How many of you have ever seen an old model SBH convertible? Probably no one but I saw one today. A buddy of mine just got it back from Ruger, he had sent it in for a taller front sight & since it had an earlier conversion to the transfer bar & had broken, he had it replaced at the same time. This is a hard way to end up with a convertible!!
Ruger did a very nice job, they also reblued the old 3 screw & put a nice new set of factory laminated stocks on it. Even though the gun was a SBH it had been changed to a round trigger guard & aluminum grip frame, nice touch & the gun had shot very well before being sent in.
My friend called me early this morning & gave me the low down. He had went up into his upper pasture & started shooting it from the bench. His loads were 9 grs of Unique with a 300 gr GC bullet sized .431", also he had some that had 10 grs of Unique, again with the same bullet.
He told me he had fired 2 rounds & when he fired #3 he blew the top strap clear off & the top 3 chambers of the cylinder. The top of the frame that goes over the barrel was gone, also the back of the top strap including all of the rear sight.
He showed up at my house 2 hours later, I was amazed that he hadn't been hurt, not even a scratch on his hands. He couldn't find the top strap or any of the cylinder but he did hear it launch. The barrel actually looks like it can be reused, no crack in the forcing cone, etc. but for sure it will have to go back to Ruger, hopefully they can tell exactly what happened.
When he handed me the gun he again said that he only fired 3 rounds, 5 of rounds had fired & the sixth one was the next one up on the left side of center. The case had been ruptured badly & all the powder was out of the case but the cast bullet was still in the case!
I didn't pull the base pin but I actually think he had fired 5 rounds instead of 3, if I had pulled the base pin I could have seen if the primers had been struck but I wanted to leave the gun intact so Ruger could asses the problem.
The barrel was perfectly clean, so it hadn't been anything lodged in the barrel & the gun did exactly as designed when there is an overload......double charge, & that is, the cylinder let go on the top 3 holes. Its my guess that it had to be a double charge even though he said he was loading on a single stage press & weighing every charge.
I believe he failed to move his powder funnel, just a guess, & ended up with a double dose of a fast powder. He is a long time, 40+ years handloader.
I think the SBH 44's are maxed out in the reloading manuls at about 36,000 & proofed somewhere around 80,000 so what ever happened was an enormous pressure spike that could have been a disaster. Yes, he's out a $500 sixgun but still has both eyes & all his fingers, very lucky.
This is the second 44 SBH I have seen blown up in the last 3 years, glad I wasn't standing there watching either time. I pulled the bullet from one round & it held 9.9 grs of Unique, which is a pretty stiff load with a 300 gr slug. Heavy bullets are usually better with slower powders when you start to get into the higher end velocities.
When you blow the cylinder & top strap you end up with a convertible!

This is the original gun when I owned it a few years ago.



This is the same gun today after it was remodeled into a convertible.







AT this point there are more questions than aswers but I'm still leaning towards a double charge of Unique. Thoughts?

Dick

I'm glad everyone is safe. That is a bad deal!


ddj

Couldn't find any data for that load, so I plugged it into QuickLoad and got, "!DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!". It only lists it as 41,000psi, but that is a bit above the 36,000psi max. Also don't think a double charge is possible since 10 grains of Unique is over 90% fill capacity.

Did he work that load up at all? Just wondering what pressure signs he got between 9 and 10 grains.

I agree that 10 grs under that bullet is too much. What many don't understand is that a small increase in powder charge with a fast powder doesn't mean an equal increase in pressure.
That load is listed in some articles I've read but I don't use it, much better off to use a slow powder.
I think he's been shooting that load for a while, thats what happens though, a person gets away with something for a while & thinks its ok & them BOOM!

Dick

Holy crap!!!!Man, he is lucky to be not hurt.

Are you sure it was Unique? Maybe he mistakenly used Bullseye.

He doesn't have any Bullseye.

Dick