Friday, October 23, 2009

Calling Dr. Smith, Calling Dr. Wesson

Another email from my buddy Al-


A guy came into a department the other day to ask a favor. He had a S&W 629 that he wanted to dispose of after a mishap at the range. He said there was a loud bang when he tested his new load and the gun smacked him in the forehead, leaving a nice gash. When the tweety birds cleared, this is what he saw.....




Dang. Just ...Dang.

This guy is lucky to be alive.

I'm thinking that there was a light load (perhaps no powder at all - just the primer went off) that lodged the preceding bullet in the barrel and the shooter didn't pay heed. Kaboom. Just look at the damage to the cylinder and the non-existant top strap.

9 comments:

USA_Admiral said...

That would wake you the hell up. It might make you a little more aware of the powder load too.

sig94 said...

I'm wondering about the condition of people who may have been standing around him when it exploded.

If you live through them, God does provide some learning experiences that you will never forget.

B.C. said...

Yet another reason for the non-expert gunners to stick with factory loads. I know it may be cheaper to buy or do your own reloads, but it's a lot cheaper, in the long run, to keep from waking up on the wrong side of the grass.

sig94 said...

For beginners and even fair to middling shootists that is true. All it takes is for you to get distracted once while operating the press...

SoCalOilMan said...

G-d protects fools...or don't reload while drinking (drunk)?

I have to wonder if the guy was sure that staying under 120% of the maximum recommended load was just for girlymen, and he was going to make the biggest boom ever heard.

Anonymous said...

Hope he had a clean pair of skivvies in his range bag.

Damn.

Subvet said...

Cripes!! Bet he went to church that Sunday if he hadn't before!

sig94 said...

Yeah. He fired a Hail Mary round....

ASM826 said...

Can you / did you get the other rounds out of the cylinder? Did he have any more ammo from the same reloading session? It might be very interesting to pull the bullets and see some things. Are any of them empty? What is the powder weight? What was his recipe, and is he even using the right powder?