I read with great interest the June blog with the Tom Acheson story from the #162 Fouling Shot Mar/April 2003 on loading for his Turnbull COLT in .45Colt.
I have a few comments.
Powder position blowing up revolvers . There was much discussion in the late 1970'S about BULLEYE blowing up guns because the small charge laid on the bottom of the case as the gun was positioned with the bbl/chamber's held horizontally prior to squeezing the trigger. The primer would flash over the powder charge igniting the entire charge at once, causing an extreme pressure detonation. Never bought it, & nobody ever succeeded in proving it.
There was a great deal of experimenting in .45Colt loads back then. But in the opposite direction from the past. Cowboy Action Shooters (SASS) wanted lighter & lighter loads. Starting loads out of the Handbooks at 1st then some strange lighter than ever loads. Powders started with the standards; Unique, 700X & W231. Bullets; 200gr & 250gr. Then new powders; Clays & TiteGroup. Bullets down to 165gr, even seating bullet noses below the case mouth. Although that stopped in a hurry. SASS Rules changed against such dangerous practices. I settled on a light load of Clays over a 225gr CAV or 230gr TC. Been using that same load since 1991. It's extremely accurate In my old 7 1/2" VAQUERO. I've also loaded .45S&W cases with 200grainers for a true feather-light load.
Guns just blowing up. In one of the 1st Posse/team shoots I ever participated in, the Lady next to me had her revolver blow up in her hand. Fortunately she was not injured. I was not so lucky. Part of a chamber top sliced through the skirt on my holster, my pant leg & into my leg. Luckily it had slowed down enough to barely draw blood. I got a bandaid & dumped the offending chamber piece outa my boot. I talked to the Ladies husband about the incident & discovered that he had used a dillon 450 to reload their ammo. He of course bought it by mail (no real Internet in 1988) on the recommendation of another Cowboy Shooter. He went to a local gun shop, bought a scale & required components to load the recipe his "friend" had written out for him. Set up the dillon press according to their directions & started loading. NO RELOADING MANUAL!!!!! NO EXPERIENCE!!!!!! NO INSTRUCTION FROM AN EXPERIENCED RELOADER!!!!!
As time went on I pursued my investigations into gun blowups. In almost every instance it could be traced back to a dillon progressive press bought by an ignoramus with no experience/instruction through mail/internet. That THRICE D****D cheap a** dillon aluminum powder measure.
I loaned a box of .45Colt ammo to another shooter at a match who had run short one time. He returned the brass at the next match, reloaded with the same recipe I used except he'd used 230gr RN instead of 225gr TC. I chose to burn that ammo up after a match. The 7th round blew the top strap in the same old way, taking the upper 3 chamber tops with it. He'd loaded it on a dillon.
I lost a good spaghetti replica single action & a buddy lost a new D bar J hat that day, all because of an inexperenced dillon owner. Never loaned a gun again unless my own ammo went with it.
Enuf whining/ranting, sorry I got off subject again.
Long time Caster/Reloader, Getting back into it after almost 10yrs. Life Member NRA 40+yrs, Life S.A.S.S. #375. Does this mean a description of me as a fumble-fingered knuckle-draggin' baboon. I also drool in my sleep. I firmly believe that true happiness is a warm gun. Did I mention how much I HATE auto-correct on this blasted tablet.