You have to see this! (PICS)

[ColoEnthusiast]

My diagnosis is: catastrophic failure.
In seriousness, I would guess possible squib load and inattentive shooter. Devastation looks too complete for just a hot load, but I guess either scenario could be the cause.
I saw pics of another revolver that happened to, with ignition of adjacent rounds and all. Bet that hurt like hell, even without shrapnel. Lot of immediate downward force.

[rondog]

That was a feller over on gunandgame.com. He says it was a new gun he was trying out, using fresh factory ammo, .44 mag. Doesn't know if the gun was faulty or the round was overcharged, it was only the 2nd or 3rd round he'd fired. Got a decent gash on the forehead, so he said. Knocked him silly for awhile.

http://www.gunandgame.com/forums/smi...s-w-629-a.html

[Batteriesnare]

Wow, I'm glad he's okay though.

[SA Friday]

That was a feller over on gunandgame.com. He says it was a new gun he was trying out, using fresh factory ammo, .44 mag. Doesn't know if the gun was faulty or the round was overcharged, it was only the 2nd or 3rd round he'd fired. Got a decent gash on the forehead, so he said. Knocked him silly for awhile.

http://www.gunandgame.com/forums/smi...s-w-629-a.html

Thanks for the link Ron. Wow, are there some really mis-informed people on that site....

Sounds like the shooter did the right thing and took it to a smith to figure out what went wrong. The end of the cylinder chamber not being reamed to the right dimention and being too tight would definately kaboom the gun like that. The pressure would be worse than a double charge.

[rondog]

I have no idea what actually happened, we may never know. Could have been a metallurgical fault of the cylinder, a machining error in manufacturing, or faulty ammo. No telling. But given how easy it is to make an error in handloading, using factory made ammo that's cranked out by the millions by automatic machines has always made me nervous. Shit happens ya know.

[Jer]

Fake! We all know wheel guns are the most reliable contraption ever invented by mankind!!

[ColoEnthusiast]

Fake! We all know wheel guns are the most reliable contraption ever invented by mankind!!

Exactly! Just like in the thread, everyone knows only Glocks kaboom. Yep, one day it's just sitting on your dresser and then.. !!kaboom!! It blows up your lamp and favorite picture of B.O.