It looks to me that it was a problem with the primers, not with the powder or the case. There is no reason those rounds should have ever even lit off without being struck by a firing pin unless the primers were defective.

If they were too sensitive, the recoil impulse from the first round being fired could have triggered the defective primers in the other two rounds. The bullets then wedged against the frame since they weren't aligned with the barrel when the primers ignited the main powder charge. This resulted in a huge pressure spike in the case, similar to firing a pistol with a squib load in the barrel, since the bullets had no place to go. The pressure spike then blew the case, and revolver cylinder apart.

Just my opinion.

 

Functionally there isn't much difference. It's not like it's significantly more powerful, or is easier to compress. I've loaded pistol cartridges with just about everything-- blue dot (mainly a shotshell powder), IMR 4350 (primarily a rifle cartridge powder), Unique, etc, etc. You will affect cartridge and chamber pressure, and obviously velocity and energy, but it's VERY difficult to cram enough powder of any sort into a .44 case that'll cause it to catastrophically fail.

With some rifle loads, it's fairly easy to do double loads with certain powders if you're not careful. With most all pistol cartridges, there just isn't enough space.

It's possible, as was said, that we're looking at a cheap ass case failure caused by a cheap ass primer failure. Even still, it takes a LOT of energy to pop a cylinder like that and sympathetically explode neighboring cartridges.

 

Slik560,

I have read a differing report on what happened in that photo. Another site has it labeled as an issue of reloading errors. I do not know what is correct.

You probably won't/can't go wrong with what your local shop has for sale as they likey move a bunch of it. I would suggest that you buy quality ammo for personal defense, that means expensive most often. There are many countries that have surplus military ammo on the open market. Most are quality, some are corrosive so you must clean the weapon well after a range trip.

Cor-Bon or other personal defense rounds are more expensive but arguably worth it.

You can actually buy ammo at Wal-Mart in most of the country and it is good range ammo to get used to the weapon. I would suggest as a tight wad, to buy the cheap ammo to get used the firearm and become proficient. I have had great success with Wolf 9mm thru cabela's as range ammo. It is dirty, and it may corrode (not sure) but it is cheap. I have a box of hollow points I keep in the magazines for personal defense, that are much more expensive.

However, when you practice with cheap range ammo, you should also get used to "good" personal defense ammo. A few magazines should do when you run thru 300 or so rounds of "range" ammo at the range.

If you have any other questions, just ask.

Wilson

 

Great advice, Wilson. Thanks for the follow up.