SP5315
04-17-2015, 02:06 AM
I went out today to get in a little quality time with some of my S&W 64's. I really like the S&W 64, I currently own 11 64's. I cut my teeth casting and loading with the Lyman 358311 starting in the early 80's when there wasn't much info out there except for a few manuals dealing with casting. I have found that this 358311 bullet is dead on at 25 yards with almost any .38 I've put it through. I can safely say that I've loaded several hundred thousand rounds since starting casting.
This morning I had taken five hundred rounds loaded with the 358311, loaded with 2.5 grains of Unique, and was down to about my last 50 rounds when it happened. I fired the fifth round of six, it had a normal report & recoil, but my cylinder locked up tight. As I was checking out the situation I checked the cylinder gap and could see that there was something between the cylinder and forcing cone. This puzzled me as I saw my shot hit the target, so I packed it up and headed home.
Later this evening I decided to get to the bottom of the problem. I shine a bore light down the barrel and it looks like everything is in order. I can see what appears to be a flash hole in the in the cylinder. I took my cleaning rod and sent it through the barrel and it stops right at the cylinder gap. I give it a few light taps and feel "something" move. I now can open the cylinder and dump the five spent and one loaded round. I had to double check each fired case as i missed it yet again on this inspection. The jacket of a what was a 95 grain .380 that had been smelted down as some point was now once again stuck in the bottom of the case.
This empty .380 jacket had ended up in one of the 5 gallon buckets that I keep my fired .38 brass in. It ended up inside the case upside down "nose down". During the sizing and decapping process the decapping pin punched a perfect hole through the nose of the jacket, and deprimed the case. I will say that the jacket blended in with the case pretty well. If this had ended up making it past the forcing cone I'm sure I would of have been in for a Ka-Boom. The .38 case showed on signs of high pressure such as flatted primer or hard extraction.
The first photo is the jacket stuck in the bottom of the fired case. The second photo is the hole in the nose of the empty .380 jacket. The third photo shows a loaded round, empty jacket ant the case that had the empty jacket after firing.
I'm tossing this out there as a reminder to all to not become complacent as I apparently did.
137105137106137107
This morning I had taken five hundred rounds loaded with the 358311, loaded with 2.5 grains of Unique, and was down to about my last 50 rounds when it happened. I fired the fifth round of six, it had a normal report & recoil, but my cylinder locked up tight. As I was checking out the situation I checked the cylinder gap and could see that there was something between the cylinder and forcing cone. This puzzled me as I saw my shot hit the target, so I packed it up and headed home.
Later this evening I decided to get to the bottom of the problem. I shine a bore light down the barrel and it looks like everything is in order. I can see what appears to be a flash hole in the in the cylinder. I took my cleaning rod and sent it through the barrel and it stops right at the cylinder gap. I give it a few light taps and feel "something" move. I now can open the cylinder and dump the five spent and one loaded round. I had to double check each fired case as i missed it yet again on this inspection. The jacket of a what was a 95 grain .380 that had been smelted down as some point was now once again stuck in the bottom of the case.
This empty .380 jacket had ended up in one of the 5 gallon buckets that I keep my fired .38 brass in. It ended up inside the case upside down "nose down". During the sizing and decapping process the decapping pin punched a perfect hole through the nose of the jacket, and deprimed the case. I will say that the jacket blended in with the case pretty well. If this had ended up making it past the forcing cone I'm sure I would of have been in for a Ka-Boom. The .38 case showed on signs of high pressure such as flatted primer or hard extraction.
The first photo is the jacket stuck in the bottom of the fired case. The second photo is the hole in the nose of the empty .380 jacket. The third photo shows a loaded round, empty jacket ant the case that had the empty jacket after firing.
I'm tossing this out there as a reminder to all to not become complacent as I apparently did.
137105137106137107