doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Blown Baker

Please note from previous post " I'm willing to accept blame for reloading error, but can't see how to duplicate the error" KY, Thanks for the note on your experience with the PW. Since you have had this problem also, I can relate to looking at the machine and being puzzled how this happens. I remember you relating the story and your toss off the bridge from the post of a couple years ago. Nice touch.. It's obvious it's a pressure issue, figured it out from the last time this gun incident was posted. Details of gun condition etc was as I saw it. Each gun is an individual in its own, and the Bell trials had guns of poorer condition holding together in high proof loads. As an after incident observation, I thought this gun was strong enough to withstand this overload. But, I'm buying the overloaded shell as the culprit. Being within 8 ft. of the gun when it went off, there was no unusual loadness to the report. Just the sting of the metal fragments was the only difference. Glen said he felt nothing in increased recoil or louder report. Even said he busted the claybird. Wad was found among the others. That's how it was. Randy

How much pressure did Sherman Bell subject Damascus barrels to ?

Joe, Some to 30,000psi

Is it just me, or are all the tooling lines in the chamber area indicative of an overbored chamber or overhoned bore? Just seems odd. Makes me think twice about messing at all with original chambers in damascus guns too, high pressure or not.

What's an overbored chamber? Are you talking lengthened, long taper cones, Mark? If so, how does any boring tool or reamer produce marks of any sort where it isn't cutting? Are/were all chambers reamed with a fluted reamer? Seems to me reamers produce "chatter" indents which are parallel to the bore; boring tools produce radial striations. This ventilated Baker has radial; exactly what type of cutting action produced them? Where are the aerospace machinists when you need em? Damn good pictures, Randy. Glad Glenn wasn't hurt.

jack

There had to be an obstruction just ahead of the chamber....or it was just time for that old Baker to die.

I witnessed a brand new Taurus .38 revolver blow up...whole cylinder disintegrated except the center star...warped the top strap. Only found a few pieces of the cylinder and a couple of live rounds on the ground.

My nephew finally figured out what he had done....he loaded rifle powder by mistake.

I think Bell destroyed a couple of guns at about 30,000 psi.
The other tests he did with the old and pitted damascus he used proof loads of about 18,000 psi. These last loads were the ones that did not do much to the guns.

A reamer is rotated to do it's cuting. It will in fact produce radial marks, not axial ones (Aerospace Machinist). This does look like a rather rough reaming job, but may just be the magnification of the pics. I don't believe that was the problem in any case. Axial marks would be produced by a broach, but that is not how a chamber is cut.

To add to Miller's position that a rough chamber surface didn't cause this failure, I don't believe any degree of roughness would hurt significantly. Barrel steels are mallable and therefore notch tolerant. Think about the engraving and roll marking that makers and customizers put on the o.d. of the chamber. The o.d. is the most stressed surface when compared to the i.d.. Pits in the chamber or cutter marks wouldn't make much difference.

I'm of the belief that this was a cartridge pressure issue. Since they wwere shooting Rem compression formed hulls, I don't buy into the notion that a basewad lodged in the bore.

RMC
I understand your point. If we had been able to figure out how or why the machine "malfunctioned" for all three of us I suspect a cure could have been found. As I said one person knows more about PW than the factory and has been selling them for 20 plus years. He has fixed more PW than you could fit into three pickups. He did have it happen once for him and he never saw anything that he thought caused the problem. But even he agreed that there was a problem. Ghost, gremlins who knows. He went over the machine with an expert eye, and a fine tooth comb, and found nothing. Checked every thing and said that he saw nothing to explain the problem. He was the third strike.

He offered to swap for another machine he had, even though he did not sell me the machine. Top notch fellow in my book. But by that point I did not want this machine to cause any other problems. What if some person later had a gun blow up because of this fluke and was injured? You can not fix an intermittent problem sometime. Money is nice but peace of mind if priceless.

The fact that PW was willing to go over the machine twice, at my expense, did not make me happier when the problem did not go away. I have had other PW machines the worked without problems and loaded tens of thousands of shells on them. This machine was a Monday morning, hangover machine, made by a man who should have stayed home that day.

Only other possible cause that I can come up with is if you dropped a live primer into the powder. That would raise the pressure just a tad. Might happen with a MEC primer tray but not a PW. Not without an earthquake or some other major event and I think that you would remember that.