Thane and Blackhawker, Glad to hear you folks didn't get badly hurt...as one of the other posters said a ways back, the man upstairs was keepin his eyes on you that day.
Thane, buddy, it sounds like your deal could've gone either way, double charge or detonation but I'm kinda leaning toward double charge. I've used Titegroup in 45acp for quite some time and know good n well that it's easy to double charge a powder as fine of a grit as that but like it says on the bottle, "a little goes a long way". Frankly, I just work with 50 cases in a batch doing all the prep work like triming deburring priming sizing case flare than from thereon I charge and seat a slug one at a time. won't say it's impossible to doublecharge a case in that method but its pretty darn close to impossible. The "charge 50 cases then check with a flashlight" methods posted earlyer are probably faster than my method but just as safe. How you load is up to you but like youve said a few times, safety is key.
RBursek, and Thane,
heres a couple sites, (other forums) to check out...it kinda seems that we aint the only ones out there scratching our heads over this detonation thing. it seems like it's proposed as a posibility as often as its shot down.
http://smith-wessonforum.com/reloading/121741-undercharge-blows-up-model-64-need-explanation.html first few posts have some interesting info but the further down you read the more it looks the same as this thred...people shooting down the detonation theory.
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-164795.html this one also looks alot like our very thred...scrol down til you see a post by klw posted at November 8, 2005, 02:26 PM.
Rbursek kinda sounds like you're a bit heated up for some reason, sorry if I'm wrong but it looks like Thane said a while back that he aint a perfect loader and he may have goofed up. I aint trying to tell anyone how to behave here, (that aint my job) but reading your posts at face value makes me think you might be a bit more upset at Thane than you probably need to be, (I sincerely apologize if I'm misinterpreting your posts). Anyway i think an anal reloader is just as prone to making a mistake as a seasoned veteran or a total newbie. the way i read it, bein anal just means youre probably going overboard to make every round exact whereas a non-anal loader isn't bothered by being off a tenth or two of powder. a hardcore anal loading practice could demand a helluva lot of concentration and if youre working youre graymatter that hard past your bedtime, it dont matter how anal you are, youre asking for trouble. frankly i don't split hairs like this unless I'm trying to test out a new powder or different charges to find the best groups...otherwise I'm just belting em out to have fun plinking. also there's no use trying to bring Thane back into this as he said a few days ago that he's done posting on this thread...hell, I'd probably do the same as it kinda looks like it gout outta hand. Hes probably a young buck that got the poop scared clean out himself when a nice piece of firearm, probably about $400-450 exploded in his hand. I think he did the right thing in trying to put a little fear in any new loaders on this forum and i hope like hell someones eyes were opened to the kind of forces we work with and someone might think twice about posting their own recipes or taking recipes from others...it aint a good idea, think about it, all you have to do is move your finger about a half inch on the keyboard and you've just increased or decreased someones charge by a grain...or mabe 10gr...or mabe just .1gr...that half inch could easily put blood on your hands...typos are easy and I'm sure I've done plenty here.
some people here were justifyably upset that Thane called that 4.7gr hodgdon data dangerous...well i think Thane is absolutely right, it is a dangerous load, mabe not from the thread of detonation theory (mabe so?) but if anything, its dangerous because its real easy to double charge and not notice...especially in a larger case like 44mag.
at the end of the day, i think Blackhawker Thane and CW got it right, we'll never know what happened when that hammer fell... if it were me, I'd disasemble however many more rounds of that recipe you loaded and try a bulkier powder just in case...well thats assuming you will eventually buy a new 44mag outfit. this obviously aint something you want to take chances with.
Even though you probably won't reply, if you read this Thane, I'm glad to hear you both are ok and I beg you to be darn careful with this new hobby of yours.
- D
boy that was an awful long first post
