Okay, so it probably won't catch on and would be difficult to duplicate.

My son-in-law and grandson were shooting my loaner 7.5" Bisley Blackhawk .44 Magnum
Factory 180 HP PMC ammo.

Got it back Wednesday evening, looked it over. So did my son and my son-in-law. None of us saw anything wrong.

Saturday evening went to put it away and my fingers felt something strange on the barrel.
Looked closely and found the barrel had ruptured for about 6".

Glad I've got a revolver smith buddy who has a bucket of barrels. We'll screw another on and go back to shooting after checking everything out.

First time I've ever seen this happen in a 40 years of shooting.

Glad it wasn't a catastrophic failure. Muzzle/barrel flash must be awesome!

Just for the fun of it I would send a picture to ruger just to see what they say.

Any reason you can think of why it cracked. ruger revolvers are know to be some of the strongest out there.

Any idea of number of rounds down the tube.

That is strange.

I have seen a few vintage British double rifles split, and blow a chunk out of a barrel, but never a Ruger.

I actually had the barrel of a Holland & holland 500/465 blow out a large chunk just in front of the fore end, and thus just in front of my fingers.

I know durring the early production of Ruger 44 Mag Blackhawks tjey fired the proof ;loads into water through a rubber membrane.

Once in a while water would get in the end of the barrel and the barrel would bulge...

Bill Ruger increased the strength of the barrel steel he was using. But this was in the very early days, if I remember correctly.

John, was that Ruger bought used?

Maybe had a lot of hot loads, barrel was allowed to rust/corrode under lead and jacket fouling, by the previous owner of course???

I know John pretty well,[how many years???] he does take great care of his guns for sure.

I have just never seen a Ruger barrel split like that. Does it go all the way through to the forcing cone?

quote:

Originally posted by N E 450 No2:
That is strange.

John, was that Ruger bought used?
Yes it was.

Maybe had a lot of hot loads, barrel was allowed to rust/corrode under lead and jacket fouling, by the previous owner of course???
Bore showed no signs of abuse/leading

I know John pretty well,[how many years???] he does take great care of his guns for sure.
We first shot against each other in 1988 or 1999. I still use Sweets 7.62 Solvent because of you, but NEVER on a Steyr SSG.

I have just never seen a Ruger barrel split like that. Does it go all the way through to the forcing cone?

Yes, it does. I've never seen one do this either.

I'll bet the H&H event was a shocker.

I have seen some horrible bulges that didn't crack like that. Possibly a flaw in the steel?
Would like to see what Ruger has to say.
C.G.B.

Have you examined the cylinder ? Any signs of damage ? If not I'd say it was a flawed barrel.A careful look at the fracture surface wood tell a few things.Carefully slit the bottom of the barrel and post foto of the fracture surface.

I'm betting the metallurgists, and some of the engineers as well as those curious among us are dying to see what the surface inside that barrel fracture looks like.

Any change in accuracy during the shooting session?

Was there any evidence of gas leakage on the outside of the barrel before it was cleaned.

That's what I just said !! Yes I'm a metallurgist
That zig-zag fracture makes me think it's a flaw !!

John
Did you ever hear back from Ruger?

Sent the gun back to Ruger and got a receipt yesterday. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Well, I sent it in March 5 and got it back to day. They had it 19 days and turned it around.

New Barrel/Cylinder/Pawl/ReBlued

No explanation, no charge.

Well done Ruger and thanks!


Sure would have liked to have seen the inside of that barrel....

Good to see that you recived your handgun back.

To bad we don't know the cause/

When I sent a revolver in to Ruger for rebarreling I asked to get the old barrel back and they did send it. Funny, All I asked for a new barrel. This was on a 45 Colt Blackhawk. Only thing I got back that was my original gun was the cylinder frame, cylinder, and the grips. They replaced everything else in addition to rebluing the gun. I was upset about the finely tuned hammer and trigger which they replaced. Now understand this....they sent my old hammer and trigger back. I put them back in the gun and they were NO WAY the same anymore. Tell me what you think they did? I think they fixed them so the trigger pull wasn't so light if I put them back. I had to work the action all over again.