Today a Stainless Steel Taurus Judge blew up with my handloads. The cylinder split and the top strap is missing.
Attachment 216976
Attachment 216977
The handloads were the following:
New 45lc Starline brass, unfired
Wolf LPP from a box that I'd used 300 or so out of already with no problem
8.8gr Unique each load hand dipped then trickled onto a GemTech 250
250gr Lead Boolit mix of commercial Missouri and my own cast all weighed within 2-3 grs of each other
My homemade lube (Johnsons, Alox etc)
Crimped in the first groove
Loaded with a Lee Die and all are the same length
The target showed perfect round holes for all rounds including the one that blew the gun up. IE: No keyholing and all exited the barrel. The barrel shows no bulge, bend or anything. Looks fine
The ejection rod is bent and the cylinder is opened on one chamber and split in half. There is a perfect print of 45 LC on the face. The Primers show no sign of over pressure. No piercing, cratering, run, back out etc. The brass is also fine except for the dents of course. No holes, splits etc. 3 rounds were fired previous and were vigorous but fired ok. Accuracy was all over the place, the 4th blew up. I have fired similar rounds in both of my Blackhawks with no problems and the book says these are near max but not over so should be fine.
Any opinions? Guesses? Conjectures?