Finished Up The "Rounds That Destroyed My Judge"

[jonp]

If people on this site care to read some interesting threads, I destroyed a Taurus Judge in March of this year using my reloads and came here for an answer. Much knowledge was on display and I learned a great deal.

I just finished up the rounds that were left out of the 100 I loaded up. 8.8gr Unique under a 250gr boolit.

For testing the others I used my long barrel 45LC Blackhawk and nothing of note was noticed. Stout with some recoil but nothing I would take as unusual. For the last 25 rounds or so I used my Blackhawk Convertable 45lc/45acp short barrel. No problems at all and they were actually kinda accurate. I even had my wife fire a cylinder and she thought they were fine.

I pretty much concluded that I had a double charge that caused the blow-up but I keep thinking about that Taurus I have hanging over my reloading bench with the cylinder blown in half and the top strap gone. If I get the money saved I'm going to send it in for a metallurgy test as I'm still kinda not satisfied there was not something wrong with that gun.

The other Taurus Judge that we have has been retired from 45lc loads and now is strictly a 410 shotgun or 410 slug gun which is pretty darn cool in itself.

[foesgth]

If you get the report, please, let us know the results.

[jmort]

You may never know why, but double charge makes sense. With my Govenor it is four #000 Buckshot or #7 Birdshot and .45 Colt and .45 ACP in an emergency.

[Reddirt62]

To be honest after one trip to the range I sold my judge and purchased a governor. Too many issues.

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[MyFlatline]

Hope you find the answer. I still have the casing from a 357 that took out a barrel on a Marlin hanging on my wall. I will never know what really happened but it will always remind me.

8.8 of Unique is mild tho. Just got done loading some 9 gr. of 200's for the Blackhawk.

[wv109323]

I wish the pictures were clearer. It appears the top strap broke near the front of the cylinder then bent backwards and broke through the rear. The front is a vertical shear but the rear is angled front to rear. This indicates the pressure was greater slightly after ignition. This coincides with the brass basically intact.
Did you find the top strap? Was it in front of or to the rear of the firing line?
Also one of the cylinder chambers does not appear to be parallel to the ejector rod. Can you inspect the remaining cylinders to insure they are drilled parallel and in alignment to the bore. Make sure the wall thickness of the cylinders ( at the thinnest wall) are the same front and rear.
Could there have been an obstructon in the cylinder that blew up? A shot wad that did not exit the cylinder? An insect nest? Did you insert a bullet checking a cylinder forcing cone?
I have never seen a double charge that did not destroy the brass case.

[enfield]

9.0 is the max load in the Lyman cast book, so I assume 17.6 gr would be more than a Ruger would want to ingest too. I don't think I would have taken a chance shooting the rest of them.

[lefty o]

revolvers tend to come apart in pieces when given a good double charge.