Tough Drums
Shorty: the same darned thing happened to me three times. You would think I would have learned. Years ago I had an old S&W snubbie in 38 S&W. Managed to bounce one off a fence post right back to between my eyes. Thought I would have learned. Did the same thing with a 25 auto and a steel drum. That one just bounced back to my foot. Think I would have learned, huh?
The one that was a real learning situation was with another snubbie and a steel drum. First shot went through and through (158 gn factory roundnose). 2nd, 3rd and 4th shots rattled around inside. 5th one ricochetted off and the last one bounced off the reinforced rim and clocked me on the top of the head.
I wuz miffed. Now, this was 1966. I went home, checked my Lyman manual, found the heaviest powder charge I could locate for the heaviest bullet in the 38 Special, charged the cases with that powder charge and then stuffed a 125 grain 9mm jacketed softpoint in on top of it. Took a box of 50 back to that drum and let daylight shine through both body and soul. That drum died a fearful death at the hand of Mikey. And that was all before SuperVel was even a household word. Accuracy wasn't bad either.
Interesting thing about slow moving soft bullets - they don't do well on hard steel and formed ridges and reinforced rims are harder than most lead bullets. I guess that's why the NYPD told their Officers not to try to stop a moving vehicle with a 38.
Ya'll can laugh at me all you want, I don't mind. I'm just glad I didn't hurt anything other than my pride in the process - might help someone else avoid the same mistake. Except for the Cheyenne Ranger who should forever be on the hunt fer loose erl drums, especially the feral erl's, like the one that almost swallered up the Guest who got charged by a wounded one.
Hay Shorty: got a legit question for you though about this. Your 44 WCF (44-40???) with a 200 grain bullet and 5 grains of bull isn't much less than your 45 with a 250 and 6 grains of bullseye. I would have thought that either would have perforated the drum. Do you think the 44 would have performed better with, let's say, 35-38 grains of black powder or an equivalent smokeless load, the way the Guest's .36 caliber worked??? Just a question. I was thinking that if the 44 WCF is the 44/40, you could charge the cases with 30 grain Pyrodex pellets and get a decent load or go with the holy black itself for a more traditional load but the 44 caliber should have worked better than that for you. Just a question. This be Mikey.