From: John De Armond
Subject: Re: Bulged barrel in 1911...
Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access.  The Mouth of the South.

bhm@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Bruce McIntosh) writes:


#As long as we're talking misfires in .45s, I was wondering about something...

#The gun misfired, the bottom
#blew out of the magazine, the magazine walls bulged enough to require vise-grip
#to get it out of the gun, and I saw flash all along the bottom edges of the sli
#My brother got powder burns all over both hands.  When we finally got the gun
#apart, a nice neat rectangular hole had been blown out of the side of the casin
#just above the base, facing down into the magazine.  After a lengthy cleaning
#and inspection, we put the gun back together and shot of the rest of the ammo
#without any more mishaps.

#My question is this:  What caused this?  The two possibilites that come to mind
#are 1) my bro accidentally double-charged that round, or 2) the round never
#didn't feed cleanly, leaving the back 1/8" or so of the round hanging out in th
#breeze, so to speak.  Is 2) a possibility?  Can a .45 auto fire if the round is
#completely seated and the action not quite closed?

Likely Item 1.  You need to define "misfire" a bit better for us.  If you
mean it fired but abnormally, I'd bet on item 1.  I've buldged the case
where the chamber is relieved for the ramp by double charging.  I shoot
very light loads so I'd imagine double heavy loads would go ahead
and burst the case as you described.

Your bro hasn't been attempting an amateur throating job has he?  I've
seen a LOT of these at the 'smiths where I moonlight.  First thing
an amateur tends to do is lower the angle of the ramp so it extends further
into the chamber.  Relieving this much support from the case will at
minimum buldge a properly loaded case and at worst burst it.

John