Another gunsmith horror story...

Status
Not open for further replies.
A few years back, a fellow I knew, who could be a bit of a... well, let's just say it. He's an :cuss: , and Art's grammaw wouldn't like him.

He shows me a smokepole he's bought at a yard sale - some sorta Hawken reproduction. He's not into guns, but hey, he thought he was getting a deal... you know the type...

So, he whips it out, and informs me that he went over to a gun store a few miles away, and bought the bullets and powder and caps and everything, and that the guy had been nice enough to measure the bore so that he'd have the right bullets, and all the right stuff.

Then he pulled out a pound of Bullseye.

I just wonder what he did to piss off the guy at the gun store. I (sorta...) thankfully talked him out of using the Bullseye.
 
When I was still in the business, sadly I had this happen with some salespeople working the ammo counter that were less than, shall we say, 'with the program'. (In their defense it was usually one the two girls that worked the range check in counter- great girls, knew and practiced the four rules, just not complete gun nuts- sometimes they would have to work the ammo counter).

The most common occurrence would be confusing .38 Smith & Wesson with .38 Special. Another would be .45 LC with .45 ACP; a customer would walk up and ask for .45 or .38 and well, you can see it coming. Never had a dangerous situation, a little difficult to get the .45 LC into the magazine of a 1911…
 
There are only two infinite things: the Universe and human stupidity, but with the Universe, I'm not so sure.

(Albert Einstein)
 
:confused:


Wait a minute. The bullet diameter of a .45 Colt is .451 -.452, right?

And the bullet diameter of a .44 mag is .429.

That leaves a gap of .022 - .023, right?


So how did enough pressure develop to cause a kaboom? How deep are the lands on a Smith 25?
 
And what about the Duct Tape! It can contain anything can't it ;)

Sorry, had to say it. For a ka-boom of this nature the bullet may not have even left the cylinder. The case would have burst as the bullet began to move without proper support of the chamber and if it burst un-evently (posilbly starting through the seam of the tape where there was less support) you have a directed high-velocity gas jet, just like a shaped charge explosive resulting in catastrophic metal failure. IE Ka-BOOM!

There are so many variables it's hard to keep track, but the guy was lucky. He might even educate himself after this, who knows.
 
The customer then told him that the store he went to was out of .45 Colt, but had sold him a box of .44 Magnum, and he'd wrapped the shells in duct tape so that they'd fit the Model 25's cylinder!!!
Click to expand...

Hot dog, this is the first time in recorded human history duct tape actually helped break something! :p
 
My gunsmith knows a guy who uses duct tape-wrapped .30-'06 shells in his NEF 12 ga. to bag his deer every year. My 'smith claims the guy is absolutely immune to reason on the topic, as he still has almost 100 rounds of '06 left, which he figures should be enough to get him his Bambi quota every year 'til he shuffles off this mortal coil. :uhoh:

I've heard of skinflints before, but that cat absolutely takes the cake.
 
a guy who uses duct tape-wrapped .30-'06 shells in his NEF 12 ga. to bag his deer every ye
Click to expand...

Excellent!

I can sell all my guns except for my Pardner and a roll of duct tape.

It would probably take me 1200 years to shoot all my ammo though.:D
 
Quartus:

It isn't the diameter so much as the pressure. The 45 Colt is a very low-pressure old black-powder cartridge(ca 14,000psi?) whereas the 44Mag is a modern smokeless load, right up there with some rifle cartridges. Also, the Model 25 was designed for the 44 to start with;, when they bored out the chambers for 45 Colt it left them VERY thin, especially where the cylinder's milled for the bolt, or stop, or latch, or whatchacallit.
 
Was at my friends who has many guns and he pulls out his little lever action 45 Colt for us to shoot. Hands it and an open box of ammo to my BIL who loads it up and proceeds to shoot (I wasn't paying attention to them as I was busy uncasing other guns.) Well he's on his 2nd or 3rd reload and still shooting so I wander over and start policing up the brass and immediately notice they look mighty bulged...Said "Wait!!" and sure enough, 44 mag...

No brass let loose, no unusual report, nothing. He was even hitting short range targets. BIL says well I guess you can use 44 mag in a pinch. I said methinks you were lucky.

Rifle wasn't damaged at all, dug up some real 45 Colt ammo and continued shooting. BIL's fault as he tooks the owners word for it without doublechecking before loading. Mr. manyguns made an honest mistake I think. He who holds the gun should check it.

It was prolly the ducttape that killed it. Note to self: Don't use ducttape on guns or ammo.:D
 
It isn't the diameter so much as the pressure.
Click to expand...


Vell, if you have a very loose bullet, where do you get the pressure? I think Black Snowman's answer makes sense. The Smith 25 can handle some pretty stout .45 Colt loads. While it was DESIGNED as a black powder load, those aren't exactly the norm these days.


Back a few years, I stopped in at a gun store in Garden Grove, CA. The owner had a Dan Wesson .357 barrel on display. He had milled the side off of it to show what was inside the bore. 6 - count 'em - SIX jacketed .357 slugs, neatly packed together. First round was a squib load, and apparently so was the shooter, as he didn't notice. Just kept pulling the trigger, wondering why he wasn't hitting the target. Doh!

Made a good testimonial to Dan Wesson quality! :what:
 
Somebody give me the duct tape guy's phone number, so I can call him and say "HEY YOU!!!! GET OUT OF THE GENE POOL!!!!!!"

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
 
How much you want to bet that right before he pulled the trigger, he said to his buddy: "Relax, whats the worst thing that can happen?" or "Trust me, I've done this a million times". :D
 
originally posted by bogie:
Er...

Campers...

Lemme say this again...

Isn't the Model 25 a .45_ACP_ moon-clip (or "autorim") revolver?

I suspect that something else may have happened.
Click to expand...

That's what I was wondering. .44 Mag is a bit longer than .45 ACP, isn't it?

The guy could've been using some weird handloads..like someone I know that used .38 Special wadcutters in a Webley chambered for .38 Long. They fit and worked well enough. At least I THINK they were .38 Long...the .38 Spl wadcutters were as long as these entire rounds.
 
Isn't the Model 25 a .45_ACP_ moon-clip (or "autorim") revolver?
Click to expand...

Some S&W Model 25 are .45 ACP (25-2), others are .45 Colt (25-5). Most of the .45 Colt Model 25 have longer cylinders than their .45 ACP counterparts. However, I've even seen a couple of the short cylinder .45 Colt Model 25-3 revolvers fitted with a spare .45 ACP Model 25-2 cylinder.
 
I pestered my 'smith...

...for a fresh horror story today, so here's a new one:

Some years back, a cat here in K-town got his hands on a nice 98k. His buddy says "Hey, I reload for my .30-'06, so if you get me some powder and bullets, I can roll you some shells for that Mauser." So the guy does. Apparently, his buddy was of the "powder is powder, right?" school of reloading. Also, the guy must've believed that cases were sized the way they were so that you'd know how much powder to stuff in them. At least, that was what was determined forensically, because, you see...

The guy came in with (what was left of) his Mauser, asking "Can y'all fix this this afternoon? Season opens tomorrow." "This" was a 98k with the floorplate, spring, follower and extractor blown to parts unknown, the locking lugs sheared off and the bolt wedged back firmly on the safety lug, and the reciever ring swollen like a half-inflated balloon. After having it patiently explained to him that his ex-Mauser was now a largeish paperweight, he bought a Remington 700 and left. My 'smith said, ominously, that he was "never heard from again," but he held out hopes for the guy's survival, since there were no reports of grisly hunting accidents in the papers in the next month or two... :uhoh:
 
Ok, I ran a cylinder-full of .41 Mags through my .44 Mag Mountain Gun. :eek:

Slightly bulged cases, less recoil than normal, bullets all over the landscape.

No harm done. Can you say "OOPS!?" Don't run the .41 and the .44 at the same time anymore.

Let's hear it for modern mettalurgy. I'm not the only one who's done this, but apparently the pressure ranges of the two mags are similar, and with the .020" bore difference, pressures were less.

Mostly, though, I started with a beefed-up .44 mag revolver. None of this thin cylinder stuff for me.

Except I wish I had an M-25 of mw own. One of these years...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

L
  • Locked
Help with research on gunsmithing rifles?
Replies
3
Views
293
loganlohe
L
S
  • Locked
kudos to the local GM gunsmith
Replies
9
Views
542
Brian Dale
B
mnrivrat
  • Locked
The Start of My Part Time Gunsmithing Career
2
Replies
25
Views
1K
entropy
entropy
E
  • Locked
You are not a gunsmith (rant)
2 3 4 5
Replies
106
Views
6K
Cannonball888
C
H
  • Locked
Fun and games from the gunsmiths at Smith and Wesson.
Replies
8
Views
1K
230RN
230RN
Back
Top