Multiple bullets stuck in revolver barrel - is this fake?

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goon

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So I stumbled on to this photo on Facebook on US Palm's page...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd...._=1424526753_7ae312bb42496429f877a0a44c52e1f5

It shows 8 bullets stuck in a S&W .357 barrel. I'm inclined to think it's either a fake photo or someone did this intentionally with a dismounted barrel as a hoax.

I could see one or two squib loads pushing bullets into the barrel, but eventually things are going to get tied up at the forcing cone and stop the cylinder from turning. That's just one reason I think it's probably fake.

But I know some of you have worked as gunsmiths and shot in competition and have seen things I haven't. Is this even possible?
 

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There have been several such cases in which the barrel was sectioned. One involved 5 or 6 .38 Special bullets in a pre-Model 10.

I don't think it is a fake, though it could have been done deliberately as a test. The bullets don't look to me like ones I would expect to see in a .357 Magnum; they appear to be FMJ with a brass jacket, not gilding metal.

I suspect that the first bullet did not go to the muzzle; it stopped somewhere in the barrel (about where the bulge starts), then each successive bullet pushed the one(s) ahead of it further out. I also suspect that the ammunition was not full power .357; if it were, I would expect to seen more barrel bulge, but that is not always hard and fast.

Jim
 
+1

I have seen it twice myself.

The first time with a 6" K-38 S&W a shooter brought into the Army AMU shop one morning in 1969 complaining about it being locked up.

We found the barrel completely packed full of 148 grain HBWC bullets just like your photo.
Except all 6" of it!

The last one had no place to go.
So the wadcutter skirt blew out at the B/C gap and let the pressure out without blowing up the gun.
The frame & cylinder survived somehow.
It was re-barreled and returned to service.


The other was a Rossi revolver on the local police range.

I heard strange reports and called a cease-fire, just before the cylinder let go on his last shot.

The barrel was packed full of 158 grain LRN bullets just like your photo.

rc
 
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Wow... I'm surprised. I was almost certain this had to have been staged. As noted, the FMJ bullets used in that barrel made me wonder. Not that you can't shoot FMJ in a .357, but they do seem uniquely well suited for this. Also, if you look at the muzzle, it looks like there's the base of one more bullet that should be protruding from the muzzle, but that's cut off in the pic.
 
Yea, there probably was.

If I recall correctly, the nose of a lead bullet was peeking out of the muzzle on the blown-up Rossi too.

I can't remember anymore on the Army AMU S&W K-38.

Rc
 
I had my super red hawk 44 Mag that had a bullet lodged from a squib load (no powder) at a gunsmith friend of mine (I now carry a phenolic rod of sufficient length and diameter for each gun I take to the range where I won't have to do that again). He tapped it out in about 10 seconds and charged me nothing. Then he pulled another red hawk out to show me, that he said had 5-240 gn jacketed hollow nose bullets that he said made him all the money he needed that day. He said the barrel was still fine and that there was a lot of burnt powder in between each of the bullets too. He showed me a bearing puller type device that was obviously hand made that he uses on pistol/revolvers that he uses that just cranks the obstructions out. He used a phenolic rod and a small wood mallet on mine. I believe that the super red hawk is one hang of a well built strong as heck revolver. By the way, I've never needed to clear a squib load since, but I'm ready.
 
Google around a bit. There are quite a few pictures of gun barrels with bullets packed nose to tail in one long obstruction.

I don't remember where but I saw a sectioned barrel off of a Dan Wesson revolver that had something like 9 or 10 bullets packed in just like your image.

Read that again.....9 or 10 bullets! That means that the shooter actually reloaded and continued to shoot even though now a single one of the previous 6 had left the barrel....:what:
 
Well, it takes more then 6 to pack a 6" K-38 full of wad-cutters too!

One would assume someone skilled enough to be shooting on a top level NRA Bullseye AMU pistol team would figure out pretty quickly there were no holes in his target after the first six shots.

But Noooooo!

rc
 
When I lived in Texas in the early eighties there was a gun shop, I believe in Plano, that had several pistol barrels sectioned and each had several bullets lodged in them.

They were hanging on the wall and I was told they were not "staged" but barrels removed from customers guns brought in for repair.

If I remember right at least one had six bullets in it all nose to tail.
 
When I was in the Air Force in the late 1970s, there was a story in the monthy Safety magazine about a Security Policeman who shot six rounds from his issue .38 spl and turned it back into the armorer because the sights were so far off he didn't hit the paper once.

Accompanying the article was an x-ray photograph of the revolver with six bullets stacked end to end in the barrel.
 
One local range I used to shoot at had a "junk basket" on the counter. In that basket was a barrel removed from a Ruger Security/Speed six revolver that had been cut in half lengthways. Jammed into that barrel were six jacketed bullets.

Owner said the shooter had no idea anything was wrong. :confused:

I have often wondered if I'd have noticed it. I like to think I would, but I'm just as human as the next guy. I had it happen once with a 1911, but in that case the shot sounded/felt funny, and of course the gun jammed. With a revolver, I'd like to think I wouldn't just pull the trigger again.
 
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130 grain FMJ .38 special loads possibly? Not known for being the most powerful in the first place, so one squib load followed by a bunch of normal rounds?
Of course if could have been exceptionally poor handloading too.
 
I removed three stuck bullets from a Ruger single action a guy had me repair. His wife kept pulling the trigger after it sounded "funny." It turns out he had no powder in his reloads so yes it can happen.
 
I've seen much the same before.

When a lot of my family still worked for Federal Cartridge, one of the Ol' Man's friends was one of the basement dwellers that would work to duplicate customers "failures" in like-weapons with like-ammunition.

The degrees that they would have to take some of those scenarios in order to duplicate a failure were down right frightening and often defied perceived logic.

Usually they were chasing issues caused by (unadmitted) re-loaders and to my knowledge the "lab" ran a 100% success rate in calling customers out in their dishonesty whether in the course of addressing a law suit (potential or threat) or warranty claim
 
Back in the day, 1974-75, the departments reloading machine broke down and the department bought some reloads on the cheap. Qualification was slow bang bang stop insert cleaning rod and push the wadcutter back into the cylinder. Two deputies on successive rounds packed 6 into the barrels. No damage to either weapon. The Sheriff found extra money and the reloading machine was fixed pronto
 
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