Beauhooligan
Member
I had a disaster last night. I wanted to go out and fire one round into my big cottonwood tree to celebrate the New Year. I inserted five rounds into my Taylor's conversion cylinder. left the dog in the house, as she is spooked easily, and aimed at my four foot wide tree. When the pistol went off, it was a detonation instead of a gunshot. It sounded like a M67 fragmentation grenade going off. The result was catastrophic. The top three chambers were gone, and the top strap looks like something from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The cylinder will not rotate and I can't get the critter apart without a hammer. I'll do that, as I want to take those unfired rounds and knock them apart; find out exactly what the powder charge in them weighs. Here are some photos:
The load was mild, a Bear Creek Supply 225 gn RNFP ahead of 5.3 grains of 700-X, which is the starting load in the Lyman manual #49 for a 230 gn lead bullet, with a max charge of 6.5 grains. Speer's manual #14 gives a minimum charge of 5.3 gns, and a max charge of 6.0 with 700-X. The Hornady 8th edition manual gives a load for a 200 gn lead bullet that is minimum of 5.7 gns and a max of 7.1 gns. I did due diligence on my research, and was very careful in the loading process. I thought a minimum charge with a light bullet was the safe way to go. The only odd thing was that the bullet was intended for .45 ACP, so I changed my Hornady crimp die to a Lee taper crimp die, due to a lack of crimp groove. I loaded these on a Dillon 650 XL progressive machine and powder measure that has never given problems previously, and I use a powder check die to confirm a case that is empty, or one that is overcharged. I was building these low pressure loads for shooting with The Outlaws next Saturday, and had only loaded 19 round so far, so I knocked the remaining ones apart with an impact bullet puller. I could find no problem with the powder charges in any of the remaining cartridges. So, all I can say is the old CAS saw that, "Sometimes cartridges with small volume powder charges in big cases go BOOM". I'm very glad of two things. I'm pleased as punch that I'm okay. I'm also glad that this happened when and where it did, as the shrapnel pinged of the wall of the house, and if this had happened next Saturday on the line, some of my posse partners could have been hurt or worse. I've never in the 43 years I've been reloading had any kind of failure, other than bad primers. This has left me shaken. What a way to welcome 2012.
The load was mild, a Bear Creek Supply 225 gn RNFP ahead of 5.3 grains of 700-X, which is the starting load in the Lyman manual #49 for a 230 gn lead bullet, with a max charge of 6.5 grains. Speer's manual #14 gives a minimum charge of 5.3 gns, and a max charge of 6.0 with 700-X. The Hornady 8th edition manual gives a load for a 200 gn lead bullet that is minimum of 5.7 gns and a max of 7.1 gns. I did due diligence on my research, and was very careful in the loading process. I thought a minimum charge with a light bullet was the safe way to go. The only odd thing was that the bullet was intended for .45 ACP, so I changed my Hornady crimp die to a Lee taper crimp die, due to a lack of crimp groove. I loaded these on a Dillon 650 XL progressive machine and powder measure that has never given problems previously, and I use a powder check die to confirm a case that is empty, or one that is overcharged. I was building these low pressure loads for shooting with The Outlaws next Saturday, and had only loaded 19 round so far, so I knocked the remaining ones apart with an impact bullet puller. I could find no problem with the powder charges in any of the remaining cartridges. So, all I can say is the old CAS saw that, "Sometimes cartridges with small volume powder charges in big cases go BOOM". I'm very glad of two things. I'm pleased as punch that I'm okay. I'm also glad that this happened when and where it did, as the shrapnel pinged of the wall of the house, and if this had happened next Saturday on the line, some of my posse partners could have been hurt or worse. I've never in the 43 years I've been reloading had any kind of failure, other than bad primers. This has left me shaken. What a way to welcome 2012.
