S&W revolver hammer nose bushing.......

misfire

misfire

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Not sure if this belongs here or in reloading but I'll put it here. A friend of mine gave me 500 C.I.L. small pistol primers. They're easily 20 years old but the box was marked non-corrosive and non-mercuric and they were stored properly. I loaded them with 6.7g of Titegroup and a 125g TMJ bullet. The rounds fired without a hiccup and were accurate but here is a pic of my 2 month old 5" 686 after 100 rounds through it. The other revolvers (a 6" 686 and a 627 PC) that fired 100 rounds of the ammo primed with these C.I.L. primers exhibit the same type of wear but by far this is the worst of the three. None of them showed any wear with the bushing prior to shooting this ammo. I have 200 rounds left and I don't think I'll be using them. Looks like I'm going to need to replace the hammer nose bushing on all three revolvers. What a heartbreak......:mad: Comments?

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Hmmm..Very interesting. I use 6.9gr tite group with 125 gr montanna gold. 6.7gr to be very good. I don't think it is the primer. I think it is a air cut that I heard before that sometimes will happened on revolver. I am not sure how it happened. you may want to get some more idea on smith wesson forum.

Trigun
 
It looks like some or maybe all of the primers might not have been seated fully? For some reason the primer pockets allowed hot gas to get by the outside of the primer and cause this erosion. What do the casings look like. There should be a lot of gas cutting visible on them as well.

I run 7.5 to 7.6 gr Titegroup with 125gr Montana gold CMJ and CCI500 primers. I have never seen this with my 627. I'll have to check the 686 that I load with 5 to 5.1 gr of Titegroup with the same primers and bullets.
 
I shot yesterday and cleaned the revolvers this am...I inspected the cases and found that 6/100 or 18 cases out 300 had burn marks on the headstamp. The ones in the photo seem pierced. :runaway: Definitely not impressed.............:mad: Thanks for the responses.

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misfire said:
I shot yesterday and cleaned the revolvers this am...I inspected the cases and found that 6/100 or 18 cases out 300 had burn marks on the headstamp. The ones in the photo seem pierced. :runaway: Definitely not impressed.............:mad: Thanks for the responses.

IMG_0572.jpg
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Check out the other cases. Are the ones that leaked all Federal? It looks like there is something very wrong with the two you have shown other than the obvious. It looks like the primer pockets have been opened up and the seal or whatever it is called (the thin brass coloured ring around the primer) is completely missing!

Can you check the rest of your unfired reloads? Anything look odd with any of them and is there a pattern to the problem?
 
rick357, very astute observation!! The 18 cases that failed were mostly Federal but there were 3 Winchester and 1 Remington that failed as well but not to the extent that the Federal cases did. They were slightly blackened around the rim of the primer and you really had to look for it. Of the remaining loaded rounds I'd say about 8 are questionable and they're mostly Federal cases other than 2 Winchester. I guess this another thing to watch for when I reload. I hope this lesson won't be too expensive...BTW, thanks for all the help and insight....
 
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Definately appears that the brass has had the primer pocket destroyed. There are no signs of pressure, and the primers appear to have pierced due to a lack of support - it almost looks like the pocket has been run through with a large pocket reamer. Was this range brass?
 
ian_in_vic said:
Definately appears that the brass has had the primer pocket destroyed. There are no signs of pressure, and the primers appear to have pierced due to a lack of support - it almost looks like the pocket has been run through with a large pocket reamer. Was this range brass?
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Used bulk brass from a gunshow.............
 
Then I would guess someone was trying to use large primers in .357 cases and figured if they just ran it through with the large reamer they'd be good. It's possible they were used for indoor shooting with plastic or wax bullets.
 
This particular 686 is a new 5" 7-shot 686 that I bought only a few months ago....the other two revolvers that I shot yesterday fared a lot better only because the hot gases 'seeped' out around the rim of the primer wheras the one in the photo had pierced/ruptured primers. The only recall of the 686 that I'm familar with are with the 586/686 no dash models. Is yours one of these?
 
ian_in_vic said:
Then I would guess someone was trying to use large primers in .357 cases and figured if they just ran it through with the large reamer they'd be good. It's possible they were used for indoor shooting with plastic or wax bullets.
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+1

Don't know whether they were used for indoor shooting or not, but like Ian says, the primer pockets look like they have been intentionally opened up and thereby destroyed in the two shown.
 
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