Quote Originally Posted by lilguy43uk View Post
I've asked the question Tac and the police have the gun at the moment, nobody seems to have any idea why. It is expected to be returned eventually however.

I'm told that the top strap has lifted and one of the chamber blown out. I must admit that this sounds suspiciously like an overcharged chamber rather than a chain fire but, you never know.

If it comes back I'll get some pictures posted.

Jim
I have been talking to a few friends over the way about this so-called destroyed gun, and nobody I have asked, with a combined shooting experience of around a thousand years, has EVER heard of any BP revolver, even an original, blowing up as you describe - USING BLACK POWDER. You simply cannot get enough BP AND ball into the chamber to do this sort of damage. Please talk to the B'ham Proof House, if you care to. I've been shooting BP of all kinds since the middle 1960's and I've never encountered such a thing happening, BTW.

IF it is the case that the gun HAS let go shooting BP - remember that it has been proofed here in UK - the respective proof house must be permitted to comment on this occasion. The poor gun that seems to have been arrested and detained against its will, without being charged, is simply the injured party here.

Because the revolver has a 'moving element' that instantaneously permits the pressure to drop [the ball that moves out of the chamber and down the barrel] the chances of a top strap being blown up as well as a chamber being dismantled sounds more and more like the use of nitro powder OR a seriously-flawed part that somehow escaped the attention of the inspecting proof house.

A multiple discharge is an attention-getter, that's for sure, but remember that the other chambers that go off are not only pointing down-range, but are open to the air. The only one I ever saw [an original Colt Model 1851] fired the [correct] top chamber and the other two on each side and the gun was fine. And no, it was not mine.

tac