[Xringshooter]

If it's from the 1880's it's old ammo. From the 1980's that's not old at all if it was loaded and stored correctly. What type of 44 is the gun? If an older model the cylinders may be slightly oversized. Also, if you look at the brass does it show any signs of overpressure (extremely flattened primers, etc)? What was the recoild like? If it didn't seem to be excessive it may just be the brass, especially if it was reloaded many times. Where did the split happen, at the neck or somewhere else? If at the neack, that would lead me to believe the brass was weak.

If you reload you could use an inertial puller to get the bullets out for reuse or to sell. Toss the brass in thescrap bin to sell as scrap. Take the powder outside and make a trail and burn it (don't make a big pile though).