Another Damascus Horror Story...

[Old and Reliable]

Originally Posted by Richard Flanders

92gr of PB? You are a lucky fellow Paul. I blew the cylinder of a very nice Colt SAA .45 clean in half once from accidentally double charging some cases. Impressive. The middle round cooked the adjacent two off and the top of the cylinder just disappeared into the woods somewhere. The top strap was humped up pretty good but not broken. The frame was repairable in my book but Colt refused to touch it so I traded it off in return for gunsmithing services on a replacement SAA but kept the cylinder and to this day I put it on the bench next to me as a reminder EVERY time I reload pistol.... and I did that in about 1981.

Wow- Harry are lucky. I am an occasional BP shooter- have used some 2.5" red paper English BP factory loads in my 12 PH with 30" Twist barrels- love the acrid smell afterwards. I have a 1861 Colt Navy .36- cal. wheelgun- and I always use Crisco to cover the balls after ramming them home in the cylinder-- A friend has a similar Colt, but a Army series in .44 cal- he forgot that once and had a "chain fire occur"- like me, he always wears safety glasses, a heavy glove and ear muffs when shooting our handguns. Just picked up a nice Colt 1911-A-1 .45ACP Officer's Model- 3.5" barrel, shorter 6 rd. std. magazine, so 7 with one
uppa da pipe"-- tuned by CA pistolsmith Bob Chow years ago-- it will now be my carry weapon instead of Dad's old .38 cal Det. Special "snubbie"- flatter, less bulk from the cyliner, and a tad more stopping power for the druggies that might want to mug me--

Mills and neckties, gloves, radial arm drill presses, lathes, etc- The first day I apprenticed at my grandfather's machine shop, back in the day when Starrett, Brown and Sharpe, Lufkin, Stanley, Parker & Snow, Nicholson, etc. were "King"- he showed me a heavy rafter beam-- the shop was built in 1995 near Canal St. in The Queen City--and a lathe chuck key was embedded into the splintered wood- some "rookie" left the chuck key in the jaw and hit the "go button" on a LeBlond compound lathe-The rookie was lucky, had it been in forward instead of reverse, that key would have drilled right through his head and most likely- ruined his day--Never ever get too comfortable or relaxed around machine tools or firearms--

[Bill Murphy]

Blind Dog, you are a lucky guy. Some screws can be removed from the hook while the barrels are on the gun. Some screws just don't quite give us enough room to remove them. I have tried dozens of barrels on Parkers without removing the hook, finally got caught with a stuck set about three years ago. I had to remove the floor plate and the sear pin and springs to get access. In the process, I took a chip off the corner of the stock below the sear pin while the stock was not supported by my too few hands. After fifty years of playing the odds, I finally got stung.