Could be he bought a mislabeled box of ammo and got the wrong caliber for the pistol. Glad to hear he only had a dinged up head and heard the birds singing

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Must have been a heck of a load!!          it's hard to blow up a smith!

Good luck and happy hunting!

DANG!  Lucky guy that he was not hurt worse!

Those pictures say something about S&W notice how the gun exploded up and side to side NOT towards the back. I had a gunsmith friend several years ago told me a story about a police man bringing in his wheel gun claimed it was "acting up" upon exam gunsmith noticed cylinders were bulged(high pressure signs) explained his finding to the officer. He then asked about what loads he was shooting-seems someone had reloaded some rounds for the Pd and used the ole scoop and level method for measuring powder!!

If it was handloads, he's screwed, but if it was a factory load, he has a claim with them for a new gun. I used to religiously shoot "Hornaday Custom" loads out of my old .308 and had an incident at the range where I shot and hit no paper, then second shot the barrel blew out the side, Turns out the "custom" means no powder, only primer, and the first bullet never exited the barrel. Got a new gun outa the deal tho.

I had an odd situation with some Federal ammunition for a .25-06.  The first shot from the case I bought sprayed hot poweder on my face and was rough to extract.  The second did the same thing but was harder to extract.  The third was about impossible.  This one had flatteneing on the primer so pressure was the obvious issue.  Sent it all back to Federal and they replaced the ammo...several months later I go a cryptic letter saying (I think) the ammunition was made correctly but didn't function in their rifle either.