Originally Posted by ragtoplvr
I sometimes shoot in a range. Yes, I wear gasses and ear protection BUT Imagine if the shooter next to you had a barrel malfunction.
I have a friend that reloads, and he just uses whatever to save money. I do not even know if he has a reloading guide.
I know he has had excess pressure problems as he showed me the "junk" primers he bought that were actually excess pressure, the case was also starting to split where necked down. I explained to him about excess pressure and recommended he toss those cases and get a loading guide.
Saw him later and he told me how stupid I am as those cases shot fine. I no longer go target shoot with him, while I hope not, I fear it is only a matter of time. Guns are wonderfully engineered and pretty idiot resistant. I am not buying any used guns from him either. He burns out a barrel and then sells gun at a gun show.
I've heard a story about Ruger wanting to "prove" the durability of the cap and ball revolver that they made an number of years back.
Under very careful(blast proof) conditions they stuffed as much Bullseye as would fit under a ball, and then attempted to fire it. They had to go out of their way to get it to even light, as percussion caps don't nececessarily cooperate well with smokeless powder, but finally did and the gun held up for 6 rounds. I couldn't believe it, but I guess that's a testament as to how well built the gun is.
I'd be scared to know how much Bullseye would actually fit in a 44 caliber "Army Model" revolver. I've never used Bullseye in 45 Colt(no longer made PB is actually my preferred powder for normal loads, although I've also used Unique, and have even stuffed in 25gr of Win 296 for use strictly in my Blackhawk-that load came from a recent Lyman manual, and I did work up to it), but seem to have a number of around 8gr in my head for 44 special with a 240gr bullet(always verify in a manual, and don't take my word for it-I haven't used that particular powder-cartridge combo in several years). Bullseye is fine and dense enough that I'd imagine a 44 caliber cap and ball would hold well over 20gr, and probably easily peak at over 100,000psi. It's the kind of load that will break most ballistics calculators if you plug it in.
Reloading is a fun and rewarding hobby in and of itself, and it's something I enjoy almost as much as shooting. It should be practiced, though, with a whole lot of diligence and intelligence to exactly what you're doing. I've done my fair share of "to the max" loads, but when I do so I always follow the manuals to the letter and also work up to max loads while watching for signs of things like primer distress. The last I counted, I think I had 5 or 6 loading manuals-I use Lyman the most as a general reference, but have manuals from most of the major bullet makers plus the Lyman cast manual that references specific mold numbers(yes, also cast).
