The gun of mine that I shot the most at The Shootists Holiday was the Bowen 41 Magnum that Jack Pender left to me. It's the favorite among the favorites and Tuesday I ran about a hundred rounds through it. Wednesday I was trying out some 200 and 300 yards rocks with it when, after I pulled the trigger it did not go BANG and recoil .. it went "PIFFLE" and nothing.

I opened the loading gate to remove the live rounds left in the cylinder but could not rotate the cylinder out. I thought maybe the bullet was caught between the cylinder and throat, but a rod down the bore revealed the bullet had traveled about an inch and a half into the bore. Obviously the primer had flowed back around the firing pin locking it forward so I whacked the cylinder really hard with the side of my fist and it popped out.

I didn't have what I needed to get the bullet out and since it was getting time to shut t he range down I just put it all in the gun case and left it till I got home. Today I took a rod that was almost bore diameter and using the old hammer handle that I cut the sprue on the molds with, I tapped it and the bullet moved. A couple light whacks and it was out.

There was no unburned powder and from the marks on the bullet I could tell it was just the primer that fired. SOMEONE ON MY LOADING CREW LEFT THE POWDER CHARGE OUT AND DID NOT CHECK IT! This is UNACCEPTABLE and as soon as I can discover who that person was I will have their a.s.s. fired!

There are only 3 on the crew so it should not take more than 6 months to figure out who did this ... using the best government standards of investigation as demonstrated on tv by the ruling party.

The 3 are: Me, Myself and I.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Glad it wasn't more serious.

I have had that happen twice.

The first time was with some 38 special brass I had previously loaded with wax bullets. Apparently some wax was left in the bottom of the case and it prevented the powder from igniting.

The second was experimenting with WC820 in my 500 Linebaugh. It was cold and the powder didn’t ignite, it just pushed the bullet into the bore followed by a large plug of powder. Both times required taking the revolver home to get it in firing condition again.

The worst I have ever seen was a friend came to visit from down south, He wanted to learn how to reload .357 mag, I showed him on a Dillon 550 , he did well I thought, I let him load a few hundred rounds. He went home . And about a year later talking to his wife she told me that he had a problem with his Ruger security six , seems a bullet is stuck in barrel and cylinder , and he could not open the cyinder and did not want to tell or ask me about it, well he brought it up from Florida and I was shocked, He destroyed the whole gun, he used a dremel tool. He cut the cyinder and barrel and frame up and still could not open it up .He was shocked when I used my brass rod and a lite tap and it opened right up, If only he had asked this Ruger would been saved.

"Just grab yer drill, a 5/16" bit and hawg them primer pockets fer 50 Browny mosheen gun caps. You won't stick no boolits with them puppies and you might not need no powder atoll."

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Jest fer fun, pull the bullet from a 50 BMG round, pour the powder in a pile on the floor of the county workhouse blacksmith's shop and light it, then stick the case neck in a handy hole in his workbench and whack the primer with a hammer and a big nail held in a forge tong.

Entertainment on a rainy day. Lucky we didn't all get fired......

Pride is expensive...

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Of the Troops & For the Troops