Un-fricking-believable! Revolvers have something called a "cylinder gap." This is the tiny space between the face of the cylinder and the forcing cone of the barrel. It's a tiny gap, but if you ever watch a revolver fire, you'll see quite a bit of blast, including metal shavings and unburned powder. I used to load up some "monster" loads in my .44Mag, where I pretty much filled the case with WW296 and put the bullet on, giving me a 180gr JHP load, moving at about 1800fps. The muzzle blast was ENORMOUS, as was the blast coming out of the cylinder gap.
I just can't believe the grip this guy used! This is on-par with the morons who get their off-hand thumb nearly cut off by semi-autos when the slide recoils.
Mark
I used to load up some "monster" loads in my .44Mag, where I pretty much filled the case with WW296 and put the bullet on, giving me a 180gr JHP load, moving at about 1800fps. The muzzle blast was ENORMOUS, as was the blast coming out of the cylinder gap. Those ball powders can produce a wicked fireball. I tried some Hodgdon H110 powder in a .44 Magnum with spectacular visual effects. I hope you worked up your loads SLOWLY from the low end of the scale -- ball powder pressures can rise unpredictably when working up toward maximum loads. I started with Hodgdon's minimum load and was flattening primers! That was enough powder for me. I have no doubt that the gap flash from a large magnum could flame-cut off a thumb.