From the Bench

This pair of “kabooms” may serve to remind fellow handloaders of a safety matter related to the mental aspect of handloading. We rarely discuss mental acuity. It also reemphasizes the caution that any time a shot “doesn’t feel right,” don’t keep on shooting – stop and investigate.

These handgun catastrophic failures occurred one after the other to the same man during the same range session, just minutes apart. The gentleman who handloaded the cartridges for both revolvers is a longtime handloader and Cowboy Action shooter, and quite knowledgeable about period revolvers and quality reproductions like these.

The first revolver is a Model 1872, replicating a Colt 1860 Army percussion conversion to 44 Special. What was assumably an unintentional double charge of Bullseye powder ruptured not only the brass case but also split open the outer wall of the steel cylinder. The blast rocketed upward as the thin wall of the chamber split and peeled forward nearly the entire length of the cylinder. Neither the shooter nor anyone else was injured. The only damage was to the revolver’s cylinder, which was replaced. The mangled cylinder now serves as a pen and tool caddy – and as a reminder for caution – on my reloading bench.

As if that wasn’t excitement enough for one day, only minutes after that first kaboom, the gentleman’s second revolver let go. It is a reproduction of a Schofield revolver in 45 Colt; except for salvaging minor parts and the grips, it is a total loss. The gentleman obviously fired two overloaded cartridges in it, back-to-back. “I thought it didn’t feel right when I shot it the first time,” he said, but rather than stopping to investigate, he fired again. Firing the first overloaded cartridge apparently weakened the cylinder, probably cracking it, and the second overload finished up the destruction. The explosion blew off the top strap, which was not recovered, and drove the ejector rod deeply into the steel of the recoil plate. Fully half the cylinder is gone, turned into shrapnel, a chunk of which struck the shooter’s leather boot and broke a toe. Considering the gentleman was essentially holding a grenade in his hands when the revolver blew apart, he is phenomenally lucky to suffer so minor an injury. Again – remarkably, this time - no one else was injured.

The gentleman is 84 years old and acknowledged he is suffering from the beginnings of dementia. “I’m done handloading,” he said when he brought in the revolvers in hopes of repair. I examined one of his 45 Colt handloads accompanying the revolvers and weighed the charge of Bullseye: 16 grains under a 230-grain lead bullet, double a maximum load by anyone’s data. I also noted he had inadvertently loaded the cartridge into a case with an already-expended primer – which, in the end, is just as well. I don’t know the overload he fired in the Model 1872, but if it was the same powder charge as in the 45 Colt demolition, it would have been a triple overload for the 44 Special.

The gentleman is unable to explain how he came to so grossly overcharge at least four cases among two disparate cartridges. Now, of course, all of his remaining handloaded cartridges are suspect and unusable.

All handloaders know the rule about being distracted while at the reloading bench, which is, “Don’t.” That goes double when reloading cartridges capable of physically accepting a double charge of powder - or more! - such as straight-walled pistol cartridges. We can triple that caution at the progressive reloader when we have multiple key operations (here, we can emphasize the powder charging) occurring simultaneously.

We also must maintain alertness and focus at the range and in competition. Once, as a rangemaster walking the firing line, I happened to pass behind a shooter when I heard him fire the telltale “pop” of a squib load. He looked at his pistol, flipped it over to look at the other side, then raised it to fire again when I stopped him. “Yeah, it didn’t sound right,” he said, but he had never experienced a squib load and so would have continued shooting. I had him field strip his pistol, and I drove the stuck bullet from the bore with a cleaning rod, and he went back to shooting with an easy lesson learned.

Illustrating another amazing escape from fate, included here is a vignette from a 1940s gun magazine showing the eye-popping results of a failure to stop and investigate the unusual. The photo caption tells the story. Coincidentally, a gentleman recently brought in a single-action revolver, the cylinder of which had mysteriously locked up after firing a round. Troubleshooting showed a squib load had pushed the bullet just far enough into the forcing cone to prevent cylinder rotation.

There’s more to handloading and shooting than alertness and focus. It is sad to say that there are some folks who just don’t have the mental acuity for either pursuit, and they can unintentionally pose a hazard to others. That necessary acuity is exemplified in arming oneself with knowledge, completely understanding the information (written, verbal, visual, audible and tactile) and its ramifications and following safe practices that are practices because they were learned – and, unfortunately, continue to be re-learned – the hard way.

The two-kaboom incident documented here illustrates for us that if something “doesn’t feel right” when shooting, then something probably isn’t. That mental acuity, as well as non-distracted, focused attention, is an absolute requirement for those who pursue handloading. Handloaders of any age who fail in these responsibilities risk not only themselves but bystanders, as well. No, it won’t be a joyous decision when we finally make it, but may we all recognize when it’s time to hang up our spurs.