Guys,

After checking things out, I firmly believe that what happened to me was a case head separation and nothing else. I know that some people seem to be in self denial, and maybe I could be, but this was not a double charge of Clays, no way. In my opinion it would be very hard to not notice 8.4 grains of Clays (if it would fit with a bullet seated) in a case that I normally load 4.2 grs. I would also think that I would have alot more damage to the Baer, remember, I dropped the mag using the mag release and it fell free (not like the one that didn't earlier in a course of fire).

The Baer is unharmed in any way, measured every thing and every where that I could think, the wood grip panels have zero damage, I just had to scrape some melted lead off of the feed ramp area of the frame. The magazine dropped fine when I released it, yes the follower was broken, the separated case allowed the gasses to force a lot of pressure downward that broke the plastic Wilson follower into several pieces, but the metal of the magazine was not damaged. I did measurements on the Wilson mag in several places, not any different than any of my 8 other Wilson mags. So I cleaned the melted lead off of the mag (#6), put a new follower in it, using the "SAME" spring, and everything appears normal. Don't worry, I am doing this for testing purposes only, it is time to change all of my magazine springs and followers anyway.

Lesson learned from tonight.

#1 - Don't use shit brass! But how does a person know unless we use nothing but new or guaranteed once fired brass, and then not from a Glock. I guess I didn't learn from tonight because I will still use .45 acp brass that I have, just have to inspect it closer. Remember, all the rounds that I shoot are visually inspected and chamber checked with a gauge from either Midway or Dillon, maybe that's not good enough. I am very careful on the brass that I use for .44 mag., .454 Casull, .475 Limbaugh, and the such, I load them towards the high end, so if I do not know the brass, I trash it. With the .45 acp which I load to just make power factor + for IDPA, not even loaded close to the factory pressure limits, in the past I really never concerned myself with the brass. Mistake???

#2 After looking in the mirror tonight and seeing the wounds and peppered marks around my right eye, basically following the curvature of my prescription glasses, I walked into my sons room and said that if I ever catch you shooting without eye protection, I will kick your ass, then I showed him the details of my face.

The good side of the story, which we all noticed, the popper that I was shooting at when this all happened did fall.

Comments??????????

And how was your day?

Yes, I hope I am preaching to the choir.

This used to be known as “Race Face”, for those competitors who shot 1911s that were setup by some of the earlier dubious names in gunsmithing, most of which have not survived in business, thankfully.
Shooting short nosed 180gr semi-wadcutters was a real problem, the common fix was to “Throat” the chamber. This practice still goes on today but thankfully to a smaller number of guns. I’ve only seen a few IPSC guns setup with a severely throated barrel in the last ten years.
A possible source of your problem could be that you picked up a case that came from a throated barrel, resized it and never noticed the offending item. A badly bulged case once resized can last for a fair number of reloadings, but as brass is shot and reloaded, it “Work Hardens” (the metals structure crystallizes) and eventually cracks, helped along by one or more previous unsupported bulges. This crack problem, is possibly the source of catastrophic case head failure.

When we IPSC shooters were busy trying to make major with 38 stupid, some of us experienced similar exciting gaseous problems. I personally solved this problem by marking my cases and only reloading MY cases.
A more judicious approach to solving 1911 feed malfunctions has also been a significant factor in stopping this problem.

I just use my glasses, they work fine

I have some worries about how much protection the cheap eye protection that is used at ranges gives you.

For those that reload ammo remember your safety glasses when reloading.