Thank god for Ruger SRH

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bambam71

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Today I verified a recipe a friend of mine reloaded and I shoot this week. I was a bit astonished that I got sticky extraction on the loads. The loads where stout but as I regularly shoot 50 AE and 500 Mag I didn't think they felt extreme. He said that yes they where stout but he double and triple checked the loads.

Today I did run his recipe through Quickload and discovered this produced over 70 000 PSI. I'm still a bit shaken from that discovery. I've shot 10-15 bullets that evening. I don't want to think about what could have happened if I had a Taurus or Smith... :eek:
 
I look at shooting others reloads the same as borrowing their toothbrush.
Gotta be a real close friend to do it...
The saying; "trust but verify" also comes to mind.

Glad you weren't hurt.
 
I've noticed a lot of max loads from Hodgdon come out over max in QL but definitely not that high. What was the source he was using and what caliber?
 
bambam71 said:
Today I verified a recipe a friend of mine reloaded and I shoot this week. I was a bit astonished that I got sticky extraction on the loads.
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The sticky extraction PLUS the fact they were someone else's reloads should have been a clue right away. Why would you have loaded another two cylinders full?
 
What did go wrong was that he took a similar bullet to calculate in QL but a much lighter one. He then changed bullet weight (from 240 to 300) but did not adjust bullet length. This was sufficient to turn a stout load into a highly dangerous one. He loaded a 300gr bullet, set 0.545 deep with 18gr. #7 for an OAL of 1.610.

And yes, I should have stopped after first extraction was not smooth. But I simply trusted him as he is an old buddy and he told me how many times he checked the load and that he was absolutely sure it was safe.

Again, I can only try to express my gratitude that Ruger builds their Revolvers the way they do. I might not be typing here if they wouldn't.
 
bambam71 said:
What did go wrong was that he took a similar bullet to calculate in QL but a much lighter one. He then changed bullet weight (from 240 to 300) but did not adjust bullet length. This was sufficient to turn a stout load into a highly dangerous one. He loaded a 300gr bullet, set 0.545 deep with 18gr. #7 for an OAL of 1.610.

He told me how many times he checked the load and that he was absolutely sure it was safe.
Click to expand...

How was it he double checked the load at all? His only reference was his own incorrect computations. He didn't cross reference the load with anything published, nor did he start low and work up, but instead started with a so called "stout load". Only references I found for #7 with a 240gr bullet(which supposedly is what he used to compute his load) is from Speer and Accurate(manufacturer of #7). According to Speer, he was .5 gr over max. According to the manufacturer of #7 he was almost 2 gr over max. AA shows a load for the 300 grainer with #7. It shows he was 3-5 gr over max. Cross referencing either would have shown your trustworthy friend how far over he was. That is double and triple checking.
 
Better find a "better friend" that knows what he's doing, this one isn't doing you any favors. Sounds as if he "thinks" he knows wants going on, let him shoot the rounds he reloaded, let you observe !
 
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