Anyone have a catastrophic Failure on a Sp101 like this?

Edit...Update info from Federal below pic
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Or is it just me?

I have been out of the game for a bit due to some health reasons. Near the end of summer things got a bit better so I took the time to visit a newer Range in the area. I took several of my handguns out and was hoping for a enjoyable day.

That did not really happen. I took a few .357's out with me A Rossi m971 pre taurus , My Sp101 and a old beater taurus I have had forever. I grabbed a few boxes of Federal semi jacketed .158 gr that I bought over the spring. Nothing fancy, I just wanted to shoot since it had been so long.

I ran through the first box alright with all three guns and then started on the second box. I was using fresh shoot and see targets for each Cyl and on my 3rd Cylinder of the second box this happened in the below Pic. 3 rounds went downrange and into the target and the 4th round the Gun Grenaded and came apart as shown. The Range master called for a cease fire and let me collect the pieces of the gun. I got a good smack on my finger somehow from one of the cylinder pieces but it did not brake the finger or cut it. Nothing hit my face thank God. Three separate Cyl pieces are shown in the first pic. 3/4 of box of ammo is left as shown in the pic.

The Gun is probably 5-6 years old. I bought it new and it has maybe 1500 rounds through it mostly .38 magtech plinking rounds. No reloads through this gun and I'd wager to bet it has only mostly seen this brand and style of .357 since it is available at my nearby Wal-mart for a decent price. I have ran some Winchester defensive rounds through it here and there. None of them felt of heavy recoil and these are pretty tame compared to some .357 rounds so I have been told. The Forcing cone looks great, nothing seems to have impacted it off center and I was shooting SA. I know these things are supposedly built like tanks and that was one of the reasons I bought it. It is... was my EDC for a bit. I haven't taken any of the left over rounds apart yet but I Have weighed all of them in full cartridge form on our mail scale and they are all very close in weight. I do plan on Calling Ruger Tuesday when they open back up. They are closed for Columbus day. Thoughts?



In edit.
Update of sorts.

FEDERAL called me early this morning and requested lot# and that the ammo be sent back to them. They wanted pictures of the gun and will be sending Ups to pick up the ammo.
They wanted to know events prior to the kaboom and after.

So kudos I guess to them for getting back to me straight away.

The gun is still pretty filthy from the range day I left it as is. Here is a Forcing cone Photo.

Gee! Thankful that you were not hurt.

That appears to be over pressure...perhaps from an overcharged powder load or a deep seated bullet.

I would contact Federal also.

Ruger will want the gun back to run tests...probably won't amount to anything and Federal will deny responsibility, also.

I had the exact same thing happen to a Model 49 Smith and Wesson years ago...nothing came from it except a destroyed gun. But, I was just pleased that I was not hurt.

I contacted Federal through their customer service Email. I am waiting for a response. I am grateful I wasn't hurt from it but I hope there isn't a Blind Eye towards it by either party. This was a pretty catastrophic and dangerous failure.

Good guns and good ammo can still have problems.....y'all make sure to have that eye protection on at all times. :!:

have you looked thru the barrel? is there any obstructions there?
It does look like excessive pressure. was the shell casing found?

I'm sure Federal will want the remaining shells and the box with the lot number. They probably won't do anything about the gun unless some other rounds in the box are bad. Ruger may help but will probably blame the ammo. Good luck and thank God no one was injured.

It's a good thing that it happened at the range and not when you using it in a defensive situation, ouch!
Glad no one was hurt.

Be sure to ask for a shipping label from Ruger. I'm sure they will want to examine the gun. There may have been a flaw in the gun or perhaps an overcharge in the ammo. Be sure to explain what happened and add that picture. Don't take any rounds apart just ask Federal what to do with the rest of the box. Thank goodness you are ok. That was a bad one.

Looks like a double charge to me.

Question for Ruger gurus: Doesn't the frame seperation suggest HUGE over pressure? I assume it takes a LOT more to do that after the cylinder has let go. Seems like the gas escaping the blown cylinder would have lots of room to escape and only a part of it would be pushing on the frame.

As much as it sucks to have your SP101 destroyed, just think that if you had been shooting those rounds through another gun not as tank like as the SP101 how much that could have hurt you.

rammerjammer said:

As much as it sucks to have your SP101 destroyed, just think that if you had been shooting those rounds through another gun not as tank like as the SP101 how much that could have hurt you.

Click to expand...

SP101 is well built for sure...but when my Model 49 exploded...it did not brake the top strap, it only bowed it up real high, but it did destroy the cylinder.

The ONLY thing that'll open up a pistol like that is excessive pressure upon firing, and I mean bigtime HIGH pressure. IT does NOT matter of the BBL is plugged or not. IF there is no bulge in the BBL there was nothing there, and if there were, it will NOT cause excess pressure like that.
TALK to Federal first as Ruger really has NOTHING to do with this.
Okay...lets ask...what about it being reloaded ammunition ?
And so it goes...

This has only ran Federal.158 grain .357 , magtech plinker .38's and I ran 10 rounds magtech .357 defensive rounds in it a few years back.

There hasn't been any reloads through the gun.
Barrel was clear and unobstructed as stated in the first post. I have a shoot and see target at the farm showing the first 3 rounds of the cyl before the 4th blew the gun apart.

Pics of barrel. Ammo in the shot propping up remnants is the rest of the box of ammo that did the gun in.

Double charge of powder or possibly double bullets loaded in that round. Not the guns or shooters fault.

WOW! two of my go to pieces. SP101 and Federal Ammo. I certainly would never have expected a failure like this from these two. Before you ship any ammo off to Federal be sure to weigh each cartridge. If there is something like a second bullet inside the brass or a gross overcharge of powder it will show up on a scale. If you have more than one round of ammo that doesn't seem right I would pull the bullet and see whats inside. Glad you didn't get hurt. To damage a Ruger firearm this bad something very extreme had to have gone wrong.

Dan

I would weight each remaining round then send them back to federal and pull nothing.

Do let us know what you find out! Please note the lot number on the ammo box before you send it away just in case there is a recall.

This happened to a friend of mine years ago with a used Colt .45 single action the first time he shot it. Exact same damage to the gun. He contacted both Colt and Remington. Colt responded 1st and said they were in contact with Rem and requested both the gun and the ammo be sent to Colt in separate packages. Colt sent him a new gun in about 6 weeks. No determination of whose fault it was.

The rest of the story: After receiving the new gun, my friend related to me that he bought it as a used gun from a LGS. When he got it home, he noticed that one chamber of the cyl was rubbing the frame and took it back to the LGS. They filed the bottom of the cyl window so the cyl would clear w/o touching!!!

It didn't occur to him at the time, because it was his first gun and he wasn't at all gun savvy. But upon reflection, we surmised that the gun probably had a stretched chamber from a previous overloaded round, likely handloaded.

The whole point of this story is: when the gun blows, it may or may not be caused by the ammo used at the time of destruction. Previous accumulative damage, from whatever, flawed gun or bad ammo may have been the root cause.