You have to see this! (PICS)

[TFOGGER]

If you read the entire thread on the other board, the shooter says that his gunsmith has inspected the remaining intact cylinder bores and found machining discrepancies that may have caused the problem, as well as disassembling rounds from the same box of ammo and inspecting them. If there was a choke at the front of the cylinder that prevented initial bbullet movement, even a relatively mild load would go through the roof on pressure, just like a rifle round that is seated too long and touches the rifling when the bolt locks into battery.

[funkfool]

Should start a thread with just pics like this and links to the accompanying story.

Or make up your own...

" Well, 'ya see, I had mah' Smithy on th' rebar.. ( 'cause I ALWAYS slide it barrel down on a piece 'o rebar tah' keep 'er handy...) an I musta touched one off'n cause a that there piece 'o rebar shot straight thru th' earth and went inta orbit on th' other side and come along about supper I thought ah seen that sucker re'enter th' at-mus'fear! - Din' do mah Smithy much good now neither."

[Hotshoot]

A Cowboy quick draw friend of mine explained this is most likely caused by the cylinder being out of time with the barrel when it goes off. He has witnessed this several times when quick draw shooters try to get a quicker shot off by changes in springs and other adjustments. It is also a possibility the new gun was not set up properly from the factory, 1st shot was lined up then cylinder rotated to wrong place and fired 2nd one which went POW. Just like the old story of mud in the barrel of a shotgun which blows up in your face. If you notice the picture from the top, the cylinder is not in line with the barrel and the stopped bullet pressure has no where to go but up.

[patrick0685]

holy crap...that pretty scary

[BPTactical]

Don't think I can fix that one.
I think the above post about being out of time is about the best guess.

[theGinsue]

Come on Bert. We have faith in you.

[funkfool]

Ketchup.

[BPTactical]

Come on Bert. We have faith in you.

A little TIG, a little Bondo, a little paint will make it sumthin' it aint.

Although my first guess was out of time I am not so sure now after putting more thought into it.
I would think if it was so far out of time to cause a catastrophic failure such as this the revolver would not even fire, the firing pin would be so far off center a decent hit on the primer would be virtually impossible.
Metallurgical failure? Possible but without extensive testing it would be hard to ascertain.
Machining deficiency? Again possible but we are talking a S&W here and the firearm was test fired at the factory. Not that they are perfect but I would think the odds of that would be extremely low.
That brings us back to ammo and there are a couple things to consider:
Handloads -wrong powder or a problem with the assembly of the round?
Defective factory round?
Hang fire?
One thing that is a question to me is if this was a brand new firearm why would you go to a Gunsmith instead of the factory? If you brought it to me that would be the first place I would look to.
Handloads

[Elhuero]

I believe the guys story. The gun was faulty.

I've seen something similar happen with my own two eyes.

[jerrymrc]

I remember this gun from a thread over on the Falfiles 3-4 years ago. Been around awhile.