I did an OOPS.....

[1894cfan]

Had an old box virgin RP 38 spl brass that I had loaded up YEARS ago and decided to pull the bullets and load them in 357 cases. When I dumped the powder it looked like Unique, so decided to use it in a 357 target load using 158gr LSWCs. Ended up loading 4gr in the 357 cases, and thought I'd try a round in a stack of old phone books with my Ruger New Vaquero (5.5" barrel). Holding the New Vaquero about 4" off the books, I pulled the trigger. It BOUNCED off the first phone book!!! I then tried a round in my 1894c, went about 4" inches into the stack with not that much noise. I then went to move the box of ammo that the 38spl's came out of, and noticed a speer loading sticker on one of the box flaps, I had used 4gr of BLUEDOT!! Looks like there was JUST enough pressure out of the New Vaquero to SPIT the LSWC out the barrel, but not enough to penitrate ANYTHING!, and, because of the sealed chamber/barrel, enough pressure out of the 1894c to possibly get things done at close range without much noise. Will test them out at the range on the next trip.
THAT is going to be a BIG heads up for me, NEXT TIME CHECK FOR LOADING STICKERS!!

[junkbug]

Glad you didn't get a stuck bullet, or worse.

[Old Ironsights]

Better a squib than a Kaboom...

[Batman1939]

Better a squib than a Kaboom...

Yep, that could have been an ugly scenario with the wrong powder in those shells. I'd never take such a chance with "mystery" reloads. Glad it worked out OK for you.

[AJMD429]

Glad you didn't get a stuck bullet, or worse.

That's probably my BIGGEST FEAR when it comes to semiautomatic rifles - it's so easy to shoot fast enough you couldn't "stop" if you heard something 'different'; especially at a range with others shooting nearby.

Fortunately, most semiauto guns seem 'military' in design, and strong enough and with enough safety features, to minimize the danger of the resulting kaboom...

[1894cfan]

Glad you didn't get a stuck bullet, or worse.

That's probably my BIGGEST FEAR when it comes to semiautomatic rifles - it's so easy to shoot fast enough you couldn't "stop" if you heard something 'different'; especially at a range with others shooting nearby.

Fortunately, most semiauto guns seem 'military' in design, and strong enough and with enough safety features, to minimize the danger of the resulting kaboom...

Kinda hard to shoot that fast with a Ruger New Vaquero and a Marlin 1894c, both in .357 magnum. At worst it would have been a stuck bullet in either one, which would have been fairly easy to remove with cleaning rods. Had no problem with the 1894c shooting the bullet out, worse with the SA with the barrel/cylinder gap dumping most of the burnt powder pressure, hence the LSWC bounceing off the phone book. Still,
Dumped the rest of the powder on the veggies in the garden.

[earlmck]

That's probably my BIGGEST FEAR when it comes to semiautomatic rifles - it's so easy to shoot fast enough you couldn't "stop" if you heard something 'different

I don't think you have to worry about your semiautomatic and the squib load -- the semiauto wouldn't cycle with that little "pop". Where I think you could have bad things happen is when shooting double-action rapid fire with a revolver. That's where you might pull the trigger that second time too many. Could also happen with our levers or pumps or bolts if we think we just got a misfire and touch off another round. I'd never do that because a misfire causes me to stop, keep gun pointed downrange, and carefully look. But I think when doing the double-action rapid I'm afraid the finger might pull that trigger before the brain got things stopped...

[1894cfan]

Guys, it was just a test with one round in a Ruger New Vaquero and one round in a Marlin 1894c. The New Vaquero went pop/bounce and the 1894c went bang with the round going MAYBE 4" into the stack of phone books, both from around 4 inches above the books.

[earlmck]

Guys, it was just a test with one round in a Ruger New Vaquero and one round in a Marlin 1894c.

No, 1894cfan, you weren't doing anything particularly hazardous (other than "fessing up" amongst this crowd)... you just got us off on another rabbit trail as often happens with a thread. Your loads were just about what I use to slug a barrel: I use a grain or two of Green Dot to just pop an oversized lead bullet through the bore and into a pile of rags for measuring purposes. On occasion I have guessed wrong and had to drive a bullet back out the barrel. No big deal.

It was interesting your load put the bullet through the rifle with so much more authority than the pistol. I'd have guessed a little bit more but not that much more. I guess the cylinder gap leakage is quite a lot more significant with the super light loads.

[1894cfan]

Guys, it was just a test with one round in a Ruger New Vaquero and one round in a Marlin 1894c.

No, 1894cfan, you weren't doing anything particularly hazardous (other than "fessing up" amongst this crowd)... you just got us off on another rabbit trail as often happens with a thread. Your loads were just about what I use to slug a barrel: I use a grain or two of Green Dot to just pop an oversized lead bullet through the bore and into a pile of rags for measuring purposes. On occasion I have guessed wrong and had to drive a bullet back out the barrel. No big deal.
Earl, thanks for the explination.

It was interesting your load put the bullet through the rifle with so much more authority than the pistol. I'd have guessed a little bit more but not that much more. I guess the cylinder gap leakage is quite a lot more significant with the super light loads.

That's my guess, too. The riffle had a better sealed chamber than the revolver to contain the gasses better. BTW, one side of the case mouth was a bit burned coming out of the rifle, while there was none out of the New Vaquero (just a bit smokey). I'd hazard a guess that out of the revolver it wasn't sealed enough for all four grains to burn all that well, whereas with the rifle it was.
The indoor range that I go to quite often has a policy of no center-fire rifles, I wonder if they'd let me shoot these, especially if I show them the bullets bounceing off the cardboard.

[Old Ironsights]

Guys, it was just a test with one round in a Ruger New Vaquero and one round in a Marlin 1894c.

No, 1894cfan, you weren't doing anything particularly hazardous (other than "fessing up" amongst this crowd)... you just got us off on another rabbit trail as often happens with a thread. Your loads were just about what I use to slug a barrel: I use a grain or two of Green Dot to just pop an oversized lead bullet through the bore and into a pile of rags for measuring purposes. On occasion I have guessed wrong and had to drive a bullet back out the barrel. No big deal.
Earl, thanks for the explination.

It was interesting your load put the bullet through the rifle with so much more authority than the pistol. I'd have guessed a little bit more but not that much more. I guess the cylinder gap leakage is quite a lot more significant with the super light loads.

That's my guess, too. The riffle had a better sealed chamber than the revolver to contain the gasses better. BTW, one side of the case mouth was a bit burned coming out of the rifle, while there was none out of the New Vaquero (just a bit smokey). I'd hazard a guess that out of the revolver it wasn't sealed enough for all four grains to burn all that well, whereas with the rifle it was.
The indoor range that I go to quite often has a policy of no center-fire rifles, I wonder if they'd let me shoot these, especially if I show them the bullets bounceing off the cardboard.

I had to petition a range to change their policy to allow Pistol Caliber Rifles inside.

It took a bit to get through the layers of Fudd, but when I finally showed them that a .44 marlin and a .357 Rossi were quieter than their handgun counterparts and that the increase in velocity was immaterial to the steel backstop they finally relented.

Didn't hurt that we had just pushed through the PCR hunting regs either...

[1894cfan]

[
I had to petition a range to change their policy to allow Pistol Caliber Rifles inside.

It took a bit to get through the layers of Fudd, but when I finally showed them that a .44 marlin and a .357 Rossi were quieter than their handgun counterparts and that the increase in velocity was immaterial to the steel backstop they finally relented.

Didn't hurt that we had just pushed through the PCR hunting regs either...

The indoor range I go to is owned by the city I live in and is run by a rifle club.
Their reason for not allowing center-fire pistol caliber rifles is club politics! Looks like I'm going to have to go through the same runaround that you did to get the policy changed.