I was participating in one of our local SASS Cowboy match today and I finished my shooting, and stepped up to be a spotter, to count missed shots. A man steps on to the firing stage with no shooting glass. The RO tells him you cannot shoot without safety glasses. So the gent then finds a pair of glasses, and then steps back into the firing stage of the course of fire. The RO says, "Do you understand the course of fire". The gent replies "yes", and the gent says the line and shooting begins, off the first round & hits the metal target. He pulls the trigger on the second round and a KA-BOOM! I was little behind, but parallel to the shooter off to his right side, about 10 yards away. I could see the target and the shooter. What I saw happen, I thought I would never be a witness to. A 45 Colt Single Action clone, (not a Ruger) coming apart like a hand grenade! The top strap and half of cylinder blew off the gun about 50 ft in the air, plus it cracked the bottom left side of the frame connecting the handle.
When everyone notice what had just happened, all shooting was seized.

This man was very lucky, including all of the bye-standers, because some of other rounds went off also, but no one was hurt. We found one case with the primer almost pushed out of the primer pocket, with half of the side case blown away. Two live rounds survived in remaining half of the cylinder.

Here's the facts so far:

The rounds were reloads. The powder was Universal Clays. The amount of the powder charge was 7.2 grains. The bullet was a 250 grain lead cast bullet. Primer? Not sure about this. However, it was noted that reloader was having some difficulties with this load in his progressive reloader.

Bottom line here, it looks like a double or even a triple charge ruined/broke a man's handgun..............Maybe black powder rounds aren't that bad after all, just fill'er up!.........Again, I thought I would never see the day something like this happen. And to end............I'm going to have a drink, maybe two!

Here's a update: The Colt single action clone was "AWA". Also, it sounds like a mix up in powder between Universal Clays and Clays?

Point taken, but I want my ounce of flesh: that could have happened in a .44-40 or a .38-40 or any other large bore revolver. I would suggest:

CAUTION! COWBOY ACTION Reloaders, or even
'' reduced load reloaders

Loading light loads of fast powders makes it critical to check all cases before seating bullets closely for double charges. You can't just glance at any of those large cases and detect a double charge of fast powders.

That said, I wonder why BP is not used more often for cowboy action shooting: it would seem that the smoke would be more dramatic. And if anyone thinks cigarettes are manly, you will really know what you are made of after breathing a lungful of BP smoke (I was a Civil War reenactor and an artilleryman at that, I know what I am talking about).

Is it ok to trim down the cases of straight cartridges for cowboy events? That seems the best solution for using smokeless powders, anyway. I guess the throats would have to be worked for the degree I am talking about, but I load my reduced loads in 45 acp cases and use a different cylinder for those....

Sounds like you have an example of the derogatory definition of the word "cowboy" and I would no more use this one to characterize 45 Colt shooters as I would Cowboys or competitive shooters.

45LC,

Little close to home with the wording? Don't take heart to it. None was meant. I was just sharing my exact setting & experience what I witness today. It could of been any shooting sport.

My point: Be careful and pay attention to detail, your life could depend on it one of these days.

Thanks for the post. This can also relate to .44 Magnum reloaders.

With regular lead bullets, there are loads published for 240 Grain LSWC bullets and Clays powder. I just got done shooting about 80 rounds of this setup, and to tell you that it is one of the sweetest rounds I have reloaded for my .44. I was going to post this on a new .44 thread, but I can do it here.

Hodgdon's max for the 240g LSWC is 6.2g of clays - .44 Mag
Max for 250g LRNFP is 5.1g of clays or 7.8g of universal.

The Clays fills up the .44 case about 1/3 of the way, which means that a doublecharge can happen, but if you are looking at each case as you put it into your press, you would notice that you are about to compress your load. 5.1g in a .45 case might be a little harder to spot.

Sounds like he got them mixed up. In the Hodgdon's 2004 reloading manual (magazine style) there is Clays and Universal. Some call one of them Universal Clays, and I have heard others at the skeete range call International "international clays" because it is from Hodgdon's clays lineup. Of course, confusion should not be a good excuse for ignorance.