Hi Mike and SwampYankee,
Very good questions indeed! I didn't want to pull apart any live ammo, since I don't have a bullet puller, only pliers (and safety glasses)! But I had to test two issues that where concerning me:
1. When I "fired" my plastic snap caps, I noticed that the cylinder would bind-up in my airweight S&W .38 snubby when the gun was pointed and "fired" upward. I suspected that this was not a real issue, but was more related to the sharp (non-beveled) soft plastic shoulder at the base of the rim of the snapcap binding against the recoil shield of the Smith; and 2. I was also slightly concerned that the recoil of the +P rounds may back the bullet out of the case mouth and bind up the cylinder, like some older non-jacketed +P lead rounds sometimes did in very light-weight revolvers due to the brutal recoil.
This "test" that I just performed, however, proved to me that real ammo will not bind the cylinder when the gun is "fired" in a raised position (due to the shell's nice rim bevel), and that with the
unbelievable difficulty I had with pulling the $%@# bullet from the case of the HydraShok, it would take an act of Congress for that heavily crimped bullet to move
anywhere, much less far enough to bind the cylinder!!!
-Bill
