Posted on B-ARFCOM by DrafterDan
This happened last night during a marksmanship class. This happened to a lady about 4 bays over from me, so we didn’t notice anything strange until the Rangemaster called cease fire and went to look. There were zero injuries, but the lady probably had a numb hand for a while. They took her away immediately for closer observation.
I had noticed her while shooting, mainly because she was the only one with a revolver in our 14 person class. She seemed capable enough.
What do you think caused it?
I feel it was a hang-fire/ delay-fire. If that’s true, it would be the second one I’ve witnessed in my life. Being that it was probably the round at 10 o’clock that blew, it would make sense to me that when the hammer fell and nothing happened, she pulled the trigger again.
Or possibly faulty ammo? She brought the ammo in a small blue case, loose. Could be hand-loads, I’m not sure.
Damage:
Dead revolver. It was pink, so maybe it wasn’t such a loss.
The fragments damaged not one but both of the glass partitions on either side of her. Both about 7′ up, and at the forward edge of the glass. Both looked like bullet holes, no through-penetration.
The thing that bummed us all out, was that the class was then cut short and we were sent home. We were only about 30 rounds into a 150 round evening….
Secondarily, what is this revolver? At first glance, I thought it was an S&W Airweight, but looking at my photo later, it doesn’t match up.
~D
Scattered Shots 
Looks to be a charter arms revolver, “pink lady”. But yeah, looks like that sucked.
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yes its a charter arms
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I’m going to take “bad hand loads for $1000” here, Alex. That thing looks like the “after” photo on a grenade.
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Since Charter Arms revolvers rotate clockwise, a hang-fire in the 10 o’clock position would be the world’s most patient hang-fire.
I’d guess that the round lined up with the barrel was the culprit; and irregularities in metallurgy and the chaotic nature of explosions made it appear to have exploded from the port side.
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That looks typical of an overcharged handload, a bit too much Bullseye perhaps?
A lot of people like 3.5 grains of bullseye behind a148 grain wadcutter in their snubby,a double or triple charge might well do this.
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Pretty well sums up my love/hate relationship with Bullseye.
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Round looks like it could be a Rem .38 SJHP +P The shards in question: +P in a non-+P rated pistol?
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Charter Arms Pink Lady is +P rated per the Charter web site. I think that handload was +++P+++. .38 cases have a ton of capacity relative to a typical safe charge. Somebody probably gave it a double or a triple shot, like Tom said, up-thread.
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It this happened at Scottsdale Gun Club, I was told today by an instructor that they said she had old handloads. So I’ll also go with John M’s “bad hand loads for $1000”.
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