My best friend and hunting partner for 40+ years Ka-boomed his Ruger Super Black Hawk  in .44 mag a few days ago.

Happily, he was wearing eye-pro and was not injured, save for his pride.

He has owned and reloaded for this gun for more than 35 years.

Let me lead with; we are working on the premise that he double charged a case, it was a mild load of cast bullets over unique. The barrel is clear, and un-bulged,

He is a very experienced re-loader, but mistakes happen, and sometimes things are exactly as simple as they seem.

That all said;

Is there any possibility that the cylinder was fatigued, and just let go? Truth be told, in his youth he made the poor Ruger suffer, feeding it a steady diet of hot loads.

He said the boom didn't seem all that big, and it took him a second to register what had happened.

Or cut and dried reloading failure, or something else.

Finally, opinions on salvaging the gun.

The top strap has an obvious bow, but everything else seems intact, ( excepting the cylinder)

So part of me want's to have a go at it, strip it to the frame, mill a dimensionally true block to go in the frame, heat the top strap and gently tap it square on the block, the replace and re-time the cylinder.

Am I crazy?

Here to hear.

What does the case look like? I suppose lots of things are possible but that looks pretty textbook overcharge.

Send it back to ruger and ask what it will cost to fix.

He only found a few fragments of the case.

Did he reload with progressive? I mean how much space does a standard charge of Unique take up in a 44 mag case? Because if it's too low you should not use it since you can easily overcharge it. Most proper powder would take up enough space that it is impossible to double charge it.

A blown up Blackhawk? Wow!

ETA: That frame is done. It cannot be fixed. Don't even try that.

Single stage .

Lots of pistol powders can easily be doubled, unique is one of them.

Yup I use tite group which can be doubled in most all of my loads if I remember right.

Still worth boxing it up and sending it back to ruger. Worst case is you're out the shipping.

I have great respect for your opinions, but I would like you to elaborate and make your case.

Assume I am slightly dense.

Is there a chance that he used the wrong powder?  My dad reloads .44 for his Super Redhawks (7.5" and Alaskan)  I am pretty sure there is no room left in the case for a double charge.  Though, that is for 300 grain flat nose rounds.

Unlikely, he had been shooting from the same batch , fairly mild with no issues until that one.....

Pretty classic case of an accidental double charge.
Cylinders don't "fatigue" and suddenly let go.
If the gun was shot with extreme hot loads he'd notice other problems first like excessive cylinder end shake, ratchet peening on the breech face, etc.

Chances of repair are unlikely.
You can do anything if you have enough money and valuable Colt Single Actions with bulged top straps have been repaired, but the first thing the pistolsmith will ask is "Just how much money DO you have"?

The cost, even if a pistolsmith would attempt repair of a .44 Magnum would be far more then the gun is worth.
If you want to send it in to Ruger, there's at least a chance they'd sell and install a new frame, but shipping to Ruger is going to cost around $80 whether they fix it or not.  They would almost certainly charge for the replacement plus shipping back.
With Ruger you never know what they'll do, but my guess is they will refuse repair.

Doing it yourself is a non-starter.  You're dealing with a .44 Magnum, and sooner or later the gun will pass to someone else who may not know about the accident.  They too may feed it some hot stuff and get hurt.

It IS a .44 Mag so the frame is heat treated.
If you heat the frame to bend it the heat treat will be destroyed, leaving you with a soft frame.
Re-heat treating the frame would require a real professional.
In addition, without Magnafluxing or some other high grade inspection method you can't tell if the steel has suffered internal cracking or other damage that will cause it to blow again.
Just looking at it won't tell you if it's had internal damage to the structure of the steel.
Again, cost of re-heat treating and inspection of the structure of the steel is going to be expensive.

If your bud just has the money to spare, send it in to Ruger just as a matter of interest to see if they could or would restore it.
I'm betting not.

Thanks for the reply, my buddy has resigned himself to replacing it, I'm just entertaining ideas and possibilities.

It had crossed my mind to straighten it, color case harden it, and rebuild it as a 45 LC.

In the end I suspect we will scrap it and sell off anything usable.


ETA: I do have access to magnaflux and Rockwell testing.

Ruger may replace it, but don't try to do it yourself. Getting the heat treat right will be very difficult.

many years ago i had an Virginian Dragoon in 44 mag that  i always loaded HOT! after awhile the cylinder started binding up and was very difficult to cycle. i notice a slight distortion in the top frame and sent it back to the company offering to pay for repairs. within 2-3 weeks i got the gun back as good as new, no charge for services and it operated as it should.



i would send the blackhawk to Ruger, they may be able to straighten the frame and take care of the other repairs as well. in your case i'm sure there will be charges for the repairs.



cna't hurt.



Bruce

If Ruger finds out it's a reload they may charge for the repairs... most companies that I am aware of says using reloads voids their warranty.

As a .22", maybe.  The problem is, someone down the line will go - it's a Ruger, it can handle hot .45" Colt loads - never knowing the frame is now soft.

Have him call Ruger.  I met a dude who triple charged a case and blew one up.  He admitted it, ruger still sold him a new one at a VERY good price.

In the end, the most likely fatigue failure was a fatigued Truck Driver trying to get a few rounds loaded up for his rare day off while his gran-daughter distracted him trying to help Grandpa in the workshop.

But we tossed the idea around because the gun has had a lot of rounds through it over the years, and no body likes to admit they might have screwed up....anything is possible.

He will replace the gun, and the old one will serve as a reminder of what can happen, perhaps it will hang on the wall over the reloading bench.

I love fixing things, and the idea of salvaging the gun appeals to me, I've brought back more than one from the dead after being told it couldn't be done.

But I will leave this one lie.

Thanks for all the input.

Is there a reason you don't want to send it back to ruger? Pretty much a nothing to lose scenario right?

His decision to make, but I suspect that by the time you pay shipping, and Ruger for the labor and parts, you would be in range of a used pistol.

Worth a phone call I guess.

Do you really want to deal with 36,000 CUP levels with a reworked frame?

Hands and fingers are not all that replaceable yet.

There are no plans currently to rebuild the gun, I was just tossing the idea around because there is a lot of expertise here and I have a lot of respect for you guys's opinions.

Clearly the unanimous opinion is against repair, but like I said, assume I'm a little dense.

I'm having trouble wrapping my tiny little brain around how the frame contains all the pressure. I understand that it must hold the cylinder in alignment and absorb significant backthrust, but given the fact

that the pressure is escaping through the flash gap and the bore, it appears to me that the vast majority of the pressure is contained solely by the cylinder.

As stated earlier in the thread, overpressure that was causing damage; ie stretching, of the frame, would manifest itself in the form of increased cylinder play, and perhaps timing issues.

Seems like an issue with the frame being soft or weak would show the same way.

I don't see how catastrophic failure of the frame would be a significant risk with a new cylinder.

Like I said, not planning to do anything, just trying to fully grasp the issue.

I'm curious how stressed the top strap really is as well. I'm guessing you could cut it and still fire the gun, but I wouldn't bet much on that. Well...unless someone else is firing it....

I think I have any idea of how you could raise some money for a new gun now

I'd rework it as a .22lr or something and add it to my permanent collection just for shits and giggles.

If you're really scared, fix it, and fire it on a clamp with a string tied to the trigger with a proof load to see how it fares. If it takes a proof load with no further damage then it's good to go.

Hot charge Unique is a fast powder, if he compressed it with the bullet it's even worse. By the pics it looks like what happened. Single or progressive doesn't mean a thing. I have been reloading since 1992 and we'll over 25K rounds on an old Dillon 450, with zero squibs or over charged rounds. I preach this a lot on reloading forums, never reload in front of a tv, listening to loud music ant when you have your mind on other things. If you can't concentrate on every single round you don't belong near the press. Of course drugs and booze are a big no no. Unless you have the skills and tools the cost of the repair would far exceed the guns worth.
NCH

Weakened steel may not fail on the first firing, the second firing, etc.
It would take hundreds of firings with VERY precise inspection and measurement to start to have ANY idea.

There are real reasons even manufacturers will not repair guns like this one.

You mean to say, that weakened steel looks and feels just like any ordinary steel, same hardness and all, and you won't know until you subject it to repeated significant stress?

How do manufacturers even know the barrel steel they use aren't weakened? As far as I know manufacturers proof test firearms for this very reason, and they disassemble it and examine it throughly to make sure nothing has changed.

Also how much stress does revolver frames really see? From what I can tell the cylinder and the barrel sees all the stress but the frame only gets shaken a bit from the kick and all, if say the steel weren't as hard as pre-hardened 4140 but 1018 steel in hardness, would it matter?

I mean the OP can just machine a frame out of pre hard 4140 steel, new cylinders and barrel and stamp the original serial number on the new frame, and it would be good as new (this is of course assuming that machining a new frame isn't that complicated, but if the OP has the ability to heat treat steel and magnaflux it, then machining a new frame is probably not out of his ability)

In all of seriousness a revolver is 1850's technology so it's not unreasonable that a home gunsmith can machine a new frame out of 2016 materials.

There are some expensive tests (specialized x-ray, magnaflux, eddy current testing, etc.) that can be used.

A manufacturer can rely on his supplier or can test new lots using destructive test to determine if it meets the initial requirement.
Tensile testing, fracture testing, chemical, hardness at multiple depths in a sample (make little stairs), x-ray, section and polish and examine crystal structure under a metallographic microscope, etc.

They that have control over how the steel is treated.

Given existing liability law additional testing would be likely and paying for insurance to assume risk is SOP.

Once the gun has been badly damaged it is simply not worth the effort to try and assure safety.

Scrap it.

High pressure gas is not good for body parts if it gets loose.

Lower pressure guns from long ago used brass frames.
As pressures climbed to modern levels steel became required.

'Proofing' was developed to try and catch concealed major flaws long before we had any other methods.

The latch in the old 'break action' ones set the limit on their cartridges.

But it looks like if the frame is weak, the worst thing that could happen is the gun falls apart if a powerful cartridge is fired. The force of the pressure is contained within the cylinder and possibly the barrel (there is a gap between the cylinder and the barrel in all revolvers)

The frame, including the topstrap up top, works at holding the brass in place vs. the push of gasses via the recoil shield. If the top strap bent, it has flexed so far during the event that it cannot return to its original shape. The problem, I think, isn;t the bend, but that it could be elongated, which would be quite difficult to remove. If you want to fuss with it- try it. Worst case you could probably cut and weld the top strap- but that would be
lots of work. How about cutting out the top-strap completely and lining it to a small caliber? Turn it into a 38 S$W or 32-20 with some liners and a reamer.

Bunch of arfcom pussies. Heat it up and beat it back to shape. This country was not won by men who worried about such things.

That's what I been saying... if you are so concerned proof test it by firing a overpressure load with the gun clamped and the trigger pulled by a string... That's how gun makers in the past test their guns anyways (at least in countries that don't legally require every gun to be proof tested)

I ought to send this to GD.  AeroE