn (from the inside).

[454PB]

Looks like some of Clark's experiments:roll:

[J Miller]

I have the video that still came from on my hard drive. It is a deliberate blow up. I can't find the link though. It's from a site that has numerous slow motion video clips of guns shooting and blowing up. Even has a slow motion clip of a flintlock firing.

Joe

[Finn45]

Here's few:
http://www.bsg-dornier.de/schiessen/index.html?/schiessen/filme/filme.htm

[Beau Cassidy]

I've done that before except it was real time and not that much fun! Ever see a HK USP bounce off of a forehead? A slow motion would be a hoot to see. It pays to put your scale on 8 grains of powder instead of 13 before loading a thousand rounds.

Beau

[Bucks Owin]

Here's few:
http://www.bsg-dornier.de/schiessen/index.html?/schiessen/filme/filme.htm


Great link, cool photos!

Isn't high speed photography interesting?!? Too bad we can't yet put some kind of "photoprobe" inside the chamber and get some video! (yet)

Dennis

[Blackwater]

TC Louis, just so you won't feel alone, I too blew up a SB. In my case, came home at 1:00 a.m. a couple of wks before deer season, needed to shoot a bunch to get my hand tuned up, went to load my usual 2400, almost out, used 231 instead, and finished loading @ 3:30 a.m. Now's the scary part. Tired & sleepy, I took the powder measure off the stand, and grabbed my 2400 can, again, out of simple habit. THEN filled the 2400 can with the 231 from the hopper.

350 loads shot well with the 231, BUT .... the NEXT loading session I loaded up 22.3 gr. of what I THOUGHT was 2400 - it came from that can with 2400 written on it, didn't it? And .... well, you know what happened then. That's almost exactly a double charge of 231 with the 263 gr. cast bullet.

My top strap held. Was buckled upward, and the frame cracked 2/3 of the way across at the rear sight notch - the weak point for the top strap. The bottom of the frame was buckled outward on the sides slightly, but it's heck for stout. The cylinder under the hammer was blown out, as was the one to the left next to it. The part of the case in contact with the cylinder that blew was still in there, welded to the sidewalls of what was left of the chamber.

At the shot, the gun recoiled VERY heavily, seemingly trying to tear itself from my grip, and rising very noticably more than usual for that load. The report was different, too, which I think I attribute the bulk of to the cylinder's blowing out more than anything else. Maybe, maybe not, but that's my theory.

I brought it down from recoil and looked at its right side inquisitively, and SOMETHING about it looked different, but I couldn't place it. Then .... I turned it over to the LEFT side, and all the damage immediately jumped out at me. My knees immediately went weak!

A VERY humbling and scary incident, and one that has disuaded me from ever again loading when I'm really tired, NO MATTER WHAT! Just glad I got the opportunity to "live and learn!" It COULD have worked out differently. I've always considered I may well owe my life to Bill Ruger's penchant for building uncommonly strong revolvers.

There. Feel any better now? And if honest confessions are indeed good for the soul, why don't I feel any better now, some 25 years later???

[454PB]

Here's another that's floating around cyber space. It's a Colt Anaconda .44 mag.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1394&stc=1&d=1146284257