Ruger 2. Questor 0.

[Questor]

Once again I was hit in the face near the eye by a bullet fragment from somebody's Ruger revolver. This one was yet another 44. It was at an indoor range and the fragment flew through a gap between the partitions. I'm getting a little tired of this.

Do you happen to know if this is a common problem with Ruger revolvers? I've done a lot of shooting next to people with other brands of revolver and never had the problem.

[jpsmith1]

I've gotten a bit of debris from my Bisley with highpowered .45 loads.  Not enough to be a serious concern to me when I shoot it, but I won't stand next to it if someone else is firing.

[ed1921]

My GP-100 does spit a little w/ really hot .357 loads. I don't think it would travel to the next lane, but I can feel it on my hand.
I've been pelted by debris on occasion, but not from rugers.

[Mikey]

Questor - glad you're ok.  I don't know if it is the Ruger revolver specifically that has that problem but some others have that problem as well.  It seems to depend on the load being used and the particular revolver. 

Some of our indoor shooters complained as you have and we set up heavy poly sheet lane dividers to prevent just that same thing from happening on the indoor range.  Some of the shooters would not believe their revolvers spit lead and debris like that so we ran an experiment:  We taped white building paper or construction paper over the lane dividers and let shooters fire their normal course of fire using their own different caliber revolvers and autos.  No problems from the autos. 

Revolvers however were a different story:  lots of spitting lead and gases from the cylinder gaps as you would expect and more than we thought from the barrel.  Faster burning powders in target loads were the largest offenders and those loads that used 'fillers' were a bit worse - got creamed by cream of wheat...  Also, magnum loads using cast slugs and fast buring powders spit more than I would have thought and placing a piece of construction paper over the cylinder/barrel gap with either a target or magnum load caused the paper to be blown apart - that means there is a lot of crap coming out of there. 

Wadcutter target loads using ww powder were fine.  Some loads using Bullseye were ok, some not.  Some S&W 38s didn't spit - some did a bit.  Some Rugers spit, some did not.  Magnum revolvers and loads always spit sometihing whether flaming gases or lead particulate.  Hardcast  and jacketed bullets seemed to spit less but the blast from the cylinder gap in a magnum is fierce. 

If a shooter (jpsmith) is getting debris blown back toward him from his loads he can do two things - one is to make certain the back edge of the barrel is beveled toward the front of the gun, thereby allowing particulate to fly to the front and not be blown or richocetted (? sp) back toard the shooter and to have the forcing cone beveled to about 11 degrees which also minimizes blowback.  Another thing may be to select a different powder and to make certain the bullet is hard enough tol minimize lead particulate. 

Don't try talkin' to a bullseye shooter about using hardcast over a softer bullet - they say the accuracy isn't there.

Also, don't be afraid to put up a barricade of sorts over that gap in the partitions - construction paper can be stapled up and taken down when finished and is sturdy enough to stop even lead particles from gettin' to ya.  HTH.  Mikey.

[454Puma]

Yep General know of revolver shooters -Never stand to the side of someone shooting one! The Side flame from my SRH 454 with heavy loads has cut my bags used for rests!! Even started a fire once in the prone postion shooting whissel Pigs! Yep just not a good idea !

[Golsovia]

One thing which hasn't been mentioned, yet, is timing. Many folks assume a new gun will work perfectly (and that if it does, it will stay that way.) A revolver which cocks before it locks, even if it's very close to locked, will still have great potential to spit. My Rugers are all good about locking up, usually well before they cock. I did have another brand though, which would lock fine if used quite normally even though the hammer cocked before the cyclinder locked. In normal, brisk use, the momentum of the cylinder carried it around. In very deliberate slow cocking the hammer could be cocked without the cylinder rotating far enough to lock. If the hammer were pulled all the way down, the cylinder would lock. The bottom line was that the revolver - a pricier one than the Rugers- had some serious potential to spit due to poor timing. I'm sure that wasn't an isolated example. For the sake of those who shoot with others present nearby - as well as for your own wellbeing- checking and keeping track of wear (or dirt) which may affect proper function of a revolver is probably a stellar idea.