500 S&W mystery solved?

[TheGibster]

I posted a thread awhile back about how I couldn't remove some shell casings with the ejector. I fired 15 rounds that day and I always had to tap out one of the five with a dowel rod. I blamed the gun as it was always the same cylinder.

But....

I just saw that Hornady was recalling some of their ammo due to excessive chamber pressures and, lo and behold, that is exactly the ammo I was using that day.

http://www.hornady.com/in-the-news/product-recalls

Don't know for sure if the ammo was the issue, but I have some other ammo that I need to try in it and see what happens.

Embarrassing for me as the recall has been ongoing since February and I just stumbled upon it yesterday. Definitely will be calling Hornady later today. I'm also thankful that the X-Frame is engineered plently strong from the factory.

 

[kalister1]

You MIGHT? want to have a smith look at the chambers to see if they COULD be polished?

 

[Magnumite]

Sticky case is a pressure indicator. So are primer appearances and case head before and after firing measurements. It is typically a total assessment of all indicators, not just one thing that indicates relative pressure values. Try another brand of ammo as a comparison.

 

[ThisGuy918]

A while back my buddies .460 was having a similar problem. We were breaking shell casings in half and popping out primers. We were also using hornady ammo. He called them and they had him send back what he had left (2.5 boxes). They found that all of the rounds were loaded hot. All three boxes were from different lots. Hornady replaced all the ammo and then some. Zero problems with the replacement ammo. No particular cyclinder had more problems than others.

 

[TheGibster]

Sticky cass is a pressure indicator. So are primer appearances and case head before and after firing measurements. It is a total assessment, not just one thing that indicates relative pressure values. Try another brand of ammo as a comparison.

I will try some different ammo. Hornady is picking up the 3 bad boxes.

I was told earlier this year that maybe S&W should look at it considering the fact that the gun had only about 40 rounds fired through it.

I should have done more in the spring to figure out what was going on. The gun has been sitting ever since I had the problem. I don't do a lot of shooting in the summer because of the lack of indoor ranges here on the Shore.

 

[Lou45]

Back in the day of yesteryear before the bigger modern magnum revolvers of nowaday were developed, the onset of steel silhouette (spell) handgunning came into vogue. Some of those individuals that participated in this type of shooting would handload up some real high pressure loads for their 8.375 inch S&W 29's and 629's to help insure the more distant steels would fall over when hit. These high pressure loads were loaded up so high that the chamber walls in the cylinder would become oversized and distorted, to the point that the distortion became visible to the naked eye as I personally have seen. I doubt that only fourty rounds would do this as in your case, but my recommendation would be to take it to a 'smith and have it checked over, emphasis placed on chamber specs and frame stretch.

 

[TheGibster]

Back in the day of yesteryear before the bigger modern magnum revolvers of nowaday were developed, the onset of steel silhouette (spell) handgunning came into vogue. Some of those individuals that participated in this type of shooting would handload up some real high pressure loads for their 8.375 inch S&W 29's and 629's to help insure the more distant steels would fall over when hit. These high pressure loads were loaded up so high that the chamber walls in the cylinder would become oversized and distorted, to the point that the distortion became visible to the naked eye as I personally have seen. I doubt that only fourty rounds would do this as in your case, but my recommendation would be to take it to a 'smith and have it checked over, emphasis placed on chamber specs and frame stretch.

Point taken...I need to realize that I'm not dealing with a .25 auto here....

 

[Lou45]

Back in the day of yesteryear before the bigger modern magnum revolvers of nowaday were developed, the onset of steel silhouette (spell) handgunning came into vogue. Some of those individuals that participated in this type of shooting would handload up some real high pressure loads for their 8.375 inch S&W 29's and 629's to help insure the more distant steels would fall over when hit. These high pressure loads were loaded up so high that the chamber walls in the cylinder would become oversized and distorted, to the point that the distortion became visible to the naked eye as I personally have seen. I doubt that only fourty rounds would do this as in your case, but my recommendation would be to take it to a 'smith and have it checked over, emphasis placed on chamber specs and frame stretch.

Point taken...I need to realize that I'm not dealing with a .25 auto here....

Yep, your gun doesn't fit into the "defense against pet hampster gone rogue" class.

Just in case if anyone doesn't know what caliber the S&W 29 and 629 is (as posted in my above quote), it's .44 Rem Magnum.

 

[treadhead88]

Sorry it's so long, but wanted to share,
About 15 or so years ago I was shooting at Elk Neck, a guy and his girlfriend showed up with a Davis 380, and a brand new, just picked up from a gun store Taurus stainless 6 shot 357 revolver. This guy seemed fairly new to firearms, and took up an area on the bench next to myself. I watched this guy load up 6 rounds of 357, (the gunstore guy said not to shoot 38 special because it would foul up the chambers), and put the lead down range, safely. Then I noticed him trying to get the spent shells out of the revolver. 3 fell out, 3 didn't. He was literally beating on the ejector to get the shells out. I said to him, "dude that' not right, they shouldn't be that tight, to which he replied, "the gun store guy said they expand when you shoot them". So I loaded up 8 rounds in my, at the time, Taurus 608, 8 shot revolver, and sent lead down range, then dumped all 8 spent shells on the bench without using the ejector. He shot 12 more rounds out of his gun with the same results, stuck cases. I asked him if I could see his revolver, he handed it to me in a safe (cylinder open) manner, and I looked it over, but saw nothing out of the ordinary, there was another "regular" shooting there that day, and I asked him to look at the gun and see if he could see anything wrong with it, he looked it over, and did one thing I didn't do, he pushed the ejector and looked under the web, there it was, cracks between 3 of the chambers. We in no uncertain terms told him not to shoot anymore rounds and return it to "the gun store" for warrenty work. I still shutter when I think what could have happened if he had kept shooting that day.