Post by rodfac on May 28, 2009 21:26:35 GMT -5
I had a Smith Model 15, Combat Masterpiece that had a similar problem 42 years ago. While working on a military range as one of the range officers, one of my students, who had no previous handgun experience, held up his hand indicating a malfunction.
On checking the gun, we found one of the military hard ball jacketed bullets protruding from the muzzle. Another was spanning the cylinder gap effectively tieing up the gun. The range gunsmith chucked the gun up in his shop vice and using a ball peen hammer and a drift, tapped the stuck bullets back down the bore until the last one slipped back into the cylinder, allowing us to swing it out. He then tapped the rest out with the cylinder swung out. The gun had all six jammed in the barrel. The first was pushed progressively farther down the barrel by the succeeding shots, with the last jamming in the cylinder gap.
We surmised after interviewing the shooter, that the first shot had been a squib with either a light powder charge or no powder whatsoever. He also stated that the first shot seemed to have lighter recoil than the following shots.
We suspected that the gun was ruined but a patch run down the bore revealed no swelling. Shooting another six shot string we found that it still grouped as well as most of the other guns...somewhere in the 3" range with military ammunition.
My guess is that the cylinder gap allowed pressure to bleed off before serious damage could occur and that the lack of a good seal by the hard jacketed ball ammuntion did the same for the air column in front of the bullet.
Regards, Rodfac
On checking the gun, we found one of the military hard ball jacketed bullets protruding from the muzzle. Another was spanning the cylinder gap effectively tieing up the gun. The range gunsmith chucked the gun up in his shop vice and using a ball peen hammer and a drift, tapped the stuck bullets back down the bore until the last one slipped back into the cylinder, allowing us to swing it out. He then tapped the rest out with the cylinder swung out. The gun had all six jammed in the barrel. The first was pushed progressively farther down the barrel by the succeeding shots, with the last jamming in the cylinder gap.
We surmised after interviewing the shooter, that the first shot had been a squib with either a light powder charge or no powder whatsoever. He also stated that the first shot seemed to have lighter recoil than the following shots.
We suspected that the gun was ruined but a patch run down the bore revealed no swelling. Shooting another six shot string we found that it still grouped as well as most of the other guns...somewhere in the 3" range with military ammunition.
My guess is that the cylinder gap allowed pressure to bleed off before serious damage could occur and that the lack of a good seal by the hard jacketed ball ammuntion did the same for the air column in front of the bullet.
Regards, Rodfac