.357 is my guess.
Talk about putting too much powder in your basement reloads!
Several things could have happened. There could have been an obstruction in the barrel, the round could have been flawed and not released from the shell properly or stuck in the barrel. The round may not have been seated in the breach correctly. There may have been a flaw with the bullet casing. Or, there may have been a flaw with the gun itself. (or a combination of some of these.0
Too hot a load,or faulty casing,either from reloading the same brass too many times,or a factory defect,or perhaps a defect in the revolver frame itself (but not very likely)...those would be my guess,although i’m not a ballistics expert.
I suspect Bugs Bunny put his finger in the end of the barrel.
Reloading with Eaker ?
Covering/ sealing the small area between the cylinder and the handle can cause an explosion. You can lose a thumb doing that (saw it on Mythbusters). Not sure it can cause the type of explosion shown here, though.
If there is something lodged in the barrel, it may cause that type of catastrophic failure.
SnakeDoc
Looks like a defective cylinder. The rounds on either side appear not to have fired (no residue).
-—bflr—(to see how many outlandishly wrong explanations will be offered)
I read about this gun - IIRC, the cause was determined to be a flaw with the gun itself. There was something wrong with the mechanism that rotates the cylinder. When the cylinder rotated, the chamber wasn’t properly aligned with the barrel thus causing the explosion...again, IIRC...
Saw a similar incident at a gun range in Memphis years ago, A guy who reloaded his own ammo decided to see how much “Red Dot” powder would fit in a 357 S&W....Fortuantly he fired it at arms lenght and it only scared him to death...LOL....Oh, He stopped reloading at that point and only bought accross the counter at that point.....I know because he sold me his old “Rock Chucker”....
Unaligned cylinder to barrel or someone reloaded way too hot.
.357 is my guess.
Then, the failing cylinder, splitting at thinnest point between chambers, picked up the brass casings in each adjacent chamber acting like hooks and split the brass allowing the powder charge in those rounds to ignite.
The resulting pressure continued the fracture of the cylinder fully in half, and separated the top strap and sight. The remaining brass appears to have been exploded rather than crushed, which is consistent with this theory.
W/O reading all the previous responses, I am of the opinion that the round of ammunition in the chamber aligned with the bore was the culprit-this round of ammunition for several potenial reasons, likely caused all the damage, with the left and right chambers being destroyed by catastrophic case and cylinder failure.
An over/double charge is likley the cause-double base (Nitro cellulose/Nitrogylcerin) powders are quite fast and an excessive or double charges can casue the damage seen here. Perhaps during the ensuing destruction, cylinder fragments accompanied by flame and heat indeed penetrated the adjacent cartridge cases after rupturing the cylyinder walls, casuing the powder in those rounds to ignite as well. Likley this event (if it happended) did little or no additional damage.
I have seen several revolver cylinders ruptured in a similar fashion, all attributed to (poorly) reloaded ammunition.
Lesson Learned: If you buy reloads from some other entity, STOP. your body parts ar enot worth the risk. If you reload, insure each and every round is checked for proper powder charge, either visually or mechanically at the press. Use a locking die that stops production if a case on a progessive press has either a hi or lo powder condition, forcing you to remove it and correct the problem.
Be safe! Wear eye and ear protection, shoot in long sleeves and wear a brimmed hat. Shooting is inherently risky IF something goes south. Otherwise, it is one of the safest sport/activity in the nation. Ping pong hurts more folks than recreational shooting, but when it does, it usually is of greater injury.
Best;
This gun was obviously put in the microwave.
Looks like a Smith & Wesson.
They do that all the time.
Buy a Colt or Ruger.
http://www.gunandgame.com/forums/smith-wesson/88267-kaboom-another-ouchy-s-w-629-a.html
Looks like the cylinder didnt line up with the barrel when it went boom. Defect in the gun.
Too much powder in the reload.
I know a guy who was just starting to handload and used Bullseye instead of Unique. He is lucky to have all his body parts.
Looks like Government run Health Care to me........