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New SBH almost exploded. What happened??

8K views 39 replies 23 participants last post by  RSINo1 
#1 ·
Recently bought a brand new super Black hawk bisley Hunter in 44 mag. Super excited to take it out to the range. Made it out there today only to almost have a catastrophic failure. I'm a new revolver shooter so I'm not sure what could of caused this. I shot the first 6 rounds and everything went fine. The next 6 I had 2 failures to fire (Thought I had miscounted my shots due to excitement?). Unloaded the empty shells, and saw 2 unfired rounds. Thought it was weird but I reloaded them in and added 4 more. Went 6 more "shots" of firing, with 3 misses. At this point I realized something was off. Didn't realize how lucky I was though. The last round that wasn't hit in the center, was hit 3/4 of the way, the other misfire right on the edge. If it had ignited the gun would of fired misaligned and exploded in my hands for sure.

I called the range officer over, who was a cowboy action shooter, to see what he thought and he immediately made me take the gun off the line. He said he's never seen anything like that before. He asked if he could have the almost misfired bullet for the pistol safety class he teaches.

Needless to say I was pretty shaken at how close I came to a disaster, and was thanking the powers above that nothing happened.

Any insight into what kind could of caused this? I took pictures of the rounds and what I think is an odd cylinder wear pattern? Let me know what else I should take a picture of if if you guys have any insight. Will also be contacting ruger Monday morning. Thanks.

(First picture is an unfired round)
 

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#5 ·
Had to look up what slip hammering was. Definitely not what I was doing. Was firing slow deliberate shots. Finger off the trigger while cocking.

Just to give more information, I'm playing with it right now trying the replicate the problem empty. If I cock the gun slowly there is no slip at all on cylinder and everything stays firm/aligned. If I cock the gun faster (not slamming but a normal firm cock) the cylinder seems to over spin? It then is in free spin and I manually have to spin it forward til it reaches the next cylinder detent and clicks in.

Also is having a wear pattern on the cylinder wall like that normal?
 

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#6 ·
Ok, I think your spring is either weak, obstructed, or broken that brings your cylinder stop into place.

The ring is a normal occurrence on most Rugers. There is a fix for that, by lengthening a rod on th hammer. But, I wouldn't recommend that you attempt that modification yet.

WR
 
#10 · (Edited)
Was the gun thoroughly cleaned before shooting? Almost as if the pawl was not fully engaging/rotating the cylinder. Sticky pawl plunger? Does cylinder rotate freely? I had a single six do the same thing. It was a used gun at purchase. I had noticed before firing it that the cylinder was not fully locking up. Firing pin was hitting between chambers. When I pulled the grip frame off I found that the pawl spring was pinched between cylinder frame and grip frame. Without enough spring tension on the pawl plunger the pawl would slip off the cylinder ratchet and fail to rotate the cylinder completely. New spring and all was good.

I am not a gunsmith. Just sharing a similar experience.
 
#11 ·
The only thing I did prior to shooting was some clp and patch through the barrel. It was bought brand new. I can check if the spring is caught in the grip? When it misses the detent, the cylinder spins freely in both directions until it catches the next detent front or back. With the loading gate open it spins freely, closed it looks up tight. While cocking the clinder it feels tightly cogged and won't free spin. It only happens at full hammer cock with a normal/firm cock speed. If the spring was caught, would that render it damaged? Could I see that by looking at the grip somehow?
 
#14 ·
The picture of your cylinder stop tells me that is the problem. The shape should be more of a 1/2 moon and not that of a 1/4 circle. That is also why the scribe showing up on your cylinder is also not in the center of your cylinder notches.
Ruger will undoubtedly want it back to correct the problem.

WR
 
#21 ·
It is a must for you to return this Blackhawk to the factory. As the cylinder is not latching. I had this very situation occur with one of my Vaqueros a number of years ago.
I still have the repair order. It lists: Barrel as repaired, Internal components replaced, Cylinder as replaced.
 
#27 ·
A problem with the pawl could cause the cylinder to under or over rotate causing the misfire you had. Did you try to spin the cylinder right after it misfired without opening the loading gate?

I had a similar incident happen with my Bisley SBH in 454 Casull. I bought it new and since then I had it only shot 45 Colt rounds without a problem. A few months ago I was with a friend and I had finally loaded some 454 Casull rounds to try. They were only starting loads with a 250 grain bullet.

I fired it first that day with 45 Colt rounds, nothing unusual. I then loaded it with 454 Casull rounds. I fired 10 rounds without incident.

With the next cylinder full the first shot went off OK. On the second trigger pull the hammer dropped without firing. I thought it could be a primer misfire. So I held it pointing downrange for a bit to make sure I didn’t have a hang-fire. I then looked at the gun and I could see that the cylinder latch was not showing through the space in between the cylinder and frame. (See the photo). The hammer was still down and the loading gate was not yet opened. So I tried rotating the cylinder and it spun freely. I thought how is this possible?

I opened the loading gate and unloaded it. After closing the gate, the cylinder locked up properly. I looked at the cartridge in question and the firing pin mark was in the head stamp area. I had a bit of a chill when I thought about what could have happened if the firing pin hit on the edge of the primer and it fired with the cylinder off center.

Looking at your pictures it seems like you were a lot closer to disaster than I was.

I have not ever taken the gun apart except the cylinder was out to clean it after each firing. It is as new. It had a total of about 100 rounds or so thru it, all 45 Colt until this happened.

Just coincidentally my friend was using my phone, recording me shoot the gun when this all happened. I have the misfire on video as well as me freely spinning the cylinder with the hammer down and the gate closed.

I called Ruger and they told me to send it in to them. I sent a long letter describing what had happened. I included a CD with the videos on it so they could see what happened. I had asked that they tell me what had happened.

It came back a couple of weeks later. The included work order only said that a CD was included and the pawl was replaced. I am not confident that this is exactly what happened. Yes, a pawl issue can cause over or under indexing of the cylinder. But why was the cylinder latch stuck in the down position, with the hammer down and the gate closed? The cylinder was free spinning.

I’ve fired it with Casull loads since I got I back, but I still feel the need to check to see if the cylinder is actually latched before I squeeze the trigger again…

Has this free spinning cylinder issue happened to anyone else?
 

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#31 ·
Wanted to give an update.

First, I will say Ruger was extremely prompt with all the work they did. They received the gun Friday afternoon and I was notified via email Monday morning that they were working on it. Got the email saying work was completed Tuesday and that it was shipping back out on Wednesday. 2 day air later and it was delivered this afternoon. I had to call and inquire about what the issue was, as they didn't state it in the work completed email. I didn't talk to any techs but the service rep on the phone read me the work report done. They ended up replacing the pawl and cylinder latch and buffing the cylinder.

Looking at the new pawl installed on the gun I can 100% see what the issue was. The original pawl was improperly machined. Kind of surprised it made it through QC like that. It was something that should of been caught, but Ruger did redeem themselves to me with excellent customer service. Everyone was apologetic and they tried to get it fixed and back to me as soon as the could. Unfortunately the range is closed for me to test it, but it looks like everything was resolved and there should be no more issues.
 

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#33 ·
Glad you got it taken care of. A rare defect for sure. It's a good thing that the gun was repaired instead of replaced because the tech team will comb through it and make sure the gun functions safely. You have a much better gun than what you had.
 
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