Bought a Super Blackhawk today

[Sourdough]

Bought a Ruger Super Blackhawk with 4" barrel today.  Don't know why I bought it.  Don't need it.  I just like the single action revolver, and I carried one just like it for many years while cowboying.  The one I carried was Government Issue, so I had to turn it in when I left that base.  I had one with a longer barrel (7" I believe) Blew it up in my hand.  I was not hurt, but sure scared the daylites out of me.

[Oldshooter]

Curious Sourdough, was that blow up a defect or a bad load?
 
Whichever , that would be a very scary experience

[cwlongshot]

Roger,
 Good luck with the Ruger!

I have one thats very dear to me... Its a first version (563x SN) in 4 5/8'' and 357 mag. Its great to carry and shoots my 158 GD handload with H110 into one hole at 50'. I stripped the grip frame and polished it then installed a set of Eagle stag grips left full. I have a old Safriland lined holster and belt for it too.

CW

[drdougrx]

Good for you!  I own a bunch of them!!!

[Sourdough]

Oldshooter:  Hot Loads!  Back then my wife loaded for her Marlin Carbine in .44 Mag.  The Carbine will take higher pressures than a pistol.  She had an old Lyman Manual that gave loads for the Marlin carbine.  There was a warning, not to use these in pistols.  She loaded up some and carried them when out in the woods here in Alaska.  She kept them in  a Ziplock Bag and labeled, For Carbine Use Only".  Well over the years the writing wore off.  We had just moved from DC back to Alaska, and I wanted to go to the range.  I found those shells in a box and grabbed them, along with my Super Blackhawk .44 mag.  One shot was all it took, got my attention when it felt like it drove my wrist back to my elbow.  Split the top out of the cylinder, bent the top strap over the cylinder up, threw pieces of metal out both sides.

My gunsmith friend Doug told me if I had been shooting anything other than a Ruger, I would have lost my hand, and possibly my life.  Doug sent the gun to Ruger, they repaired it.  Doug sold it for me.  I never wanted it back.  Had always thought the barrel was too long anyway.

[Lloyd Smale]

my guess is it was more then the fact you used a load listed for a marlin. A super blackhawk will take any load listed anywhere for a 44mag. If anything I have loads ive shot in single action rugers that i would be nervous about shooting in my marlins. Now if you were talking a 92 action and not a 94 marlin i would agree as the 92s are hell bent for stout and will take some outrageos loads. My go to load in my 5.5 inch bisley super used to be a 340 grain bullet at over 1200 fps. I wont post that load as it was defineately on the warm side but it took third place one year at the linebaugh pentration tests and was up against some real formitable guns and loads. I wouldnt think about shooting that load in my marlin 94s. Sure it may not blow them up but it would no doubt beat the bolt into submission in short order. I shot a couple of them one day in my 44p marlin and gave up on it in a quick manner because they were so hot they would actually open up the lever. Ruger single actions are proffed at about 80,000 psi so if you actually blew one up you had to have some outrageous overload or your gun was defective to begin with.

[kynardsj]

I agree with Lloyd Smale. A 44 mag brass full of Bullseye or something similar would take out a SBH but not a load for a 44 mag rifle. Some other culprit was the cause here. Glad you weren't hurt. We can all go home and change our drawers after such an experience but hands, fingers and such are hard to replace.

[geezerbiker]

I love mine but I can't take top hand gun load in it and I can't imaging shooting carbine loads.  It and a couple other guns I have were the ones I wanted the longest and now I've got'em...

Tony

[Sourdough]

Lloyd Smale, and kymardsj:  To start with I had shot several rounds through the gun of my loads.  No problems, gun was functioning properly.  Then I opened the Zip Lock bag and on the first shot BOOM, gun came apart.

On the way home remembered the wife had loaded some real hot loads for her carbine.  Came home and checked the manual we had used at the time.  An old Lyman Manual.  All the loads in that manual were higher than in my newer manuals.  This was the only time I had seen a .44 Mag load specifically for the .44Mag Carbine.  The loads were a lot higher than for the pistol.  Today I checked in my other manuals and they do have  seperate Pistol and Carbine loading.  But for the .44 Mag the loads are the same.  We got rid of the old Lyman Manual after that incident.