Email i got fro a friend.
A guy came into our 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......
not nesecarily the load. from the pic it looks like the cylinder was not lined up with the barrel and somehow ignited both primers on either side of the bore at the same time. mechanical error of the gun. contact S&W I'm sure they would be willing to replace it and pay dr,s bills if they weren't handloads. if they were handloads you may be sol, but I'm sure they would want to see a reload too.that should not have happened no matter what type of load was put in it.
after a closer look, it looks like 3 rounds ignited ( maybe more, can't see the 3 lower chambers). crimping would have nothing to do with igniting the primers. a loose crimp may cause a bullet to " creep forward ", but those split brass cases definately shows that the powder inside went off. too sensitive primers/powders? could they have been loaded with blackpowder instead of smokeless powder? but the alignment of cylinder to bore definately looked " off ". I've heard of old primers becoming more sensitive, but some of the ones I use gotta be 20 yrs old, but stored well.and still work fine. I'm sticking with gun mech error.too tight a crimp may build up a " little " higher pressure, but still should not ignite other rounds. wierd, thats a quality gun also. as they say " shit happens "
That would have SUCKED.
