Reading of Shrapnel's misadventures in another forum, I got the idea for a thread on blown up guns. Anybody who has been immersed in the game deeply enough and long enough would have encountered such a thing, if not actually had it happen to him too.
My incident involved a pristine 1920's vintage Colt Police Positive .32. Even though I did (and still do) handload the cartridge, I succumbed to the temptation to buy a baggie full of someone's old reloads at a gun show for like $5, thinking I would break them down for the brass. Shortly thereafter I found myself in a plinking session with a buddy and ran through all of my own loads for the gun. There being lots of shooting time left, I ran back in the house and said "what the heck" and grabbed the baggie of mystery ammo. Halfway through what seemed to be normal old fashioned mild .32 Long loads, one blew. The whole top half of the cylinder disappeared, and the top strap bent like a banana. It felt/sounded like a .357 had gone off in that little gun. My buddy and I frantically patted ourselves down checking for shrapnel wounds, but we were unscathed- but mightily scared. We put the guns away and retired to porch and dug out a bottle of scotch to dispel the shakes. I still have that blown up pistol 28 years later (minus some parts I cannibalized for another gun restoration) , kept as a reminder that one shall not trust a stranger's cheap reloads.
The only thing I can think of as the cause was there must have been one with a case full of Bullseye in it. Breaking down the remainder of the unfired ones didn't turn up any overloads.
