Mike - First off I am not posting this to start any problems - not my style !! I was surfing T/C links the other day and came across a site that shows a pretty blown-up .444 Contender. The pictures had your name attached to them. Just thought you would like to know - they just seemed a little out of sorts to what I read on this forum

Yep, that .444 is still getting attention. And yep, I know all about it. I have the complete gun, and the guy was taken care of to his satisfaction even though he never produced the one round of the supposed factory ammo remaining that blew the barrel up in a very, very uncharacteristic manner. Nor did he supply any of the supposed 38 other fired cases that precededd the blow up.

The barrel not only ruptured, it even broke the weld. Ie, the barrel itself is separated from the barrel lug which is still inside the frame.

He claimed it was round number 39, I believe, of factory ammo that caused the failure. Again, there is no proof that it even was factory ammo to begin with.

I could have told him to go take a hike, but since he was gentlmanly about it instead of jugheaded, a brand new TC of his choice was cheaper than retaining an attorney just to prove he was a jughead.

He chose instead of a Contender an Encore rifle in .22-250 with a new scope.... this was about 4 years ago, and many .444 Marlin rechambers since btw, and I don't recall now which it was.... 3-9 Burris I thick. Good scope anyway.

He could have been lying through his teeth about the whole thing, but we are both happy with the outcome.

Although I am still quite curious about the steel in the barrel, I have never let my curiosity cause me to put about a grand into a chemical and physical analysis of it.

The fact remains that I have rechambered thousands of Contender barrels, and this is the only such failure of a barrel I am aware of.

Every once in awhile someone goes " , .444 Marlin!!! in a Contender!!!!!"

Yet these same people fail to even consider all the super hot wildcat loads being promoted that are based on the same .444 Marlin case or the .307 Win. case which is of the same diameter as the .444. The size of the bore in front of the case body does not materially change the force out the back of the chamber. Pressure curves will vary, but psi is psi, and the diameter of the chamber is what it is..... with equal pressure in the same case with the same basic body shape (ie, minimum body taper), you get the same force out the back of the chamber on the frame..... as well as in all directions inside the chamber.

So don't take the blown up .444 as evidence against the excellent .444 Marlin as a Contender round. There is no telling how many hundred of these there are out there that I have done personally, plus most of the other shops chamber for it also.

The failure could have been a freak round or it could have been bad barrel steel. Don't know. But based on the fact that I have done so many of the .444s and all sorts of wildcats based on this type of case with no problems, I continue as I always have to hand hold and test fire every barrel I chamber. Period. It may be only two rounds, but I do fire every barrel at least twice and examine the fired cases under magnification.

The only thing that rubs me about the site is the slur to the effect that I was driving a truck somewhere in Texas and could not be reached.... like this somehow made me irresponsible or somehow at fault. I really don't know what the comment was meant to do, but it had no bearing on the incident. I may have been driving a truck, ok, my pickup pulling a cargo trailer moving to the midwest from Utah at the same approximate time the event occurred. I am guilty as charged I guess. I took I-40 across the top of Texas.

For those that like to hot load things, the .444 blow up should serve as a reminder of what things might look like when they fail. This guy was lucky. He just had a cut on his thumb as I recall. It could have been much worse.

Mike

I wasn't aware how old this situation was - didn't mean to kick a dead horse. The outcome is more in line with your history w/ the other forum members I've seen. I had a lot of unanswered thoughts when I saw those pics as well. While I'm typing, I see you list an oversized hinge pin for the Contender; what benefit does this serve?

T/C,
You can read all about it on his website www.bellmtcs.com click on "oversize hinge pins" under products and services. I've got one of his .30 Bellm barrels.
Helicopter Bill

T/C Nimrod
Why didn't you Email Mike about this rather than post it on this forum. You would have rx'd the same info and given him the chance to answer you. Thanks Ray

So the people that have the same question, but don't want to ask, will have an answer. Mike has a well established name in the handgun community, power comes with the masses. Kinda like a newspaper article - Why list the obituaries, just notify the family? So everyone affected can show their sympathy.