Went to the range this am and as I was pulling into the parking lot an ambulance was also entering the lot. I walked over to the husband of the gal that emt were attending to, and found out her S&W model 19 357 had blown up on her.

Apparently she was firing handloads made by her husband and one round did not fire. Instead of doing the 30 second wait period of keeping the gun pointed down range, she pulled the trigger again and sent a round down the range and also split seconds after, the round that did not fire, exploded in the cylinder having no where go.

The gun was destroyed and the cylinder was blown to pieces. She was wearing safety glasses and hearing protection and thankfully she will be ok after they treat her at the hospital. It was a shock and reminded me again that if you have a dud, keep that muzzle pointed down range, keep your finger off the trigger and count 30 seconds before you take the dud out.

I've had no misfires yet with my reloads but have had 2 22LR misfires and waited 30 seconds and took the bullet out and turned them 180 and they both fired.

hope she is fine and gets over the flinch thats sure to follow. thanks for sharing its a timely reminder for us all.

what sort of injuries did her partner sustain?

I hate it when that happens. Reloading is serious business and I weigh every rifle and handgun charge then dump the powder into the case and immediately seat the bullet. I have never had an under or over load with this process.

My older brother was shooting a Webley .38 and had a primer lodge a bullet in the barrel. He was shooting rapid fire and sent another round off which split the barrel. He got shrapnel in several fingers of his gun hand and spent some time digging out fragments. Take care...
Joe

slimjim wrote:

what sort of injuries did her partner sustain?

One of the persons at the range put a tourniquet on her right wrist to stop the bleeding. It is my understanding that when the bad round went off in the cylinder and exploded, the top of her right hand was impaled with metal from the cylinder and more then likely severed a vein on the top of her wrist.

I looked at the gun and never have seen destruction like that. Makes one think again about basic rules that should always apply.

WOW...that is nasty. A hang fire is not something that the majority of people think about when that gun goes "click" instead of bang. I have been guilty of this myself.

My old Krico .22 rimfire rifle developed a weak firing pin spring over the years and like OV1, I just unloaded the cartridge, turned it 180 and it usually worked. A new spring corrected this problem.

I hope this lady recovers ok, and doesn't any lasting "scars". I also hope that no bottom feeding scumbag attorney sees a chance to pressure her into suing Smith and Wesson because of her injuries.

Cheers, Vince

I have had hang fires before and cartridges that didn't fire - from when I was "learning" how to reload. I always knew to just keep it pointed down-range, shake it a bit and wait some more before declaring it safe to open. Then the whole cartridge goes under the trash can until I am ready to go home. Lucky, but I have never suffered a shooting related injury.
I hope the wife recovers fast and I hope the husband can get past the guilt.

Just got word about 15 min ago, that the wife will be ok. They did surgery last night to her wrist and artery and it will be ok. I did talk to Mark (her husband) and I told him to pull every every round and start over. He is going to pull every round to see what happened.

Ominivision1 wrote:

the wife will be ok.

Good news! Thanks for the update.

Hey Omni, Would it be possible to get some pics of the pistol?? It would be a great asset to have to show the students when I am teaching the basic reloading class at my Sask Wildlife Federation Chapter.

HOLY CRAP!! DOES THAT BRING BACK MEMORIES!!!!! MY .45Colt Blackhawk kB'd about four or five years ago!!! I screwed up!!! My aunt's husband(a Pott. County Deputy) was doingthe shooting first two boom boom! Third BAH-WHOOM! Blew off the top strap; GONE!!! Never found it and One third of the cylinder from the top chamber down the left side as I recall. NO EYE PROTESTION!! Had it on all friggin' day as we were building his garage door! He took a very small piece of of the brass case about two millimeters below his right eye!!! Took me about three or four months before i was even ready to pull the lever!

Load was SUPPOSED to be about 14.5grs HS6 What I had in the case was about 21.5GRS!! 250gr HARD CAST with HEAVY crimp!! What I am positive happened was I bumped the loading bench and did not re-zero! I checked the powder level and it all looked even(of course it was!!) and figured OK no harm done and went on and seated the bullets!

Let me tell ya' ya' get a big dose of double dumb ass, DOOM on you when this happens to you! What part of Iowa by the way???

This would be a good one for the IDNR to have for Hunter Education. My blackhawk is floating around at a friends waiting for me to pick it up and make gooduse of it for just that reason. SCARY STUFF FOLKS!!!

This doesn't sound like a reloading error - far more likely a faulty primer that "hung up" until the shock from the second round set it off.

I think it's most likely the reloader forgot to put powder in a case.

inthedark wrote:

Hey Omni, Would it be possible to get some pics of the pistol?? It would be a great asset to have to show the students when I am teaching the basic reloading class at my Sask Wildlife Federation Chapter.

I'll get ahold of him this weekend and see if I can get some pics of the gun. He did tell me in e-mail that he pulled all the bullets and dumped and weighed the charges and they were all under max loads. I did find a pic of a colt that has similar damage on the web, maybe this will help you out.

Arron wrote:

What part of Iowa by the way???

It was at the Hull shooting range, just west of Oskaloosa on hwy 92.

TNX!!! I know a guy there fairly well.