Broken S&W Revolver

[Medic82]

Now this is pretty special and not something that you see every day, about 3 months ago a guy with his wife dropped by the range to do some shooting and I was the lucky one to be their instructor. We had been shooting with some 22’s and a little 9mm and .357Mag and they wanted to top it off with a .460 as the last gun. I always encourage people to film it when they are going to shoot the .460 for the first time since 99% of the time the reaction on their face is priceless. So luck will have it that we have this video here

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iyfkqc9tpsc0b5g/460%20Disintegrated.wmv


The revolver was only 4 months old and has probably only seen 300-400 rounds with Hornady and Federal factory rounds when it happened so it was fairly new. We have no idea what was the cause of it and we still have not heard back from the Norwegian S&W dealer if they have found the reason for it breaking.

But I also got some pictures for you to see

[enki_ck]

That could have ended badly.

[sawman]

When did SOG start making revolvers 
 

[bmot]

When did SOG start making revolvers 
 

Didn't you know? S&M = SOG & Wesson

[Lynn LeFey]

Holy flippin' smurf! Glad there were no injuries. I have known a lot of people with a lot of revolvers, and they have all been super reliable. I mean, pieces that are 30+ years old. That's a little terrifying.

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say the cylinder was very slightly misaligned, from the looks of the damage. The cylinder doesn't seem to be damaged beyond general pistol-rending. Looks like the bullet struck the barrel, splitting it at the threads, and shattering the frame there. Of course, I'm not an expert, and don't pretend to be one.

Did the bullet clear the barrel?

[Grant Lamontagne]

Good guess Lynn- that would be my guys as well, although I think that was compounded by a fault in the metal which is common in cast parts.

Def

Sent from a digital multitool

[Gareth]

Holy flippin' smurf is right!   Talk about a scary as hell failure.   I'd be interested to hear what S&W come up with as an answer to what the heck happened.

[Chako]

Yes, lucky nobody got injured in that failure. I also agree with Lynn based on those photos.

[Medic82]

Holy flippin' smurf! Glad there were no injuries. I have known a lot of people with a lot of revolvers, and they have all been super reliable. I mean, pieces that are 30+ years old. That's a little terrifying.

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say the cylinder was very slightly misaligned, from the looks of the damage. The cylinder doesn't seem to be damaged beyond general pistol-rending. Looks like the bullet struck the barrel, splitting it at the threads, and shattering the frame there. Of course, I'm not an expert, and don't pretend to be one.

Did the bullet clear the barrel?

It’s not exactly what you expect will happen when shooting a gun and thank God that he didn’t get injured.

We also believe that the cylinder was misaligned and that there probably was a fault in the metal like Grant says. But will wait for S&W to get back to us, think that the Norwegian dealer wanted to send it to a gunsmith in Norway before shipping it back to S&W.

Yes the bullet cleared the barrel.

[bmot]

Holy flippin' smurf! Glad there were no injuries. I have known a lot of people with a lot of revolvers, and they have all been super reliable. I mean, pieces that are 30+ years old. That's a little terrifying.

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say the cylinder was very slightly misaligned, from the looks of the damage. The cylinder doesn't seem to be damaged beyond general pistol-rending. Looks like the bullet struck the barrel, splitting it at the threads, and shattering the frame there. Of course, I'm not an expert, and don't pretend to be one.

Did the bullet clear the barrel?

It’s not exactly what you expect will happen when shooting a gun and thank God that he didn’t get injured.

We also believe that the cylinder was misaligned and that there probably was a fault in the metal like Grant says. But will wait for S&W to get back to us, think that the Norwegian dealer wanted to send it to a gunsmith in Norway before shipping it back to S&W.

Yes the bullet cleared the barrel.

And, right on target, I assume?

[ducttapetech]

Good guess Lynn- that would be my guys as well, although I think that was compounded by a fault in the metal which is common in cast parts.

Def

Sent from a digital multitool

all of what you two said. It also happens if a bullet was loaded wrong and did not give enough space for the bullet jump.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Usually a cylinder misalignment just annoys the guy next to you at the range because he keeps getting sprayed with hot lead drops every time you shoot.  This is such a common problem with revolvers that the frames are designed to withstand repeated impacts and shaving the sides off a bullet.  Of course, higher power rounds and a slightly harder bullet can aggravate a fault a lot faster.

I've finally gotten around to watching the video and it was a lot less violent an explosion than I thought at first.  Still, I imagine someone was close to needing a fresh pair of pants!

Def

[Lynn LeFey]

Yeah, because no one gets hurt, the video is almost comical, but because someone could easily HAVE been hurt, even my most gallows humor can't quite get up a chuckle at it. And that's kind of shocking, because I'm pretty twisted.

It's almost more of a 'Heh... we survived. We can laugh about it NOW."

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Bugger me that must of left a mark

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[Grant Lamontagne]

Yeah, because no one gets hurt, the video is almost comical, but because someone could easily HAVE been hurt, even my most gallows humor can't quite get up a chuckle at it. And that's kind of shocking, because I'm pretty twisted.

It's almost more of a 'Heh... we survived. We can laugh about it NOW."

I have seen guns come apart like that before and it was significantly more violent.  I was actually looking at the photos on my phone initially thinking "How did they find all the pieces?"  Now I see from the video that the gun more broke apart than exploded, although as it happened I imagine finding the right word to describe it was a low priority!   

Either way that must have been a terrifying experience, especially for someone who wasn't familiar with the gun!

Def

[jerseydevil]

  Not something I'd expect to see from an S&W.  Glad nobody was hurt!

[ironraven]

Among the reasons why ALL my revolvers are over 20 years old and I have pretty much no interest any modern ones- cast vs milled frames.

I'm glad no one got hurt. With a .460, that's a lot of power, you got lucky. I've been waiting for the .500 to take a hand off this way.