Today I was cruising along loading some .44 specials (It's nice to be able to load them faster than I can shoot them 
) and all of a sudden THUNK on the ram upstroke! What??? I looked on the shell plate counter clockwise from the seat die for a bullet that tumbled on a case mouth, nothing there! Then the neck expander / powder dump die to see if somehow the previous case got a wrinkle? No again, then looking at the sizer die and yup, it looked like a .45... but no, this was no .45 Colt, the CBC headstamp said .44!
Then I saw it, this "NEW once fired" .44 mag case that I chopped to a .44 special length had its walls blown out .020" larger than the OD of another sized .44 special and add to that the primer is not flattened or pierced! The other amazing things are the case didn't split like a banana peel and the nearly 1/4" of the case wall closest to the rim was not blown out! It looks like a reverse bottleneck! Too bad it doesn't take a pic well enough to show.
Man, I've shot .44 magnum barn burners in my Ruger Redhawk and Rocks and Dynamite loads in my Contender and after 45 years or so reloading I've never seen a case blown out like this.
Anyway, I wonder what gun this was shot in, and how the heck the shooter got it out of the gun because neither the case rim nor the innards by the flash hole were damaged at all! Also that reverse bottle neck makes no sense at all unless CBC draws their cases VERY thick from the rim?
) and all of a sudden THUNK on the ram upstroke! What??? I looked on the shell plate counter clockwise from the seat die for a bullet that tumbled on a case mouth, nothing there! Then the neck expander / powder dump die to see if somehow the previous case got a wrinkle? No again, then looking at the sizer die and yup, it looked like a .45... but no, this was no .45 Colt, the CBC headstamp said .44!Then I saw it, this "NEW once fired" .44 mag case that I chopped to a .44 special length had its walls blown out .020" larger than the OD of another sized .44 special and add to that the primer is not flattened or pierced! The other amazing things are the case didn't split like a banana peel and the nearly 1/4" of the case wall closest to the rim was not blown out! It looks like a reverse bottleneck! Too bad it doesn't take a pic well enough to show.
Man, I've shot .44 magnum barn burners in my Ruger Redhawk and Rocks and Dynamite loads in my Contender and after 45 years or so reloading I've never seen a case blown out like this.
Anyway, I wonder what gun this was shot in, and how the heck the shooter got it out of the gun because neither the case rim nor the innards by the flash hole were damaged at all! Also that reverse bottle neck makes no sense at all unless CBC draws their cases VERY thick from the rim?
